"True to Size" of a PDF (Scale)

[Roger Schaerer]

Hi

We are testing affinity Publisher in our architecture Company.

Everything is fine beside one very important topic:

If we import an architectural plan (PDF) we have to be sure, that we publish it "true to size".

In Indesign we could double click the placed object (PDF gets an orange frame) and then we saw (and could change) in the menubar the scale (see attached picture).

We saw if its 100% to the original PDF size (for example scale 1:500) or if its 50% (1:1000) or because of a (wrong) manipulation 79%, what we would have to adjust to a correct scale.

Do you understand what i mean? I couldn't find a way in Affinity Publisher to control that. And without this, the program is not functional for our layouting.

We are working with a german version of affinity (1.8.6.) and Indesign. Our two companies have 38 architect and i know that a lot of architecture company in zuerich are unhappy with the pricing of InDesign and are looking for substitution.

My User Email is schaerer@roger.net. I started with your Betaversion. You improved so many things, this is the only problem left before i can substitute Indesign in the whole company...

Best Regards

Roger Schaerer

www.schmidschaerer.ch

[v_kyr]

See:  "scaling-pic-frame-content-images-by-percentage"

 

 

[MickRose]

Have you tried the Beta versions 1.9.0.843? Many good points here.

1) PDF passthrough
2) Scaling value displayed on main scren
3) Scaling value can be set exactly.
4) Easy to change PDF page.

However for a multipage PDF each page would have to be placed individually.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Roger Schaerer said:

In Indesign we could double click the placed object (PDF gets an orange frame) and then we saw (and could change) in the menubar the scale (see attached picture).

We saw if its 100% to the original PDF size (for example scale 1:500) or if its 50% (1:1000) or because of a (wrong) manipulation 79%, what we would have to adjust to a correct scale.

Besides the hints mentioned above: Note that – different to InDesign – in Affinity (APub, too) a layout document has a certain resolution, which may confuse here because this custom setting directly influences the 100 % scaling. So a least confusing result will occur if your .afpub has the same resolution set as the imported PDF. If they differ you might need to respect the difference when calculating the placed size and scale.

[Fixx]

22 hours ago, thomaso said:

Note that – different to InDesign – in Affinity (APub, too) a layout document has a certain resolution, which may confuse here because this custom setting directly influences the 100 % scaling.

That is a problem as placing should always honour physical size. That said, when I place vector PDF it keeps the right size and does not try to apply dpi. Pixel graphics follow dpi, which is bad.

[MNU]

On 11/14/2020 at 11:03 AM, Roger Schaerer said:

Hi

We are testing affinity Publisher in our architecture Company.

Everything is fine beside one very important topic:

If we import an architectural plan (PDF) we have to be sure, that we publish it "true to size".

In Indesign we could double click the placed object (PDF gets an orange frame) and then we saw (and could change) in the menubar the scale (see attached picture).

We saw if its 100% to the original PDF size (for example scale 1:500) or if its 50% (1:1000) or because of a (wrong) manipulation 79%, what we would have to adjust to a correct scale.

Do you understand what i mean? I couldn't find a way in Affinity Publisher to control that. And without this, the program is not functional for our layouting.

We are working with a german version of affinity (1.8.6.) and Indesign. Our two companies have 38 architect and i know that a lot of architecture company in zuerich are unhappy with the pricing of InDesign and are looking for substitution.

My User Email is schaerer@roger.net. I started with your Betaversion. You improved so many things, this is the only problem left before i can substitute Indesign in the whole company...

Best Regards

Roger Schaerer

www.schmidschaerer.ch

Is there some solutions for this?

Another big problem ist that each time that I try to update or change a PDF, this one will go back to 100% of it scale. That means that after updating my Links I have to manually adjust every single "crop/zoom".

Ther must be an option, so that the Program understand to maintain the Changes of the Content in a Picture Frame.

Do you understand what I mean?

Thank you in advance for your time and I wish you all a wonderfull day!

Cheers

MNU

[thomaso]

42 minutes ago, MNU said:

each time that I try to update or change a PDF, this one will go back to 100% of it scale. That means that after updating my Links I have to manually adjust every single "crop/zoom".

Ther must be an option, so that the Program understand to maintain the Changes of the Content in a Picture Frame.

As a workaround you could try if replacing the resource via the Resource Manager (= not via context toolbar) might be more sufficient. Though it is reported not to work in every case it does work in some and can be worth a trial.

Unfortunately losing custom set image frame properties when updating or replacing a resource file is a known / reported issue, e.g.:

 

[MNU]

38 minutes ago, thomaso said:

As a workaround you could try if replacing the resource via the Resource Manager (= not via context toolbar) might be more sufficient. Though it is reported not to work in every case it does work in some and can be worth a trial.

Unfortunately losing custom set image frame properties when updating or replacing a resource file is a known / reported issue, e.g.:

 

Hey Thomaso

Thank you very much for your quick answer!

Yeah, I know.. I spend the whole day trying to figure it out if I was doing something wrong, or if it's a Programm bug (I don't wanted to give up.. :-P).

Hopfully this function will work better in the next release, I think this is a huge problem if working with big large Documents.

But still, I'm very happy with the Affinity Suite!

Have a nice Day!

Cheers

MNU

[Roger Schaerer]

Thanks to all of you and to the Affinity Team. In Affinity 2 this topic is solved!