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Hey guys, i'm trying to fix a pdf for print (Amazon KDP)  and need to get a PDF with sharp line art.

the original files (images in the affinity document) are high res and sharp. they's 600 dpi and have been converted to bitmap in past so sharp edges no greys etc.  but i've spent the last 6 hours trying every variation of PDF in the drop down menu  (print, flatten, export, and variations of each, altering all dpi, rastorization settings, compression etc. ) and once exported and opened the images when zoomed in all the way still have soft edges, and in some settings, slight variations in tone (white pixels, Black, and some grey)  

i've already submitted files and have gotten author proofs back from amazon of the novel and some of the images printed are pixelated.

I think this 'soft PDF' line art is the problem and I'm trying to get a sharp PDF to try resubmitting again. 

Thx for taking the time to read!

Adam 

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Welcome, Adam.

Affinity applications do not support monochrome bitmap images. They are aliases when imported. 

I don't know if KDP accepts 600 dpi or higher pdfs (and I always use 1200 dpi for bitmap line art), but if they are 600 dpi and you use 600 dpi for document dpi or otherwise do not allow down sampling, you might try.

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Hi mike, thanks for the response, and yup, i've have tried that too.

That might be the best way to describe it, the images are aliased when imported, but all pdfs i export are anti-aliased (blurry) and  i hope there's a way to output a sharp aliased PDF . that i think will fix the pixilization at the printer.  if anyone has experience with this it could solve an 8 year issue i've had with printing :)

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I suggest that you add your request for 1-bit artwork to one of the threads asking for it, such as this one.

John

 

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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5 minutes ago, John Rostron said:

I suggest that you add your request for 1-bit artwork to one of the threads asking for it, such as this one.

I think I mentioned in one of the 1-bit threads that without the ability to have the ability of differing output resolutions for the different types of images, it's a moot point as far as APub is concerned. 

I agree APhoto should still have that capability though.

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3 hours ago, MikeW said:

without the ability to have the ability of differing output resolutions for the different types of images, it's a moot point as far as APub is concerned

Not only that but also lossless compression (InDesign has 4 different methods just for monochromes, in addition to "None", and has lossless "ZIP" and "None" as separate options for color and grayscale images):

monochrome_compression.jpg.c9b13e0e7b698788b62fae8c4836fe67.jpg

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Hi Lagarto,

first , thanks so much for taking the time to answer and post all the images, i really appreciate it.  everyone seems very helpful here

i’ll try and show what I’m doing here. (I just started using Aff pup. last month :/

i'll attach one of my drawings in the book, titled dark 20.tiff original file, 600 dpi tiff...

dark 20.tiff

when i  exported on this try I entered 600 for raster because that's the dpi most of the images are. (I’ve tried leaving at 300 etc.)

 

a.png.5bd39d0e8f2891d352ddf53c32df0470.png

 

 

 

these are some of the changes i make in the ‘more’ menu. (i've tried a few dozen variations of everything i can think of)

 

 

 

b.png.3cfd2419baa1903440be6b6b32ecf376.png

 

and this is the original screen after i hit close

 

 

c.png.9449edf83c0526eabab7537adc73549f.png

 

 

the photo on the left is an extreme close up of the exported pdf from AFF Pub, the one on the right is of the original file. Both are opened and viewed here in Preview on my Mac.

 

1686614480_ScreenShot2020-06-03at11_49_25AM.thumb.png.a5f45762f69d0676cd9a114da1a3e275.png

 

 

some more info on the book, it's 187 pgs. the first 178 should be sharp (aliased?) , and the last are greyscale images of color covers of my other novels. These shouldn't be converted to the sharp line art though i'm not sure that can be done in the same doc. 

 

thx again for your time. 

adam 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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24 minutes ago, headlamp2 said:

the photo on the left is an extreme close up of the exported pdf from AFF Pub, the one on the right is of the original file. Both are opened and viewed here in Preview on my Mac.

