StevieB

If you import a PDF created by Preview (it is usually saved as an A4 page) then open it in Publisher, then it imports at a smaller size. If you then save that as a pdf and import the saved file into Publisher, that then also imports as an even smaller size. Both are approximately 1/4 of the original size. Also I opened a previous Publisher document in the 1.7.0.192 version, saved it under a new name, close it then reopen it and save a pdf. Open that pdf in publisher results in a smaller document. So it seems as though even Publisher saved pdfs are affected.

This is also happening on a Mac! Opened a pdf from InDesign and the resulting document was very much smaller. See the attached screenshots from AfPub and Acrobat to see the page sizes.

As an addendum to this thread, just opened the AfPub file in the beta of AfPhoto (1.7.0.103), and the colours show the same anomalies, so it is probably a system wide consistent inconsistency!

There seems to be a bit of an anomaly in the swatches panel, if you select the top colour in the Colours swatch panel and double click on it and see what the CMYK version is it says c=0 m=95 y=95 k=5, but if you double click in the circle/fill at the top of the swatches panel then the cmyk is now c=0 m=96 y=93 k-0. See the attached screenshots... Which is correct? Outputting to PDF gives a cmyk breakdown of c-0 y=96 m=93 k=0, the same as the fill panel. So it seems that the colour fill gives the more consistent result.

Yes please! Often logos have specific colours defined in them, (spot or global cmyk) it would be good if those present in the pdf/eps file are automatically added to the document swatches panel. We wouldn't then have to recreate them with the possibility of getting them wrong!

Thanks for clearing that up! Could be useful when you want to extend the document size, at least you know the extended bit will have a transparent background. Just did this test to extend the document area by 500px to the left: see screenshots. 1- Added a vertical guide at -500px 2- Crop to that guide 3- Guide now at 0px, document 6500px wide. Works well, but you have to add the guides by using the Guide Manager. The crop too does snap to the document bounds so you shouldn't lose where the document bounds are, but you have to have snapping enabled!

I don't know if this is a bug or not but when you select the Crop Tool, the pasteboard background becomes transparent and it looses the edges of the document. I've attached a couple of screen grabs from the App Store version and the new Beta (103). The files both had a transparent background as I was cutting out the image.

Here are a few of my thoughts on Affinity Publisher, which is definitely going in the right direction for a first release. Better than InDesign at the start. When you create a print document it should default to cmyk. At the moment the default option to create a Print document, the first option in the new document set up, the colour is set to RGB, which shouldn't be the default for a professional publishing program. It should be cmyk. The second option "Print (Press Ready)" is correct. It's just a bit confusing to have two Print options in the set up. If you want to create a screen document then you should use the photo, web or devices default. But I think both the Print options should default to cmyk. The other problem is that if you inadvertently create your document with the first option and then you change the colour in the document set up to from RGB to CMYK, the colours don't always convert correctly to cmyk. For instance, the default CMYK fill is 10% Black, the default fill in RGB is R=235 G=235 B=235, change the document to cmyk and then look at that colour in cmyk and it changes to 5% cyan 5% magenta 5% yellow 0% black, not printer friendly! I think I've mentioned this before, but the default colours in the swatches panel are set up as HSL, why aren't they CMYK when you choose the print options and RGB in the other options. I know this is how Designer and Photo have them, but Publisher is for a different market. I'll be interested to hear what others have to say, and correct me if I am wrong. All want is for Affinity Publisher be the best out there so that I and others can ditch InDesign, I'm already using Photo and Designer, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Publisher to join them soon (.idml import and export is a must!)

I thing some people are missing the point of the bleed area, namely this is the area that gets trimmed off when the page is guillotined. It allows for movement of the stack of paper in the guillotine. The bleed area is where items on the page, like a background colour that goes all the way to the edge of the page is allowed to bleed off the page area into the bleed. The crop/trim marks are placed at the edge of the page and the bleed is the part that extends past the crop marks and gets trimmed off. This prevents any white space appearing if the trimming of the paper is slightly off. Simple really!

