Bleed Issues When Exporting (Designer)

[JeffreyDriver]

Hi,

When exporting as PDF, the bleeds aren't exporting. I searched the forums and found something similar from over 2 years ago. Is this still a bug?

The crop marks in the PDF show the edges of the art board, and as you can see, there's no bleed. It's set to 3 mm.

Kraft Flyer A6.pdf Kraft Flyer A6 A.afdesign

[Old Bruce]

43 minutes ago, JeffreyDriver said:

When exporting as PDF, the bleeds aren't exporting

There are two check boxes in the More... section or the PDF export pane in the Export Persona and both need to be checked, Bleed and Show Printers Marks

[JeffreyDriver]

I'm sure I am.

[thomaso]

@Old Bruce, do you get bleed if you export 1 or more selected artboards at a time via File > Export > Area > Selection only?

This way seems to deny me bleed even though it is ticked, while bleed exports only works for either single artboard or whole document exports.
Alternatively I get bleed via the export persona, but this way it results in only 1 artboard per PDF, too.

  ...

I wonder if it's related to this topic (which unfortunately doesn't mention how/if it was solved indeed): 
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/140766-designer-struggle-with-export-and-bleed-option/

 

[lacerto]

(...)

[HazelEm]

I cannot get my bleed for my business cards artwork to print! I have set up the document with bleed, exported by selecting PDF/X-4, ticked the bleed boxes in both places and it's not working. Is this something to do with using art boards or not? The document pasteboard does not indicate there's a bleed applied suggesting it's not working? Very frustrating!

 

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Lagarto said:

The checkbox is grayed out (though the check mark is not cleared,

You can have both grayed out states for bleed box: checked / unchecked – it depends on the order of your settings. As soon you choose "Selection" as area it gets grayed out in its current state. So if you first set the details in "More" + choose the area "Selection" afterwards you get it checked.

Besides this UI issue: I could understand if "Selection" does disable bleed if "Selection" would be possible for layers of only 1 artboard, then a selected object might not even touch the artboard edges and therefore bleed as artboard property wouldn't appear or make sense if appears for the selected object. But in AD you may choose several whole artboards when choosing the export area "Selection" without losing the according layer selection.

I assume it's a bug with handling artboards / a not finalized UI.

When I open the .afdesign in APub and turn the artboards to pages then I can choose the export area "Selection" only for objects of 1 page (as I never can select layers of several pages in APub). If I then select a layer which exceeds the page size then its gets exported in its entire dimensions (more than page + bleed) but gets the corp marks just added at its edges (not at bleed).

[lacerto]

(...)

[JeffreyDriver]

Thanks everyone. Yes, it looks like a bug. I exported each individually, and that worked.

[Hangman]

22 hours ago, thomaso said:

do you get bleed if you export 1 or more selected artboards at a time via File > Export > Area > Selection only?

This way seems to deny me bleed even though it is ticked, while bleed exports only works for either single artboard or whole document exports.
Alternatively I get bleed via the export persona, but this way it results in only 1 artboard per PDF, too.

I believe this is expected behaviour and not a bug...

Quote

Area—instead of exporting the whole page, you can export the currently selected layer content, with or without other (deselected) layers, using the 'Selection Area' or 'Selection Only' options.

If you have a series of say A6 Artboards each with a full bleed background using a 5mm bleed then the Artboards are each 105mm x 148mm and the backgrounds (including bleed) are 115mm x 158mm. The Artboard has the bleed not the background so exporting either an individual Named artboard or the Whole document with bleed gives the expected result.

 

Exporting either one or more selected artboards at a time to PDF will give one of two results based on

1. Whether Selecion Area or Selection Only is the option chosen
2. Which Layer or Layers are selected in either one or more artboards

By selecting the full bleed background in the Layers palette for one of the Artboards then exporting and choosing Selection Only, I would expect the resulting PDF to be 115mm x 158mm (the size of the full bleed background inclusive of bleed).

I would also expect the Include bleed option to be greyed out because as mentioned above, it is the Artboard and not the selected layer which has the bleed. You still have the option under More to include or exclude crop marks but if you include crop marks, these will now be for the selected layer which doesn't have any bleed and therefore the crop marks reflect this (see below)...

 

Likewise, the Area included when choosing Select Area as the export option is dependent on which layers are selected in the Layers palette across one or more Artboards...

