I'm using the Gallery widget to display PDFs in iBooks Author, but the PDFs are coming across with transparent backgrounds. This is okay, except when you tap to enlarge them -- with the black background, they become un-readable.
How can I make the PDFs display with a white background?
Thanks.
I just converted 3 images to PDF - opened the widget and inserted them into the gallery - previwed on Mac... I dont see anything wrong. No transparent backgrounds
How were the pdfs created... ? are they within the coreect sizes?
The Black / White background is a separate and different issue and has a number of long threads - White is default and changing it to black is discussed at length. You could try a search of the group.
The PDFs were created with Microsoft Publisher. They are magazine-style text layouts. If I export the PDF as a PNG, it resolves the problem (white background, instead of transparent). However, the quality is much worse.
It seems like this is something I should fix with the PDF file, rather than iBooks Author. I was just hoping there was an easy fix within iBooks Author to save time, since I'm working with quite a few PDF files, which I already have to import one page at a time.
After much research and trial and error, it turns out giving a transparent PDF a white background is nearly impossible. It seems like the best solution to this problem is to use the Keynote widget. I've imported the PDF pages into Keynote, added a white rectangular background to each, and used some of Keynote's cool features to make it a little more interactive (see example here).
Problem: users can't zoom in on the PDF, which isn't ideal. But it's the best solution I've found so far.
Yep, I keep expectations low when sourcing anything from a pdf, especially when MS had it's fingers in the pie.
Thanks for the update and good luck w/your books.
I have the same issue. It seems to happen only with newer versions on the iBook. I used an older version of a iBook I created to update it. When I add a new Gallery widget to the existing iBooks it does the same thing. The older widgets still work fine. I tried cutting and pasting and old widget then adding a new PDF and it does the same thing. In the cut and paste Widget, the 2 older PDF's worked fine and the new PDF didn't.
Have you found out anything else that might help? Thanks,
Why are PDFs transparent in iBooks Author?
