Gradient is grainy when I export to PDF

[cameleyes 0]

Your help will be much appreciated.

When I export a 2d drawing with gradient fills to PDF (even at 300dpi) I get a grainy looking fill in the PDF viewer.

On screen in Vectorworks the fill is smooth & fine.

The PDF prints no problem i.e. no grainy effect.

I've tried various combinations under Preferences/Display/Quartz imaging + Anti Aliasing but still end up with the same result.

Am I missing something here?

[michaelk 468]

It looks like you used the vectorworks pdf engine.

The built in Mac pdf engine handles it much better.

mk

[cameleyes 0]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your input. How would I get around that problem?

Matt

[CipesDesign 148]

As Michael already suggested, try using the Mac OS's built in PDF writer. Go to FILE>PRINT>PDF>SAVE AS PDF.

[cameleyes 0]

Peter, Michael

Appreciate your suggestion but I get the same result :confused:

Any other ideas most welcome

Matt

[CipesDesign 148]

Matt, Are you printing from a Design Layer or a Sheet Layer? If you haven't yet tried it, make Viewport of your drawing and place it on a Sheet Layer. Go to the Organization Dialog/ Sheet Layer tab and make sure that the Sheet layer is set to at least 300 dpi. Let us know if this makes any difference.

Next question would be how you created the gradient, and if that's to only thing in your file/drawing that doesn't print clearly... If this is the case then I'd love to see the file and poke around a bit. You never know where bugs are lurking...

[cameleyes 0]

Peter,

It is from a design layer.

At home now and dongle is at work so will double check dpi of sheet layer in the morning.

Whats odd is that depending on the size/shape of the object the gradient fill is ok.

I'll get back to you 1st thing in the morning. In the meantime attached image showing larger area and problem as I just explained.

Thanks for your help on this. Much appreciated.

Matt

[Pat Stanford 1,445]

Have you checked the Document Preferences:Resolution tab?

There are boxes there for setting the output resolution for both PDF export and printing that default to 72 dpi. These override the layer settings.

[cameleyes 0]

Hi All,

I adjusted document prefs to 300 dpi. I made sure sheet layer was 300 dpi.

Same problem - grainy gradient.

I've attached the file, I would love to solve this as it's been bugging us a while - although some clients think it's done on purpose to illustrate the wood grain :blush:

Thanks

Matt

[mike m oz 368]

I'm not seeing graininess when I export to PDF from Vw 2009 and Vw 2012.

Are the recipients viewing the PDF files with Acrobat Reader? If they aren't suggest that they do.

[cameleyes 0]

DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are so right - it's fine in Acrobat. I open the files on default to Apple's 'Preview'.

Must be something within 'Preview' thats causing it to happen, a victory for Adobe over Apple huh.

Thanks everyone for your help on that one!

[Vincent C 24]

You can change the settings in preview, preferences>pdf etc....

I've experienced Acrobat to be very buggy on OSX and cause all sorts of problems in many different programs...... so much so that I have chucked it out completely!

[cameleyes 0]

Ah ok - got it.

I have unchecked the 'smooth line text and art' box and displays now as I expect.

Thank you very much ;-)