FuzzyMonkey Posted January 12, 2022 Posted January 12, 2022 Greetings, Just purchased all three affinity apps, Designer, Photo and Publisher. I'm running a newer MacBook pro with Monterey 12.1 I just purchased the affinity apps yesterday, no upgrades, no other software on my computer. The reason for purchasing and working with Publisher was from watching an Affinity training video which shows two ways to open / bring in PDF documents into Affinity publisher. My goal is to import the pdf versions of my books to make edits and updates. The PDFs of the books were created by a contractor who used inDesign and exported to PDF for me to use. Now that I have Affinity Publisher, I'd like to open them in Affinity Publisher. When I attempt to perform this operation, by either method descriptor in the Affinity Publisher video, neither method works. I'm immediately given a window which states "The file could not be parsed." I've tried two different PDF documents that I've had for quit some time, neither file/PDF opens in Affinity publisher. I get the parsing error. I'll attache the screen images I'm seeing for you reference. I tried both methods described in the video, drag and dropping the PDF into affinity publisher and the second open, the traditional method, open affinity publisher, navigating to the file and open, then selecting the PDF. Either method gives me the error message "The file could not be parsed," My questions: I've not seen this when I search the forums, or maybe I'm searching the incorrect term or method? Is this a newbie mistake? am I doing something wrong? Has anyone else had this issue? How do I fix it? Can I attache the PDF I'm using to this thread? is that appropriate? Thank you, David Quote
walt.farrell Posted January 13, 2022 Posted January 13, 2022 Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums. That Serif sometimes indicates that the PDF file is broken. In that case opening it in another application that can re-save it might fix the problem. Or perhaps that error could indicate that the PDF is in a format that the Affinity applications don't understand. If you want to share it publicly here feel free to do so, and maybe we can tell you more. It would probably be better for your workflow if you had the contractor produce IDML files for you. You should have much better information transfer from InDesign to Publisher in that format than you'll have in PDF, even if the PDF works. 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 18.3.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1
royphotog Posted January 13, 2022 Posted January 13, 2022 what are you using to open those PDFs now? Quote
FuzzyMonkey Posted January 13, 2022 Author Posted January 13, 2022 Hi Walt, Many thanks for the response, this is all new to me. I'm learning as I go. When I watched the initial Affinity video on opening and importing files. I thought I was headed in the right direction. I appreciate the feedback and any and all suggestions. I'd be happy to share the file here and will attached it. As info, the PDF is a book I'm wanting to makes some minor changes to. Here was my thought process. I was thinking I'd be able to get my contractor to send me the final PDF of the book, (which I need anyway and have reserved an ISBN for it.) I'd be able to bring this into Affinity Publisher, make the few editing changes and price change on the back cover. That was my goal. My understanding is the .idml file does not include the entire book. The cover layout etc. As a publisher I need two files to upload to my printer, the interior file and the cover file. Both PDF. My book is created in inDesign for print layout first. Then my contractor takes the inDesign files to create the appropriately formatted PDF version of the book with the pages all aligned properly etc. Essentially taking both the interior file and cover layout file and combining them into one solid PDF book. It is this final step/PDF of the full book that I'm attempting to pull into Affinity Publisher, to make the changes I need and to use the format of the final PDF as a template for another book. Does this thinking align with what I can use Affinity Publisher for? Am I off base, or should I consider some other method? To clarify your suggestion, if I can get my contractor to save the final PDF version of the book into .idml, is that something that would work better? Can a final PDF version of the corrected book be saved or created in .idml format to bring into Affinity publisher. Delaware-Post-Office-Mural-Guidebook.pdf Quote
FuzzyMonkey Posted January 13, 2022 Author Posted January 13, 2022 Hi royphotog, I'm using the native Apple Preview Version 11. David Quote
Komatös Posted January 13, 2022 Posted January 13, 2022 Hello @FuzzyMonkey My native PDF editor reports: "The password could not be converted with RFC 3454". Password-protected files cannot be opened with Affinity programs if editing features are excluded. Quote MAC mini M4 | MacOS Sequoia 15.3.2 | 16 GB RAM | 256 GB SSD AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | INTEL Arc A770 LE 16 GB | 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (26100.3194) Affinity Suite V 2.6.1 & Beta 2.6 (latest) Interested in a free (selfhosted) PDF Solution? Have a look at Stirling PDF I already had a halo, but it didn't suit me!
