Pyanepsion Posted November 18, 2021 Posted November 18, 2021 Hello everyone. When exporting a PDF file: What are the common fonts that do not need to be included? The one from the PDF 1.7 standard? How to flatten a layer? Thank you for your explanations. 🔴Once again, there is a big confusion on the part of the Affinity French translation team. They translated ‘Uncommon fonts’ as ‘Polices rares’, which is not really the same thing! For example, in the world, the penny is an uncommon currency, but it is not rare; the almost bald man has rare hair, but his hair is still very common. There is probably also a misunderstanding in the translation of ‘font’ by ‘police’; it is more likely that it is a typeface: Helvetica is probably a rather common font, but Helvetica Light is a really uncommon font. Wosven 1 Quote 6 cœurs, 12 processus - Windows 11 pro - 4K - DirectX 12 - Suite universelle Affinity (Affinity Publisher, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo). ███ Mais je vous le demande, peut-on imaginer une police sans sérifs ?
walt.farrell Posted November 18, 2021 Posted November 18, 2021 7 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said: How to flatten a layer? I don't think you can flatten a single layer during Export. You can Rasterize everything, or nothing, or unsupported properties, but I think those are your only choices during Export. Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC:    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090   Laptop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2, 16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.3, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1
Hangman Posted November 18, 2021 Posted November 18, 2021 3 hours ago, Pyanepsion said: How to flatten a layer? Why do you want or need to flatten a layer? Quote Affinity Designer 2.5.7 | Affinity Photo 2.5.7 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.7 Affinity Designer Beta 2.6.0.3106 | Affinity Photo Beta 2.6.0.3106 | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.6.0.3106 MacBook Pro M3 Max, 36 GB Unified Memory, macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, Magic Mouse HP ENVY x360, 8 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, Windows 10 Home, Logitech Mouse
Pyanepsion Posted November 18, 2021 Author Posted November 18, 2021 @Hangman When creating a PDF file, many guides explain that when content is placed on top of other content, transparencies can occur. Unflattened layers and transparencies can lead to loading and subsequent production errors. It is then required to ensure the transparencies and layers are flattened. This is a requirement, but I can’t find out how to do it in the Affinity suite. Quote 6 cœurs, 12 processus - Windows 11 pro - 4K - DirectX 12 - Suite universelle Affinity (Affinity Publisher, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo). ███ Mais je vous le demande, peut-on imaginer une police sans sérifs ?
walt.farrell Posted November 18, 2021 Posted November 18, 2021 Just now, Pyanepsion said: It is then required to ensure the transparencies and layers are flattened. Is "flattened" different from "rasterized" in this context?  Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC:    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090   Laptop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2, 16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.3, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1
Hangman Posted November 18, 2021 Posted November 18, 2021 3 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said: This is a requirement, but I can’t find out how to do it in the Affinity suite. It depends on the PDF spec the printer is working with, e.g., neither PDF/X1-a:2001 and PDF/X1-a:2003 support true transparency so when exporting to these formats, if this is the requirement from the printing company then any transparency in the artwork will automatically be flattened but layers will be maintained in the pdf file. There is a PDF (flatten) preset as well you can use, this flattens all layers in the source artwork to a single layer using PDF 1.6 (Acrobat 7) compatibility. I'd liaise with the printer and check if they have a specific pdf spec they need you to use. Quote Affinity Designer 2.5.7 | Affinity Photo 2.5.7 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.7 Affinity Designer Beta 2.6.0.3106 | Affinity Photo Beta 2.6.0.3106 | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.6.0.3106 MacBook Pro M3 Max, 36 GB Unified Memory, macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, Magic Mouse HP ENVY x360, 8 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, Windows 10 Home, Logitech Mouse
Wosven Posted November 18, 2021 Posted November 18, 2021 In French we can relate "flatten" or "flattening" to "Aplatir", that is similar or derived from "flatten transparency", used in Acrobat, for example, or for flattening layers in PS. I should admit I never hear (but on technical discussions or article) of "rasterizing/raster", before this forum. And it'slogical, since people coming from Adobe or other apps don't have image and pixel layers. Everything is supposedly already pixels, unless you use the few vector objects available or use smart objects. @Pyanepsion  I usually keep one version in French and the other inEnglish for screenshot, or simply for meaningful menu entries. Some translationsare so bad that I don't even try to use them since they are misleading and can look unecessary...  (I can't write past the following @, and can't delete it...) @Pyanepsion Quote
