: Weird grey boxes on PDF export and (huge) quality difference in Apple Preview and Adobe Acrobat I've exported tens (if not hundreds) of PDFs with InDesign and I've never experienced this problem.

@Goswami567

In Indesign, go to Edit>Transparency Flattener Presets, click on "High" as a starting point, then click on "New".
In the dialog box that comes up, slide the raster/vector slider all the way to the left.
Set the lifework resolution to around 1200/600/300 (whatever your printer's resolution is) and then set the gradient/mesh resolution to 150 or 300 if you are not happy with 150.
Save this file as a new Flattener Preset.
Then in File>Print, under Output, choose composite CMYK and Check the "Simulate Overprint check box. Under advanced, select your all-new raster flattener.

Works for me every time....

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@Correia448

As a less than perfect solution to fix this I found that if you create a large box, bigger than the page, and add an effect to it with an opacity of zero and set that box to 0% transparency it would get rid of these weird fray boxes. I think it's a transparency issue, and overlaying that box with the effect, even though it's transparent, will sort of even all the issues out. Not perfect, but it works.

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@Alves566

I know this is an old topic, but I've had the same problem with the gray box showing up on PDFs and printing. I finally got around it by exporting the file as a 2002 PDF. I don't know why the older PDF versions work and not the newer ones, but that's what's been working for me.

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@Mendez620

Solution: Go to Page Display Preferences > Under Page Content > Unselect Show Grid. It worked for me. Good luck!

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@Vandalay110

A possible solution would be to export your document as a hi-res, high-quality *.jpg, place that in a new InDesign file an then export as a *.pdf. This way, everything is flattened and any artifact will not show up anymore. I'm not sure it will help your quality issues, though.

EDIT

Incorporating some important info from Scott's comment: Most pdf viewers are full of rendering bugs. Apple's Preview and Adobe Acrobat itself are notorious for displaying artefacts like these, especially in *.pdfs that are optimised for print. Using transparency, shadows, glows and/or blending modes in your file makes these problems more likely to show up.

If you want to create a high-fidelity preview, send a *.jpg or a *.jpg placed into a *.pdf. Those will show properly, without you having a lot of explainin' to do to your client.

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