AI drawing line thickness incorrectly displayed on PDF export

[WACO]

Hi,

when exporting an Indesign file to PDF the line thickness of the Illustrator drawings used is not correctly shown.

Zoomed out (and printed) it seems like the first 3 line drawings have a lighter line thickness:

Zoomed in it's clearly visible that the line thickness of the 3 top drawings is denser.

I have no idea what causes this.

Anyone around who can help me out?

many thanks,

François

[Chad Chelius]

Hi François,

It would help to know what stroke value you are using in Illustrator for the various paths. What I think you are experiencing is the fact that there aren't enough pixels (or dots when printed) to render the strokes in the weight that they are drawn. When zoomed out, you only have so many pixels to render the lines but when zoomed in, more pixels can be used to represent the lines and the difference between the lines is more noticeable. The same goes for your printer. If it's possible to print to your printer at a higher dpi, you may be able to notice a difference. Try printing to your printer at a higher percent (200% for example) and I'd be that you'll see a difference. I think you're simply running into a limitation of the equipment.

[WACO]

Thanks for your quick assistance, Chad.

The resolution of the printer could be one thing. However, the pdf looks strange on-screen as well.

This is what it looks like in Indesign: The right hand drawing is clearly lighter due to a smaller line thickness (0.1pt versus 0.25pt)

When exported to pdf the right hand drawing looks slightly thicker:

When zoomed in the right hand drawing shows the difference in line thickness much clearer:

Thanks again for the help! Much appreciated.

François

[MW Design]

See if turning off Enhance Thin Lines in Acrobat/Reader resolves the display issue.

Mike

[hatotoro]

this is the solution for me … (plus maybe restart) ! thank you poster!

[WACO]

Thanks for the input. However I'm looking for a universal solution. I'm building commercial datasheets and I cannot expect all users to change their viewing setting. But thanks for your input!

best regards,

Franz

[Frans v.d. Geest]

That is the problem, your clients can set Adobe Reader as they like, however, the solution is correct so, yes: you have to inform your clients to turn this option off in the Reader...

[MW Design]

It, to me, is a silly default setting, but it is what it is.

You don't need to inform anyone--except those that may/might ever contact you about the issue. It will still print properly.

Mike

[ericc19576445]

I agree, Mike. "It's not possible" is not an acceptable answer. 

[John Mensinger]

waco_f.deleyn wrote:

I'm looking for a universal solution.

The closest you'll come is to ensure all your artwork contains the same actual line weight, or at least a global minimum.