(lock/delete when answered pls)

So Im importing pdf files which are floor plans of buildings.

CS3 seems to handle this much better than CS did. Anyway, the background is transparent for some reason and the lines in the pdf document which should be black are grey'd out almost matching the background color for transparent backgrounds.

So how can I change this? If anything just getting the lines to be black would help.

12/22/2008 4:18:48 PM

this doesn't help, but i have the exact same problem.

12/22/2008 4:23:31 PM

SWEET!

Spoon?

12/22/2008 4:27:38 PM

Are you sure the lines are actually grayed out?

IIRC, Photoshop rasterizes PDFs (as opposed to keeping them as "smart objects"/vectors), which means the lines aren't actually grayed it, it just is too aggressive with the antialiasing. Which means, depending on what exactly you're trying to do, you're using the wrong application, there's some setting I don't know about you have to change, or you'll just have to edit the PDF file to make it look like how you want (use an edge filter, for example, to fill in the lines).

12/22/2008 4:28:53 PM

Yea the lines are grey. When I export the file to jpg the lines are grey not black.

Ill try the edge lines and see what happens.

Ill also try to change the default background to white and not transparent.

12/22/2008 4:30:57 PM

Are you trying to print them or what?

I don't have Photoshop handy, but can you confirm it's actually a non-vector format that it imports as?

If this is the case, you should be able to create a higher DPI document when you import the file, that could remedy the "grayed out" lines.

12/22/2008 4:33:31 PM

how do I confirm is a non-vector format?

I did have anti-aliasing on at the import screen.

[Edited on December 22, 2008 at 4:40 PM. Reason : .]

12/22/2008 4:37:52 PM

If you can't use the pen tool and move the points around.
or
If you zoom in to it, and it turns all blocky.

12/22/2008 4:40:27 PM

I can use the pen tool, but when zooming it does get very pixelated (i assume this isnt uncommon)

12/22/2008 4:42:31 PM

Hmm...

If you can move the vertices around with the pen tool, then i'd think it was a vector, which means you should just be able to directly change the color/thickness of the lines (click pen tool, click line, change color with toolbar at the top of the screen).

Photoshop may just automatically blitter vectors to the document resolution.

12/22/2008 4:45:30 PM

so if I go in and flatten the image the background turns white and all the lines are black.

Does that help?

12/22/2008 4:51:50 PM

Sort of.

That would seem to indicate that it's keeping the PDF items as vectors, which is good (which means they're not actually grayed out).

And it also seems to solve your problem (i guess?) if you just flatten the image.

12/22/2008 5:02:18 PM

i was about to say make a white background layer, merge layers, then adjust levels

but if flattening it work all by its lonesome, so be it

12/22/2008 5:13:34 PM

OK so here is the problem Im having.

I usually just zoom in on the image in preview, then take a screen shot of the area I need. I then open the screen shot in photoshop, get the respective scale measurement (usually 1/8=3ft or 1/4=3ft). I then crop the canvas if I need additinal area around the building Im working with (building drawings are in pdf).

So when I use photoshop and zoom in the ruler scale also changes which is fucking me up.

Any ideas?

12/22/2008 5:21:51 PM

I don't get what you're saying, but Photoshop has a toolbar specifically for doing measurements and things like that.

12/22/2008 5:27:43 PM