Part of page not printed

[RM f/g]

Attached threre's a page made with Affinity Publisher (1.10.5.1282 beta), exported to pdf using the ‘press ready’ preset.

There seems to be a challenge with the little man with the newspaper under his arm, bottom near left.

The drawing is an rgb image set to opacity 100% multiply to reveal the coloured vector object below.

In the resulting pdf this drawing still has the blend mode set to multiply, so no flattening has been applied.

Now, as it appears this little man doesn't show up in the printed newspaper at all. Judging from the photo, it looks like only a vague image is visible (I haven't seen an actual printed paper copy yet).

No problems when printed on a laser printer.

Is there anyone out there with more experience in the printing business who can think of an explanation for this? The multiply blend mode seems to be causing this result. But why?

DNSk_2022-03_p02.pdf

[MikeW]

The image is still in rgb, the vector is using cmyk. If this is a proof from the print establishment, their press process isn't flattening the combination well enough.

You could try the pdf/x-1a to force flattening the combined object. But I would likely just create all black assets in 100%K.

Does the print establishment have a desired pdf specification?

[RM f/g]

 

The printer asks for pdf/x-1a:2001 which I used in my InDesign days. Since the transfer to Publisher I used pdf/x-1a:2003, but that resulted in a number of placed ads (pdf, passthrough) being pixelated.

So this time I went for the Press Ready preset and didn't see any problems in the resulting pdf. I tested the flattening in Acrobat and I expected the printer's RIP to handle this well also. Shouldn't have, as it seems.

[MikeW]

50 minutes ago, RM f/g said:

The printer asks for pdf/x-1a:2001 which I used in my InDesign days. Since the transfer to Publisher I used pdf/x-1a:2003, but that resulted in a number of placed ads (pdf, passthrough) being pixelated.

So this time I went for the Press Ready preset and didn't see any problems in the resulting pdf. I tested the flattening in Acrobat and I expected the printer's RIP to handle this well also. Shouldn't have, as it seems.

As you've found, at current Affinity applications cannot passthrough like ID, QXP, Viva Designer...if/when a pdf is set to passthrough. Affinity applications pretty much require the same level of pdf as the target type. In your case, pdf/x-1a else there can/will be rasterization.

The only way I know of to deal with it and obtain consistent, good results, is to use Acrobat (or pdfToolbox) to change the pdf type, pre-rasterize (using any pdf editor capable of doing so with sufficient dpi) , etc., any pdf not originating under your control.

Hopefully, in this case, they can handle it themselves (because they could if they wanted to).

[Wosven]

I would tend to avoid possible errors, and like in the old days, work importing CMYK files only, avoiding transparency or effects  that won't be correctly converted, etc.

 

PS. There's a typo in your text:

Quote

alle artikelen die op de website
verschenen zijn, direct en hele-
maal voor niks in uw e-mailinbox.
U kunt uzelf heel eenvoudig aan-
melden: ga naar www.denijmeeg-
sestadskrant/nieuwsbrief en vul

Should be something like: www.denijmeegsestadskrant.nl/nieuwsbrief

the hyphen is problematic... can you try to get it at least cut like this:

blabla bla blabla www.
denijmeegsestadskrant.nl/
nieuwsbrief blabla bla blab

Or in a single line at the bottom of the article?

[lacerto]

If you export using the default "PDF (press ready)" but force image color space conversion to CMYK, you are most likely to get a Device-CMYK PDF where PDFs placed for passthrough will truly be passed through, and all RGB images are converted to CMYK. However if the printer also requires flattened transparencies, you'd need to use PDF version 1.4, which then not only causes rasterization of transparent parts, but also rasterization of all placed PDF parts that are beyond version 1.4.

But otherwise these non-PDF/X-based export settings are most compatible if you.have placed PDFs in the job (all PDF/X-based export methods are likely to cause rasterization of placed PDFs, often even if there are no "version conflicts"):

 

The settings above were used to export the following Affinity Designer created PDF 1.7 document placed in a Publisher document to be passed through:

pdf17_from_ad.pdf

doesthiswork.pdf

It retains the original document's overprinted 100% Y, K100 of the black ellipse, keeps the text as a font, and retains the correct transparencies. It would work fine if the printer accepts transparencies, and would be problem-free in that respect that everything is device CMYK and no profiles are involved. Transparencies would also be flattened at full resolution on RIP, rather than by Affinity app (at document resolution).

Trying to export this job using any PDF/X method (even PDF/X-4 using PDF 1.6 version) would rasterize everything, and damage all color values:

doesthiswork_pdfx4.pdf

But to preflight these kinds of Affinity produced jobs would not be easy, because they often confuse Adobe Acrobat Pro, which would show the color values incorrectly in Output Preview, and in this case disregarding the used simulation profile (below the correct target is selected). The values displayed below are when the picker is on top of the black K100 ellipse, and the preview cannot simulate overprinting, either:

 

...so the objects would need to be viewed by using Object Inspector:

 

...or by opening the PDF in another preflight checker:

 

...or by opening it e.g. in Adobe Illustrator, which keeps the overprint status of the object fills and strokes;

So in situations where the job contains linked/embedded PDFs to be passed through, and the PDF version numbers are not known, I would try exporting using "PDF (for press)" with settings shown above, and if transparencies are required to be flattened, would rasterize the affected parts in Affinity Publisher.

[MikeW]

Or just use an application where one doesn't need to faff about. Time is money and all that. 

The last large magazine I worked on had 100+ ads. Most from known applications, some from ones I never heard of. If the above was my workflow, I would have gone utterly insane. 

[RM f/g]

Thanks for your contributions, everyone.

This evening I'll have a closer look at the files Legarto sent. Thanks a lot for your trouble.

At the moment I tend to return to the safe side and stick to pdf/x. It's more work on the ads, changing them to pdf/x before placing, but if that's what it takes…

The typo: thanks for pointing this out, Wosven. I saw it has actually been there since december 2019. Nobody noticed before. And I don't usually read everyting I place. I also rewrote the sentence, so now it breaks after the slash (like in the original InDesign file).

I also traced the drawing of the newspaper man and placed that vector file, so that's less prone to adventurous behaviour in a next issue.

On the side: ads supplied can be made in Word or Powerpoint and not necessarily in the desired size. But even ads made by a professional (?) designer have to be checked. I remember an ad which had pantone colours, same colour number, but mixed coated and uncoated versions. Looked fine on screen…