Wrong resolution for photos when exported to pdf

[reinhardmohr]

Hi, a terrible bug I concerning the resolution of photos when exported to pdf x3. I don't know if it‘s a bug in Photo or Publisher – but I found it in Publisher so I report it here. I use Publisher 1.8.2 – just upgraded this morning from 1.8.1. I also upgraded Photo and Designer.

I had layouted a 68 page brochure and exported it for printing. When I checked in my preflight application (Callas pdfToolbox) I noticed that many photographs had a resolution much lower than the required 300 dpi. 

I checked everything – but in Publisher the Ressource Manager showed the placed resolution as absolutely sufficient. And I had used the export settings before; never had had problems. After a lot of trial and error I found that I had to export the photographs from Affinty Photo in tiff format and insert them into my Publisher document. This resolved the problem. 

But this problem did not happen with all the files in .afphoto format – but with many. I could not find the exact reason for it. But I wanted to inform you about the bug and the workaround.

Additional problem: Some of the photographs had been sent to me in RGB format with the profile sRGB included. Even when I converted them to PSO coated 3 in Affinity Photo, saved them in .afphoto format and inserted them into my brochure (all photographs are linked) my preflight app showed them with totally low resolution (down to 96 dpi), in RGB format and with sRGB profile.

I double checked my preflight app with last years pdf from last years brochure – everything fine there. So it must be a bug in the Affinity apps.

As I said: There is no clear system behind the problems. Only the workaround as tiff files. I hope you can fix it!

Thanks for your support

Reinhard

P.S.: I attach one of the photographs that caused the problems. Maybe it helps.

Kindertheater1.afphoto

[Pauls]

could you supply a sample afpub file using the afphoto which exhibits the problem. My preflight is always coming out as expected

[reinhardmohr]

UPLOAD FAILED THREE TIMES – CAN YOU PROVIDE AN ALTERNATIVE?

Hi, Pauls,

thanks for helping.

It must be "resolution" – not "solution". Was too tired …

I attach the .afpub file that made the problems. The  image I had already uploaded is on page 13 = page number 11.

If you need more images – please let me know.

Thanks

Reinhard

 

[reinhardmohr]

Hi, I uploaded the file (180 MB) to my server.

Please download it from here:

https://www.reinhardmohr.de/Bruecke-Jahresbericht-2019.zip

Thanks

Reinhard

[Pauls]

it appears to be working fine by me But I also had to relink the afphoto file - I wonder if the link is broken somehow did you also try just relinking the afphoto file first?

[reinhardmohr]

Hi,

I just rechecked everything again. Here is what I did:

• The image seems to be linked without any problem: Screenshot 1
• I export just this page as pdf: Screenshot 2
• The settings: Screenshot 3
• I do a preflight check with Callas pdfToolbox immediately after exporting: resolution of 111 dpi!!! Screenshot 4

I also attach the pdf file that Publisher created and that I had just preflighted with Callas pdfToolbox.

It would be great if you could find a solution to the missing resolution!

Thanks

Reinhard

 

 

 

Brücke-Jahresbericht_für_2019_S13.pdf

[thomaso]

@Reinhard, I get a different result with your .aphoto file:
When I export it in 79 mm width from a 300 dpi .afpub it has 933 x 622 pixel in Acrobat preflight:

Even though your .aphoto seems to have the profile "US Web coated v2" assigned it exports for me with the .afpubs document profile "PSO v3".
By the way: When I open your .aphoto it looks quite jaggy in 100%/pixelsize:

[reinhardmohr]

Hi, thomaso,

thanks for helping.

• yes, the photograph is absolutely jaggy. It came (like so many) as a jpeg included in a Word file from the customer. Okay, it's terrible but it can be printed. Just happend that I accidentally picked this image.
• PSO Coated v3 is the photograph's profile and the document's profile in Publisher. Should be correct. No idea where US Web coated came from …
• I don't have Acrobat anymore. Maybe I ask a friend to check my file with Acrobat. So it could be a problem not with Publisher but with Callas pdfToolbox for preflighting? I will check this!

