DrScardo

This looks and sounds the simplest but even this I cannot do. I click on rectangle tool. Create a rectangle and what do I click to get those repeats? Which right arrow? I'm holding down shift at the same time? Sorry it makes no sense to me, I can't follow what's on screen as I don't know what is being clicked behind the scenes. In two video versions here you guys create a square (I can do that) then it magically becomes three squares - I've clicked on every darn button and can't find how to do that.....But thanks for all your help everyone.

Hi all, Can anyone suggest a simple and easy way to divide a square photo into 9 equal squares ? I want to use each square for a separate graphic and then the whole image as one, they will all be the same size when viewed online so I don't want to lower the quality or resolution when I use a segment blown up the the same size as the original. Hope this makes sense! Thanks in advance. Simon

Hmm, in what way is this not likely to work well for scores? I've rebuilt the document using add from file, and output a PDF final, (which oddly enough I see is PDF version 1.7 - so whilst AfPub won't play well with embedded 1.7 it does export them...) and to be honest I cannot tell the difference in quality in the final output from a/ the version I managed to export from AfPub using embedded PDFs, and b/ the source PDFs exported from Musescore @ 360 dpi. The former (after editing a bit of text in my trial version of Adobe DC) I sent to print at Lulu.com and Amazon and have had a copy back that looks absolutely fine. I've dragged the same page from all three to post here - anything stand out about any of them that is not suitable for print? It'd be good to know as I cannot see anything untoward! Interestingly the latest version using add from file is a lot larger file size for the single dragged page than the others, yet the complete exported PDF is only 4.5 MB against 7.2 for the Acrobat edited export, and 85MB for the original AfPub PDF export. I cannot see where these big differences in file size is affecting the visual, but maybe my eyes just don't know where to look. Clean 6 - linked (dragged).pdf CLEAN 5 rev1 (dragged).pdf Falling Rain US (dragged).pdf

Thanks for that but see my other post re - not wanting to have to learn any more skills than I need. I don't even know what a Persona is. I've managed without one for so long......! Anyway I think "add from file" is my my new best friend. It's a simple layout job that I do with these music scores and lord knows it takes me long enough to create the original PDFs without having to learn a new program to put it all together, but thanks for your suggestions.

Ah sorry not curves, but editable in a way that the embedded PDFs were not. That's fine (I guess) for the text parts of the doc but not good if the score itself accidentally gets moved / edited or in some other way changed. But I guess it's OK, I just wasn't used to seeing a text box or item box around anything that I touch on the screen with "add from file" used.

No I don't want 230 pages of a particular PDF, I want a total of 230 pages from 19 PDFs, each of the PDFs is a musical score, exported from a scoring program. I want each score complete incorporated into one document, with title pages etc index - all the graphic and DTP elements that are not available in the Scoring program, but are giving me such a headache here in AfPub. As for exporting one by one in Designer, what a pain! I can use PDFSam to do that (except that AfPub won't play nicely with the 1.7 version it outputs) or I can drag from Preview. PDFSam is far quicker of course but cannot use in AfPub, Preview is as slow but probably quicker than messing about with 230 artboards in Designer (and on performance of AfPub I wouldn't hold my breath that 230 pages in Designer wouldn't crash...) Looks like "add from file" is workable as my PDFs are already formatted correctly for margins etc. Only problem now is how to get it to see an updated PDF, surely this should happen automatically in the background? I should add that I'm a composer musical not a graphic designer or DTP expert - I simply want to stitch the PDFs together and add the relevant artwork and text, index etc. Having used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for years to successfully create dozens of album covers etc, I came to Affinity because I don't like subscription models and my Adobe package is now obsolete. I don't want to have to learn any more skills than absolutely necessary to get the (not at all complex) jobs done. I innocently thought that importing several PDFs into AfPub, writing the index and title pages etc, adding a few graphics or pix here and there, would be a piece of cake. My MacPro handles hundreds of GB of multitrack music files and DSP hungry audio plugins in the creation of my music projects, so I'm rather surprised to see this app fall over at 85 megabytes of data in a saved file - of course the music files aren't embedded but even so it seems a little odd that a saved 85mb file should clog up my Mac in AfPub.

