psaldari Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Hi beautiful people, I try to test the pdf-x export on the new beta (1.3.5.1). The test is made with my draw (img1) there is whats happen: 1) If I select pdf-x 1a or 3 or 4 and I open the "more" panel and I make any change in this, AD don't export the pdf. 2) If I export to pdf-x 1a or 3 there is a strange rectangle on the moon nose (img2). 3) If I export to pdf-x 4 there isn't this strange rectangle. 4) If I open the pdf-x 1a or 3 or 4 with apple preview the colors are OK (img2). 5) If I open the pdf-x 1a or 3 or 4 with Illustrator CS 5.1 the colors are totally wrong (img3). cheers Paolo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I tried the same thing with your image. 1) worked OK for me 2) no rectangle showed up for me 3) and 4) the same 5) I got the attached when I opened it in Illustrator CS6! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 OK, I think something is broken with the pdf export in this beta. I have a Designer file that I was working on today that exhibited the same sort of behaviour as you describe in your post. Most of the export options wouldn't save the file at all, and the ones that did work just looked completely wrong when viewed in Illustrator. I had to revert to the MAS version to get an acceptable pdf (ready to print) file to send out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 The test is made with my draw (img1) Is the original Affinity file available for me to try with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Dave, in my experience, it's ANY file that exhibits the issue. I have tried several ai, afdesign, pdf, and jpg files and they have all exhibited - some if not all - the problems mentioned above. Some don't save at all, which I think is somehow related to the file size calculation not completing and just saying 'Calculating...'. When the file size is calculated, it is saved OK. The biggest issue is, however, the total corruption when loading ANY exported file from the beta into Illustrator which of course is an issue as most clients, advertisers use AI! As I said in a post above, I have to revert to the MAS version of Designer to get a usable pdf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I've not been able to reproduce any of these problems, so it would help if you could attach a file that does. If it is any file for you, then it should be easy for you to find one. Simple files preferred. Have you tried using File > Export > More > Use old PDF export engine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Dave, use the img1.jpg in the first post! Export to pdf as any of the pdf-x options and then try to load into Illustrator. Not sure I fully appreciate the 'it should be easy for you' comment. We're only trying to help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Just to clarify, using the img1.jpg from the first post, the x1 export doesn't work when reloaded into AI, but the x3 and x4 are OK. I have attached a file that doesn't work at all. x1 and x3 won't save because the 'Estimate File Size:' doesn't ever get past 'Calculating...', and x1 shows the same issues in AI as the img1.jpg example above. Christmas 2015 100x134.afdesign Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I have now tried the 'Use old PDF export engine', and that has issues as well. Beta chops off some text, whereas exporting from MAS version is fine! See below - MAS on the left, beta on the right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psaldari Posted September 3, 2015 Author Share Posted September 3, 2015 Is the original Affinity file available for me to try with? I send you the original watermelon moon file to your support address. I don't know if this have a relevancy, but in my preferences I have set the "Coated FOGRA27 (ISO 12647-2:2004)" CMYK profile. Paolo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Dave, use the img1.jpg in the first post! Export to pdf as any of the pdf-x options and then try to load into Illustrator. Ah, I was expecting an Affinity Designer file and that looked like a screenshot of one. I couldn't reproduce the issues in the first post with that (and it's hard to see where the rectangle on the nose would come from in a plain JPEG). It does look like Illustrator is having a problem with our CMYK JPEGs. That would be an Illustrator limitation, as Acrobat Pro not only loads them correctly but the pre-flight check confirms they are PDF/X-1a. I'll see if we can work around it. PDF/X-3 and above will be OK because that supports RGB. Not sure I fully appreciate the 'it should be easy for you' comment. We're only trying to help! I do appreciate it. I was getting lots of reports of issues, but no sample files I could reproduce them with. I have attached a file that doesn't work at all. x1 and x3 won't save because the 'Estimate File Size:' doesn't ever get past 'Calculating...', and x1 shows the same issues in AI as the img1.jpg example above. Thanks. I've found and fixed a problem we were having with alpha with that. It now exports, but Illustrator is very unhappy