Paul Mc

Thanks @dave766 - that was what I was trying to avoid. It's a pain after every user change request having to loop back through this procedure so it can go to proof with any accuracy.

Hi @R C-R, I'm using Acrobat Reader to view the PDF. It looks the same in a couple of other viewers I have too. Opening the PDF in Affinity Designer shows the same problem. Just in case I misunderstood - saving and re-opening the original shows the viewport view.

I've a project which requires two outlines around some text. Because the Appearance | Add stroke feature isn't working (yet!) I'm forced to layer duplicates of the text with different stroke widths. I can't use FX because I need this in vector. Here's the result I'm seeing: Viewport: The outlines are aligned to the outside of the text and are .5pt and 1pt wide. The PDF export looks like this: The Print to PDF version is identical as far as I can see. It looks like the export is centring the strokes rather than aligning to the outside of the glyph. Has anyone come across this before and is there a workaround? I know I can probably convert to curves etc. but this needs to remain as editable text for a while so it would be good to avoid going down that route. I can't share the font or the file as the font is proprietary, so could this be a shortcoming of the font? As a test I've replaced the font with Arial and I get a much improved (but still not perfect) result.

Thank you, @werfox this is really useful. I appreciate you going to the trouble of creating the files and it looks like it is exactly what I need. I managed to download a copy of PACKZVIEW and obtained a password (on the second attempt). It is great for seeing how things should look and also the separations breakdown. I think my misunderstanding of how to set things up was based on the difference between a colour that would overprint others and a colour that could be overprinted by others. Basic, I know, but not at all obvious if you are not steeped in the industry. I can't help thinking that overprint is really the wrong term here. Thanks @lacerto, that is also good to know. I will check out PhotoLine. The pressure to use Adobe products seems overwhelming at times. In a previous project I had an offer of help from the printer but when he found out I was using Affinity products he shrugged and said all they could do was feedback on the final PDF if it was incorrect. In the end they "fixed" the final PDF to do what was expected. I've still no idea what was wrong or what I could have done to fix it. Your point about reading the overprint attribute in imported PDF/EPS files is a huge problem as that was invisible in my "learning" about this and caused me to waste time. It's clear that there is scope for improving the Affinity suite in this regard. Let's see how this project goes now with the help from @werfox and yourself I'm confident I can get through this one, however, I can see that I may have to factor in an Adobe sub in future work.

Hi everyone, I've a new job which I've not done before which involves printing on clear film. I'm required to include a white ink layer and also a varnish layer. The white being printed underneath the opaque areas of the design and the varnish on the top like a sandwich. I've been sent a sample of the previous file which includes these layers. I followed the PDF file layer structure and created a new design but I've been told that the PDF is a confusing and the colours don't make sense (not my words). The layer stack looks like this Cutter White Ink Varnish Artwork Substrate Title-block I've used a pink spot for the white ink and a green spot for the varnish. I'm guessing that the overprint settings in the sample aren't being imported when read by AD so the data structure is incomplete by the time it's in AD. Also, I'm confused as to how this should work and what to expect in the output. Am I correct in that I'm working blind and have no way to verify that the spots and process are being exported for separation correctly? Plus it seems that I need AI to check any of this, is there any other way? I have all of the geometry and type set up for the above layers. I've also set overprint in the white and varnish colours. Please can anyone outline a workflow that will allow me to export a PDF for printing which will meet the requirements I'm working under? Thanks.

Hi @NathanC, thanks for the response. I understand this requirement and from what I know now you are correct. I think the thing that threw me was that there appears to be an inconsistency between the different layer creation methods. Using the button seems to create a layer with a name however promoting an (unnamed) group doesn't. If that worked (IMHO) consistently then this wouldn't have been a problem. If that's a difficult change then simply indicating on the settings for the export or a popup - a bit like preflight - something that shows that this might not work the way you expect would be helpful.

[Update] Well it looks like if the spreadsheet includes a hidden column then the two columns following it are joined together when imported into Publisher. Revealing the hidden column changes the way the import works and is as expected with the two columns separate and recognized as Fields. Hiding the column again reverts to the previous behaviour. This is clearly a bug although with an easy workaround. APub 2.6.0 Win 11 Pro

I've a publisher document that previously (<2.6.0) worked OK. This maps columns in a spreadsheet to fields in a design however the second (C) and third (D) columns appear to be concatenated and are no longer recognised by Publisher (presumably because the two column titles are joined together). I figured a work around by appending copies of the two columns to the right edge of the table and in that location they are separate and are recognised. Any thoughts?

Just chiming it to tickle this one. Because expand stroke and the contour tool both seem to use the same or similar code the results are the same - curves being replaced with faceted polylines. I cringe every time this would have been the perfect tool/method for a particular job. I doubly cringe when I have to explain to the client this doesn't work as it makes me look like I don't have the right tools for the job. Any updates on this one @Callum?

Yes, the performance is the main hit here. However, having it work correctly is far more important than it working quickly but giving the wrong result! 😉

Hi @MxHeppa, I have an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. My graphics card is an RTX5090. I suspect that the NVidia drivers still need to be refined as they are pretty new and that's likely to be the source of the problem. For information here's my problem:

The screen (VRAM?) becomes corrupted when attempting to set the levels via Layer | New Adjustment Layer | Levels... This happens immediately the menu option is selected. The tiled (transparent backdrop) areas appeared at this point, there are none in the image prior to selecting the menu option. This went away when Hardware Acceleration was disabled in Settings. Not great but also not a show stopper. My graphics card is an RTX 5090. Maybe the new drivers are not mature enough. AP 2.6.0, Win 11 Pro

That was it. Thank you. I think I understand why this works the way it does but it seems like an anomaly to me. Default names appear using two methods of creating a layer but results in a blank name when using Promote (even though you see the word "Layer" where the name would appear). This then causes the layer to not be exported. No warning messages. Also, from a UX/UI perspective the slightly lighter grey colour used for the word Layer isn't immediately obvious as a blank name. For info: I was editing a project I created a few weeks ago and didn't recall that I'd created the Layers using Promote. This problem floored me for about an hour before I decided to post on here. Is this documented anywhere? How did you figure this out?

I only suggested this because I also had issues with a corrupt screen and turning off hardware acceleration solved it. Unfortunately I don't have any other suggestions. Good luck with your search for a solution.

Maybe try systematically turning off layers one-by-one and seeing if a reduced project file will export. It might indicate a layer with a problem.