iPad Designer: PDF dimensions don’t match the artboard

[VectorCat]

I began a multi-page document in the Pages app in which the pages are square..IIRC, they are 8” square. I made a PDF from this document which I opened in Designer to complete the project. Everything looks great in Designer - the artboards are indeed square - but PDFs made from this document are cut off vertically. When I resize the document, I’m not shown square-page dimensions!

Where is Designer taking its marching orders from in terms of page size?

 

Thank you!

[Alfred]

6 hours ago, VectorCat said:

PDFs made from this document are cut off vertically

How much are they cut off? Does it make a difference if the artboard is positioned at whole pixel coordinates?

[Dan C]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble! Are you able to provide a copy of the PDF file / Affinity document in question please?

If you'd like a private upload link for this, please do let me know

[DM1]

@Dan CPrinting PDFs in Designer is problematic. In another thread (linked below) I found that printing A4 Doc as pdf from Export and printing from Print (in Document menu) result in different physical dimensions. Doc was set up as A4 print (Press Ready).
Export is A4. Print (form Workscreen) is smaller.
 

Size viewed in Documents app:
Doc printed from Export menu print is 210x297mm 
Same Doc printed using Document menu print is only 102x152mm

 

[VectorCat]

Sad news, but thank you for sharing that, DM1

I’d assume that this issue is more an A-list item to be corrected since PDF is such an important part of modern workflow.

Meanwhile, do people simply avoid printing PDFs from iPad Designer?

[DM1]

8 hours ago, VectorCat said:

Meanwhile, do people simply avoid printing PDFs from iPad Designer?

The issue appears to be printer specific. My old Epson Photo printer resized prints from Designer but my new printer Epson ET-3700 works perfectly (no resizing).

A workaround for my old printer that gave correct size:
To print PDF use Export, tap Share, tap Print. (Should be fine).

See below. Export PDF to Documents and View info Shows File is A4 (correct size). You can print directly from Share Sheet too. If you have a printer app loaded for your printer (available on App Store), you tap on the page view of print screen you get another share sheet, then you can select your printer app. This may offer more access to printer settings than apples print interface. Mine does🙂

[VectorCat]

This is great for getting the multi-artboard document put to a paper size, which is great and I thank you for this idea.

However, still remains to be..adjusted is Designer’s ability to put a multi-artboard document to PDF to artboard dimensions, irrespective of electro-mechanical printing machines and / or paper sizes.

Contrast to the way Pages produces PDFs from a custom-page-size and multi-page document: if your page is 8” x 8” you get a PDF of that dimension. On-screen, viewer sees a square-page PDF, without a margin of “paper” surrounding it. Naturally, were you to print said 8” x 8” PDF onto paper, you’d end up with blank paper surrounding the live area.

If I understand correctly, Designer should  be able to do this, but at this time, is unable to do so.

[DM1]

20 hours ago, VectorCat said:

If I understand correctly, Designer should  be able to do this, but at this time, is unable to do so.

Designer CAN do this but only when you Export as PDF and print. (See third image). 
When you open a pdf in Designer the pages are represented as Artboards. In Design Persona, Designer always prints ALL Artboards as a single document page, (hence resizing), when using Doc/Print menu. I assume this is by Design, and not a bug.
You want/expect it to print individual Artboards as separate pages?

 

[VectorCat]

Thank you!