Text Box Screen Preview Grayed Out Until Magnified

[tonydeo]

Hi,

Whenever I add effects to type and then highlight to edit, a gray highlight appears over the type making it impossible to see on screen unless I zoom in extremeley tight. I can't seem to locate anything in preferences to fix. Thanks for the help.

Illustrator 25.2.1

MacBook Pro 15 in/2018

32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4

Radeon Pro Vega 20 4 GB
2.9 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i9

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

[Monika Gause]

How large is that text?

How far do you need to zoom in?

Is this a large canvas document?

[tonydeo]

Hi Monika,

Current text is 23/26 with a 0.0595 drop shadow. Although the anomoly is across the board for any text size and I have to go to 200% magnification just to get it to be seen:

[pixxxelschubser]

Zoll or pixel?

Please show something selected - with Rulers, Control Bar, Character Panel, Layers Panel and Appearance Panel visible.

[tonydeo]

Current artboard is 1375x502 pixels but no matter what size, the gray box preview is the same until I zoom in to 200% or more. Two screenshots uploaded. One with highlighted text and one not highlighted. I believe this is a type greeking feature (similar to InDesign) but can't locate preference area to fix preview.

[Kurt Gold]

I suppose it does not get better if you turn on the CPU preview in the View menu?

In case it does not, can you perhaps share the Illustrator file (.ai)? Or at least some parts of it?

[tonydeo]

Sure. AI file attached (removed the graphics as that doestn affect the type issue). It is only is affecting the type with drop shadows added. I copied the type box and removed the shadow attribute and it can be highlighted just fine (meaning the gray box isn't hiding the type). When I click on the 'Now it's easier..." type below the headline it covers it in gray (see screenshot). When I click on the "Now it's easier..." typebox to the right, it highlights fine (and you can see the type clearly with the highlight).

[tonydeo]

I sent the AI file as an EPS. The forum didn't like me uploading the AI file for whatever reason.

[Kurt Gold]

Thanks for the sample file, Tony.

Unfortunately, based on this file I cannot reproduce the issue.

As for your guess about some kind of greeking: Not sure if that may apply. In former versions of Illustrator there was an explicit setting in the application preferences. Nowadays one can only turn it on or off (with a specific threshold) by manipulating the AiPrefs file in a text editor.

Perhaps someone else may reproduce the issue.

[tonydeo]

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for giving it a shot. I'm thinking prefs as well. I think I started seeing this two updates ago. Is there a general preferences file I can import to just start over? I've tried redownloading and going back a version or two with this still being an issue. It's odd.

[pixxxelschubser]

Same result here with your example file.

One question: What happens if you download and open your own example file?

🤔

[tonydeo]

Hi,

I just tried it. Its still showing up as the uplloaded screenshot. Thanks for thinking about that, though. I'm open for suggestions!

[Kurt Gold · Accepted solution]

Normally, it is rather seldom that I recommend to trash the entire AIPrefs file, but in this case I can imagine that it may help, because it may somehow be corrupted due to some unknown reasons.

Make a backup before you do it.

[tonydeo]

Kurt,

That was the ticket. When I opened again it was the way it should be.

Much appreciated!!

[mjbelt]

I also opened up and couldn't duplicate the issue.

1. Try Re-Saving (Save As (.ai.)....change file name>re-open file
2. Copy and Paste Art to New ILLUS Doc. (Save, etc)

[tonydeo]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. Per Kurt Gold's mention, I moved my pref file and relaunched. That appeared to be the ticket in this case. From all the previous suggestions, it appears this was a partially corrupted AI preference file.

I appreciate your input!