with it. It says, "An unknown imaging construct was encountered". Again, Acrobat Pro pre-flight checks say it is fine. I'll continue to look into it. I send you the original watermelon moon file to your support address. Thanks. I can reproduce the nose problem with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Dave, any news on this? It is a real pain having to go back into the MAS version to get a pdf that Illustrator will accept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 I've fixed the CMYK colours getting inverted in Illustrator, the issue with the nose on the moon, and the failure to export at all. I still get warnings from Illustrator about gradient fills and 1-bit masks. These will be in the next beta. I've not yet looked at the issue you raised in #9. Does it also happen when printing (in the preview)? Could you send the document? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Sure Dave, here it is. Thanks a lot. Yes, it does show the corruption on Print Preview. Cocktail menu 2.afdesign Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Thanks. I can reproduce that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 I've fixed that too. I think that's everything mentioned in this thread (apart from the Illustrator warnings). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 That's great, Dave. Will the Illustrator warnings be fixed soon as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 I haven't decided what to do about them. At the moment we output simple gradient fills as vector. To stop Illustrator warning about them we'd have to rasterise instead. That will make the PDFs larger and lower quality. That would be a shame, especially as Illustrator does seem to import them OK (it rasterises them itself). I could make it an option, but I doubt many people would find and use it, so that would be a cop-out. vonBusing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Dave, in my opinion it is really important. Affinity apps are trying to establish themselves as a creditable alternative to Adobe products, and how do you think it looks when the (still) industry standard, Illustrator, throws up error messages when opening a pdf that has been produced by Affinity apps? Whether we like it or not, most of our clients use Adobe products, and communicating adverts/designs with them is best done through pdf files. I would suggest it would be rather embarrassing, and counter productive to keep that error message! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Dave, it's been almost a month since I posted. Have you made any decision yet on this? We are now on 1.3.5.3 on the issue is the same, i.e, problems with Illustrator and Corel Draw when trying to open pdf files produced by Designer. Very inconvenient and slightly embarrassing with clients! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 This is still being worked on. The next beta will have an option as I mentioned above. This seems OK with Illustrator, and Corel Draw only sometimes. I've no idea what Corel Draw's problem is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 Hi Dave. OK, in 1.3.5.4 things have improved a lot. The error message from Illustrator seems to have disappeared and, most of the time, the pdf files look ok in Illustrator. However, not everything is OK. There are still issues. Take a look at the attached file as an example. Every export pdf option (except 'flatten') produces corruption in the main heading text - 'CHRISTMAS PARTY TIME' - when opened in Illustrator. (The stroke is put to the bottom!) Even opening the pdf files back into Designer is not perfect. Save as X1a and look at the 'CHRISTMAS PARTY TIME' text as well as the 'countryskittles.com' text on the left side. Stroke in the first is different in lines 1 and 2, and the colours are wrong in the second example. See what you think. Movie Magic Christmas 75x110.afdesign Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 Thanks. I'll look into it next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Wow. The stroke being put to the bottom is an Illustrator bug. It just doesn't handle stroked text well. Even normally, it splits the text into individual characters, and then splits those into separate filled and stroked layers, making it hard to edit as text. If the text is also stretched, it draws the stroke in completely the wrong place. It's all in the PDF as a single object and there is no earthly reason for it to draw stroke and fill in different places. I think the only workaround for this is to convert the text to curves in this situation. The old, Core Graphics export didn't need to do that, but I notice using that Illustrator gets the stroke weight wrong. The other issues are our fault. They should be fixed in the next beta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Thanks Dave. The funny thing is that it doesn't always happen. See the attached file for a similar example that works OK! Wonder why? Christmas 2015 WB 100x66.afdesign Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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