PDF Export does not retain layers when opened in Illustrator

[DanBieranowski]

It’s totally possible I’m missing something here, but if I export a PDF from Designer and open the PDF in Illustrator it does not retain the layers. If I do the opposite and export a PDF from Illustrator and open it in Designer, it does retain the layers. I’m not even sure this is an issue with Designer and not Illustrator. If it IS something on the Designer side, I’d love to see this implemented moving forward, as the place I go to for printing requires PDF with specific layers but they use Illustrator so my Designer-created PDFs aren’t acceptable. 

[Callum]

Hi DanBieranowski,

Welcome to the forums

All layers should be included upon export, if you export the PDF then reimport it into Designer are all of the layers there?

Thanks

C

[Joachim_L]

Maybe @DanBieranowski should post an ADesigner file here. What I noticed is, that if in the Layers panel a layer is called (Layer), then Acrobat does not show this name in the layer sidebar of Acrobat.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Joachim_L said:

Maybe @DanBieranowski should post an ADesigner file here. What I noticed is, that if in the Layers panel a layer is called (Layer), then Acrobat does not show this name in the layer sidebar of Acrobat.

It does for me, as long as the More... dialog shows that "Include Layers" is enabled as one of the Export options.

[Jeff Whitfield]

The problem with the "Include Layers" option is that while layers are retained for Affinity Designer they're not retained for Adobe Illustrator. That's a problem. Many printers use Adobe Illustrator to open and print documents sent to them. If they can't view the layers properly then common problems can't be vetted. This happened to me a couple of times with PDF's I've sent to a printer to get UV printing done. The printer knew there was a problem but couldn't view the layers properly for white and gloss and, as such, threw it back at me to fix. Ended up importing it into Adobe Illustrator and exported out an Adobe PDF, which they could then view properly. 

Long story short: Would be really, really, really good to have the option to export out a properly formatted Adobe PDF that retains layers even in Adobe Illustrator. Otherwise, I can't use Affinity Designer...which I really, really, really want to use. I actually prefer it over Adobe Illustrator...but I can't use it for this very reason. :(

[Old Bruce]

Not having access to Illustrator or any other Adobe stuff I cannot check but here is a PDF with some rectangles and some layers do they import as layers in Illustrator? Do the Layers have content? So if someone with the Adobe stuff could check, I exported this as a plain vanilla For Export from Designer's beta. I am just curious.

Untitled.pdf

[poequiqui22]

I am having a similar issue. I downloaded a pdf template from a website. The template had a layer of instructions, a layer of markings and also included an empty layer where you put the artwork. Illustrator (which I hate) was able to open all layers and had them all pre-locked, just as was intended by the original file makers. Affinity designer excluded empty layers and derped on much of the original formatting, leaving me to still have to use illustrator to turn the templates in. This is definitely an issue that needs to be fixed if anyone ever dreams of deleting adobe illustrator forever.

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, poequiqui22 said:

I downloaded a pdf template from a website.

Have you told the website that the pdf files only work with Illustrator? And that you are unhappy with this state of affairs?

[Andriu]

The same thing happened to me today, Illustrator doesn't recognize layers in a PDF exported from Affinity. However if they are in Adobe Acrobat.

[Sm4sh]

Hello everyone,

Any news on this matter?

Having similar issues myself...

Thanks!

[maralatho]

Same problem in Affinity Designer 2 on macOS Ventura 13.0.1.

I export a PDF with layers, but the layers are flattened to a single layer when I reopen in Designer or Illustrator. This means that I can't use Designer and have to keep renting Illustrator.

[walt.farrell]

23 minutes ago, maralatho said:

Same problem in Affinity Designer 2 on macOS Ventura 13.0.1.

I export a PDF with layers, but the layers are flattened to a single layer when I reopen in Designer or Illustrator. This means that I can't use Designer and have to keep renting Illustrator.

PDF layers are PDF layers. But Affinity Layers (capital L) exported into a PDF from Designer should be there when you reopen in Designer. And they are in my tests.

It they are not there in Illustrator, that's an Illustrator issue, I believe.

[tudor]

Illustrator does not support PDF layers.

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, tudor said:

Illustrator does not support PDF layers.

Right. As I said, it's an Illustrator issue.

[maralatho]

Well, if I have three Layers in Designer, export as PDF, and then drag the PDF back into Illustrator or Designer, those three Layers are flattened into a single layer, so....

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, maralatho said:

Well, if I have three Layers in Designer, export as PDF, and then drag the PDF back into Illustrator or Designer, those three Layers are flattened into a single layer, so....

When I create a Designer document with several Layer layers (I used 2), export as a PDF, and Open the PDF in Designer, both Layers are present, with their proper content. V2 samples attached:

layer-test.afdesignlayer-test.pdf

[maralatho]

Shame I can't get it to work.

The NEXT 2022 (4.75 x 8) Rev 2.afdesign The NEXT 2022 (4.75 x 8) Rev 2.pdf

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, maralatho said:

Shame I can't get it to work.

Did you choose the "Include layers" option when exporting?

[maralatho]

I did. I even tried the include hidden layers option. And every export preset. And a bunch of other suggestions such as creating new layers and copying and pasting the contents of the current layers into them. Just can't get it to work. But even if I do get the PDF to re-open in Designer with the layers intact, I'm out of luck if Illustrator still can't see them, because the whole point is to be able to dump Creative Cloud.

[optilude]

I have just tried to do the same thing and it seems to still be an issue. Export to PDF from Affinity Designer, the layers show up in Acrobat Reader but not in Illustrator. And like some others in this thread, I suspect, I'm trying to send this to Tayda Electronics for UV printing.

I assume there is no workaround anyone's found, other than to finalise the design in Illustrator?

It's also not completely clear to me if the UV printing machine that Tayda uses (I suspect something from the Roland Versa range) will actually do fine with that PDF. The problem described by @Jeff Whitfield I think is the manual checking that the Tayda employees do to check if the file is OK before they hit print.