Blending mode indesign not looking good online

[celia_2269]

Hi! I made a report recently and it looks great everywhere, if I look at it in my phone, uploaded in dropbox, icloud, etc etc. But there's one server where it is uploaded where, whereas on my laptot looks great, when I see it on my phone the blending modes or effects with transparencies are not applying properly. I've been trying to solve it for a while, and while the first exports I made were done with interactive options, the last one was made with adobe pdf print options with the preset "smallest file size", colour converted to sRGB IEC profile, and transparency flattener was set to medium res and couldn't be changed. Pdf version was 1.5 (Acrobat 6.x). I am attaching some examples where you can see the gradients not working appropriately (they suddenly stop and should fade to full transparent)

thank you so much🙏🏻

  

 

 

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @celia_2269,

Thanks for sharing the details. Could you confirm the version of InDesign and the operating system you’re using?

The issue might relate to transparency flattening settings or color profiles. Please try below:

1. In Adobe PDF (Print), set Transparency Flattener to High Resolution.
2. Use Compatibility Version 1.7 (Acrobat 8/9): This can improve transparency rendering on mobile devices.
3. Ensure your document and export settings use sRGB consistently.
4. Re-export in Interactive PDF: This format often handles transparency effects better on various devices.

Let me know how it goes!

Thanks,

Abhishek Rao

[celia_2269]

Hi Abhishek thanks for the reply. I am using inDesign 20.0 on a 15.1 MacOs.

Thank you

[celia_2269]

When you say re-export in Interactive PDF what do you mean? Having another version other than the Adobe PDF Print? So, which version would you use to make sure blending modes show properly?

thank you

[BobLevine]

You've told us nothing about the method you used for creating the PDFs so that's the first thing we need. Is it a blend mode? Is it an opacity? Both? 

And, how are you viewing the PDF? Beyond Acrobat/Reader on a desktop, viewing complex PDFs is nothing but a crapshoot. 

[celia_2269]

Hi Bob!

The images and effects not working are two:

Image frames with a gradient feather (in these images you'll see how it's supposed to look compared to the first screenshots I shared).

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And images with a black gradient on top with a Multiply blending  and showing at 40% opacity:

thanks

 

[BobLevine]

Where are taking these screenshots? And again, how are you viewing the PDFs? Do they look good in Acrobat?

[celia_2269]

Ah yes sorry. In acrobat and online they look good in my computer. The only place I can't see those working properly is here, and ONLY on my mobile phone (iPhone via Safari): https://reporting.unhcr.org/no-escape-frontlines-climate-change-conflict-and-forced-displacement

thank you

Thank you

[leo.r]

Ah yes sorry. In acrobat and online they look good in my computer. The only place I can't see those working properly is here, and ONLY on my mobile phone (iPhone via Safari): 

By @celia_2269

I can see the same problem in Safari on Mac (Ventura), but not in normal browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera etc.) I never use Safari save for occasional testing like this one.

It appears that there's an issue with PDF rendering of this particular effect in Safari. I don't know if there are workarounds (which doesn't mean they don't exist). You can submit this bug to Apple in the hope they may address it sometime in the future.

[BobLevine]

Well, if they look good in Acrobat, that's it. Best you can do without completely dumbing down the PDF which will likely result in a lot of stitching artifacts.

[celia_2269]

Thank you all for you replies. So sadly there's no way I can fix it that you know right?

[BobLevine]

Honestly, if it looks good in Acrobat, there is nothing to fix.

You'll have to dumb down the PDF by flattening or creating all the effects in Photoshop and replacing all the graphics. If you elect to flatten all of the transparency, you will wind up with stitching artifacts.