How do I export as pdf with page line?

[km.au]

Hi, 

So when working with facing pages, there's this really nice line down the centre of the page

When I export as PDF though it vanishes and I've got feedback that the lack of this line confuses people when reading PDFs. 

Is there a way to keep this line in the PDF export? I suppose as a workaround I could just draw a line but hoping there is a native solution. 

[GarryP]

That line is just there to show where the two pages in the spread meet. It is only there to give the user some visual guidance.
Why are people “confused” that the line is not in the exported PDF?
In other words, what is it about the line which causes confusion when it is not there?
Or, to put it another way, what do people get from the line being there that causes confusion when it is not there?

[R C-R]

Is it possible the confusion is caused by the inner margins on a two page spread being too narrow so it is not obvious enough where content on one page of the spread ends & the content on the other page begins?

[km.au]

Sorry, to clarify, the people I'm issuing to are confused when they received the PDF as they could not work out it was two pages. 

This is what's happening in Foxit. 

The two pages becomes four pages across. 

But the Page spread setup in Affinity publisher is two facing a4 pages.

 

 

[GarryP]

Thanks for the extra information but I’m still not clear as to what is causing the confusion and I am also a bit more confused about your document myself now.

The red rectangles (are these the margins?) for page 1 and page 2 in your first image do not match the red rectangles in your second image in relation to where they seem to be on the page (small gap in first image, large gap in second image). Also, the red rectangles don’t seem to have the same top/bottom distances from the top/bottom of the pages they are on which makes me wonder what they are.

Also, if your pages contain text and images – like most documents – in a decent layout then whether there is a line between ‘pages’ or not should not really matter. For instance, a takeaway menu is usually a sheet of paper folded in a couple of places. It is normally perfectly readable whether it is folded or spread out, the reader not having any need to have a line where the fold should be. I don’t understand why there is any confusion about not having a line between the pages in your document.

Can you supply us with a document (AFPUB) which displays the issue(s) so we can see how your document is constructed?

[walt.farrell]

On 6/25/2020 at 8:54 PM, km.au said:

When I export as PDF though it vanishes and I've got feedback that the lack of this line confuses people when reading PDFs. 

Have you considered Exporting your PDF using the option "Area: All Pages" rather than the default "Area: All Spreads"? Then they would get individual pages, and would not be confused

[km.au]

On 6/29/2020 at 9:03 PM, walt.farrell said:

Have you considered Exporting your PDF using the option "Area: All Pages" rather than the default "Area: All Spreads"? Then they would get individual pages, and would not be confused

Thanks, however the requirements must mean that there are two facing pages with a line down the middle indicating the two pages.

 

On 6/29/2020 at 5:48 PM, GarryP said:

Thanks for the extra information but I’m still not clear as to what is causing the confusion and I am also a bit more confused about your document myself now.

The red rectangles (are these the margins?) for page 1 and page 2 in your first image do not match the red rectangles in your second image in relation to where they seem to be on the page (small gap in first image, large gap in second image). Also, the red rectangles don’t seem to have the same top/bottom distances from the top/bottom of the pages they are on which makes me wonder what they are.

Also, if your pages contain text and images – like most documents – in a decent layout then whether there is a line between ‘pages’ or not should not really matter. For instance, a takeaway menu is usually a sheet of paper folded in a couple of places. It is normally perfectly readable whether it is folded or spread out, the reader not having any need to have a line where the fold should be. I don’t understand why there is any confusion about not having a line between the pages in your document.

Can you supply us with a document (AFPUB) which displays the issue(s) so we can see how your document is constructed?

Sorry, the red squares are different sizes as they are screen-captured mark ups censoring the pages as it's a tender document.
However yes, they are indicating separate pages. 

I'm not sure how to explain it but basically when I have a document setup as "facing pages", inside Affinity Publisher it is correctly displaying two pages side by side. 

However when Affinity Publisher exports, it's no longer two pages side by side but double page side by side.
You can see this because all PDF readers like Adobe, Foxit etc are displaying the PDF like this (double page side by side)

 

 

I have been told that Adobe doesn't do this, so I believe Affinity may need a new export feature that it exports facing pages as exactly that - two pages side by side instead of double pages side by side as above. 

[GarryP]

Without being able to look at your actual document it’s difficult to tell what is going on but are you sure that you have the correct page/spread set-up?
It looks like you have a facing-pages spread of two landscape pages.
In other words, it looks like your “Page 1” and “Page 2” are on a left-hand page of a facing-pages spread while your “Page 3” and “Page 4” are on a right-hand page of the same facing-pages spread.
If that is the case, then you will probably need to change the page sizes (and their orientation) and reorganise your content accordingly.
If that is not the case, would you be able to make a copy of the document with the content stripped out that you can upload?

[Fixx]

12 hours ago, km.au said:

the requirements must mean that there are two facing pages with a line down the middle indicating the two pages.

What requirements? What you are trying to do is somewhat irregular operation. If your customer really wants spread PDF separated by a line, you must DRAW the line to the document (maybe to masterpages). I have done such things sometimes, (and also added RECTANGLE to show page border when printed/shown across larger white). These are special cases.

That display software shows your spreads double/two side by side is display software feature. Some of those try to display facing pages when there is space available, and it has no idea your "pages" are actually spreads. Generally it is a user preference, set by View menu.

Affinity software (as most software) cannot set a preference how pages/spreads are displayed by other software. Only tool for that is Adobe Acrobat in which you can force display mode, but even that applies only when viewed with Adobe viewers.

[lacerto]

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[lacerto]

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[km.au]

Ok, so what's going on is that under Adobe's Publisher there is a set initial view for PDF options...

 

See "Page Layout".

Could Initial view tab like below be added to Affinity Publisher as a request? Thanks

 

[firstdefence]

To get the line wouldn’t it have to be an A3 page landscape with a left and right A4 panel with the line drawn in the middle?

 

[km.au]

On 8/10/2020 at 4:17 PM, firstdefence said:

To get the line wouldn’t it have to be an A3 page landscape with a left and right A4 panel with the line drawn in the middle?

 

It turns out that what is happening is that with the Adobe ecosystem, one can save PDF's so that when it opens in PDF readers it opens at a certain view. ie in this case pages, side by side.

The line drawn down the middle was happening because of this.

Sorry for the confusion everyone!

 

I just hope Affinity can get the option to save out PDF's with some "initial view" options as the screenshot above.