Text appears light on some pages when exported

[WAZZAJ]

I have file where, for example, the text on page 30-31 is lighter than on page 28-29. Same font, same colour specs but comes out lighter on the exported PDF.

I think I lightened the images on those pages using the Photo Persona so maybe it has something to do with that??

p28-31_PA_Palmlike.pdf

[carl123]

Without a sample AF document, we will just be guessing

Can you copy a few pages (some good, some bad) to a new document and upload to this forum?

[Joachim_L]

Seems to be that some kind of effect is applied on the lighter pages, because the text is rasterized.

[WAZZAJ]

Here are four sample pages. Problem occurs with pp136-137. 

test_file.afpub

[thomaso]

I did not download your .afpub, maybe my finds in the PDF are informative enough for you to fix your issue:

• Page 30/31 is rasterized. This alone leads to a different appearance, which also changes depending on the zoom level.
• Body-Text on page 28/29 appears to have assigned a stroke of 0.5 pt with no stroke color. In purpose? Is it the same for all texts?

[WAZZAJ]

All text shows in afpub as Helvetica Neue light 10 pt. Don't understand how it could be rasterised. I have picked up that the text is CMYK rather than 100 K which I'm fixing.

Text on 28-29 has no stroke in afpub so don't understand how it could have in the PDF. Even so if it has no stroke color I wouldn't think that would have any affect??

[WAZZAJ]

If the text is rasterised is there a way to undo that or do I have to replace it?

[thomaso]

It seems you did not take care well for your layers panel, there the layer hierarchy might not be what you actually want to achieve.

• The rasterization & the enlightment is both caused by an adjustment layer which is positioned in the layers panel to affect all layers below – which is the entire page content, one text frame excepted:

• Not relevant for the current issue mentioned above but also not useful or "healthy": A lot of content is placed inside the master layer on the document pages. To move it out from this layer right-click the master layer > "Edit detached" > select the according layers and move them.

[WAZZAJ]

Thanks Thomaso, that's very helpful. I'll need to visit the tutorials on using the Photo Persona.

[thomaso]

Not really the Photo Persona in this case. Note that Adjustment Layers may be set in any of the 3 Affinity apps, so in Publisher Persona, too.

Since you can fix here the text-rasterize-issue with an according layer arrangement you might rather visit tutorials about layers, in particular about the 2-3 ways to use nested layers. Roughly spoken you define the area for a adjustment layer by moving it inside the wanted picture layer, or inside a "(Group)" layer which may contain various layers. For instance...

1. Your current layer setup ...
(I changed the blend mode of your adjustment layer to make its reaction area more obvious)

2. ... and the moved adjustment layer, limited to affect one image only:
(therefore I moved the according picture frame out of the master layer)

Compare the colored margin stripes. Initially, the entire page is affected, including these real master page objects.

Just one possible tutorial about adjustment layering:
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/designer/desktop/video/301823247/

[WAZZAJ]

Thanks Thomaso.

[jrwatson]

I've also run into this issue when the problematic adjustment layers exist solely in an Affinity Photo file that I've placed in my document. It took a little trial an error to find it, but it turns out that the rasterization of the text on one page of my document was due to the adjustment layers in the placed Affinity Photo file not being specific to any particular layer in that file and, apparently, were being applied to parts of my document without realizing it. It never occurred to me that Affinity Publisher would treat the photo file as anything other than a flat image, leaving the adjustments entirely "inside" the photo file, if you take my meaning.

Edited December 6, 2023 by jrwatson

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, jrwatson said:

I've also run into this issue when the problematic adjustment layers exist solely in an Affinity Photo file that I've placed in my document. It took a little trial an error to find it, but it turns out that the rasterization of the text on one page of my document was due to the adjustment layers in the placed Affinity Photo file not being specific to any particular layer in that file and, apparently, were being applied to parts of my document without realizing it. It never occurred to me that Affinity Publisher would treat the photo file as anything other than a flat image, leaving the adjustments entirely "inside" the photo file, if you take my meaning.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

That sounds like a bug, so if you have that file, or can reproduce in a sample file that you can share, it would be useful to see it.

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

That sounds like a bug, so if you have that file, or can reproduce in a sample file

Attached a V1 example, it is not the same situation but shows an example of unexpected rasterization caused by a nested layer affecting more than its parent.

effect layer issue V1.afpub . effect layer issue V1.pdf

Not only APub announces "Nothing will get rasterized" with preset "PDF (for print)", also the exported PDF got entirely rasterized in full page size and affects text below AND above the Group that contains the affecting filter layer.

[jrwatson]

Creating an example forced me to more clearly identify some specific contexts for the issue. I'm working in Affinity Photo and Publisher version 2.3.0 for MacOS. Attached files include the document file, linked photo, and example .pdf of what I'm seeing. Essentially what I discovered was that in the attached doc's current form, exporting to pdf using the "Digital (small size)" preset, the body text on page 3 (ignore the page # settings) is rasterized, though the other text is not. Do any one of the following and the rasterization goes away:

1. Remove the "Title Page" text that is on top of the image (note the live effects applied to the text)

2. Remove the image entirely

3. Move the adjustment layers in the image file to apply only to the background layer
e.g. change this:

To this:

 

Does that help?

-j

rasterization_example.afpub rasterization_example.pdf rhubarb in ground.afphoto

[Dan C]

Many thanks for the sample files and further information provided @jrwatson!

I can confirm I've been able to replicate this issue here and I'm getting it logged with our development team now.

I hope this helps

[jrwatson]

Excellent. This ended up feeling a bit like work since a good portion of my regular job usually turns into bug reporting  Thankfully method 3 is a reasonable workaround that doesn't require making any compromises in design/content.

Glad I could help!