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Trouble with transparency

  • 6 replies
  • 18 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by mrk13spx

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In managing the files on the a website my company runs, we updated a high-res pdf for download. Firefox is not reading the transparencies correctly, and every other we browser is views them fine. There are either changing the value, or in some cases, the color the pages show up in.

Any suggestions why Firefox wouldn't be reading the transparencies in the pdfs correctly?

In managing the files on the a website my company runs, we updated a high-res pdf for download. Firefox is not reading the transparencies correctly, and every other we browser is views them fine. There are either changing the value, or in some cases, the color the pages show up in. Any suggestions why Firefox wouldn't be reading the transparencies in the pdfs correctly?

All Replies (6)

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What about helper applications that read .pdf files? Do those work properly? You could set Firefox back to using ahelper application in Preferences > Applications.

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We've run into the same issue. It seems that Firefox doesn't support transparent vector artwork interacting with pixel images. A possible fix is saving your PDFs in version 1.3 (Acrobat 4!) which rasterizes vector art where it interacts with pixels. However, that would be equivalent in building your website for IE6.

A better solution would be Mozilla improving their Firefox PDF renderer to support transparency in 'newer' PDFs.

On a user level finitarry is right; adding a plugin/extension to replace the built-in PDF renderer will fix the problem.

For publishers of PDFs it would be inappropriate to prompt all Firefox users to replace Firefox's built in functionality (or switch browsers) to be able to view the PDF as intended.

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hello mrk13spx, pdf,js is still somewhat experimental & under active development - you can file bug reports with a github account at https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/issues (please provide a link to a document that shows the problem & detail what exactly is wrong).

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Thanks philipp! Will do that.

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See also:

The latest version of the PDF viewer is available as an extension and does a better job than the version shipped with the current Firefox release in some cases.

You can find the latest version of the PDF Viewer (pdfjs) extension here:

Latest development version of the PDF Viewer (pdfjs) as a Firefox extension:

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The newer version of PDF.js does indeed fix the problem. Since I'm on the publishing side (instead of receiving/reading), I'm looking for a proper (global) fix instead of an individual/custom solution.

Since PDF.js has been updated to address this problem, I'll just wait until Firefox gets updated with the newer version :-)

Thanks all!