Delete multiple empty masks

[paul.trivilino]

My company is starting to receive PDFs from Canva. These PDFs almost always have empty clipping masks on top of all placed graphics. The mask is filled with 100% black, but the transparency is set to 0. Is there an action or global change I can run on these files that will get rid of all the masks in one action? I tried several "Remove" options and none of them worked. So I am manually selecting each mask and deleting them.

Thanks for the help,
Paul Trivilino
Print Production Designer
Firespring, Inc.

[loicaigon]

Can you share such a file?

[Adam]

I have been noticing this lately as well. A new "feature" from Canva. I tried to write an action list, but there doesn't seem to be a way to select by alpha fill %. My plan was to try to select anything with 100% black fill and 0% alpha fill and delete them.

My workaround now is using the select similar object panel, but that needs to be done on a page-by-page basis.

[loicaigon]

Hi all,

Indeed, one of the quirks of Canva. There is indeed no way (yet) to select objects based on a specific alpha %. But what we notice is that those objects tend to use the Gray Colorspace. So you could use something like:

• Select Transparent Objects

• Select fill color > Gray 100%

• AND

• Remove Selection

That should do in this particular case but there might be false positives. So to be used with care.

Also, we are working on delivering a Canva specific preflight, would you be interested in testing it?

[Rob Nijland]

Hi all, I'm new to the board and looking for ways to solve Canva related print problems. So yes, I would love to test a Canva file specific preflight.

Hi all,

Indeed, one of the quirks of Canva. There is indeed no way (yet) to select objects based on a specific alpha %. But what we notice is that those objects tend to use the Gray Colorspace. So you could use something like:

• Select Transparent Objects

• Select fill color > Gray 100%

• AND

• Remove Selection

That should do in this particular case but there might be false positives. So to be used with care.

Also, we are working on delivering a Canva specific preflight, would you be interested in testing it?

[loicaigon]

If you upgrade to PitStop 25.03 or later, you will find this preflight profile part of the defaults' ones (See /Demo/Just make my Canva PDF work)