Word table border problems after pdf'ing

[michael...@adobeforums.com]

Sorry if this has been brought up before. What can be done about the faint lines that appear in some Word tables that have been pdf'ed? I say some because the problem only occurs in merged, shaded cells. Half the vertical lines of a cell are normal and half are noticeably thinner and print that way. If shading is removed before pdf'ing, there is no problem. Does anybody have a workaround for this other than not shading table rows? I'm currently using Acrobat 9 Pro Extended but it has happened in older versions too. thanks.

[Bill@VT]

Change the width of the border to 1 pt or change the display resolution in the Adobe PDF printer properties to 300 dpi (maybe 600) rather than the default 120 dpi. Yellow lines are really bad!

[michael...@adobeforums.com]

thanks, but I can't seem to find anything called "display resolution" in the Adobe pdf printer properties. I am using High Quality Print and the resolution there (under File Options) says 2400. I changed the borders to one point all around but still the same problem. Can you tell me where to find the display resolution menu you mentioned?

[Bill@VT]

It is similar on various versions. I will tell you for AA7 that I have on this machine. I go to START>Settings>Printers and right click on the Adobe PDF printer to select the properties. On the General tab, select printing preferences. On the Layout tab select Advanced. Printing Quality is the first item under Graphic items. I set mine to 300 dpi.

This may not solve the problem (I worked with a guy once before on this and gave up after a bit - but I did not drive it into the ground), but at least it gives you something to try. Maybe some of the WORD folks will come by and chat. This is not a new problem and has been pointed out before.

One of the issue is if you are looking at the printout or on screen. It might still print fine or look OK if you zoom. In that case it is likely the sampling done for the 96dpi screen. The lines are typically small (often 1 pixel) and when you look at it with 2400 dpi and put it on the screen, you see almost nothing with the average process that is apparently used to reduce the dpi for the screen. At least I am pretty sure this is basically the issue. The resolution is a different matter.

[michael...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks again for working with me on this. The graphic resolution is set at 1200 dpi. I think the problem has to do with the way Adobe handles shading. You can actually click on a shaded cell with the touchup object tool and move the shaded box out of its cell while leaving the remaining cells shaded. When you move the shaded area of an adjoining cell, the faint and thin upper half of the line that divides the cells becomes thick like the lower half of the line, which is the way it should be. The shaded areas were actually covering part of the line. Again, this problem occurs only in cells that have been merged in Word. I can live with the screen resolution problem but it's inexcusable to have a printed document that contains table lines with two different thicknesses and shades. I don't think there is a solution to the problem. As valuable a software as Acrobat is, something small like this can destroy its worth as far as document production goes. If you have any other suggestions I'd love to hear them. Thanks.

[Bill@VT]

Sounds like a transparency issue. You might search on transparency, something that Acrobat has not handled well over the years.

[johnh...@adobeforums.com]

Have you tried changing the page margins, reducing the point size of the border, adding extra columns/rows, manipulating the cell padding of the table or recreating the tables? Sometimes this can help.

[Andreas...@adobeforums.com]

Now here comes the solution that really works. I have to convert a lot of word-documents to pdf for business / on a fee basis.

I finally found a way round this annoying problem.

Say, your shaded cells have got the following RGB values 192,192,192

Now, select the entire row that has already been shaded, go to Table-Table Properties - Borders and Shading - Borders (tab).
Then choose 'contour' for the border setting and choose the same colour than the one you applied for the shading, i.e. RGB values 192,192,192 and apply this setting to the 'cell'.
Repeat that for all rows or let a macro do this.

I got the german version of Word, hopefully I translated everything right, if not, let me know.

Print your PDF, the jagged/faint lines should have disappeared.

Please let me know whether it worked!

Regards, Andreas

[Mike...@adobeforums.com]

Andreas, Thanks for your post. I tried what you said, but I don't have a "contour" setting in my Word v. 2003 so I used "All" and then for the second try "Grid". If I understand correctly you are saying to change the lines so they match the same color as the shaded cells. This has the effect of showing no vertical lines between the columns. My tables are usually designed with border grids so the headings are easily distinguished. In other words, gray shading with black lines between the cells. Please let me know if I am misunderstanding.
Thanks