: What are these white outlines in patterns in the .pdf I exported from Illustrator? I am using pattern in illustrator in separated layer of course and some text areas and line texts in another

@Chiappetta793

This is a result of the .pdf viewer you use, there is nothing wrong with your image. Each and every .pdf viewer is absolutely horrible at previewing .pdf files that aren't optimised for display on screen. Print-ready cPDFs are the worst offenders: areas with drop shadows (as Henrik notes) get an outline, and vectors that touch each other regularly get a 1-pixel gap. Amongst other problems.

These effects are almost always just the crappy preview quality—the same file will print flawlessly, and there's a good chance it will also render nicely when you open it in a raster program and convert it to pixels.

A good check is to zoom in on any white outlines you see: if they stay one pixel in width no matter the zoom factor, it's a viewer issue and you're good. If the gap does resize with the zoom factor, there's something wrong in your source file.

Never, ever trust any .pdf viewer when it comes to printable .pdfs. Therefore, it's also a good idea to keep printables away from your customer for review purposes. Those gaps will confuse them even more than they do you now.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Steve758

My guess is that the PDF if doing something with the text when you have the drop shadow effect on the text. It will probably go away when if remove the drop shadow.

Will it give you any different results if you save your PDF as another PDF standard (there are some to chose from when you save your file from Illustrator)?

Vote Up Vote Down