I guess I don't understand why when I add "from file" it converts it all to curves, but maybe this is better for me? I've just checked against the template imported into the Master and the boundaries are as they should be so I have no real need to move the pages if they import this way. Is this a more efficient way of using PDFs in AfPub? I just tried the linked way and that seems to be working but I cannot see how to update a link, saved and closed the app but re-opened having edited the linked PDF and it did not change. Also looking at Resource manager it only shows the first four pages of the doc. Thanks

Only just seen this so will sort file to upload, but the reason I've embedded is because AfPub doesn't like importing separate (or is even capable of?) PDFs - I have to import them page by page. If I try adding a PDF from file it doesn't no allow me to edit or place / line up in any way. Preview has no problem displaying 230 pages of PDF. It may be that Affinity has a problem with 230 separate PDFs but they are only one page each. If AfPub allowed me to import them properly without this tedious separating into single pages that'd be great. I've tried change the embedded files to linked but the program has frozen again.

and trying to save as greets me with spinning ball and a force quit to exit.

Thanks, already tried most of that after your first reply - all parameters now as you suggested, slower response, tried swapping out the page that had the text error in it and the visual is now frozen - if I try to line up the box in the frame it doesn't move the pdf image, but the outline moves. Before it would place properly but then freeze, as you can see from screenshot, pages panel is blank, as it has been since problem began

Thanks for your reply - I didn't know about the support e mail. Here's the screen shot as requested - tbh I haven't touched the settings, all default. In answer to your questions: I hadn't tried loading an earlier document, especially as it was crashing and would only let me close via Force Quit - and then open the last used crashed doc (though I have done the CTRL start up and cleared data). I'm reluctant to waste time recreating this doc importing one by one each of 230 PDFs at this point, as in the earlier and the beta in which I did this, all seems fine until a save & quit, then once reloaded the app just cannot handle it. I had no problem importing the same PDFs (split into separate pages via dragged using Mac Preview) into the Amazon Kindle Creator app. CORRECTION - just remembered and checked - of course Kindle Creator imports the entire PDF file, which in this case was the earlier version I'd managed to export from AfPub, before I spotted the error and tried unsuccessfully to re-edit in Pub, so I imported that master PDF into a trial version of Adobe Acrobat DC, where I edited the offending texts, and then exported to a final master PDF. I thought at first it was the PDFs exported using PDFSam (far quicker using "split" function than dragging every page from Preview), and indeed when I finally got one of the attempts to load and ran preflight it flagged up the non-compatible v1.7 PDFs, so I reverted to dragged PDFs (these are v1.3) but this made no difference. I haven't got an older AfPub project to hand to test, there was a similar songbook but with only around 45 pages I did in an earlier version - maybe 6 months ago, which also used dragged PDFs - I had no problems with that one. Mac Pro (Mid 2012), 3,46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon, 32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, Radeon RX 560 4 GB. OS 10.14.6

One of the pitfalls of buying from the App Store - if the company doesn't release totally stable versions we're screwed as we cannot roll-back. I did the update because it looked as if they'd sorted some of the PDF issues, how wrong was I - Cannot use AfPub at the moment and likely will find an alternative as it's now out of commission for a week, far too long for me to be forgiving. Especially as there's no direct support system. I guess that's why it's so reasonably priced, which is fine when it works, but a nightmare when it doesn't as everything just grinds to a halt and you've no idea when things might get sorted.

Nope, Beta no different. Opened project that had stalled in previous version, same, slow response, unable to replace a pdf and the Pages panel on the left blank.

Pretty useless then for those who bought from the App Store. Latest version is so unstable I had to start a trial with Adobe just to edit a project that I can no longer access through AfPub - and NO support replies to several posts. Fed up.

HUGE problems with 1.10 AfPub - and I cannot see how do download an update or beta version, bought it from the app store as advised at the time from the e flyer. Please sort this it's extremely inconvenient as is stopping production of a project. I posted and uploaded a crash report. But I've heard nothing.

So with no response from support (is there such a thing beyond this forum?) I struggled and eventually came uni with the solution. PDF 1.7 is NOT supported by AfPub - After a LOT of searching around I found that this was the issue (it had not done the pre-flight check on first export, so I was not alerted to the error). I then dragged every single page of a 200 page score from Mac Preview to a new directory, and these I was able to drag into AfPub without a problem. Yes, I did try import from file - but the results were less than acceptable - with musical fonts not rasterising properly, and other text placement and definition issues. So PDF import is still a big bug, and a clumsy, time consuming and fiddly solution is still the only way.