Thanks

Reinhard

[reinhardmohr]

Hi,

I just had my pdf file checked by a friend with Adobe Acrobat. It shows the same results as Callas pdfToolbox: The resolution of the .afphoto file ist 111dpi (see screenshot).

I can't find the pattern of a possible error/bug.

Who could help?

Thanks

Reinhard

[Pauls]

I found the PDFX4 profile was exporting correctly but others were not. It's logged to have a developer look into that.

[thomaso]

19 minutes ago, Pauls said:

I found the PDFX4 profile was exporting correctly but others were not.

Besides this different output resolution I notice for PDF X4  a complaint about transparency in Acrobat preflight - though it doesn't tell such in the Transparency details:

I wonder if this is related to my old Acrobat version.
Does one get this result too for this pdf in Callas or Acrobat?   v182 x4.pdf

[Pauls]

my report is clean in acrobat

[reinhardmohr]

Hi,

this is the right direction to find the bug:

• I checked Paul's file in Acrobat (latest version): It‘s okay, no problem with transparency.
• Whenever I try to export from Publisher with the Affinity presets for pdf-x3 or pdf-x4 I get the attached error message or Publisher crashes.
• When I export to pdf-x3 with my own settings (custom settings but x3 as a standard) Publisher exports the .afphoto file with the totally low resolution.
• When I export to pdf-x4 with my own settings (my custom settings but x4 as a standard) Publisher exports as expected: No error message, correct resolution.

Maybe this helps.

Thanks to everybody – please keep me updated!

Reinhard

[Pauls]

could you supply the crash report details please?

[reinhardmohr]

Hi,

I‘d like to. But

a) I can't get it to crash right now: Only the error message comes up.

b) Where would I find the crash report? I was looking in console. I found something about Publisher – but I‘m not familiar with Console so I have no idea where to search and find …

Reinhard

[Pauls]

Console is the place. Click on the latest Publisher item and it should show the crash report. Copy it into a text file and either post it here or PM it to me

 

[thomaso]

28 minutes ago, Pauls said:

Console is the place.

Isn't the Affinity folder "CrashReports" useful, which is stored in user/Library/App-Support/Affinity ...

[reinhardmohr]

I copied the last 4 reports I found. I don't know if these are the right ones you need – I did my best. Being crash1.txt the latest report, crash4.txt the oldest one.

The folder in my library seems to be empty; I zipped it and attached it nonetheless. Made a zip file from everything together, hope this helps.

Thanks for your support

Reinhard

reports.zip

[reinhardmohr]

Hi,

some more information – and maybe a workaround:

I just had to do a print project for a customer where the above described problem happened again. But I worked a little bit on the settings and found two differences:

1. Even tiff photographs are not properly calculated on exporting to pdf when they are unevenly stretched. So Publisher exports a tiff with constrained proportions correctly with 300 dpi. But when stretched into one direction more than the other (e.g. 120 % y axis, 80 % x axis) the result in the pdf is a resolution that is to low in one direction.
2. In this print project the error only happened when I had set „downsample above 450 dpi“ in export settings). So images with a high placed resolution were improperly downsampled. When I unchecked this box the images were unaltered when the pdf file was generated. So the pdf file was much bigger but preflighting and printing were okay.

 

The problem: When I tried to repeat this today with a new file (not the actual print file I had worked on for my customer) there was no problem with the exported pdf file. So I am not 100 % sure what combination of settings or file size or image size or whatever causes this bug. I just know it's there and I have to care for it – and I have to unclick the downsample checkbox.

Maybe this helps a bit further.

Thanks for helping

Reinhard

[Pauls]

The issue should also be fixed in the beta build 627 currently live on the beta forums.

[Patrick Connor]

We have made fixes/improvements to this area (Images going out wrong resolution to PDF) of the program in the latest release.

The fixes and how to update are described in these forum posts.

• Affinity Publisher 1.8.3 for Windows         ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store )
• Affinity Publisher 1.8.3 for macOS            ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store )

We would appreciate you checking that this issue has now been resolved for you,