Affinity Publisher Rasterising Linked CAD files

[Jim_Tim]

Hi everyone,

I have found previously that Affinity Publisher has struggled (at times) to maintain vector lines when PDF'ing certain drawings when linked into a large document. I've even had it when half a drawing on a sheet has been maintained as vector lines and half of the drawing being rasterised - which is a bit strange.

However, recently I have noticed that even in the live document the imported/linked drawings have been rasterised within the document - therefore appearing rasterised even before PDF'ing. Is this a new issue? It's rasterising even the most simple of CAD drawings with no hatches or anything  - see below:

VECTOR:

Linked file in AffPub (RASTERISED):

 

 

Can anybody shed any light on what is happening here?

 

 

[walt.farrell]

It would help to have a sample file.

[Jim_Tim]

Thanks for replying so promptly Walt 🙂

Please see attached for sample files (I've included the original PDFs that are linked into the document too).

SAMPLE EXISTING.pdf SAMPLE PROPOSED.pdf Sample File.afpub

[Fixx]

My guess is Publisher is showing a preview for linked PDFs. It exports as proper vector PDF anyway. If you embed it it is editable within Publisher.

Maybe this is because PDF passthrough feature? Are all linked PDFs passthrough as a rule?

[Jim_Tim]

3 hours ago, Fixx said:

My guess is Publisher is showing a preview for linked PDFs. It exports as proper vector PDF anyway. If you embed it it is editable within Publisher.

Maybe this is because PDF passthrough feature? Are all linked PDFs passthrough as a rule?

Ahhh... yes - they were on the 'passthrough' setting - so appeared as rasterised in the live document. Is this feature to help speed up the document when working in it? That's fine either way.

Anyway, that has solved that particular issue - so thank you very much for that.

What is still happening though - is partial rasterising of drawings after they have been exported to a PDF - see below:

It looks like Affinity Publisher rasterises any areas which are near to 'effects' like 'drop shadows' - see below image. However, in the first image there are no trees/drop shadows in the area shown - so why would it rasterise this area? Very strange.

 

Another example here (below). Everything to the left of the red dotted line (drawn in Adobe PDF) looks to be rasterised and everything to the right of the dotted line remains as vectors. It almost looks as though everything to the left of the 'drop shadows' have been rastered. It all seems very inconsistent.

 

I actually don't mind too much about the trees and drop shadows being rasterised - but why is it rasterising the rest of the drawing!?

[Fixx]

3 hours ago, Jim_Tim said:

I actually don't mind too much about the trees and drop shadows being rasterised - but why is it rasterising the rest of the drawing!?

I think it handles the whole drawing as an element and rasterizes it when effect shadow touches it in any part. That has been a problem since transparency effects were introduced in early InDesign. Possibly you can get around that by enclosing effected element to a vector container but it is probably too much hassle.. if it even works.