Transparency in text boxes not printing whne made a pdf

[Susienak]

I have used Publisher for 7 or 8 years now and am in love with its simplicity
as a page layout program. However, in my business I design booklets and in so
doing I run across the transparency issue constantly. So I purchased Office
Professional with Publisher 2007. I was sooooo hoping Publisher 2007 would
resolve this issue... but it doesn’t seem to have been fixed unless there's a
new tool or "get around" that I'm not aware of.

I take photos and graphics and put a transparent text box over the photo. It
adds a nice layer and allows you to still see the image underneath. It always
shows up great on screen but when I save as a PDF the transparent text box
shows up as an almost gridwork. I've tried going to edit/copy/paste special
and have tried every file type: gif; jpeg; metafile; etc... but none of them
when brought back into the document show up as transparent... they're all
opaque.

I've even tried saving the entire document as a jpg but the text in the
document is all fuzzy and loses its clarity. The clarity of a pdf is far
superior but the transparent text boxes in pdf are terrible.

This is my living... my business... can you help??? I make these booklets
and have to email them to the people who purchase them so jpg's or password
protected pdfs are my best options... with pdf's clarity making it a
no-brainer as to which I should be emailing. I thought for sure Publisher
2007 would fix this! What do I do?

Please, please, please tell me there's something I'm doing wrong!

Susan Brudnak
WillowTree Marketing

 

[John Inzer]

I have used Publisher for 7 or 8 years now and am in love with its
simplicity as a page layout program. However, in my business I design
booklets and in so doing I run across the transparency issue
constantly. So I purchased Office Professional with Publisher 2007. I
was sooooo hoping Publisher 2007 would resolve this issue... but it
doesn't seem to have been fixed unless there's a new tool or "get
around" that I'm not aware of.

I take photos and graphics and put a transparent text box over the
photo. It adds a nice layer and allows you to still see the image
underneath. It always shows up great on screen but when I save as a
PDF the transparent text box shows up as an almost gridwork. I've
tried going to edit/copy/paste special and have tried every file
type: gif; jpeg; metafile; etc... but none of them when brought back
into the document show up as transparent... they're all opaque.

I've even tried saving the entire document as a jpg but the text in
the document is all fuzzy and loses its clarity. The clarity of a pdf
is far superior but the transparent text boxes in pdf are terrible.

This is my living... my business... can you help??? I make these
booklets and have to email them to the people who purchase them so
jpg's or password protected pdfs are my best options... with pdf's
clarity making it a no-brainer as to which I should be emailing. I
thought for sure Publisher 2007 would fix this! What do I do?

Please, please, please tell me there's something I'm doing wrong!

Susan Brudnak
WillowTree Marketing

====================================
This is interesting...I just tried several test .pdfs
in Pub 2007 and the transparent text boxes are
invisible. If I did it incorrectly...let me know and
I will try something different.

Saved as .pdf with the Publisher .pdf option

Saved as .pdf with PrimoPDF

Saved as .jpg and then saved as .pdf with Publisher

Saved as .png and then saved as .pdf with Publisher

They all look basically the same to me, and I don't
see a hint of the textbox...it is totally transparent.
I even opened all four and viewed them in succession
and there is very little if any difference.

I'll upload the samples to a site where you can
download them and have a look. Please let me
know how the samples compare to yours.

Then...maybe we can figure out how to solve the issue.

Here are the links for the .pdfs:

Saved as .jpg and then saved as .pdf with Publisher
http://download.yousendit.com/4A398D405D708BF0
Saved as .png and then saved as .pdf with Publisher
http://download.yousendit.com/4979C2DA552A7EAC
PUB file saved as .pdf with PrimoPDF
http://download.yousendit.com/AB261F3860E18B61
PUB file saved as .pdf with Publisher .pdf option
http://download.yousendit.com/29205B602E607B4E

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Ed Bennett]

I take photos and graphics and put a transparent text box over the photo. It
adds a nice layer and allows you to still see the image underneath. It always
shows up great on screen but when I save as a PDF the transparent text box
shows up as an almost gridwork.

Are you using the Microsoft PDF add-in or some third-party PDF add-on?

I just tested this with the Microsoft PDF add-in and it worked perfectly
at all zoom levels.

I've tried going to edit/copy/paste special
and have tried every file type: gif; jpeg; metafile; etc... but none of them
when brought back into the document show up as transparent... they're all
opaque.

The logic of that suggestion is that you save the entire page or the
area of the page that has transparent objects on as an image, so when
reimported it appears as if transparency if working even though there
are only opaque objects there.

I've even tried saving the entire document as a jpg but the text in the
document is all fuzzy and loses its clarity. The clarity of a pdf is far
superior but the transparent text boxes in pdf are terrible.

JPEG is a poor format for exporting documents containing text. A PNG
file at Publisher's highest resolution will have no fuzz at edges. It
will still not be as crisp (or as small a filesize) as a PDF though.

 

[Mary Sauer]

I used a rectangle, made it transparent, converted it to a .png, reinserted it
into Publisher. When I printed to the AdobePDF (Adobe Acrobat 7) the
transparency came up blank. When I did a "save as" a PDF, the transparency was
intact and converted correctly. Go figure!!!

 

[Ed Bennett]

I used a rectangle, made it transparent, converted it to a .png, reinserted it
into Publisher. When I printed to the AdobePDF (Adobe Acrobat 7) the
transparency came up blank. When I did a "save as" a PDF, the transparency was
intact and converted correctly. Go figure!!!

It's always been that way. Publisher can't print transparency, but can
export it as a PDF (because Publisher's PDF export doesn't simply print
to some hidden PDF printer).

 

[PAW]

Select your image and then click on the Picture toolbox or Format > Picture
menu. The toolbox allows you to:
(a) change the brightness. If you make the image brighter {add more light to
the balance}, it may wash the image out a bit
Or
(b) change the colour. You have two options here -- select "washout" though
this might make it too bright, or specify a degree of transparency.

If these don't work, you may have to edit your photo / image within a photo
editing program first, and then import it into Publisher.
PAW

 

[PAW]

HI again, Susienak
I just realized that you want your text box, not the photos/images, to print
transparent. Basically, the same colour and transparency tools are available
to you with the font colouring commands as well. Go to Font > Colour > Fill
Effects and take a look at the options there -- the options include gradient,
transparency, tint, etc. and some of those alone or in combo might give you
the look you want.


PAW

 

[Annie]

I, too, am having this problem and have come here to see if there is anyone
who can help. Unfortunately, it seems that no one has really answered the
issue. The issue is not so much with PUB (I'm running '07) but with Adobe.
When I create my text box with 50% white transparent background, it shows up
perfect in PUB. The problem is when I print to PDF (or "save as" PDF). The
50% white transparent background becomes riddled with gridmarks.

Is there any way we might be able to figure this out? This too is my
livelihood and I would love to find out if there is anything that can be done.

Thanks!

 

[Mary Sauer]

Select the text box, save as picture, you will want to save as a .png extension.
Insert the picture back into your document. Use the "save as" PDF(Microsoft's
Add-in) rather than print to PDF. You might want to create a transparent box
rather than coloring the text box. You can send the box to the back.

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads...11-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

 

[Charles W Davis]

Try here: http://tinyurl.com/33do3h

Select the text box, save as picture, you will want to save as a .png
extension. Insert the picture back into your document. Use the "save as"
PDF(Microsoft's Add-in) rather than print to PDF. You might want to create
a transparent box rather than coloring the text box. You can send the box
to the back.

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads...11-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en
--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Mary Sauer]

The transparency has nothing to do with Acrobat, it is something Publisher has
struggled with since its onset.