Wosven Posted November 18, 2021 Posted November 18, 2021 8 hours ago, Pyanepsion said: What are the common fonts that do not need to be included? The one from the PDF 1.7 standard? How to flatten a layer? 1. The common ones provided with OSes, usually called "web" fonts since they are common so web pages will be displayed similarly — if this is possible depending all the differents options available —, for everyone. w3schools gives this list: Arial (sans-serif) Verdana (sans-serif) Helvetica (sans-serif) Tahoma (sans-serif) Trebuchet MS (sans-serif) Times New Roman (serif) Georgia (serif) Garamond (serif) Courier New (monospace) Brush Script MT (cursive) But I crossed out the ones that aren't available on all systems. They are usually ordered by family (serif, sans-serif, monospace...), and each system use a default font for each family, usually. On a web page, if you provide a list of fonts to use, the favorite in first, and the family at last, it should be displayed respecting the intend, if a font or one of the family is available. Since you can't do this on a PDF, it'll use whatever default font is available or set, and the result can be different from expected, since text isn't reflowable.  2. Flattening layers, as explained by @Hangman , can be achieve with some PDF presets — like PDF 1.3 and PDF/X-1a:2001 —, to avoid processing of some data that can result in differences between what is on screen and what is printed. But it'll keep if possible the vector parts, if they use solid colors (or are converted to solid colors in the export), and aren't affected by effects or blend mode. "No transparency" is related to objects, effects... if at some point objects blend together or with the background, they'll be rasterised when creating the PDF. It means that what you'll see on your PDF will be what you'll get on paper... if you don't have a bugged font or color profil problems... but it's the safest settings possible. That's what we use and what our printers 'd rather get. It's unpleasant to have to reprint a small document... it's worste if it's a large print run, or a complicated one costing also a lot. Since in the process, everything will be rasterised and converted to plates, it's safer. When there's a problem and need to reprint, searching who is responsible (and should pay) is a difficult part... it's better to avoid it. And since today, everyone is asked to do thing the fastest way, usually spending less time on checking or quality check... Depending of what you're doing, you can have a higher resolution than 300 in your PDF (interesting for images with small text, for example). I'm actually wondering about doing the same for a book with a lot of illustrations, since some are really detailed. I'll ask a friend that is a "fabriquant" (the one who manage, choose and check the paper, the quality, the files we send to print). walt.farrell, Hangman and Pyanepsion 3 Quote
Pyanepsion Posted November 19, 2021 Author Posted November 19, 2021 1. The PDF 1.7 standard is intended to standardize fonts that should be systemically recognized by all systems. In this list, one font is paid: the Helvetica font. One font (it is free) is not provided with Windows: Zapf Dingbats. The list of the standard ISO 32000-1:2008 is : Courier in regular, bold, italic, bold-italic; Helvetica in regular, bold, italic, bold-italic; Times New Roman in regular, bold, italic, bold-italic; Symbol in normal; Zapf Dingbats in normal. It would be nice if an administrator could answer this basic question: which fonts do not need to be included in a file? 2. The printers I work with regularly prefer PDF/X. I supply in PDF/X-4 (this version dates from 2008, and uses PDF 1.6). The Quality Control in Adobe Acrobat shows me transparencies. 3. Adobe Acrobat also tells me that the black ink coverage is too high. Black is greater than 85% (100%) and all 280% (310.6%). C75 M68 Y67 K100. For these questions 2 and 3, maybe I need to go through an ICC profile? If so, in which case and how do I add it to the existing profiles? 8 hours ago, Wosven said: I usually keep one version in French and the other in English for screenshot, or simply for meaningful menu entries. Some translations are so bad that I don’t even try to use them since they are misleading and can look unnecessary… It’s the same for me. The French translation of the Affinity suite is a real horror that accumulates false meanings and misunderstandings galore. It’s about time Serif brought in real translation professionals who really know the world of DTP. I can already imagine the answer of the decision-makers: ‘No! Certainly not. With such a small market share, the French-speaking countries do not earn enough to invest in a real translation.’ Except that it is precisely because of this poor translation that the French-speaking DTP market, which is one of the best in the world, is reluctant to buy the Affinity suite. No one, except for a few individuals, wants to work with software that is not really in their language. Quote 6 cœurs, 12 processus - Windows 11 pro - 4K - DirectX 12 - Suite universelle Affinity (Affinity Publisher, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo). ███ Mais je vous le demande, peut-on imaginer une police sans sérifs ?
Wosven Posted November 19, 2021 Posted November 19, 2021 10 hours ago, Lagarto said: E.g. Adobe apps flatten transparencies (incl. blend modes) but keep objects in vector format. I know too, but about the other apps, unless we've got possibilities to do some tests — or other users doing them —, it's safer to assume they don't, like the Affinity apps. I recently had to modify a PDF for a client (modifying the baground image on an ad), with minimal tools, like ID and Acrobat (and partly Affinity apps, but for simple things, since it can't export to PDF 1.3), and was happily surprised to get vector objects instead of myriad of small images when a pattern with transparency or effect was used on the original background. It was easier and faster to bring together the different parts in ID to export the new ad. Quote
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