R2B

I tried to reproduce this with a subset of the file that exhibited this problem, to reduce the file size and also to not upload the whole book, for security reasons, but I was not able to reproduce the problem. Furthermore, I re-exported the original file and could not reproduce the problem. The re-exported file does not have the problems I described in the original post. So, I do not know what caused that to happen. I will now check all exported files with a graphics application for this problem, just to be sure it does not happen again. I could upload some screenshots of the original problem to show what I was seeing, but since I can't reproduce the problem, I'm not sure how useful that would be. R2B

I am using Affinity Publisher 1.10.4 on MacOS 11.6.4 (Big Sur). I have produced several versions of a children's picture book (with different languages) previously with no problems. The latest version of my book is showing faint black lines corresponding to some of the shaped text frames, in one of the exported pdf files. These lines can not be seen when viewing the pdf file with Preview, even when zoomed in, but they are visible when viewing the pdf file with Graphic Converter. The lines are easier to see in Graphic Converter when the view of the pdf file is zoomed in. The lines are not visible on every page that has a shaped text box when viewing with Graphic Converter. The lines appear more often in the proofs sent back from the printer, in epub file format (for e-book), but again, not on every page that has a shaped text frame. it is not so concerning that the lines are visible with Graphic Converter, since the file would not normally be viewed this way. I am most concerned about the lines that show up in the epub proofs from the printer. The file view presented by Graphic Converter shows that the pdf file which was sent to the printer to create the epub file does in fact contain the lines that show up in the proofs, though they are not entirely correlated. I am sure that the lines will appear in the printed product if the file is approved without correction. There must be something in the export settings that causes this, though I think this should not happen, regardless of export settings. I exported pdf files for both a printed book and an e-book, with different settings; the lines from shaped text frames only appear in the pdf file for the e-book. In the short term, I need to work out how to export the pdf file for the e-book without the lines from shaped text frames appearing. In the longer term, I need to understand why the pdf file looks different depending on whether it is viewed with Preview or with Graphic Converter. Graphic Converter appears to present a more accurate view of what the printer is receiving, but I would normally use Preview to check the pdf file, not Graphic Converter. Graphic Converter is more appropriate for viewing purely graphic files; the user interface is not good for looking at multi-page pdf files. Can anyone suggest what may be causing the shaped text frame lines to appear in the exported pdf file? Thanks, R2B

Yes, that works. Thanks, Richard Bryan

I'm not using any styles, so there is no base style to edit. Richard Bryan

I have had to turn off standard ligatures in the typography controls to prevent exported pdf files from having ligatures replaced with garbage characters when the document is opened in another application. As far as I can tell, this must be done for each text frame on each page. My document was only 32 pages, and not all had text, so this was manageable. However, if the document was at all lengthy, this would be a nightmare. There needs to be a global way to turn off ligatures for the whole document. If this exists, I have not been able to find it yet. Richard Bryan

I have this problem too, when I use a 4K monitor. MacOS does not have a global adjustment for this. The tool icons are fixed size in terms of screen pixels. So, if one uses a large screen with high pixel pitch so as to be able to see the details on a full page of a document without zooming in, the tool icons are correspondingly small. I have set Preferences-> User Interface->Font UI Size to Large, which helps make the text items more visible on a large screen. It would be nice to have a similar control for the tool icons. 2X enlargement would be good for a 4K screen.