So here, even though only two Layers are selected across three Artboards, everything visible contained within that area (defined by the blue selection border) is included in the exported PDF and because it is the Artboards and not the Layers themselves that have the bleed, the crop marks are positioned at the corners or the selected area with the physical bleed not shown. The bleed is only shown when the Artboard/s are selected rather than individual layers.

 

And with a different selection made from the third Artboard, again with crop marks (which can be turned off if desired) indicating the Selection Area.

 

 

[Hangman]

13 hours ago, HazelEm said:

I cannot get my bleed for my business cards artwork to print! I have set up the document with bleed, exported by selecting PDF/X-4, ticked the bleed boxes in both places and it's not working. Is this something to do with using art boards or not? The document pasteboard does not indicate there's a bleed applied suggesting it's not working? Very frustrating!

@HazelEm are you able to attach a sample of your business card artwork (even with just a couple of the Artboards). It will be something obvious but it's difficult to determine exactly without being able to take a look at your file.

[lacerto]

(...)

[Hangman]

3 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

one cannot have multiple artboards with bleeds and crop marks within the same PDF file

I'm slightly confused, when I exported the OP's original file as a Whole document, it appears to export as expected, with bleed and crop marks (see attached), am I missing something here?

I do think there are a couple of issues with the Selection Area and Selection Only options though...

1. I would actually expect the Selection Area export to visually include bleed in the exported PDF if the selected area includes it, currently it doesn't
2. If selecting Artboards (rather than individual Layers within Artboards, I would expect both the Selection Area and Selection Only options to either be greyed out or simply not available since they don't seem to achieve any meangingful purpose in that scenario

Kraft Flyer A6 Export.pdf

[lacerto]

(...)

[thomaso]

31 minutes ago, Hangman said:

I'm slightly confused, when I exported the OP's original file as a Whole document, it appears to export as expected, with bleed and crop marks (see attached), am I missing something here?

The missing thing here is the ability to export artboards + bleed but not the whole document or single artboards only.

Since the area setting appears as an option to limit the export range to certain artboards it indicates to export artboards with bleed if artboards are selected (e.g. with the artboard tool) and the bleed option is chosen before the area option. It works to export selected artboards – but lacks in bleed.

Do you see a way to export   +  some artboards only  +   with bleed  +   in 1 PDF?

[lacerto]

(...)

[Hangman]

16 minutes ago, thomaso said:

The missing thing here is the ability to export artboards + bleed but not the whole document or single artboards only.

Okay, now I understand the issue and yes, you're right... it seems what AD is missing is this...

[lacerto]

(...)

[thomaso]

21 minutes ago, Hangman said:

it seems what AD is missing is this...

… while this page range option of APub isn't entirely missing – you may use "Selection" successfully – it just lacks in exporting with bleed included.

Meanwhile (or since 2019 according to its tag afd-3603) it appears to be acknowledged as a bug:

 

[Hangman]

3 minutes ago, thomaso said:

… while this page range option of APub isn't entirely missing – you may use "Selection" successfully – it just lacks in exporting with bleed included.

True... and hopefully there will be a fix sometime soon.

[jasongood]

I'm having similar issues

i found that this worked for me, bit of a pain in the arse but i managed to export with bleed.

hope this helps.

 

Jay

 

[Hangman]

@jasongood but that's exporting from Publisher rather than Designer (I believe). Instead of exporting every page (as you appear to be doing looking at those page numbers), exporting as a Whole document should work and achieve the same thing, is that not the case?

The issue in Designer appears to be the ability to export selected pages (rather than all pages) inclusive of bleed and crop marks.

You can place your Artboards from Designer into a Publisher Document and convert them to spreads which will allow you to export selective pages that do then include both bleed and crop but in doing so you lose the integrity of the original Designer Artboards.

[jasongood]

@Hangman there doesn't appear to be a "whole document" option from the dropdown in Publisher, hence me entering all pages.

this is a problem with affinity Publisher, ...the include bleed is greyed out and not selectable for "all pages" which is a problem when your

document to export has lots pf pages (mine had 40).

The "include bleed" did work fine at some point. I've exported 5 other documents and had them printed, and i haven't changed the way i export. it just seems to have

stopped working the way it did.

[lacerto]

(...)

[floflo]

Hey people, sorry i could not make sense of this thread. 

Multi art board document, my expectation: 
File → Export → Check "Include Bleed" → Exported file contains Bleed. 

But that only works if you have only 1 art board.

That's a massive bug, isn't it?  Has Affinity aknowledged it?