PDFs from Pages - Won't allow backgrounds to be added in Acrobat

kencanuck,

I don't have either Word or Open Office installed.

I experimented with Neo Office instead.

It has the transparent text with a page box masking the text and graphics.

Under that is the white page bounding box.

The unusual number of boxes in Pages is what is confusing Acrobat I guess, the watermark is hidden under the 2nd white box.

You'll have to ask Apple why they did it this way.

PostScript holds all objects in bounding boxes, the page itself is just another.

Without the page bounding box it would be hard to position all the other text and graphics which all relate to its limits, just as objects or text within other boxes relate to the limits of their bounding box.

It is like Russian dolls.

The programmer uses as many boxes as "objects" he/she thinks they need to contain.

Or it is a mistake. Not unusual with identically sized objects stacked on top of each other.

It isn't really a "problem" it is a matter of what the user is trying to achieve.

Right.

The confusion comes from not knowing how the imaging model works. In the imaging model there is a concept of objects and of placing an object over or under another object.

Adobe PostScript is intended for low memory print rendering, so instead of holding 5-10-20-100 high stacks in memory and calculating transparency from e.g. object 50 down to object 1, Adobe PostScript has a rough and ready solution: Obscure objects under other objects.

Adobe PDF 4.0, like Apple GX 1.0, does this differently. Transparency can be applied to any object at any position in the object stack. The objects under the object to which transparency is applied will show through as specified by the transparency setting.

(Nifty memory management let Apple GX 1.0 do this for low memory Macs, too.)

A background is an object like any other object, that is, it has to have a place in the stack. If a 'pending approval' or other background mark is applied, then it can be done automatically in the process of generating the Adobe PDF or Apple PDD, or manually.

It if is done manually, it can be done on the master page of the document being assembled. This provides more design control. If it is done automatically, it can be done by applying a filter in the printer driver. This provides less design control.

If the O.P. wants a watermark behind their letter (not a brilliant effect on screen) then they need to make the text block over it transparent.

Normally, one would have a mark instead of bullets, or as a lead for page numbers, or something like that. The special sorts tray is special - and what is special is best kept small and out of the way of the copy. Having a mark as background on every page seems a terrible idea typographically.

/hh

They all have a white background, Pages has 2 and the water mark is replacing the back one as far as I can tell but being hidden under the extra one.

PeterBreis0807 wrote:
I pulled apart the Pages document pdf (Typewriter resume) in Illustrator CS4.

Using Layers, right?

This is the postscript stack, foremost on top:

4. Text
3. Transparent bounding box
2. White page box
1. White page box

Back in Acrobat I added a watermark to the background, which was not visible as before.

As I now knew how many layers there were, I cleared the spare background boxes with:

+Acrobat > Menu > Tools > Advanced Editing > *Touchup Object Tool*+ not the *Select Object Tool*

With this I clicked on the background and highlighted the bounding box (transparent) which I deleted. and then clicked on and deleted the 2 two white background boxes.

The watermark is now visible.

Clever! That works fine!

The only thing that annoys me is that one had to use Illustrator's Layers to find the boxes. I would have expected/hoped them to show up in Acrobat's Document > Examine... dialogue.

Well, one cannot get everything, I guess.

Henrik Holmegaard wrote:
Having a mark as background on every page seems a terrible idea typographically.

Usually, yes, but the OP only talked about a background. It may be some simulation of a particular type of paper or so, and then it does not sound that terrible, I think.

the OP only talked about a background. It may be some simulation of a particular type of paper or so, and then it does not sound that terrible, I think.

He said it was his letterhead, which seems like a reasonable thing to want to have on every letter (though there must be an easier way).

Magnus,

As much as I use Acrobat for what I have to (since v 1.0), it has always struck me as very badly written and designed app., and not getting any better. 🙂

The boxes do not turn up as layers in Illustrator, just as stacked objects in the same layer. I just peeled them apart.

I am not sure if I did get the stack order right, as soon as I get home I'll have another go colorising the boxes as I go so I can see the order better.

Here is an idea kencanuck:

Add the water mark as a background layer in Pages and decide whether you want it not-visible or visible by default. Then set the opacity to 0% or not, only turning it back to visible when you want to make the .pdf for emailing.

Just think through the problem to find solutions with the tools to hand.

For most things there is no big magic button that you just press and it reads your mind.

PeterBreis0807 wrote:
The boxes do not turn up as layers in Illustrator, just as stacked objects in the same layer. I just peeled them apart.

I am not sure if I did get the stack order right, as soon as I get home I'll have another go colorising the boxes as I go so I can see the order better.

Yes, when I try the same thing with a blank document with just the text "hello", I get just one layer with one group with the following content:

text: hello
path with opaque white filling
path with opaque white filling
clipping path - transparent