I'm having a pretty strange problem with embedding a PDF image with some
transparency in my Ph.D. thesis. I'm using the memoir document class, and
compiling with pdflatex, although I have confirmed that this happens even when
not using those two. I've discovered that this problem is operating system
dependent. This is pretty serious because I need my thesis rendered correctly on
all OS, especially on OS X.
I first create the PDF figure in LaTeX using the tikz package:
\documentclass[border=1cm,tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta}
\usetikzlibrary{fadings}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [-Latex,ultra thick] (0,0) -- ++(45:5);
\draw [-Latex,ultra thick,path fading=south] (2,0) -- ++(45:5);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
Which looks like this:
The left arrow is just a solid line, while the right arrow is faded towards the tail-end of the arrow. Then, I embed this figure in any simple LaTeX document, such as
\documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[t]
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=1]{tikz-figure}
\caption{My problematic figure.}
\end{figure}
\end{document}
and here's where the problem begins.
OS X
The PDF figure renders correctly, as above. However, when rendering the final PDF (I tried Skim and Preview), the faded arrow simply does not appear.
Linux
When rendering on Linux (with Evince) the faded arrow is turned solid and appears in the correct position, just without the fade. This is the case for both the PDF figure and the final PDF document.
Windows 10
Lastly, on Windows 10 (with Adobe Reader and Sumatra PDF) both the figure and the final document appear as they should, with the right arrow faded.
I tried adding the commonly suggested % \pdfpageattr {/Group << /S
/Transparency /I true /CS /DeviceRGB>>} but that had absolutely no effect. I
also tried the pdfx package, but that did not make any difference either.
