Transparency without PNG

[Ericajv987654321]

The easiest solution to my problem would just be being able to round the corners of an art board, but because that is not possible I am a bit stuck. I am trying to simply remove the 4 white corners from my art that has a rounded rectangle outline. I can save it as a PNG just fine and the art is a perfect rounded rectangle, but I want the file in PDF format, and when it is saved as a PDF the white corners of the artboard are still visible. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for how to save this as a PDF, while having the artboard corners transparent?

[kglad]

what app?

[Ericajv987654321]

Illustrator, but I'm open to others

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from using the community">

[Bobby Henderson]

How is your design element going to be output? What's the final destination? In other words, is the artwork going to be printed on paper? Or is it something meant to be displayed on a computer screen? I don't understand if the rounded corners you mentioned are supposed to be part of the artwork. If it's just the artboard that's something that won't carry through as part of the design.

In an application like Illustrator most of the elements created are vector-based objects. Those objects are often re-used as individual elements in larger overall designs. Those bigger designs can be composed in Illustrator or moved to projects within InDesign or other applications (such as animating the elements in After Effects).

It's easy enough to create a rounded rectangle as a background frame for a graphics object. That shape can be grouped with the other elements stacked in front of it. If the finished design needs to be exported in transparent PNG format that can be done from within Illustrator. Or it can be copied to the clipboard and pasted into Photoshop to be further manipulated and exported in PNG format there. But does the design really need to be saved in PNG format? If the finished product is going to be something in print then it might be better to keep the design in the vector-based realm.

[Monika Gause]

If this is going to be printed, then you need to provide a path that is used for cutting. Ask the printer how they need this to be (color and other attributes).

[Ton Frederiks]

The PDF does not have white in the corner (unless you added a white recangle in Illustrator as background).

In Illustrator: View > Show Transparency Grid

In Acrobat: Preferences > Page Display > Show Transparency Grid

Try it out by placing the PDF in Illustrator on a colored background.

[Ericajv987654321]

The art will eventually be printed, and it is just the presence of those white corners when exported as a PDF that I am slightly worried about, in the case that the printers mistakenly keep those corners. In PNG form, obviously the corners are completely not there, and I have the path formed in the rounded rectangle shape, not in the shape of the artboard, but I don't want the printers to see the white corners in the PDF and ignore the path given for the rounded rectangle. 

[Monika Gause]

Will they be just not printed on a rectangle paper?

Or should they be cut?

Paper white will not be printed anyway. No matter if there is an object or not.

ANd if you want them to cut the paper then you need a cutline.

[Ton Frederiks]

Printers do not print what is not there. There are no white corners in your PDF (did you check View > Show Transparency Grid?). They won't print white (unless you pay them extra for the additional white ink).

Talk to your printer.

[creative explorer]

@Ericajv987654321 I will have to agree with @Ton Frederiks! When you print this, as long as you didn't add a colour white background to the artboard, and if you look at the attached image from @Ton Frederiks it is a transparency, which means, what you see is what you get...which means, the white corners will not be printed. 

If you truly still don't trust the process, go ahead and print on coloured paper, and you will see that it isn't there.