Gradient Fill turns gray when exporting to PDF

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mikaelerkas Author

Level 1

8 points

Gradient Fill turns gray when exporting to PDF

I'm making a box in pages, choosing gradient fill. White colour on both fills, the second one with 0% opacity.

This to create a faded impression over an image.

Everything looks great in Pages 7.2 with OS X Mojave 10.14.

When exporting to pdf, or choosing print and export to pdf, the white gradient box will turn gray.

Tried the iCloud version of Pages with the same result.

Pages in iOS however dosen't do this.

How can I resolve this?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), macOS Mojave (10.14), null

Posted on Sep 28, 2018 1:06 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,386 points

Sep 28, 2018 6:02 AM in response to mikaelerkas

A couple of points. Gradient introduces some transparency, and neither Pages, nor the Apple print subsystem, can output PDF v1.5 which is the version of PDF that properly supports transparency. Anything that has transparency in it will export as 72 dpi raster in that PDF, and will look much worse, or different from your intention.

To resolve it, create your rectangle gradient fill in something like Affinity Designer, Pixelmator, or even the free GIMP, and export as vector artwork. Drop and position that in the Pages document. Although the export to PDF panel in Pages v7.2 now defaults to Best, I would still go through the Print menu : PDF : Save as PDF — for the best possible PDF quality. Compare the final PDF in Prevew and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.

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Answer 2

mikaelerkas Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 28, 2018 12:52 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you, will try that. My solution might not have been the best, but I’ve gotten great results pre Mojave.

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Gradient Fill turns gray when exporting to PDF

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