Saving pdf will make rasterized image blank / white / invisible.

[CSOCSO-SCW]

Hey. I have an issue that I never had before I upgraded from a 2019 illustrator. Now I have the latest update and whenever I rasterize an image and save it the image is invisible. I have to create the file with illustrator because theres a spot color that needs to be on a layer so my plotter can cut the file. I rasterize it so my file is 10 times smaller than with layers. I am saving it in pdf so I can see the actual image without opening the file. If I save it as eps then everything shows up and it works but all i can see in windows is an eps icon and being a print shop owner I have a ton of files which is a lot easyer to browse thru if I can also see the image alongside with the file name.  it worked before. I havent changed any settings when saving the pdf. I did try different compatibility settings but doesn't change the outcome. I tried different presets when saving. Doesn't help. I have tried to open it on a different computer. Same thing happens. Image is white in adobe acrobat, in windows browser and in my roland rip software. When I open it in acrobat reader the image shows up for 1 sec then it goes blank. 

Update: i just did a bunch of testing and this is what i realized: There are ice cream pictures in this image which are raster images that makes this file originally over a 100mb. If I rasterize EVERYTHING and leave only the pink spot (cutcontour) color then the file is invisible when I save it as pdf. If I only rasterize the ice cream images with transparent background and save it as pdf it works. I tried to release any paths from these ice cream images and then rastrize it and save it but still invisible. So basically i figured out a workaround that works for me and makes the files smaller and I can save it as pdf but still don't understand why it's giving me a problem. I had no issues with an older illustrator. I upladed the file as pdf with the single ice cream image in it ( i had to keep it under 47mb so i can upload it, i figured 1 ice cream pic should be enugh for you guys to test it.) Bottom line: something is still buggy even if i found a workaround. Shoulnd't be like that. 


Oh yeah.. one more thing. This issue also persisted when I tried to copy this file into photoshop. pasted it as a smart object and it was all white. 

[CSOCSO-SCW]

here is a file that i saved and it's just all white

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

Besides the cut contour spot, there are 6 spot colors in your image file, probably because you had Preserve Spot Colors checked when you rasterized the file.

If I select your rasterized image, choose Edit > Edit Colors > Convert to RGB and save the pdf it previews fine.

[Salvador5E81]

Genius! 

I work in production design and our whole team switched from Corel to Illustrator and I couldn't figure out why this would happen on our approval sheets when we would rasterize art from within Illustrator; It just had to do with leaving "Preserve Spot Colors" checked, Once I converted my image to RGB it showed up just fine on the PDF, SWEET!!!!

Thank you Ton.

[Salvador5E81]

I forgot to ask this before, but what is the reason why if you have spot colors in a design and decide to rasterize it and choose to preserve that it just shows up blank on the PDF, just for my own curiosity.

Thank you.

[CSOCSO-SCW]

I had to revisit the answer to this issue because it happened to me again. Worked like a charm. Thanks!!

btw that color that was transparent on windows in the thumbnail also printed completely wrong

[Srishti Bali]

Hi @CSOCSO-SCW

I'm glad to hear that your initial issue is resolved. Could you please provide more details about the second issue? A few screenshots of the file and how it was printed would be very helpful.

Regards,

Srishti

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Just a note. If you want to keep the dieline as part of the file as a whole, make sure your CutContour line is set to Overprint to assure it doesn't knock out of the artwork. Either that or save two separate files, one just the dieline and the other the artwork.