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Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 3:51 pm
by aaronkrerowicz
I have several slideshows that I'm trying to export as PDFs - something I've done dozens of times before without difficulty - but now the white background exports as black, rendering the text illegible. I'm attaching two screen shots to illustrate the problem. I don't understand why this is happening. Anybody have suggestions?
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:00 pm
by RoryOF
There is an image (or something) with the orange brackety symbols behind the text. Is it necessary?
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:28 pm
by aaronkrerowicz
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but there is a background (the orange-outlined musical notes), over which there is a nearly-transparent white square with a black border, on top of which there is the text. Does that answer your question?
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:36 pm
by Zizi64
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but there is a background (the orange-outlined musical notes), over which there is a nearly-transparent white square with a black border, on top of which there is the text. Does that answer your question?
Please upload an ODF type sample file here.
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:49 pm
by RoryOF
A quick test suggests this is to do with the transparency and the PDF settings; try unchecking PDF/A-1a on the General tab of the Export as PDF dialog.
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:54 pm
by aaronkrerowicz
The "PDF/A-1a" box has been unchecked all along, but I tried checking that box and trying again, just to see what happens, and it gave me this error:
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:56 pm
by aaronkrerowicz
I just tried changing that white box from 15% transparency to 0% and now it exports properly. But I have hundreds of slides that I want to export. Going one by one and changing the transparencies to 0% would work but would take hours. Is there a less time-consuming way? I never had this problem (they would export without problem even with 15% transparency) until about a month ago.
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:59 pm
by RoryOF
If you have recently updated OpenOffice, perhaps the easiest solution is to revert to the earlier version.
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 5:53 pm
by John_Ha
Upload a one or two page file so it can be analysed - all else is guesswork.
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 7:31 pm
by aaronkrerowicz
I'm trying to upload a 1-slide ODP file that won't export properly, but I keep getting an error: "The file is too big, maximum allowed size is 128 KiB." Even at one slide, the file is 625 KB. I don't understand why it's so large!
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 7:43 pm
by Zizi64
I'm trying to upload a 1-slide ODP file that won't export properly, but I keep getting an error: "The file is too big, maximum allowed size is 128 KiB." Even at one slide, the file is 625 KB. I don't understand why it's so large!
Always use optimized pictures in your documents. Not needed a too high resolution, and color depth for a picture what covers only the one quarter (or less) of the screen in a presentation. And it is enough lesser resolution and color depth for the background pictures.
Yes, the 625 KB size is too big for a one-slide presentation.
Use the lossless compression (the .png file type) for the lineart type images.
(You can share the larger files on a free file sharing service. )
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:34 pm
by John_Ha
You can upload it to a file share site or Google Drive or Dropbox.
If you can edit the image to reduce its pixel count or number of colours while retaining the problem you should be able to get it below 128 kB. See
[Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images for a discussion on how best to handle images in AOO and reducing image file sizes.
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:51 pm
by RoryOF
A typical dpi value for an image to be projected is 150dpi; unless one is using very high res projectors there is no need to go beyond this.
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:29 pm
by John_Ha
Tools > Minimise presentation ..., reduces image file sizes.
Re: Export to PDF changes white to black
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 6:49 pm
by RoryOF
So it does; my preference is to build a master copy of a presentation using linked graphics, do all editing on this, then make a projection copy using /Tools /Minimise presentation. An old habit, as I have sometimes had to make best quality printed copies of a presentation and its notes. But we each have our own preferred methods of working.