Cannot export pdf - nothing works

[Rabari]

Having big problems exporting to pdf; the dreaded and very unhelpful  "An error occurred while exporting to:…”

Version 1.8.6. MacOS 10.15.7

File is normal A3, 20 pages, jpegs, tiffs, pngs – nothing unusual. Tried normal troubleshooting: restarting, giving more memory, software rendering, looking for bad links, strange graphics, old broken fonts, etc but no luck.

No pdf preset works, built-in or own. Strange anomaly: Export window never finishes calculating Estimated File Size.

Beta version opens file, but crashes on trying to choose any pdf export preset.

Now a deadline is looming. Cannot afford to loose this gig.

[Gabe]

Hi @Rabari,

Can you use this link to upload your afpub document/resources? https://www.dropbox.com/request/gv1NEwkVjsUydHeyYcWY

[Rabari]

Ok, uploaded now. 

Maybe a contributing factor to problems: this is a file which has been "re-used" a couple of years, where I open up the file from last year, empty out old stuff to put in the new. Could there be some old cruft left? If I remember correctly this project has had similar problems earlier,  but they resolved with a new version of the app. Might even be that the original file was made with one of the pre-release betas…

Edited November 13, 2020 by Rabari
additional info

[Gabe]

Thanks. it seems to the caused by 2 of your photos: Heinolan seminaari.jpg and Jyrängön koulu.jpg. They seem to be RGB photos, but with an Grey ICC profile. Issue logged. 

[Rabari]

Ok, thanks! Strange combination indeed, for files coming out of Affinity Photo  Sorry, untouched photos. Why do people scan B/W photos in RGB?

Could problematic files like these be flagged in Pre-flight, perhaps?

 

[Gabe]

14 hours ago, Rabari said:

Could problematic files like these be flagged in Pre-flight, perhaps?

I logged this with out developers to see what we can do.  

[Mats G]

The exact same thing happened to me just now. The other day I created a new document in AP 1.8.6 on Catalina 10.5.7, and exported it without issues. 

Today I opened a document created in an earlier version, 1.8.x, and met the "An error occurred when exporting ..." message. Tried all possible PDF export settings and made sure that all photos were the same profile/ICC as the document settings (Adobe RGB), and checked that no fonts were reported missing in Fonts Manager. The document is a modest 32 page A5 with nine pictures in it. When exported in the previous version of AP, the one it was created with, the PDF export went without problems. 

Scratching my head, hoping for a solution ... 

[Gabe]

Hi @Mats G

Welcome to the forums. 

Can you use this link to upload your file? https://www.dropbox.com/request/7eB3aeZpgN9Eg5iqLbw9

[Mats G]

Hi,

and thank you, both for the welcoming and your reply. The document is now uploaded. 

[Gabe]

I reckon it's one of your fonts Adobe Caslon or ITC Stone Sans. Can you upload them on the same link? 

[Mats G]

That's strange, they are the same ones used when this document was succesfully exported from the previous version of AP. 

Anyhow, I very much appreciate you taking time to figure this out - the fonts are now uploaded for you to check. 

[Gabe]

Thanks. It was indeed the fonts. However, I could not replicate the issue using the latest beta. Can you try it and see if it's all fine on your end too? https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/57-publisher-beta-on-mac/

[Mats G]

Sorry for replying late. I downloaded the beta, opened the document and found two picture text wraps missing, but apart from that it opened and exported to pdf perfectly. 

So, whatever your dev team did there, please ask them to hold on to it!

A great many thanks from Sweden, and keep up the good work. Love your Affinity apps.