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Photoshop flattening transparency when saving to PDF

Contributor ,
May 26, 2023 May 26, 2023

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I'm confused because I thought I used to be able to do this with Photoshop, but I must be doing something wrong...

 

I have an image with white text over a transparent background. You can sort of see here...

 

sarahpeller_0-1685139276682.png

When I save to PDF, the white text gets flattened into a white background as if I'm saving a jpg.

 

I've tried saving with the following settings:

sarahpeller_1-1685139479602.png

 

Upon opening it in Adobe Acrobat, I don't see any evidence of transparency:

sarahpeller_2-1685139575990.png

Is this normal? I can't recall how transparency should show up in Acrobat, but the printer also said that the transparency was lost when I sent them my file.

 

I tried to open it in Illustrator, and got this dialog box:

 

sarahpeller_3-1685139624921.png

 

But once it opened, I could see that it was showing up if I dragged the art to the artboard. 

 

sarahpeller_4-1685139724695.png

 

I'm using PS 24.4 version on a 2019 macbook.

I've tried doing this with the latest version of "save as" as well as the "enable legacy save as" option you can set in the preferences. Both seem to produce the same effect. When I sent this pdf file to the printer, they told me that they couldn't access the white text and that it had been flattened into the background. I'm confused...

 

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Community Expert , May 26, 2023 May 26, 2023

"Upon opening it in Adobe Acrobat, I don't see any evidence of transparency:"

 

By default most of application won't show you checkerboard as in Photoshop. In Photoshop thats default option but not the only one. Got to Preferences > Transparency and Gamut > Grid Size > None and checkerboard won't show you transparent areas.

 

You must ask Acrobat to show you transparency as already explained above https://youtu.be/x3-g-5_3aSU

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Community Expert ,
May 26, 2023 May 26, 2023

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I never use Fast Web Preview. 

These settings retained Transparency for me.  See screenshot.

 

image.png

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

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LEGEND ,
May 26, 2023 May 26, 2023

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To check for transparency in Acrobat, you have to turn on the Transparency Grid.

Go to Acrobat Preferences. Page display tab. Show transparency grid option.

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Community Expert ,
May 26, 2023 May 26, 2023

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"Upon opening it in Adobe Acrobat, I don't see any evidence of transparency:"

 

By default most of application won't show you checkerboard as in Photoshop. In Photoshop thats default option but not the only one. Got to Preferences > Transparency and Gamut > Grid Size > None and checkerboard won't show you transparent areas.

 

You must ask Acrobat to show you transparency as already explained above https://youtu.be/x3-g-5_3aSU

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Contributor ,
Jun 06, 2023 Jun 06, 2023

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Thank you!! That helped!! I just needed to turn that transparency grid on. 

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