Increase in export file size

[Nebulosa]

Thanks, Thomaso. Have just tried out the beta version (1.8.4.xx) and creating a new pdf with a document I had prepared in 1.7.3 and using the same settings as on the previous version it came out of the same quality, but 10 MB lighter (the original was at 192 MB, the new variant under 1.8.4 came out at 182 MB). However, this was using a compression at 85%. I did another version with the compression at default (98%) and it weighed the double (475 MB). The differences between using the default settings as opposed to lowering the compression are practically insignificant, especially if the document is going to print. So, if used for printing, keep the compression at 85%, as the default setting doesn't make it any better, it will only weigh twice as much.

I still have to do further tests, but at least for printing it seems to work fine.

Thanks to Thomaso and Lagarto for all the information.

My faith on Affinity has been restored!

[Nebulosa]

I forgot to mention that creating a pdf file takes almost twice as long as it did on 1.7.3, but came out 10 MB lighter, as I've mentioned above. Don't know if this is a problem, but since they mentioned that it worked faster to create a pdf, well... it doesn't seem to be the case.

[R C-R]

14 minutes ago, Nebulosa said:

The differences between using the default settings as opposed to lowering the compression are practically insignificant, especially if the document is going to print.

That will depend on the amount of detail in the document. In general, the greater the detail the greater the visual quality loss will be by using more compression.

[Nebulosa]

Yes, I know, but at 85% it works fine. Any lower can affect the result. I only noticed a light difference when zooming on both documents, but once printed it goes unnoticed, if you use high definition images. Might be more noticeable with images at lower resolutions.

I guess if you want to print engravings it would be better to go at 100% or no compression for top results, and avoid the moiré patterns you get from working digitally.

[thomaso]

Maybe this comfortable comparison of compression rate + file size + visual loss helps to get an idea of the area between 85 – 98 %:

http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/jpeg-quality

(scroll down to any motive > hover over the compression values)

[R C-R]

40 minutes ago, Nebulosa said:

Yes, I know, but at 85% it works fine.

It won't always. How noticeable the loss will be will depend on (again) the amount of fine detail in the particular photo you are printing, as well as the print resolution/dpi, the type of paper you are printing on, the normal viewing distance of the print, & so on.

[Nebulosa]

Again, it depends on what you want to print. I don't work with RAW photography, only with artwork usually scanned, or shot from a digital camera (no RAW) or done digitally. At 300 dpi, I don't notice any significant difference between having the compression at 85% or 100%. If the difference can only be seen by zooming 10 or more times on the image, who cares? It won't be seen in print. The main problem I had was the document weighing 6 times more when converted into a pdf with 1.8., or at three times the size under 85% compression. Now I don't notice that with 1.8.4. So it works fine for me. At 300 dpi you can't see the half-toning with the naked eye. Unfortunately, printing doesn't look as sharp as looking on a high-definition 10K digital screen. So I guess doing lossless compression is only for the digital domain and not for print, although we can argue this forever, and everyone will have a different opinion, but in the end, the longer it takes to print, the higher the costs, and no one will notice the difference.

Happy Easter everyone!

[Patrick Connor]

Sorry, but has anyone here posted an Affinity file in 1.7.3 format that demonstrates the problem? It would help us enormously

[Nebulosa]

Why has the default Jpeg compression quality setting been changed from 85 in version 1.7 to 98 in version 1.8? I don't see any difference in quality, besides the size.

[Dave Harris]

On 4/11/2020 at 8:50 AM, Nebulosa said:

Why has the default Jpeg compression quality setting been changed from 85 in version 1.7 to 98 in version 1.8? I don't see any difference in quality, besides the size.

To give the better quality by default. We had some complaints that the images from Publisher were looked worse than from InDesign. If the 85% quality looks OK to you, feel free to make your own preset with the changed setting.

We would still like to have a 1.7 document that gives larger sizes than 1.8 when exported with the same settings. We will need this soon if it is to be fixed before 1.8.x. I've not been able to reproduce the problem using documents I've created myself.

[Nebulosa]

Actually I have no problem with 1.7.3. I guess there was a misunderstanding. With the beta version of 1.8.4 and at 85% jpeg compression, the file size when comparing to the same settings with 1.7.3 were relatively the same. However, under 97% jpeg compression documents weigh up to four times more! I personally see no difference between the results for the two compressions, so will continue to use compression at 85%.

PDF/X-4 setting with 85% jpeg compression under 1.7.3 for 96 page document with 300 dpi colour images on every page weighed 192.5 MB.

Same document with same settings under Beta version 1.8.4 weighed 182.2 MB. So slightly lighter than with version 1.7.3. However, since the difference is so small, it's not a major problem.

That said, under InDesign my documents weighed around that size (less than 200 MB for a 96-page full-colour document), and frankly the images look the same!

However, under 1.8, I have problems inserting or importing pdf files (as adverts). Won't accept imported pdf when setting under PDF/X-4, and says there is an error. Although will accept imported pdf file under any other pdf setting. I've noted this on another entry under bugs with Publisher. Unfortunately your colleague couldn't work around the problem, so I have to convert imported pdf files to tiff or jpeg files first. Don't have this problem under 1.7.3, although Publisher tends to distort text from a pdf file. I just noticed this recently, so I still have to convert any pdf file (not done in Publisher) into a tiff or jpeg file before importing into a Publisher document.

[Jeannette Petri]

hello! I am working now with 1.10.4. and have still the same problem. A 60-pages catalogue pdf (8 bit cmyk photos, pdf/x-3:2003) with many photos have about 700mb which is too much for the printer. Does anybody solved this problem????? Greetings, Jeannette

 

[thomaso]

Hi Jeannette Petri,
welcome to the Affinity Forums!

What page dimensions and what export resolution?

If you have one of the default export presets selected the export uses quite high compression/quality (98%). If not done already you could try to reduce it down to e.g. 85% (with resample method "bicubic") to see if it changes your issue. If not, can you post a screenshot of your used export settings in the "More" dialog?