Preview blurs images in PDFs when you zoom in, and does not blur raster image files (such as TIFF) when you zoom in, so using Preview at extreme magnification will mislead you.

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I am not sure if i is worth the trouble to try to coax sharp lineart output from Publisher. It just cannot do maximum sharpness. You can probably get close but that is too labour intensive and inefficient.

I would almost recommend to try to vectorize your art (if it is even remotely simple enough for it), or try to use an older copy of InDesign.

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hey guys, thanks so much for the help and comments, especially Lagarto  🤘😑🤘    a great forum.

 

i was able to beef up the dpi, and now i know preview doesn't allow for a clear view in extreme close up (used Adobe acrobat to check) thx anon 2.

files sent to Amazon. will see how things turn out on THEIR end  :) 

 

i'll shout out the program again and the benefits of the forum on my instagram 'my story' later...

https://www.instagram.com/adamarcher11/

 

do you guys work for the company? how can i thank you back?  can i click anything to give good reviews? 

 

thx again for all the help, screenshots and guidance. 

Adam 

 

 

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10 hours ago, Lagarto said:

I opened the PDF export made by Affinity Publisher in Photoshop and placed it on top of the original TIFF, and did the Difference Blend, and the images appear to be identical:

But when you print it, does it print halftoned? That is, edges are built with raster dots, not device pixels? I am not sure.

Anyway, quality may be good enough. Glad if it works this way.

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15 hours ago, Lagarto said:

It does make pretty large pdf files, though, because compression cannot be used, and these are actually 8-bit images!
(...)
Its size is oddly(?) exactly the same as that of the 1200dpi so obviously some packing is done, after all.

In your PDFs you have an ISO profile assigned, these profiles always increase the file size in such an amount to me.
And why a CMYK profile – is it requested by KPD?

I get visually the same result with a different profile but a smaller file size (847 kB).
(APub > preview.app > Acrobat) 
(preview.app appears to always show antialiased)

216809850_lineart1200dpi.thumb.jpg.04118368a99383d1ed80fe97ce01add6.jpg

 

Also it appears even with JPG compression activated + set to 0 % the exported PDF will contain a ZIP compressed image:

1628745522_lineart1200dpicompressionZIP.thumb.jpg.ab933388eb38496e82a54f301fabf32f.jpg

A different compression setting in APUB did not make a difference in my exported PDFs, neither visually nor in file size.

Here two examples: (setting + pdf)

1027281276_lineart1200dpiv1.7jpgq0.jpg.b50da80b632939c0257f1f63a4f81349.jpg  >  dark 20_b%w_1200_jpg0.pdf

1086855793_lineart1200dpiX-1auncompr.jpg.fefe37255e7a476f1082981b4069a8ef.jpg  >  dark 20_b&w_1200_X-1a.pdf


 

15 hours ago, Lagarto said:

It seems the max DPI value for export is 1024 (I entered 1200dpi but the app changes it to 1024).

I don't get this reset limitation of 1024 dpi in APub – but I also get for your PDF the info of 1200 dpi (47 per mm) in Acrobat, so your 1024 may be a buggy glitch in APub?

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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15 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

I had chosen the (non-default) "Nearest Neighbor" method "just to be sure", but had erroneously assumed that when downsampling is disabled this setting would not be critical, but it is.

I also first assumed "Nearest neighbour" as conflicting when I had read your response about dpi limit – and therefore I used it, too. But I did not experience an issue, neither in dpi setting nor in export quality or file size. (see my 2nd screenshot + pdf above)

So I wonder whether your documents color space (or ISO profile) may be involved somehow. As far I can see this is the only different setting between your and my test (I used Grayscale + B&W profile).

Another culprit might be compression issues I recently experienced and posted. Gabe confirmed some found issues with my test afpub which seem to be related in a strange way to in vs. out resolution ...:

 

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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