Exporting to PDF creates white gaps between colored cells

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Level 1

8 points

Exporting to PDF creates white gaps between colored cells

Hi there, I'm not sure if this counts as a bug report or if it's a feature I can toggle off somehow:

I've created a designer invoice in Numbers 3.5.3, which has colored backgrounds in blocks of different cells. There is no border between these cells, but when I export it to PDF (either by exporting or printing individual pages) it adds an ugly white gap between all my unmerged cells. I can't merge these cells because the colored blocks contain multiple fields of info. Is there any way (other than merging them) to make these block appear solid, like they appear in numbers, when I export them?

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Jun 24, 2015 1:54 PM

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Answer 1

Yellowbox

Level 7

20,383 points

Jun 24, 2015 4:45 PM in response to SarahDimento

Hi Sarah,

What settings do you have for gridlines (Format Panel > Table) and cell borders (Format Panel > Cell)?

Maybe if you set the cell border colour to match the cell fill it will do the trick.

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 2

SarahDimento Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 26, 2015 11:48 AM in response to Yellowbox

Thanks Ian,

I tried setting Table Outline to "None" and turned off the Grid Lines. That didn't work, so I went to the Cell Pane and tried making sure there was absolutely no border. That didn't fix it, so I tried making a 1 pt border the same color as the cell, and that didn't work either. I'm still getting white lines in my pdfs between some cell blocks (but not all of them, which is puzzling).

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Answer 3

Yellowbox

Level 7

20,383 points

Jun 29, 2015 2:42 AM in response to SarahDimento

Hi Sarah,

I see what you see in Menu > File > Print... > Print... > Open PDF in Preview:

Try this,

Insert a table and Format Panel > Table > untick Alternating Row Colour. Don't worry about the Gridlines. Then:

Click on the Border pattern top right to apply the borders to all cells.

Border Styles >1 pt

Line Style (solid line)

Colour (I chose blue)

Thickness (should already be 1 pt)

With all cells in the table selected,

Fill > Colour Fill ( I chose blue).

Table in Numbers

Table after Menu > File > Print... > Print... > Open PDF in Preview

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 4

SarahDimento Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 29, 2015 8:58 AM in response to Yellowbox

Hi Ian,

I tried your suggestion step x step. It didn't look so bad with only a handful of cells, but it seems the problem gets worse the more cells you add. Here's what I mean:

With only a few cells, a couple small gaps are barely visible:

But turn nasty the more cells you add:

I should probably also mention the original file didn't use tables. I just formatted the cells directly. The screenshot above is a blank table I just made for this.

Thanks,

Sarah

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