Transparency to fade from picture to black background not shown correctly in exported PDF

[Rob Holtackers]

Hi all,

I am making a roll-up banner with a black background and a picture in it. The idea is to fade from the black background to the picture, and then back to black again. I overlaid the picture with a rectangle at both top edge and bottom edge of the picture. Both rectangles have a gradient that fades from 0% transparency (black) to 100% transparency (pure image). This looks great in Illustrator, but the exported PDF clearly shows 'hard' top and bottom edges of the picture. See screenshots of Illustrator and exported PDF attached. Does anyone know how to solve this issue?

[Monika Gause]

And those are not the edges of the photo?

I can't see it in your screenshots, sorry.

[Rob Holtackers]

Sorry for not including a bit of more background on the top and bottom edge, but in one screenshot you clearly see a 'faded' transition from the picture to the black background (illustrator file), while in the resulting PDF you see a bit of fade but still a 'hard' transition from the end of the picture to the black background.

[Ton Frederiks]

Is it a CMYK document? Are the images CMYK? Linked or embedded?

[Rob Holtackers]

Yes the document is CMYK, the picture was RGB but upon loading it asked me transform to CMYK. Linked or embedded I have no idea what you mean, I copy/pasted the picture into Illustrator.

[Ton Frederiks]

Thanks for the info. If an image is linked, it is not included in the Illustrator file, but referenced outside the document. When embedded, the entire image is part of the Illustrator file.

You can see if an image is linked/embedded in the Control panel and the Links panel.

About the gradient, is that a gradient created in Illustrator or an image?

[Rob Holtackers]

Thanks Ton, that's helpful. I created a gradient in Illustrator using both a rectangle in which I applied a gradient (from black to transparen), as well as did I try a transparency mask on the image. Both solutions don't work. If you like, I an include the .ai file.

[Ton Frederiks]

An Illustrator file would help. Unfortunately .ai files are not supported on this forum.

But if you save a PDF with Illustrator Editing Capabilities checked, you can attach it to a post.

[Rob Holtackers]

On this link I included both the .ai and the resulting .pdf file that I get. In the adobe file you can see a smooth transition from the image to the black, but not in the pdf sadly. 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/we8mdzz6elsn3zawy0ezn/AMvQKUhiYWyyYNZ1WlyQ6UU?rlkey=7rd5x4zpl0gm9z2h1...

[Ton Frederiks]

Your Illustrator file looks like a converted PDF file with all those clipping masks, broken up images and an imaage gradient. Are you sure that is the original .ai file? 

[Rob Holtackers]

I just checked and indeed it looks like a mess. I messed around a bit with rasterizing and stuff, and I think there it went wrong perhaps. I just included the 'fresh' image and 2 new rectangles with a gradient from 100% black to 0% black (transparent), and exported again to PDF. Still, the PDF shows the 'hard' edges of the picture. In. addition, I have the idea that the colors of the picture also faded away (like saturation is dropping) instead of just all becoming darker. Link is the same, just updated the files.

[Rob Holtackers]

What I mean with the colors are fading away, please see the following two attachments. One is a screenshot in Illustrator, the other a screenshot in the program Graphics. The latter is the type of gradient I would like to have, without the colors fading away.

[Ton Frederiks]

Looks good over here when compared.

Do you have multiple monitors? Did you try to restart your machine?

[Rob Holtackers]

The PDF looks different when it's opened in Adobe Acrobat then back in Illustrator, I have to say. At least it appears to me. It just looks weird as you can clearly see the start of the gradient in the blue skies as a 'line', and from there all colors fade to grayish an in the last 10-20% it fades suddenly to black. It's still very abrupt and I prefer the colors to not fade away to gray, but just all darken. Exactly like my attachment screenshot in the 'Graphic' application in my last post. Would that be possible in Illustrator?

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Rob Holtackers,

Thanks for sharing the details. Would you mind flattening the layers and then saving a copy as a PDF to check if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Rob Holtackers · Accepted solution]

I tried flattening, but this didn't do the job sadly. However, I looked at the older files in which I succeeded to do this, and found out that these were saved as PDF X-3 instead of X-4. Although X-4 is preferred now by the printshop, I managed to get the desired result by saving as PDF X-3 in which flattening could be performed during saving. For some reason, I can't get this to work in PDF X-4. The flattening option is disabled, and flattening myself before saving doesn't work apparently. Although the problem is solved now (I just uploaded the files as PDF X-3), I am still wondering what the difference is and why this occurs.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Rob Holtackers,

Thanks for confirming the problem was resolved. To learn more about the PDF compatibility levels, check this help article: (https://adobe.ly/4dAIhso).

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks,
Anubhav