I've just discovered that PDF 1.7 completely crashes Publisher - I imported 200 pages that I'd individualised using PDFSam, not knowing that they would change from the 1.3 versions to 1.7 (and change resolution too). Somehow I was able the first time to get the whole thing running and exported final PDF output, but next day I was unable to open and run the app with this project. After a LOT of searching around I found that this was the issue (it had not done the pre-flight check on first export, so I was not alerted to the error). I then dragged every single page of a 200 page score from Mac Preview to a new directory, and these I was able to drag into Pub without a problem. Yes, I did try import from file -but the results were less than acceptable - with musical fonts not rasterising properly, and other text placement and definition issues. So PDF import is still a big bug, and a clumsy, time consuming and fiddly solution is still the only way. I thought that PDFSam would be a huge time-saver - but AfPub hates the PDFs it creates.

I would love to get some feedback from support on this issue, now very urgent. I completely rebuilt the document with a new file, all works fine until I close the app, then reload and the whole thing slows right down. Is there a support chat room? Is there any way of getting help on this issue? At the moment my project cannot be finalised. I simply cannot complete the edits as overnight the app simply cannot handle the project.

Was working all day yesterday on a 210 page document, compiled from imported pdf pages, exported final output pdf for publishing all good. Checked for edits and errors today, so opened project to swap out a few pages - I CANNOT get Publisher to run, spinning beach ball, "app not responding" etc, Pages panel on left has all blank pages, main screen pages are showing content but not able to delete or add new pages. Also, when I start the app it automatically tries to load the project. Extremely frustrating as I need to upload a final output. Now urgent. Crash report attached. Publisher crash.rtf

OK thanks for that sizing / bleed explanations that makes sense now.

Oh but no! It gets weirder... A few of the pages now have the TIFF overriding the master page so that there's a white block over the background - nothing different about these particular TIFFS exported from my scoring program...a dear, why is it so unpredictably complex?!

Thanks, OK that seems to work, I just changed the viewable layers in the Master page first, to just show my background paper, then "apply to all pages", having deleted each individual JPEG background first. The exported PDF size is a lot smaller now! I stretched the background image well past the bleed marks in the Master page. One thing I'm unclear on - the "bleed settings" in document settings - currently set (by default?) to 0.125 inches - if I increase this size does this take away from the internal useable space on the page? Or does it extend the page outwards with more bleed when exported? The reason I ask is that in Amazon's e mail about the bleed problem they state "Add 0.125" (3 mm) to your book's page width and 0.25" (6 mm) to the page height" and I am confused by whether the template of US letter needs then to be larger? Does changing this (when I tried it the entire document seemed to "flash") does this change the size of the contents? I don't want to have to start re-formatting the entire document. For now I have gone with your Master Page advice - keeping the original bleed settings to 0.125 as the first three pages worked fine that way, I'm assuming that it is operator (me) error on the further pages. I hope this has solved the problem, but I cannot check until Amazon reject my last upload, which will take at least 24 hours.... Thank you so much for your help.

I've just tried "apply master to every page" and whilst the background image follows it - I cannot turn off the rest of the master page guides, my image disappears when I turn of Master in layers, and I cannot turn only master off -

Thanks for your reply Old Bruce. I have the parchment image on every single page as when I tried to add to the Master page I couldn't seem to get it working properly. But I really have extended the image on pages 4+ to way further than those on 1-3 - so I don't know why there's a difference. The parchment is a JPEG, and on the pages there's a combination of text boxes, photo (JPEG) and TIFFs for the music scores. Thanks

Hi all So I'm completely stumped as to why my document keeps getting rejected by Amazons' previewer robot. Or at least, I can see why, I just cannot seem to correct the issue. So from page 4 onwards of my 32 page songbook, the background image I'm using as a paper texture does not bleed far enough to not leave a white border in their online preview box. BUT the first three pages are OK. As far as I can see all pages are set up the same way. I have individually gone through every page from 4 onwards and stretched the background image way beyond the border, so it should be more than big enough. I cannot see what is different about pages 1 -3 though. Anyway, exported and uploaded a new PDF (setting - bleed box ticked, 400dpi) but the Amazon previewer still shows a white border from page 4 onwards. By the way I ordered a print proof copy and there is not white margin there...:)... Is there something on each page setting that determines how much bleed will be output to the pdf? And why on the first 3 pages is it fine? Struggling with this - especially as it takes 30 - 45 mins to upload the PDF to Amazon, from the sticks here in rural Brittany. Any help really appreciated! Simon