Illustrator displays pattern differently when exporting to png

[counihana123]

The above image is how I want the pattern to look

This is how the pattern appears when I export to png. What do I need to do to fix this? Scale strokes & effects is checked, and everything is expanded anyway.

[John Mensinger]

It looks like the export settings are limiting the colors. Please detail your export procedure. Screenshots never hurt.

[counihana123]

[John Mensinger]

Have you tried it with Art Optimized (Supersampling) chosen on the Anti-aliasing menu?

[counihana123]

Yes, it produces the same result. This has happened before with other files as well, not just this one.

[Ton Frederiks]

Can you share that pattern as an .ai file?

[counihana123]

Dropbox - gingham.ai

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

The lines in your pattern are thinner than a pixel. So you rely on resampling.

If what is displaed on screen is exctly what you need then why not just take a screenshot?

[John Mensinger]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Monika+Gause  wrote

The lines in your pattern are thinner than a pixel. So you rely on resampling.

Yes, this is the problem. The fine red lines are eaten by rasterization. If they were vertical or horizontal, they might survive, but their diagonal orientation dooms them to obliteration. It proves out by scaling the object (and pattern) up about 500%, then rasterizing. Looks right.

[counihana123]

Is there a workaround for this, aside from resizing it 500% larger?

[counihana123]

Sometimes I need a higher resolution than a screenshot, I'm using the pattern across 4 products that we will send to our manufacturer, so when I save out the product files as images they'll need to be higher resolution than a screenshot 😕

[John Mensinger]

Is there a workaround for this, aside from resizing it 500% larger?

I'm using the pattern across 4 products that we will send to our manufacturer, so when I save out the product files as images they'll need to be higher resolution than a screenshot...

I'm not sure I understand why you would need to export to a raster format, essentially introducing a resolution obstacle where otherwise there isn't one. Does the manufacturer specify a file format? PNG? If so, I'd have to ask them to explain and justify that. If they can't use the native .ai file, why not just Save As PDF? You're seeking a workaround to a problem you're creating, perhaps needlessly.

[counihana123]

It's for previews, we use Trello/dropbox to display what products we have and the spec sheet we use to instruct the manufacture is easier to develop using placed pngs enstead of placing the vector files which increase the file size. We do provide the working files but only the designer on our manufacturing side sees it, everyone else sees the png. The png is used also for final review by the owners so it needs to be correct. I would save to pdf but that doesn't provide the preview that a png does.

[John Mensinger]

Okay so even though in your shoes, I'd still keep seeking a better way than rasterizing, if I was really stuck with PNG, I'd also be looking for a way to avoid Illustrator's raster image export, which is the subject of many questions and complaints on this forum.

It's extra steps, but I would save as PDF, open in Photoshop and save PNG from there.

In fact, here's gingham.ai, unscaled, saved as PDF, opened in Photoshop at the same 150ppi...

[counihana123]

I'll try that out in the future, thanks!

[Ton Frederiks]

If it's for preview, I would scale the pattern 400% with the option "Transform Pattern Only"