Knockout group blending modes not exporting as PDF correctely

[awesrdfghjkl]

I use white shapes set to multiply inside a group with the knockout group option selected to create things like text shadows a lot, but it doesn't export to a PDF correctly:

The first image is how it appears inside Illustrator, the second in a PDF. Is there a way to correct this?

[Monika Gause]

When working with knockout groups in Illustrator in order to judge what happens, you should better set View > Preview on CPU.

What happens if you do?

Also: please show the appearance panel.

Edit: my guess is that white multiply is treated like white overprint in export and maybe deleted. But would need to see the appearance stack.

[awesrdfghjkl]

It looks exactly the same when previewing on CPU, here's the appearance stack:

Thanks

[Monika Gause]

Thank you.

Instead of 100% multiply you could set the white to 0% Normal. This should work.

[awesrdfghjkl]

I'm afraid not, it does appear the same within Illustrator but on export the white simply doesn't show at all:

Thank you for the quick replies!

[Monika Gause]

The "knockout group" option needs to be set only here:

And then this should work with "Normal 0%"

If not, can you please upload the file to Dropbox or the like?

[awesrdfghjkl]

That's how I have it set up yeah, here's an example file.

Dropbox - knockout

[Ton Frederiks]

How do you view the PDF?

Apple Preview will show it wrong.

Try to use Adobe Acrobat.

[awesrdfghjkl]

Ok yes it does look correct in Acrobat. However, Acrobat is incredibly slow and this is obviously not ideal for sending things to clients; I don't know what software they are using. What does this look like on Windows?

Is there no universal solution other than .jpeg?

Thanks

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

If it's for preview, select the problem and it's background and use Object > Flatten Transparency with the slider to 100 vectors.

[awesrdfghjkl]

Thanks this does work too, but it totally messes up all the shapes.

[Ton Frederiks]

If it works, only use it for preview to send to your clients.

Of course you should keep the unflattened Illustrator file as your work file.

[awesrdfghjkl]

Is there a way to flatten all the transparency in this way at the same time as exporting the PDF? Otherwise the workflow is a bit cumbersome.

[Ton Frederiks]

Yes, save with the PDF/X-1a preset

[Ton Frederiks]

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