Problems with affpub file sent from Win 10 to Mac

[Mandoleer]

I've transferred the contents of a PP X9 file to Publisher via pdf, tidied it up as I expected to have to, and saved it as affpub. When emailed to the Mac user over the road, it comes out looking like the untidied up straight from pdf file. When mailed to myself, it comes out in the tidied up version. My colleague swears at her Mac frequently, but in a case like this, it's obviously a Win 10 fault. (sarcasm...) Any ideas, please? The file in question was originated on XP, and transferred to Win 10 quite successfully where I have both Publisher and PP X9 installed (masses of previous work). I don't want to have to set it up again. Especially if I have to do it on her Mac with that horrible one surface does everything mouse. (not sarcasm...)

[Lee D]

If you've sent over an .afpub file I'm guessing they also have Affinity Publisher on macOS. Have you confirm if the Mac user has the same fonts installed/available on their system that you have used within the document as fonts aren't embedded, our apps loads fonts from the OS. If both systems have the same fonts installed can you provide a screenshot from each system on how the file looks when opened?

[Mandoleer]

Yes, they have the Affinity suite, and the fonts are installed on both. I would send screenshot if I knew how - on both systens...  It's a few years since I did one on XP, and haven't needed to on Win 10 up to now. and haven't a clue on Mac. (I used Macs at work up to OS8.6, when there was a change in policy because someone couldn't connect the office Macs onto the new network. A bit of empire building, I thought...

[Mandoleer]

The Screenshot (2) one has some info blanked by a white(ish) box - that is deliberate. Otherwise, that is as it should be. Both should be two A5s up on A4 Landscape. On the Mac one, the map page has the bottom legend on two lines. Margins are set to 1 cm all round and a central gutter of 2 cm. This is because there may be printing on domestic printers of uncertain (to us) types.

[Mandoleer]

I'm sure I only put those on once...

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, Mandoleer said:

I've transferred the contents of a PP X9 file to Publisher via pdf,

The problem is going to be here. Windows Fonts versus Mac Fonts. Not supposed to be a thing, but Windows OS and Mac OS frequently have different versions of the same font. 

Is the PDF opened or Placed and edited in Publisher? Is it Interpreted or Passed Through in the PDF Passthrough box on the Context toolbar?

[Dazmondo77]

Did you not save as package? which is the best way to move a project to another machine, regardless of OS as there can still be problems with font versions. At least if you package the file, you also include the exact version of the font used in your document  

[Mandoleer]

The pdf was published last year from PP X9 for a group emailing. It was opened this year in Pub and tidied up as in the screenshot with the map in it. The saved afpub file was sent to my colleague, with problems that only show on the Mac (both full size and laptop). I have just discovered that Affinity on the big Mac seems unable to access the Calibri font. This is present on the Mac, and Word accesses it with no trouble. In Pub, it's shown as ?Calibri on the font indicator when text is highlighted, but Calibri does not show up in the font list. I don't know what it is displaying in, but it's a heavier looking font. Calibri works well on this Win 10 machine, and used to on the Mac (can't speak for the laptop, though). But apart from that, in the Mac display lines of text are split as they were when the pdf was opened, but these were corrected by me on Win 10 before saving as afpub. I'm used to that happening when importing things - I once had an article from someone typed on an iPad or similar that had three words on each page. (It was a three A5 page article when I'd taken it into LibreOffice, removed all the page breaks, and reimported it...).

To Dazmondo: I have never come across 'package' as a way of doing things, never having had need to find out what it was. (If you're a carpenter, you seldom need a spanner, and mechamics have even less need of planes...)

[Old Bruce]

4 minutes ago, Mandoleer said:

Affinity on the big Mac seems unable to access the Calibri font. This is present on the Mac, and Word accesses it with no trouble

Does Microsoft Word have the fonts on the Mac or are they linked via some cloud system of storage? Can your colleague find them on her Mac using the OS supplied Font Book application?

[Mandoleer]

A lot of furious clicking at the other end of the line reveals that it appears to be cloud based. She did have a major job done not long since, so we will probably have to reinstal. And several other fonts too, no doubt. I don't go for cloud based things. Or things like Microsoft Office that you have to rent. I paid for X9, and the Affinity suite because they are reasonably priced (but hard to find things in...), and I use LibreOffice for the things it's good at, like spreadsheets and labels from a database (and it's free...). Will be back at it tomorrow. Both out tonight.

[kenmcd]

The odd spaces in the PDF image look like the the problem with spaces when importing PDFs.
In some PDFs some of the "spaces" are actually empty gaps and the importing app has to guess at the spacing. This often results in some odd character tracking settings in the APub doc.
It would be helpful to examine the actual PDFs to see if this is an issue.
So if you can, please attach the PDFs.
And if you can attach the APub doc we can check the tracking.
If that is the issue, the fix is to reset the tracking, and insert actual spaces where needed.

Regarding Calibri, it is not a normal Mac font, it is supplied with MS Office.
If your Mac friend has "rented" Microsoft 365 then Calibri may be a cloud font.
Cloud fonts are not available in apps other then Office.
That would explain the ?Calibri  in APub on the Mac.
APub cannot see the font so it shows as missing.
On Windows you can just find the CloudFonts cache, right-click on the font(s), and select Install for All Users, and then it will be available to other apps.
You may be able to do something similar on the Mac.

 

[Dazmondo77]

17 hours ago, Mandoleer said:

To Dazmondo: I have never come across 'package' as a way of doing things, never having had need to find out what it was. (If you're a carpenter, you seldom need a spanner, and mechamics have even less need of planes...)

???? if you're a graphic designer the best tool for the job, if moving a job to another machine is 'save as package' before PDF's became a print standard, package or collect for output in Quark, Freehand, InDesign, Pagemaker was the only successful way of sending stuff to a print service provider and getting you're job printed properly - unless you where to convert text to paths 

I'd be interested to know if 'save as package' would package the exact Calibri font if it is a cloud font? 

 

[Mandoleer]

Thanks to all. The split line problem is just one of those things that have to be lived with, I think. The restoring of some missing faults has cured the rather weird appearance of the file. Sorry for delay in replying - have spent past two days 'driving' imaginary vehicles along obscure back lanes looking for road signs, etc, so that other people will know where to turn when they visit certain camp sites - or at least they can't blame up when they satnav their route and it takes them the wrong way... When this thing is out of the way, I'll look into other methods of transferring data. I've only really used pdf, but in my PageMaker days there was something else I rarely used as most of my stuff was printed in house. Thanks again.