Tony Pritchard

Thanks MikeTo. This is really helpful, in fact beyond really helpful. It is what I need as I feel I knew nothing but now have the confidence to go through and check what is needed. It also allows for that conversation to happen with the printer in a more informed way. I am preparing some test prints so will use your guidance to set these up. In pre-flight there are some bleed hazards that I think relate to the picture box and not the image within. I could drag the picture box closer to the image. The image doesn't bleed and it is within the margins, it's just the picture box is bigger. The resample options is intersting but I assume it applies to all images through the document and not individual ones. I have one image that has a weird mottling / moire effect on export to PDF. We might just have to accept that as no-one has come up with an idea as to why it's happening. Anyway thanks for responding – really appreciated.

• Can I assume that when one is ready to export an Affinity Publisher document for sending to a traditional litho printer you choose the 'press ready option'? • Press ready changes the colour space to CMYK which looks right. • Press ready includes bleed which looks right • Press ready deselects 'include layers' – what does this mean? • Should I deselect 'downsample images'? • I don't know what 'rasterise' or 'resample means' • It seems a mine field to me and I want the best end result – any help gratefully received. • Is the default selection when you export safe? • The printer deals with Adobe InDesign and not Affinity Publisher so doesn't advise from this perspective. • I've attached the two PDF options

The printer advises the 'linked' option. BTW attached is their advice on setting up PDF for print. It is InDesign. Looks more complex than AF Pub. Is the default AF export to print OK for traditional four colour litho printing? or any advice on settings? InDesign to PDF.pdf

Thanks, that and the comments of others is very reassuring particularly when one feels alone in technical matters. I am continuing to place images via the linked method.

Thanks, I'll ask the printer about the export settings.

Thanks Thomaso, sorry to be a novice particularly when I have the responsibility of a document intended to print. Do you think I should choose the 'embed' option over the 'link' option. Or do both ensure the high resolution images in the PDF sent for traditional print? I will speak with the printer this afternoon and ask about export settings as you mentioned above.

How does the PDF link to the images? I assume the Affinity Publisher document links to the images. In InDesign you package a document and images, fonts, etc are gathered in one folder. A PDF is created as part of that folder. When I package in Affinity Publisher the images and fonts are gathered but another Affinity Publisher document is created with no PDF. Most printers print from a PDF. I don't understand how the high quality images are linked to the PDF after it has been exported. Apologies but I'm a little confused. Any further help would be great.

Thanks everyone. Really helpful. Just to double check. When it goes to the litho printer I will generate a PDF. I assume if I link then the final output with be the quality of the scanned / photographed images?

I am preparing a book for print. I am now bringing in the actual images and have this alert. Do I assume I click yes (see attached). I am placing a lot of images so don't want to waste time. Thanks Tony

Dear Oufti Thank you for your generous time and efforts and for kindly sharing this. I've had a brief look and will take a deeper dive later. In the past I would have created a flatplan in Adobe Illustrator and printed it out. Then scribble on paper the layouts. It often took a few goes to get the sequence right. I then used the digital file but the page numbers and content weren't linked so any update meant moving pages and renumbering individually. Fine for a small job but not 300-400 pages! A former colleague (no longer with us) created a linked file which updated automatically. They did this in InDesign. My skills are limited so I'll have to have a play to see if I can come up with something that makes sense and is usable. Again thanks for taking the time to investigate this. All the best Tony

Thank you for your reply especially as you are doing so not in your mother tongue. Merci beaucoup! Your reply is clear to me. This is not quite what I meant. A flatplan isn't an overview of the existing document. It is more a planning situation. MY book is 400 pages and is currently in separate chapters. I don't want to do a lot of work using that final document until I have a plan. Here is the video I saw on the InDesign version Here is an article https://medium.com/@kaibrach/how-to-plan-a-print-magazine-using-a-flatplan-dae139c82a4e It is far more basic. During the analogue era you would draw out double page spreads and write onto each page what would be on the page eg title page; contents; introduction; chapter opener; etc. I was wondering if Affinity Publisher had something like this to plan with, to get the overview. Tony

I see in InDesign there seems to be an automatic flat-plan feature. I am working on a 400 page book in Affinity Publisher and am at the stage whee I need to plan and re-jig pages and see this as a flat-plan. Does this exist in Affinity?

Thanks CK. I've been doing all the kerning manually. I've accepted this as in my situation the benefits of Affinity vs Adobe rent are outweighed. I have now committed to this large-scale project as a one off. If I was working commercially or within a university I'd opt for InDesign for the optical kerning aspect. It's all a balance.

Thanks MikeTO. I have Neue Helvetica which has .otf Figure Position appears but I can't see Figure Width

I am doing a 300pp book and kerning manually as I go. The 1s are pretty bad. Under different circumstances not having optical kerning would be a deal breaker.