FuzzyMonkey Posted January 13, 2022 Author Posted January 13, 2022 @KomatösThanks for the response, I have two documents I was working with. One that had the password set and the other one that does not have the password set. I must have uploaded the file that had the password set. However, when working on my side, Both files give me the same error. So IDK. One reason for being so adamant about this particular one is that it is the latest version of my series of guidebooks. Meaning it has all the edits, changes and so on that I've been developing over the years. So I was really hoping this particular document could be opened and then I'd be able to work with it and create a new guidebook with the guts of this most current book. If that makes any sense.? @Lagarto Thanks a ton for the detail explanation, that is super helpful. I'm able to get the .dml files from the original designer, but as I mentioned before. However, I only get one .idml file from my designer, which is the interior layout, not the cover design. If the contractor I use combines the .idml interior file with the cover layout, exports this to a PDF and sends it to me that is what I was after. The full book. Since I'm new to this entire process, my thinking is that this would be the easiest way for me to make some minor changes and updates. It would also give me a start and really digging into Publisher and learning how it works. Looks like I have a long way to go. Exciting. This is the first time I've hear of specific PDF editors, I wasn't looking to purchase additional software as I'm on a tie budget to begin with. Are there good free PDF editors? Is this something Apple Preview can handle? I'm disappointed to hear I will loose functionally importing PDF into Publisher. The good thing is that my books are simple enough, that I think I can repair those or re-create them in publisher anyway. It will be a lot to learn on my side, but worth it in the end. I have already noticed that I'm missing fonts and need to figure out how to get the correct fonts installed. Fun times for a Newbie. Your comment as to creating a new Publisher document using the format of the existing PDF is EXACTLY what I was after. How do I do that? The Affinity videos and some online instructions make it should simple. I think I was sold on the passthrough feature and figured I'd be able to handle importing my PDF of the book and then construction a new book in Affinity publisher with the format of my original book. I'm guessing it is not that easy, or I'm missing something more technical. Thanks again for all the responses. back to the drawing board. Quote
Komatös Posted January 13, 2022 Posted January 13, 2022 3 hours ago, FuzzyMonkey said: Thanks again for all the responses. back to the drawing board. Try this time limited trial from Ashampoo. If the page is not (automatically) displayed in the regional language, you can change the country, and thus the language, via the flag symbol. https://www.ashampoo.com/de-de/pdf-pro Quote MAC mini M4 | MacOS Sequoia 15.3.2 | 16 GB RAM | 256 GB SSD AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | INTEL Arc A770 LE 16 GB | 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (26100.3194) Affinity Suite V 2.6.1 & Beta 2.6 (latest) Interested in a free (selfhosted) PDF Solution? Have a look at Stirling PDF I already had a halo, but it didn't suit me!
FuzzyMonkey Posted January 13, 2022 Author Posted January 13, 2022 @Lagartothe last paragraph in the last response is helpful and something along the lines that I'd like to try. Since I'm a newbie, I have a lot to learn, and with just the few days working on this, I can tell I have my hands full. I pulled an older PDF book that was done with the same contractors and was able to open one of them. I'm also finding I need to get up to speed with fonts, as I'm apparently missing fonts. Thanks for all the assistance and feedback. Now that I have at least one of my PDFs imported into Affinity publisher, I can at least get started with using and learning how the software works with content that is specific to the books I'm working on. Quote
Old Bruce Posted January 13, 2022 Posted January 13, 2022 25 minutes ago, FuzzyMonkey said: I pulled an older PDF book that was done with the same contractors and was able to open one of them. I'm also finding I need to get up to speed with fonts, as I'm apparently missing fonts. Stay away from PostScript Type 1 fonts. If it is old files you are working with you may find them being used. They are going the way of the dodo bird. Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 Affinity Designer 2.6.0 | Affinity Photo 2.6.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.6.0 | Beta versions as they appear. I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.
FuzzyMonkey Posted January 14, 2022 Author Posted January 14, 2022 Once again @Lagarto many thanks for the detailed follow up and responses. I'm extremely grateful for the additional explanation especially as a newbie to using desktop publishing software. I have a lot to learn, but it is going to be fun. My process for now is to work with the PDF files that I CAN open for now. That will keep me busy for the foreseeable future. Once I get a better grasp of working with desktop publishing software, I hoping to be able to overcome this initial bump in the road. Up next, how to create that picture in picture, or whatever it is called for my front covers. Thank you, David lacerto 1 Quote
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