No export of some linked raster images

[Pyanepsion]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to create a world map to insert in Affinity Publisher.

I first created each of the elements (trees, topography, etc.) totally in vector in Affinity Designer.

I then linked these AFDESIGN images several times into another master AFDESIGN file, and then added a background raster image, and a small JPG desert raster image in a weird vector shape created in Affinity Designer.

The map is finished.

Exporting the PDF file displays a correct PDF file with Affinity Designer, noted with Affiity Publisher. The small linked desert raster image does not display in Affinity Publisher.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Pyanepsion
Details

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

The PDF file displays correctly in Affinity Designer.

That's the first you mentioned a PDF file, I think. 

Also, please clarify what you put into Publisher? So far it sounds like you had a Designer file containing linked copies of other Designer files as well as containing some raster info. And suddenly there's also a PDF. And you've put something into Publisher, but it's not clear what.

[4dimage]

Difficult to say without seeing your files. It may be that you somehow „chained“ linked file imports? Not sure, but as far as i observed, it‘s impossible to properly link an external file which itself links to other external files. By design all external resources would have to be resolved recursively when opening the final master.

Don‘t know your filesizes. You may embed some of the graphics in the hierachical tree at each level so that in the end there is only one level of linked external resources in the final Publisher master layout.

[Pyanepsion]

(I can only provide the files in confidence to the Affinity team.)

The map drawn in Affinity Designer contains a huge amount of linked Affinity Designer files.

1. Each linked Affinity Designer file contains hundreds to thousands of vector objects.
2. The map also contains a raster image as a background.

At this point, PDF exports with Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher are working fine.

A desert was missing. I quickly created an outline of the desert by hand and filled it with a raster image of the desert. The image appears perfectly in Affinity Designer and all exports work.

I then link the map to two pages in Affinity Publisher. It appears perfectly in Affinity Publisher but not in PDF. This bug is not always reproducible. I also tried processing the image in Affinity Photo and importing the AFPHOTO file. The image does not appear either.

Sometimes, however, the raster image of the desert or its transformation with Affinity Photo can be found in the PDF export of Affinity Publisher.

[4dimage]

@Pyanepsion And what if you don't use APhoto for the last step (rasterizing) but export from Designer to a realy flat standard file format as JPG or TIFF. If that bitmap contains all elements this would also show up when linked into the final Publisher master layout.

[Pyanepsion]

The entire map is combined in a single Affinity Designer file. This Affinity Designer file is linked twice in Affinity Publisher. The left half appears on page 8 of the book, and the right half appears on page 9.
I made several tests and kept them in the Desert object. A shadow effect has been added on the desert.
These appear all the time in the Affinity Publisher PDF export

• The first doublet is a simple vector outline fill of the desert.
• The second doublet is a linked vector drawing containing many objects.

These do not usually appear in the Affinity Publisher PDF export

• The third doublet is a linked raster image.
• The fourth doublet is the same linked raster image in a linked Affinity Photo file.

[4dimage]

Sorry, what i thought was to export the Designer drawing file to a flat bitmap format (e.g. JPG or TIF) for testing.

Does such a flat bitmap export from Designer show all elements as expected ?

If yes - try the same with the current Publisher layout file (linked current native Designer file).

Does this flat bitmap export show all elements as expected?

a) If yes - the problem might be with the final export from Publisher -> PDF. Maybe some shape fills can not be exported to PDF. At least not without transparency reduction (e.g. PDF (reduced) or PDF/X-3:2003 setting)

b) If not - i would say the problem is one step earlier in the hierarchical file linking at different levels in your Designer -> Publisher chain.

 

[Pyanepsion]

Each PDF export of the book takes a good quarter of an hour.

I think this is more of a problem with the export of Affinity Publisher to PDF, because very often after this export Affinity Publisher is frozen.

I don’t know why, but the PDF file produced this morning by Affinity Publisher was displayed correctly three times in a row with the raster version of the desert on the map, whereas until now only the vector versions were displayed on the PDF from Affinity Publisher.

Here are the settings used.

[DWright]

Hi @Pyanepsion,

 

Can you please save your Publisher file as a Package and send this to me using the following Dropbox link.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/q9PhI6qBJlRleI8tLcFh

 

[Pyanepsion]

Hello, @DWright,

I don't know why, but as of December 5, the PDF export is now correct, whereas until December 5, all exports published in the previous days never displayed the JPG raster image of a desert.