idea Warn of unsupported blend mode on export in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Wed, 17 May 2023 12:45:03 GMT

Re: BUG-000151050, "Using the Linear Burn mode layer blend downgrades the quality of the exported PDF layout," which will not and cannot be addressed, it would be a huge improvement for everyone if there were a warning that you're exporting to a format that doesn't support a blend mode you're using, kind of like when publishing a web layer. Despite originating this bug, I just ran into the issue again and it had been so long that I was scratching my head. Thankfully the paper trail of tech support cases was there to help but it may cause others countless hours of frustration to run into the error in Acrobat (as I did the first time!)

I'm not sure if it would be possible to have this warning even sooner (e.g. when the blend mode is chosen) given the program (or user) might not know what format the map will be eventually exported to, but that would be even better -- at least in my office, vector PDF is by far the most common. Thanks.

(This is the error received:)

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

DanPatterson — Wed, 17 May 2023 01:17:54 GMT

More than a caution in the help?

Export to PDF—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Wed, 17 May 2023 18:57:08 GMT

@DanPatterson yes. That caution doesn't really account for the error (~~it only flattens when exporting to raster pdf~~ correction: the error-throwing PDFs only do that in Acrobat; they open fine in other programs with the rasterization described by the help), and I don't think users are going to scrape every piece of documentation to learn of potential issues before export, especially when the software provides no tips as to what could be causing the issue.

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export - Status changed to: Needs Clarification

JeremyWright — Wed, 17 May 2023 18:25:43 GMT

Hi @wayfaringrob getting degraded appearance is different from getting an Adobe Acrobat error when opening the PDF. The repro case for the latter (error opening the PDF) should be shared with Esri Support as it might be a different concern.

That said, FYI we are actually discussing amongst the responsible teams ways to raise awareness of things that go wrong during draw OR in export/print - it's something we want to tackle in a future release for sure - so thanks for reinforcing that with your feedback!

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Wed, 17 May 2023 18:50:08 GMT

@JeremyWright I went through support twice with that error previously and they logged a bug that is now closed with a status of known limit.

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Wed, 17 May 2023 18:57:42 GMT

@JeremyWright to clarify: the PDF opens in programs besides Acrobat with what you describe -- a mix of rasterized and vector layers. Acrobat throws the error. This was the topic of my cases and the bug; it's the same concern.

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

JeremyWright — Wed, 17 May 2023 19:14:38 GMT

@wayfaringrob I must apologize then, since we did not receive any notice of the error message you describe in the support issue that we evaluated in our queue - nor did the people involved in triaging that issue experience the error message you describe.

I went back and opened the repro ppkx provided and exported to PDF, it opens without the described error.

What version of Adobe Acrobat are you using that is throwing this error?

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export - Status changed to: Open

JeremyWright — Wed, 17 May 2023 19:18:51 GMT

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Wed, 17 May 2023 19:26:12 GMT

@JeremyWright Not sure what you're talking about, the error was the reason I opened the case. Very first thing I mentioned...

Support analyst confirmed reproducing the issue.

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

JeremyWright — Wed, 17 May 2023 19:39:35 GMT

@wayfaringrob again, apologies - it appears the analyst logged TWO cases from your incident, and only one made it our way (to development).

I'll circle back with our customer experience lead to make sure this type of problem doesn't happen again and review what occurred (they have more visibility to the support side of things).

FWIW, I opened the pptx that was provided to me for the BUG you quoted, and exported it to PDF with default settings. I was able to open the PDF in Acrobat Pro and Acrobat Reader with no error message. I will double-check this with current release (3.1.1) as I was testing on a daily build.

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Wed, 17 May 2023 19:54:09 GMT

@JeremyWright yeah, looks like there was also a third case related to the first, #03113603, where I notified tech support that I found the issue (blend modes), and they then tested on their end with the one of the projects I sent over. Perhaps they saved a 'fixed' version and sent you that? It's possible I sent a fixed version at some point, too, I don't remember. Does what you're exporting have a linear burn layer?

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

JeremyWright — Wed, 17 May 2023 20:01:25 GMT

@wayfaringrob yes it does, the layer for states is set to linear burn. I assume the "fixed" project is the one I received. Like I said I'm gonna talk to our CE person to review procedures and see if there's any process improvement support or dev can make in this regard.

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Wed, 17 May 2023 20:10:39 GMT

@JeremyWright hmm. And you're exporting to vector PDF?

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

JeremyWright — Wed, 17 May 2023 21:51:56 GMT

@wayfaringrob yep, vector PDF.

hey, can you do "Save Preset" on the PDF export dialog and share your .xprt file, so I Can use the exact same settings as you? There's actually no such thing as "default" settings once you change them once, so that's why we have presets as a way to share and use others settings and a way to get back to known states.

3.1.1 is installing now on a machine (had to free one up)

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Wed, 17 May 2023 22:00:26 GMT

@JeremyWright yep, here's the text of the file:

Layout;ArcGIS.Desktop.Mapping.PDFFormat, ArcGIS.Desktop.Mapping, Version=13.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=8fc3cc631e44ad86;{"DoCompressVectorGraphics":true,"ImageCompression":5,"DoEmbedFonts":true,"LayersAndAttributes":1,"HasGeoRefInfo":true,"ImageQuality":1,"ImageCompressionQuality":80,"Password":null,"DoFullRasterization":false,"MasterPassword":null,"HasColorProfile":false,"SecurityPermission":0,"DoSimulateOverprint":false,"DoConvertCharacterMarkerSymbolsToPolygon":false,"LanguageCode":"","Title":"","Subject":"","Author":"","Keywords":"","IncludeAccessibilityTags":true,"Heading":null,"OutputFileName":"","Resolution":300,"Width":960,"Height":960,"DoClipToGraphicExtent":false}

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

JeremyWright — Thu, 18 May 2023 00:27:37 GMT

@wayfaringrobI finally got things installed and tried your repro with same settings (using your preset) on 3.1 final but still can't repro the error opening the PDF.

Question: what version of ArcGIS Pro are you using?

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Fri, 19 May 2023 17:01:04 GMT

@JeremyWright 3.1.1 but last time it would have been 2.9.2 and then it also looks like it was reproduced in 3.0

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

wayfaringrob — Fri, 19 May 2023 17:01:30 GMT

@JeremyWright also, not sure if you're saying that that map came from my project, but I did not make that map.

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export

JeremyWright — Fri, 19 May 2023 17:10:16 GMT

@wayfaringrob that is the map that was included as the repro case for the BUG by one of the two support analysts you worked with.

I've just DM'd you, let's connect over email and I can get the original repro case from you for the adobe error.

Re: Warn of unsupported blend mode on export - Status changed to: Closed

KoryKramer — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 22:22:06 GMT

Closing this idea as, upon further investigation, this was a bug that will be fixed in ArcGIS Pro 3.2: https://support.esri.com/en-us/bug/the-linear-blend-mode-on-a-group-layer-with-contents-ab-bug-000158670