Bradley Morris

Fantastic news, Patrick! That timing would be right at the edge of what would work for me.

@Lectrotext Just in case this helps at all, if you're running Catalina (MacOS 10.15) it may involve Publisher's 1.8/1.8.1 update having problems with your operating system. In another thread, we have anecdotal confirmation that Publisher's PDF exports on Catalina do not have selectable text, but users of previous MacOS versions aren't having this issue. This isn't your complaint, but it might be related. Here's my thread trying to sort out my issue: I wish I had something more specific to contribute, but it may be helpful for you and for those helping to note which operating system version you're using. Good luck!

@Zerocrop I'm guessing you are running Mac's Catalina OS (10.15). In another thread, we have anecdotal confirmation that Publisher's PDF exports on Catalina do not have selectable text, but users of previous MacOS versions aren't having this issue. Without the text coded as text on export, but as images, it seems this leads to the much larger file sizes. Here's my thread trying to sort this out: I'm really hoping Serif will fix this problem quickly. It's an odd oversight that this would be an issue on the current/latest MacOS, but not earlier versions. Usually it's the older versions that lose support!

@Christian K. Bay Thanks for the confirmation. It seems the Affinity programs now (in 1.8.0 and 1.8.1) can't properly export text in PDFs using the current/latest MacOS, 10.15. I really appreciate everyone's help in identifying the apparent OS context of the issue! What happens now? How do I make sure Serif is on this? Like I indicated in my original post, this unexpected problem is very worrisome for my work and time is of the essence. I need to either know Serif will fix this very soon, or I need to abandon the work I've done in Publisher and find another way to start building my big project. –Brad

Hi @markw. On the theory that there's something about my OS that is not allowing me to export readable text PDFs, I used a different program, Open Office, to print to PDF. That worked fine and the text is selectable. Like you and @woefi are saying, I suppose there could be some issue involving the interaction of my OS version and Publisher—an issue that Publisher does not have with the earlier macOS versions. But since my OS works with another program and the problem started with a Publisher change, not an OS change, it seems the fault is in Publisher's code. This is just armchair theorizing, though. So, is this an issue for anyone else running Catalina (10.15)?

@Pauls Now that I posted screenshots in reply to woefi, I'm assuming there isn't anything to different to confirm. Apparently "All Fonts" should be embedded, but that's not working out for me. I'm wondering whether I should be trying to delete Publisher and then reinstall it. I have updated to 1.8.1 in the midst of this, hoping it would help, but it hasn't. So I'm not sure deleting it would help—I mean, I did follow @AdamW's advice and reset the file export presets. I'm ignorant about the mechanics of all of this. I'll appreciatively wait for the guidance of those who know what they're doing, but in the meantime I probably have to get some sleep. –Brad

@woefi I attached a screenshot of my settings. The only differences I noticed are: You have "Bilder per Downsampling neu berechnen" checked. I do not have "Downsample images" checked. You have "DPI verwenden" checked. I do not have "Use DPI" checked. At the bottom, you have "Erwelterte Features zulassen" checked. I do not have "Allow advanced features" checked. My settings are not supposed to rasterize the text, but I still can't select the text in my PDF using Preview. I can select text in Preview in other documents—and I can select the text in the PDF you created! I altered my settings in the three ways I bulleted above (screenshot also attached), but I'm still having the problem. I'm so confused that I'm apparently unusual in having this issue with 1.8. I hope the screenshots help somehow. –Brad

@woefi I exported several versions. To keep it simple, I just now created a Publisher document that only has a text box with filler text. I exported PDFs in these ways: for print press ready digital - high quality for export x/1a 2003 The text is not selectable in any and the files sizes seem much larger than necessary. I did not have this problem before upgrading to 1.8. Is no one else having this issue—have you tried exporting PDFs in Publisher 1.8 and had selectable text without running an OCR? I both attached the exports above here and included them in this Google Drive folder: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DndPtEbXPisaBEs80mFo8SP7rEQCkis8 @Pauls I also put the afpub file in there and attached it here. @AdamW I just "Reset file export presets", exported a "for export" PDF, and the text is still not selectable. Definitely worth a try! Thank you for whatever any of you can discern. I also appreciate anyone at least confirming they've exported PDFs in 1.8 and had or not had this issue. I can't imagine I could have done anything special to screw this up, apart from upgrading! I've always more to learn, though. 🤷‍♂️ –Brad digital high quality test for selectable text.pdf for export test for selectable text.pdf for print test for selectable text.pdf press ready test for selectable text.pdf x1a 2003 test for selectable text.pdf test for selectable text.afpub

I just updated Publisher from 1.7 to 1.8. Now, no matter which PDF export option I seem to choose, the text is not selectable. Not only does this mean folks can't copy and paste it, but I'm a disability rights advocate. This renders my writing totally inaccessible to the blind and low-vision consumers of my work who rely on screenreader software. In other words, the program suddenly went from being pretty great to being almost useless for my advocacy. I linked below to different versions of the same PDF page created in Publisher. Selectable (from 1.7) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1K50aOtwozUnmLLXZjBmWMhm-K0oo4yOB Not selectable (from 1.8) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Y6q-f9cGIC_5HaXjeBlfBfnomylkjcgs Same thing happens when I create a fresh document. Please, please let this be fixed as soon as possible in 1.8.1 (or tell me what I'm doing wrong). I chose Publisher to create the final report for a years-long project on behalf of fellow disabled people and I've invested way too much time in this new program for it to fail me so close to my deadline. –Brad macOS 10.15.3, MBP 16" 2019