Text looks darker after exporting to PDF

[gkw8133]

When I export to PDF the text on some of my pages looks darker than others. There's no difference in the paragraph style or character style -- I'm just using my standard "Body Text" paragraph style and have made sure it's stripped of any additional attributes. I've tried deleting and recreating the text box; I've tried just creating a new document all together; I've tried copy/pasting the text from Notepad to hopefully strip it of any additional attributes, etc, etc. and other hacks posted in this support thread I found for the same issue:

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/120172/indesign-text-rendition-dark-on-one-spread-...

The weird thing is I was able to find one work around by "Printing to PDF" rather than "Exporting to PDF", but that was just a temporary solution in order for me to submit my project. 

This has happened to me and many of my coworkers at different companies sporadically over the years and I'm wondering if anyone else has had this happen? The text on certain pages almost appears bold, or a darker black/gray, or like theres another text box overlayed on top, which none are the case.

I can attach additional images if needed, but the images in the link above pretty much show what I'm referring to.

Thanks!

[Guest]

Moving to the InDesign forum from Get Started

[rob day]

What OS are you using? Are there any page items with transparency or blend modes applied?

[gkw8133]

Using Windows 10 Pro Version 1903 OS Build 18362.535. InDesign v 15.0.1. I've had this problem before on Windows 8 as well with earlier versions of InDesign.

No page attributes applied such as transparency or blend modes.

[a_naube]

Hi,

I am also having the same problem. On some of the spreads, the text appears in bold but when I remove/delete the graphic frames on the spread it becomes normal. No attributes applied such as transparency or blend modes on the graphics. It happens when I export to PDF too. Please help me with a solution too.

I'm working on a PC, Windows 10, Indesign 15.0.1 X64

[rob day]

This has come up before and seems to be an OS preview/anti-aliasing problem when there is transparency on the page—I’ve never been able replicate it on OSX. Is it there if you zoom in over 400%?

There could be transparency that isn’t obvious, such as a Photoshop file that has not been flattened. Check with the Flattener Preview panel set to highlight Transparent Objects.

[Dragonfire67]

"a Photoshop file that has not been flattened. Check with the Flattener Preview panel set to highlight Transparent Objects."

Thanks, flattening the photoshop image file worked! I've had this problem for a decade. These darker fonts only occured in PDF files I produced for web viewing. The press quality files using PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 standard were fine, so I never really got into figuring out what was causing it. Now, I can produce better PDFs for my clients!