Participant

Question

Transparent PDF Imports with White Background in InDesign 2025

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
November 5, 2024
4 replies
2431 views

Transparent pdf files imported have a white background. In order to resolve this it was necessary to revert back to previous InDesign 2024.

BobLevine

Community Expert

Are you absolutely sure there's no background in the PDF? I've seen this before and had to open the file in Acrobat or Illustrator and remove it manually.

Old Charles

Known Participant

Absolutely sure, otherwise the bacground would have been the size of the whole canvas and wouldn't have had the jagged shape I've shown in the pictures. Let me attach you two more screenshots.

Apparently I'm not allowed to attach .ai files here. Here the wetransfer link: https://we.tl/t-qgwDdmbSlA

jmlevy

Community Expert

I have opened your AI file with Illustrator 2024, saved it as PDF and imported the PDF in an 2025 InDesign file. No problem.

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

When you place a file, turn on the import options. There is an option to import with white background. Turn it off.

Old Charles

Known Participant

Already did it, I know this option, doesn't make any change.

But I think I found the issue. The problem isn't InDesign but Illustrator.
If an effect such as Drop Shadow is applied, the exported PDF creates a glitch/issue and creates this kind of white dither around the object.
Save as - Creates the glitch
Export - Creates the glitch
Print as PDF - Creates the glith
Print as Postscript - Creates the glitch
Export as TIF - Creates the glitch
Save artboard - Save as PDS - Works

So there must be something glitching there.

I've been working with AI / InDesign / PS since 2005, I think I can recognize when there is an actual glitch.

BobLevine

Community Expert

If you'd care to post the file, we can take a look.

jmlevy

Community Expert

When you import the file, tick the “Show options” checkbox. Then you will be able to get a transparent background.

Old Charles

Known Participant

As you can see, even with checked transparency, it imports a sort of huge "transparency dither".

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

What PDF version is your file? Howe was it generated?

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Poonam3159546894bs,

Thanks for sharing your experience! It sounds like a frustrating issue, but let's see if we can get to the bottom of it.

Could you let us know which operating system (and version) you’re using? Sometimes OS compatibility can affect how transparent PDFs are handled.
If possible, could you share a screenshot of the transparent PDF as it appears outside of InDesign, as well as how it looks after being imported into InDesign? This will help us see exactly where the white background is being introduced.
If you're able, a short screen recording demonstrating the import process could also be very helpful for understanding the issue in more detail.

Hopefully, with this information, we can identify a solution.

Thanks!

Abhishek Rao

Old Charles

Known Participant

Same issue for me too. Same file, updated PDF saved from Illustrator (300dpi raster settings, transparency enabled too).

We can find a workaround by importing PDF into Photoshop and converting it to a raster TIF, but that's inconvenient and a loss of time.

Windows 10 Pro

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