PDFs vs the Color Yellow (and Light Blue)

I don't understand why, but whenever I convert a Google Slide, Power Point, Word file with graphics, Mind Map etc. to pdf, anything with a yellow or light blue background comes out with no color. If the text is colored, then that too disappears.

This is the original Mind Map on mindmup.com

But this is what happened when I downloaded it as a pdf. Notice the light blue squares are now without color.

The solution is to download the file as a jpeg or png and then upload the graphic into Adobe Acrobat (best professional purchase of my career) or an online graphic-to-pdf converter like smallpdf, and convert it to a pdf. This way, the original colors are preserved.

The same thing happened when I tried downloading a Google Slide as a pdf, and it was crucial that the colors be preserved. I tried downloading it as a PowerPoint, but regardless of what I did (I even tried changing the shades slightly, using gradients, etc.) the pdf was missing the yellow on the yellow slide. I had to download the problematic slide as a jpeg and convert it to a pdf and delete the problematic page from the pdf presentation and insert the jpeg to pdf slide in its place.

Doc Hub - One Minor Plus over Kami

Although I enthused recently over Kami, the Chrome app Doc Hub has some features to recommend it. The free version is fine for having students fill in pdfs.

You still need to direct it to save in Google Drive; it will not do so automatically. It also saves its own copy of the edited document, so if a student forgets to save it to Google Drive, it is not irretrievably lost.

The one feature it has that I really like is a silly one, but it makes my life easier.

You can insert all sorts of symbols on the document, like check marks and exes.

You can change the size of the symbol and its fill color.

True, you could use the Draw feature on Kami (and as I use a pen stylus instead of a mouse, I can actually drawing something that looks pretty decent - wouldn't want to try that with a mouse). But I like being able to insert those symbols directly on to the students' filled out pdf "papers."

One Stop Shopping for all your pdf Needs

I just found this wonderful site, smallpdf , which combines 14 (!) different functions to work with pdf files.

Find it all at

Getting creative with pdf files - Part One

The pdf - it's not just for viewing anymore!

I'm going to run through a series on things you can do - how to make a pdf online, how to convert it to something else, how to collate separate pdfs together and separate pages from within a large one, among many other things.

The best piece of freeware out there (one I have been using several times a week for the last 5 years is PDFTK Builder. Get it HERE. (Scroll down to the bottom for the installation file. The main screen looks like this:

To collate, begin by clicking Add and navigating to your pdf files and click Open. In the example below they are all together in one file, but you can keep clicking Add until you have all the files you wish to bind together.

You can re-position the files with the Move up / down buttons, or remove a file in the middle, etc. When you are ready, click Save As, and name the file (and make sure it's going to the folder you wish).

When it's done collating, the file path will appear at the bottom of the screen.