Issues with patterns when exporting via InDesign

[zukunft-1984]

Hi,

I'm having an issue with patterns when exporting my file in pdf. The drawing are initially made in illustrator, then put in InDesign as an .ai file (also tried .pdf but no changes), then exported to pdf. When I open the final pdf on Adobe Acrobat, all the patterns are very intense and don't look like on Illustrator and InDesign. I thought something is up with the pdf but on Apple's Preview, the pattern look like the other softwares. I tried making the pattern grey instead of black, playing with opacity, scaling the pattern, and even re-making its but no luck or what happens is that the pattern are too thin then to appear on Apple Preview, looking like a white shape. Did anyone have this issue before? Can't seem to find anything about this online.

 

[Ton Frederiks]

See if  unchecking in Acrobat Preferences "Enhance thin lines" helps.

[zukunft-1984]

Yes, that fixes the issue! Now: how can I ensure this preference is unchecked for all computers? The file in question is a portfolio to apply for jobs so it's pretty important the drawings look like they're suppose to, not have background elements becoming the main attention. Is there an option I haven't seen when exporting via InDesign perhaps?

[Ton Frederiks]

Unfortunately you cannot set that for other viewers.

[zukunft-1984]

Okay, thanks for your help already! I found another post where someone suggested to make the lines as outlines or even making the lines thicker. That didn't fix the issue unfortuantely but maybe it does for someone else. 

Got to say that it's quite annoying actually so if someone from Adobe reads this, they should really make this a document setting and not one for acrobat.

[Ton Frederiks]

Edit: I see you already found that post.

In this post, Adobe’s Leonard Rosenthol explains the reasons behind the preferences setting.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/enhance-thin-lines-off/m-p/2799770#M5968

And an interesting link in this post suggest adding anchor points to your lines (although I don’t have much luck with that suggestion).

https://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/004301.html

A movie by former Illustrator product manager Mordy Golding also explains the fat lines effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqr2gcVg0i4

[Kurt Gold]

Can you share a sample Illustrator file that contains the objects you've shown in your initial post.

There may be some other ideas.

[zukunft-1984]

That's super nice of you! Curious what you come up with. I'm noticing now everywhere thin lines made thicker by acrobat but I only included the patterns that are problematic. I'm only using the basic patterns from Adobe btw.