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Participant
March 16, 2020
Question

InDesign Problem not exporting white text on black page as a PDF

  • March 16, 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 2501 views

Hi, I'm trying to export a PDF with white text with a black background in InDesign as a PDF and everytime I export the PDF just shows a blank white rectangle. I can see the bounding boxes in Acrobat after I export and I have tried almost all the different functions to export as a PDF. Non-printing is off and A-Master is applied. I don't believe you can change the color of the page in Acrobat so I'm a bit stuck. Anyone have any solutions? Thanks!

 

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6 replies

Bill Silbert
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2020

You said that you checked that non-printing was unchecked (presumably in the attributes panel) but did you check the layer options for the layer that the text and black background are on to make sure that "Print Layer" is checked?

barbara_a7746676
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2020

If you created the black by changing the definition of 'Paper' in the Swatches panel, that won't work. It is only for viewing in InDesign. If you created a frame filled with black that is underneath the white text, that would work.

Willi Adelberger
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2020

If you want to print a black background you have to draw a black frame on the most bottom layer.

barbara_a7746676
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2020

It would be helpful if you could post a link to your InDesign file as well as the PDF.

Colin Flashman
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2020

it is possible to change the [paper] color to be anything, not just white. however, when a PDF is made using that setting, the PDF will come out with paper being white, the colour most people would associate with paper.

Is the text you have White or [Paper] as there is a difference, and how is the black background assigned?

If the answer wasn't in my post, perhaps it might be on my blog at colecandoo!
David Popham
Participating Frequently
March 16, 2020

Can you provide a screenshot of what the page looks like in InDesign in additon to your screenshot from Acrobat?