Back in X5, when I printed a radial fountain fill (consisting of 2 spot colors) to pdf using Acrobat, the result would be one element (using the edit object tool in Acrobat or bringing into Illustrator).
Now in X7, using the identical settings and the same file, the result is a gazzillion separate lines.
Does anyone know if it's possible to get a single element?
Thanks so much!
joan
Sure Ronny, attached is a file with the issue, along with the resulting pdf.
I tried compatibility Acrobat 7 and 8 and 9, and PDF/X-3
Thank You!
test-sample.cdr
Found it Joan. The problem here is that the fountain fill is set to have 512 fountain steps, instead of the default which is "locked". With the default setting, the fill is described as "fill from color A to color B", and when printing to a postscript printer or exporting to for example PDF, this is the information the fill will be based upon. This will ensure that the fill will look and print as good as possible. I understand it is tempting to change to a higher value (the greyed out box indicates 256 steps "only") but the result will probably not get any better, and there's a big risk it will in fact be worse. I made this mistake myself a couple of years ago, with a fill going from a dark brown to almost black. Though it would be a good idea to change to 999 steps and then print, but the result was awful. It turned out that the only difference between the two colors was around 20% of black, and by unlocking it made up the fill in 20 clearly visible steps, not 999 as expected. Ruined a large format print that way. :-( Then reprinted with the fill locked and the result was perfect. Anyway, by unlocking it also forces the export filter to create these steps, instead of just say go from A to B, and the result is exactly what you get in your PDF. So the general rule is: ALWAYS leave the fountain fill steps setting locked (well, there may exceptions but...).
Glad I could help. There's probably a setting to correct it also with Acrobat PDF.
One thing, just to make sure you got it right: You didn't change from 512 to 256 I suppose?The right thing to do is to lock the fill steps (two-arrow symbol). The value box should then be greyed out.
(The value shown when it is locked is the "Preview fountain steps" from Options > Display.)
Don't know exactly how it works but if there is no PDF equivalent to a fill in Draw, the export filter must use some kind of workaround to at least make it look right, on screen and when printed. In many cases the only way to simulate the fill is probably to create a bunch of lines, just like the ones you see. I have seen the techs describe some of the problems that can appear when doing PDF export/import and believe me, they are not having an easy job.
joan said:I realize the resulting pdf will still print ok, but it ends up with a gazillion lines instead of just one shape.
Yes it does output perfectly, however if Corel wants us to create art that can be sold on the internet this is an issue that needs addressed.
This is not a PDF compatibility choice this is an issue with CorelDraw PDF, the files outputs smooth as can be but it cannot be imported into an PDF editing application without these bands.