Ghost outlines on graghic layers beneath when exporting to PDF for print in Affinity Publisher, not showing up on my pdf export, but visible on pdf proof provided by book publisher.

[Kata K]

Hello,

I have a multi page booklet in Affinity Publisher with Affinity designer graphics , black and white, and when I export to "PDF for print" my exported file looks fine.

However, after I upload the PDF to the publisher (book publisher), the PDF they send me back as a proof has these ghost lines showing through on a few, not all, of the pages.  The layers they are showing up in are filled layers.  In Affinity Publisher and in Designer these lines are not showing, they only come up after being uploaded to the book publisher. Any ideas?

Thank you!

[Pšenda]

Is the opacity of these layers 100%?

[Kata K]

Thanks for your reply. Well, I thought so, as I checked before putting this post up but after looking more closely, I noticed it is happening on elements that I used an fx effect on and in those fx dialog boxes I noticed that the opacity was Not 100%. So, I am going to go back and check all of those and try again. If that doesn't fix it I will be back...

[lacerto]

10 hours ago, Kata K said:

Any ideas?

Just out of curiosity: which export method (PDF preset or its modification) did you use to deliver the job? Unresolved renderings sometimes cause these kinds of "surprises".

[Kata K]

Hello Lagarto,

I exported with PDF for print, and tried "rasterize none" which screwed up a bunch of graphics that were previously fine and it didn't fix the problem. Then I realized it was happening to everything I had used an fx effect on, mostly inner and outer shadows. And even though I went back and made sure I had the Opacity at 100% in the dialog box for the fx effects (before I posted my problem, I checked my fills on the regular graphics but forgot about that separate opacity command), it still didn't fix the problem. So I removed all fx effects and that fixed the problem. So not sure why that caused that...that part is still a mystery. Also, this showed up on nothing on my end, no exports and not even the proofs the publisher showed me online. Only the proof pdf they sent back to me showed it. 

[lacerto]

Thanks for the update. A strange problem, indeed. It appears to be related to mixed color modes getting resolved and transparencies flattened in the printer's PDF. The fx and adjustments, and blend modes, can look remarkably different when the job is finally rasterized so when targeting to print, it might be a good idea to use PDF/X-1a export method (even if not used for final export) to do a reality check every now and then and see if there are major differences to what you see on the screen. Placing Designer documents within a Publisher document might also cause surprises, especially if the Designer documents have anything "live" in their layers. 

[Kata K]

I will certainly use the PDF/X-1a export to see what's going on from now on. All of the graphics came from Designer, so I will also check those layers more carefully now. Thank you for your help and suggestions!