Gradient Strokes lose exactly 1pt thickness when placed and embedded into another Illustrator file
When placing AI or PDF files into an Illustrator document, any strokes that have gradients applied will become exactly 1pt thinner than its intended weight. The weight shows properly before embedding the link. I've seen a number of designers use a gradient 1pt line on their artwork to seem "metallic" only to find their line completely disappears if their artwork is placed into another Illustrator file. This only applies if you embed the link. Leaving the linked AI/PDF as a link will preserve the correct stroke weight.
This appears to be present in several versions of Illustrator dating back to at least around 2021/2022. I had thought this was already reported somewhere, but I wasn't able to find another post like this.
Michael Wagner
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Michael Wagner
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For anyone else who has struggled with this issue, we are using the following custom preflight check in Acrobat to flag any PDF files with gradient strokes. This gives us the opportunity to review and work around the glitch. Workarounds include flattening transparencies instead of embedding the link (may cause other unexpected issues) or opening the linked AI/PDF file in Illustrator to expand the stroke to a fill before embedding. Copying/pasting from the source document to the new document also works.