Hi Chris26, Here is an AfPub document set to 190mm x 277mm plus bleed, 10mm gap all the way round. If you print that out you might find that the printer margins are such that it won't print right to the edge. Have a try... Page 190mm x 277mm to print on A4.pdf Page 190mm x 277mm to print on A4.afpub

Here is an AfPub document with a page size of 180mm x 270mm. This will print on a A4 sheet with crop marks. There are 3 rectangles: Bleed 3mm: Outermost with red border Page size 180mm x 270mm: Middle with green border Margin 4.6mm all round: centre one with cyan border Just as an example of how it looks and how to set it up. Also enclosed is a pdf of the output. Hope this helps to clear things up. Page to print on A4.afpub Page to print on A4.pdf

Yes please! I use the slug area all the time in InDesign to add notes on which version a lasered letter it is, especially as some clients insist on one file with all the letter versions in them. A note in the slug area is easy to see which version is which. See these slug area screenshots from a recent job...

Will the ability to change an existing colour from spot to global/cmyk and vice versa be added in a future update? This does seem a restriction, as it stands at the moment. Coming from InDesign it is easy to change the colours between Spot/cmyk, very useful if someone has added lots of spot colours to a job whilst they are designing it, and you need to change those to cmyk to stop them from outputting to separate plates. Will the ability to show the overprint in Publisher be added at some stage?

Aha! Yes that would be it... Thanks, couldn't see that option for looking! There's so many options in the preferences that it's easy to miss the one you want to change.

Is there a way to change the default stroke width unit from points to millimetres? The document units in the Document Setup don't get reflected in the stroke dialogue box. I know you can put your millimetre measurement in the stroke dialogue box and it will convert it to points. It would be nice if you could set the stroke with units to whatever you want, be it points, picas, inches or millimetres.

Hi MEB, Thanks for the info, I was aware of that, but coming from the early days of Illustrator (Version 3 on Floppy discs!) on the Mac and a single button mouse, old habits are hard to unlearn! Using 2 fingers to control click does seen un-intutive especially if you're used to the old way. A lot of the layout tools are easier to control if you just use the Ctrl button especially if you're moving between the shift and the cmd. I also use a tablet so it's sort of ingrained in me to use the ctrl+click method.

Thanks! Much appreciated.

That’s the problem! I don’t use a mouse so I can’t ‘right click’. This is a bug.

Yes, you can delete the colours if you are using a mouse... I'm on a Macbook Pro, and the contextual menu don't appear on the swatches panel when using the click and ctrl using the trackpad to click and holding down the ctrl key. I still think it's a bug...

If you add a colour to the swatches panel (any) and you want to delete it, the default ctrl+click on swatch doesn't bring up the contextual pop-up menu, so you're unable to delete the swatch. It works as it should in Affinity Photo...

Will you be able to save to the IDML format as well? This will allow you to send IDML files to those who want/need to work in InDesign.

It is a must for .eps files with Spot colours to import those colours to the document, and not change them to CMYK breakdown. If you work with clients that have all their assets (logos etc) in Illustrator eps format, then it is a must that the colours that are defined in those files, be they spot or global, get transferred to the Publisher document. Then if you need to output the file with the spot colours they should then separate to their own plate for printing. Sadly Affinity Designer also doesn't honour imported eps files with spot colours, so it seems an Application wide problem. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be implemented soon.

It seems that layers are local to each page and not global per document. Being able to assign a layer, for instance, for laser text and one for normal text makes it easy to switch off the laser text layer document wide when you output the page. This helps make sure that you have all the laser text correctly assigned. I do a lot of direct mail design and artwork which needs the ability to separate normal preprinted text from the variable laser text. Global layers would also useful for putting other versions of the laser text on different named layers, thus keeping the different versions on the same base artwork.

Thanks @MEB, I was just showing you that sometimes what works in default mode sometimes doesn't work when you change background colours. The Bleed should be visible on all backgrounds no matter where the grey slider is .

@mac_heibu Great, thanks for that. I didn't know you could import InDesign colour palettes into Publisher. You learn something every day! Just need to have Publisher import eps files with spot colours and not have it convert them to cmyk...