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I’m having trouble exporting a PDF because following the instructions from Flyeralarm led to a misprint. Here’s what happened: Last week, I ordered proof prints for contour cut stickers from Flyeralarm. Unfortunately, each sticker on that proof shows a white, rounded rectangle that shouldn’t be there. This rectangle is on all sides approx. 2mm smaller than the cut contour shape (magenta). [EDIT: I corrected the diagram. Now, it shows the cut contour line on top, as it should.] The sticker design is 100% vector and consists of coloured backgrounds with a white logo on top. All magenta lines form a single path; this is the cut contour for the stickers. I contacted Flyeralarm, and they informed me that something went wrong during flattening and advised me to do the following: Save my document as one layer. Add the cutting contour paths. Export as PDF/X-4:2010. When I asked what they meant with the first instruction, they wrote I should either rasterise my document as a high-quality JPEG or make a ‘PDF with a single layer’. Then, continue with steps 2 and 3. Fair enough, let’s try them both. I’m going to order two additional proof prints. Here's what I have in mind (I really hope there is a better solution): Proof print A: Rasterise the entire design (except the cut contour path) Choose the export preset PDF(flatten) with PDF/X-4 compatibility. Rasterise everything with an exceptionally high resolution to retain the crispness of the fine print (7pt). Flyeralarm agreed with using a high resolution, but didn’t specify the optimal ppi for tiny print. I intend to use at least 1200 ppi.* Place the rasterised pdf into a new file. Add the cut contours. Export as PDF/X-4, as required by Flyeralarm. * Because of this high resolution, I can’t rasterise the images directly from the layers panel or through the Photo persona, as 400 ppi is the maximum setting in the Document Setup panel. Proof print B: Flatten the design while retaining vector shapes. Publisher 2.2.1 doesn’t seem to have an option to flatten a design while preserving vector shapes. Manually flattening the design is also tricky. For instance, I can’t join all logos into a single path with Boolean operations (or using Layer > Geometry > Merge Curves). These tools grey out when you select two placed .afdesign files. So here’s what I think would be feasible: Option 1: Use Designer to flatten the logo + brand name (letter contours) into a single path using Boolean add operations to reduce complexity. Back in Publisher, update the layout from the Resource Manager panel. Export the vector graphics as PDF/X-3 because this standard supposedly doesn’t support transparencies (is that correct?). Note: I got a warning about transparencies when uploading the document (see below under Additional Information). Create a new file. Place the PDF in passthrough mode (does Publisher retain the PDF/X-3 standard during export, or re-render the placed PDF as PDF/X-4 ?) Add the cut contour path. Export the whole as PDF/X-4. Option B: Instead of placing the logo in Publisher, I could copy/paste it in. Then, I can use a Boolean divide operation to cut out each logo from its coloured background. That way, I’ll end up with a single, coloured path (the negative shape of the logo). Take the same steps (c–g) from option A. That’s the plan, but I don’t know if it makes sense. Again, I’m trying to jump through all these hoops because following FlyerAlarm’s instructions led to a misprint. I sincerely hope there's a simple solution that I completely overlooked. Any help is appreciated! Additional information These are the export settings I used for the misprint: And here are Flyeralarm's general instructions for exporting a PDF (These are in German): https://www.flyeralarm.com/blog/de/affinity-publisher-tutorial-druckfaehige-pdfs-erstellen The last time I sent a Publisher-generated PDF to Flyeralarm with these settings, it went smoothly. And it contained more complex shapes, such as an image clipped by a path. So, I guess the problem concerns PDF/X-4 or the transparency warning (see below). This is the instruction sheet for the contour-cut stickers, they require PDF/X-4: https://www.flyeralarm.com/sheets/en/etikett_bogen_cut.pdf I used Flyeralarm’s automated premium file check service to check my PDF. It generated a JPEG preview that looked immaculate, but the checker also warned me about transparencies: Note: transparencies are used We automatically convert transparencies for you. Under certain circumstances, conversion can lead to undesirable effects. Please use PDF/X-3:2002. Flyeralarm assured me the PDF was okay and that I shouldn’t worry about this. I could ignore the PDF/X-3 suggestion. So, the PDF went in print production without any changes. Also, all paths and shapes in my document are fully opaque. So I don't quite understand why I got that warning. The unwanted rectangles are approximately 2 mm smaller (on all sides) than the contour paths and have rounded corners. These rounded corners gave me the idea that a shape somewhere in my design causes trouble. So I’ve checked my files three times over, but I can assure you, that shape is not there. Note that a small part of the logo is visible on each sticker. Possibly, the logo renders correctly under the white rectangle. Flyeralarm mentioned that my file contains layers, but whether they meant layers in the document or PDF layers (Optional Content Group or OCG) is unclear. My .afpub file contains no actual layer (the kind you'll get when you click ‘Add Layer’ in the layers panel). Instead, it's just paths and (nested) groups. When I open the exported PDF in the latest version of Acrobat Reader, it doesn’t show any layers. However, when I add an actual layer, it does. That’s why I think the exported PDF doesn’t contain OCG layers. Then, there’s a suggestion from forum user @lacerto in a different thread: during export, you can select PDF/X-4 and then change the PDF version to 1.6. That way, you can turn off the Layers option in the export panel. But as I said above, I haven’t used any ‘real’ layers in this design, only groups. So, I'm not sure if this is relevant: The cut contour path is a spot colour with overprint (CMYK 0 100 0 0). I'm using version 2.2.1 of all apps on macOS 13.6.1

Hi everyone. I looked through the forum but wasn't able to find a guide on this one. Here's my issue: I'm creating a business card for printing through an online printing company. There's a special effect we want to add (partial clear paint for a special haptic). This effect requires the document to have a separate layer with a fifth (additional) solid color (Volltonfarbe) besides CMYK. I did find the funtionality to add global colors, did check the box for "Schmuckfarbe" and "Überdrucken" (very important for the effect) and assign this color to my shape. Once I export, however, to PDF/X-3:2003 and i run the file through Adobe XI Pro Preflight, there's no "überdrucken" and no "Volltonfarbe" detected. I've been trying different things and googling the issue since yesterday, but haven't had any success. If you need anything from me for better analysing my issue, please let me know. Thank you so much! JSR*

Hi there, Current beta supports only the more current Standard called: PDF/X-3:2003 Flyeralarm, which is a very popular print products provider here in the German speaking part of Europe requires, or insists on: PDF/X-3:2002 Would be extremly helpful, if you could add this Standard too in your options. Cheers, axel PS: All the requirements from Flyeralarm for PDFs here: https://www.flyeralarm.com/ch/content/index/open/id/20010/druckdaten.html