Affinity publisher crashing and not saving PDFs properly

[Tan_tt]

Hi all,

Has anyone had issues with Affinity Publisher crashing on them? It seems to happen often when I have just initiated to save a file I am working on. In most cases, the file actually saves but the app closes itself and disappears completely during the saving process.

The other issue I have come across is when trying to print out a working file as PDF. It often shows it is printing the PDF, but only creates a file that is 0 KB in size. Other times there will be a few pages missing in the created PDF. For example, if it's a 7 page document, the created PDF will only have 3 to 5 pages, with a few missing pages.

Has anyone else had similar issues and have found ways to resolve them? Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Tan 

[NathanC]

Hi @Tan_tt welcome to the forums,

If you're experiencing crashes when performing certain actions I would initially suggest following the FAQ thread below to remove a Windows update which is causing issues within the app.

If you're still experiencing the same issues when saving/exporting on the file, could you perhaps provide me with your .afpub file so I can investigate further? I've provided a private dropbox link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/RFh3pUygqSkx3vhyI6h4

[Tan_tt]

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for your reply. It hasn't been happening with just one working file. It happens with multiple files and at random. There is no set pattern as such. Sometimes file save attempts to PDF format works completely fine, other times 0 KB files are generated or files with missing pages are generated as PDF. I have to keep trying to save multiple times, until it saves and converts the whole working file successfully as a complete PDF file.

And just to clarify, I am 'printing' the file as PDF because there is no direct drop-down option to save files as PDF in Affinity Publisher. Affinity Publisher has a progress bar that shows up to show file saving progress. During times 0 KB files were generated, the file save progress bar does not show up at all. I am attaching one file that I have had issues with, but it has not been exclusive to that file alone. Please be advised that it's a proprietary file and not to be disclosed with anyone else. 

Regards,

Tan

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by Tan_tt

[NathanC]

6 hours ago, Tan_tt said:

And just to clarify, I am 'printing' the file as PDF because there is no direct drop-down option to save files as PDF in Affinity Publisher. Affinity Publisher has a progress bar that shows up to show file saving progress. During times 0 KB files were generated, the file save progress bar does not show up at all. I am attaching one file that I have had issues with, but it has not been exclusive to that file alone. Please be advised that it's a proprietary file and not to be disclosed with anyone else. 

Thanks, just to clarify, when you mention you are 'printing' the PDF file, are you doing this via File > Print and using the printer as a PDF printer (such as Microsoft Print to PDF)? This isn't an ideal way of generating the PDF file, and is much better handled via the File > Export and selecting PDF, this gives much more flexibility in terms of how the PDF exports and may prevent this from happening.

After File > exporting to PDF using various different pre-sets I didn't find myself encountering any issue with the PDF failing to export any pages within your document or generating a 0KB PDF. I've linked the help guide below which goes through the export settings in detail.

https://affinity.help/publisher/English.lproj/pages/Publishing/exportSettings.html

[bmv2011]

Hi there,

I have this issue with Publisher crashing when trying to update fonts.

I've tried to uninstall the Windows 10 updates below as directed:
Windows 10: KB5013887, KB5017262, KB5017266, KB5017858, KB5018543, KB5018544, KB5018545

But the only ones I see are KB2565063 (2020) and KB2565063 (2019).

I've uploaded the Publisher file to your Dropbox. There are no images in the file as I was just beginning to work on it.

 

Thanks in advance,
Barry

 

[NathanC]

2 minutes ago, bmv2011 said:

I have this issue with Publisher crashing when trying to update fonts.

Hi @bmv2011,

The issue this user is experiencing likely has no relation to the fonts issue/linked FAQ issue, I would highly recommend you create a separate thread detailing your issue to avoid and confusion in this thread and we'll be able to support you further 🙂

[bmv2011]

Hi Nathan,

Apologies. I've posted in the wrong section.

[Ben Coe]

On 10/18/2022 at 9:11 AM, NathanC said:

Hi @Tan_tt welcome to the forums,

If you're experiencing crashes when performing certain actions I would initially suggest following the FAQ thread below to remove a Windows update which is causing issues within the app.

If you're still experiencing the same issues when saving/exporting on the file, could you perhaps provide me with your .afpub file so I can investigate further? I've provided a private dropbox link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/RFh3pUygqSkx3vhyI6h4

 

Where do we go to remove these updates in Windows 10? These are OD updates not AFpub updates?

I have this issue when I try to search for a font in by typing in the font name rather than scrolling the list.

As a separate issue - only a small number of the fonts I use and have in my OS appear in the AFPub font list - including some which are part of our design guide. How do I get fonts that are on my PC to show in AFpub?

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @Ben Coe

You can uninstall Windows updates via Settings / Updates & Security / View update history / Uninstall updates.

The Affinity applications cannot use, or can only partially use, certain fonts because of various reasons – variable fonts, coloured fonts, old fonts, broken fonts, etc.
If you cannot see the font in your application font list then you cannot use that font, at least in the form it is on your machine (and you can’t force it to).
You can search the web for <fontname> alternative (change <fontname> to the name of your font) to see if you can find up-to-date TTF and OTF versions of those fonts.

[kenmcd]

3 hours ago, Ben Coe said:

As a separate issue - only a small number of the fonts I use and have in my OS appear in the AFPub font list - including some which are part of our design guide. How do I get fonts that are on my PC to show in AFpub?

What fonts specifically? 

Are any of the fonts old PostScript Type1 fonts?

All properly installed OpenType-PS, or OpenType-TT, or old TrueType fonts should (do) appear in the fonts list (even if the particular format is not supported).

Note: sometimes nothing will appear for a font when duplicates are installed, or duplicate font files are present in the Fonts folders.

Also M365 Cloud Fonts will not appear (unless you install them for all users).

[Tan_tt]

On 10/21/2022 at 8:30 PM, NathanC said:

Thanks, just to clarify, when you mention you are 'printing' the PDF file, are you doing this via File > Print and using the printer as a PDF printer (such as Microsoft Print to PDF)? This isn't an ideal way of generating the PDF file, and is much better handled via the File > Export and selecting PDF, this gives much more flexibility in terms of how the PDF exports and may prevent this from happening.

After File > exporting to PDF using various different pre-sets I didn't find myself encountering any issue with the PDF failing to export any pages within your document or generating a 0KB PDF. I've linked the help guide below which goes through the export settings in detail.

https://affinity.help/publisher/English.lproj/pages/Publishing/exportSettings.html

HI Nathan,

Thanks for your advice. That may resolve the issue. I will give the Export method a go and see if the issue persists... 

Regards,

Tan