Is that so difficult to support PDF/X1a-2001 on Affinity Products?

[lacerto]

5 hours ago, ashf said:

Currently Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 19 is on sale for $25.
This could be the cheapest PDF/X-1a:2003 to PDF/X-1a:2001 converter.

Do you mean using it by opening a PDF/X-1a:2003 (version 1.4) file and then just exporting it as PDF/X-1a:2001? Meaning that the file already has transparencies flattened and just needs to be properly exported as a  file that has PDF 1.3 version in metadata? Or does the app have a specific conversion capability?

PDF Tools by Tracker Software can take e.g. the kind of a version 1.7 file from Affinity containing transparency and make it 1.3 (by using user selectable target profile), flatten the transparencies without rasterization (at least in these kinds of simple cases), but it would convert spot colors to process. I think it cannot be purchased separately but only as part of PDF-XChange so it is a bit pricier tool (but nevertheless comes with a perpetual license, and is not nagware). 

testcolor_pressready_mod.pdf

testcolor_pressready_mod_(PDFX).pdf

[ashf]

1 hour ago, lacerto said:

Do you mean using it by opening a PDF/X-1a:2003 (version 1.4) file and then just exporting it as PDF/X-1a:2001? Meaning that the file already has transparencies flattened and just needs to be properly exported as a  file that has PDF 1.3 version in metadata? Or does the app have a specific conversion capability?

Yes, just open 2003 and export to 2001.
No specific conversion feature. but would be better than Scribus.

[lacerto]

14 hours ago, ashf said:

No specific conversion feature. but would be better than Scribus.

Ok, I see. There might be some serious issues in this method. I tried it with the file above, and opening a PDF 1.4 file (WITH transparencies, so not a PDF/X-1a:2003 file, but issues would be identical) results in overprinting attributes becoming lost, as well as embedded font becoming converted to curves on export. In addition the spot color is lost, as well (similarly as when using PDFTools). You can reapply these attributes and color definitions in Xara, as well as replace the embedded font with one that is installed, but that can be a huge task. So just for making the file compatible with 1.3, PDF editing, changing just a minimum of features, would be ideal.

testcolor_pressready_mod_(PDFX_Xara).pdf

Do you have the Japanese tool from Antenna House mentioned earlier in this thread? It would be nice to know how it handles the test file posted above. and whether it handles the conversion as a kind of an editing task (the way PDF Tools does) rather than opening, interpreting and recreating (the way Xara does).