PDF import crashes to Desktop

[Nazario]

The attached PDF instantly crashes Publisher to desktop. Crash report attached too.

crash.rtf Homecare 40 years advert.pdf

[Nazario]

Actually I cant get ANY PDFs to import without problems! Most crash to desktop but ones that do open and set to pass through still don't honour fonts etc.

[Gabe]

Hi both

Thanks. Issue logged!

[Jon P]

Quote

but ones that do open and set to pass through still don't honour fonts etc.

Can you clarify that the version of the placed pdf is not greater than your target export version? If so can you attach the PDF that isn't passthrough'ing

[Nazario]

Hi Jon, I found out after starting this thread that the way you are displaying passthrough PDFs is to interpret them, which if you ask me is just plain daft and not to mention highly confusing. So i never got to the stage of exporting as I have no confidence in what i see on screen. If a user can't trust what they see on screen they aren't going to use the software im afraid.

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, Nazario said:

the way you are displaying passthrough PDFs is to interpret them, which if you ask me is just plain daft

How else is the app to determine what it should display?

[Nazario]

It shouldn't be interpreted it should be passed through hence the name. Either way an accurately rendered image of a PDF would be nice.

Unless its me misunderstanding something and witnessing a bug but a PDF set to pass through looks exactly the same as a PDF set to Interpret i.e. the fonts are not honoured.

[lepr]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

How else is the app to determine what it should display?

Do the same as any other page layout app or any web browser! Render a faithful display representation by using the fonts that are embedded in the PDF.

The current Affinity solution is absurd. Beyond absurd.

[Alfred]

4 minutes ago, anon2 said:

Do the same as any other page layout app or any web browser! Render a faithful display representation by using the fonts that are embedded in the PDF.

In other words, interpret the embedded fonts, which is what the Affinity apps currently don’t — but desperately need to — do!!

[Nazario]

I get what you're saying but when a PDF is set to interpret what does it do?

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, Nazario said:

Unless its me misunderstanding something and witnessing a bug but a PDF set to pass through looks exactly the same as a PDF set to Interpret i.e. the fonts are not honoured.

They are honored, but only in the exported PDF file, which contains the Passthrough PDF file.

They are not honored in the screen display in Publisher, because Publisher cannot interpret embedded fonts. So, at this point, the user needs to trust that it will work; they cannot verify the appearance except by looking at the exported file.

And yes, that's annoying, and a problem. However, it at least lets you get fidelity in the exported file, which was not possible before because there was no Passthrough support at all. Now there is at least some support, even if it's not as complete as we would like.

Just now, Nazario said:

So when a PDF is set to interpret what does it do?

In that case, what you see on the screen while working on your Publisher document should match what you see in the exported PDF.

[Nazario]

Thanks Walt but I'm meaning about on screen not in the export. I just think without an actual accurate image on screen the Passthrough implementation is a confusing mess that is more hassle than its worth to use, sadly.

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, Nazario said:

Thanks Walt but I'm meaning about on screen not in the export. I just think without an actual accurate image on screen the Passthrough implementation is a confusing mess that is more hassle than its worth to use, sadly.

And that's an acceptable opinion. Just don't use the function. The display in Publisher will be the same whether you use Passthrough or Interpret. However, Passthrough is the default so you'll need to change it if you want to guarantee that the exported PDF matches the broken appearance that you see in Publisher.

 

 

[Nazario]

To use Publisher I need Passthrough and the render needs to be accurate as graphics need to be aligned with and overlaid the PDFs. With an image with the wrong fonts showing its impossible to achieve this and so years after purchasing Publisher I'm STILL unable to use it. It's beyond frustrating.

[lepr]

29 minutes ago, Alfred said:

In other words, interpret the embedded fonts, which is what the Affinity apps currently don’t — but desperately need to — do!!

Render a display representation of the embedded passthrough PDF by using a PDF rendering engine that does not do an under-the-hood conversion of the PDF to an Affinity document.

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, anon2 said:

Render a display representation of the embedded passthrough PDF by using a PDF rendering engine that does not do an under-the-hood conversion of the PDF to an Affinity document.

Do Mac and Windows both have such an engine built-in that Serif could leverage to do that?

[lepr]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

Do Mac and Windows both have such an engine built-in that Serif could leverage to do that?

Apple provides PDFKit in the Quartz framework. Of course, there will be PDFs that it cannot render correctly. There will be no completely reliable solution to this problem of exactly previewing the final output that will be delivered by some device.

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, anon2 said:

Apple provides PDFKit in the Quartz framework. Of course, there will be PDFs that it cannot render correctly. There will be no completely reliable solution to this problem of exactly previewing the final output that will be delivered by some device.

So, that would solve much of the problem, for Macs (and assuming Serif uses the Quartz framework). But it does not solve all of the problem and it does not begin to address the problem on Windows.

[Nazario]

PDFStudio which is cross platform apparently manages to do what's required (never used it so cant confirm) and that is based on Java. Just putting it out there. When it comes to the technicalities of coding I don't really know. Im more interested in the user experience being a user (well not quite yet unfortunately).

[lepr]

18 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

So, that would solve much of the problem, for Macs (and assuming Serif uses the Quartz framework). But it does not solve all of the problem and it does not begin to address the problem on Windows.

No, of course not, and I hope nothing I wrote implied otherwise.

[lepr]

8 minutes ago, Nazario said:

PDFStudio which is cross platform apparently manages to do what's required (never used it so cant confirm) and that is based on Java. Just putting it out there. When it comes to the technicalities of coding I don't really know. Im more interested in the user experience being a user (well not quite yet unfortunately).

No way would I install Java, LOL.

 

[Nazario]

14 minutes ago, anon2 said:

No way would I install Java, LOL.

 

Is Java the one Apple blocked by default a while back?

[lepr]

4 minutes ago, Nazario said:

Is Java the one Apple blocked by default a while back?

Java was included with the Mac OS until about 10 years ago. Now it must be downloaded and installed by the user. Some app downloads will include the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

[Nazario]

Ah yes. Now I remember, illustrator required it at some point when it stagnated and MacOS kept moving forward. Yes let’s not go down that route haha. 

[Dazmondo77]

41 minutes ago, Nazario said:

Ah yes. Now I remember, illustrator required it at some point when it stagnated and MacOS kept moving forward. Yes let’s not go down that route haha. 

Like many other graphic designers / illustrators, I currently have no choice but to go down that route, I still have Java installed in Mojave as I need to use Illustrator CS5 to do the things that Designer can't yet do (vector distortions, perspective grid, simplify paths etc.) and is a little slow and choppy for 10 year old software but it works and it also enables accurate screen representation of PDF's for passthrough!?!?!