Page in Exported PDF is All Washed Out

[tortoise grafik designs]

I also posted a FaceBook message about this.

Arrrrrgh!!!! Why is this happening now??? Grrrr!!! I have a newsletter all done and ready to go to press (using the new V2 software of Publisher), and when I render the PDF file, all the text looks great EXCEPT for the fourth and last page, in which the text is coming out all washed out! (see attached screenshots.) I've double checked the fonts, the style sheets and the font colors, and they all match what is in the previous 3 pages. I also alternated between embedding the fonts and converting the fonts to outlines in the PDF export dialog -- it's still coming out all washed out! Any ideas on what I can do to get it to work correctly??? I never had this problem in V1. Of course I tried to open it in V1 -- it won't let me; incompatible. Any help is appreciated.

An answer soon would be helpful. I'm ready to send this to the print house!

Thank you.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Probably you have something wrong in that last page. For example, the Text or its Frame might have the opacity lowered. Or you might have something overlaying it.

Can you share your .afpub file with us? That would be best.

Or at least a screenshot of that spread in Publisher with the Layers panel showing and that text frame selected?

[tortoise grafik designs]

Hi, Walt --

Thanks for checking this out. Here's the screenshot showing what you asked for. I was going to attach the file, but that revealed a whole OTHER problem! When I did my last newsletter, I did it in V1, and the file size, with no images embedded (all linked), the total file size was just over 12MB. The one before that was just over 15MB. The file size for the latest newsletter, done in V2, is a whopping 476MB! That's crazy. The same number of spreads, and the number of images used is not much different than the last newsletter. And that again, is with NO images embedded -- all linked! What on earth is going on here??? Why is the Publisher file size so big? And I was looking at the signature thing at the bottom of your message, you mention you're using V2.0.2 for Publisher-- is that a Beta? Mine is flat out 2.0.0. I'm on Windows 10, 64-bit.

Thanks,

Rick

[tortoise grafik designs]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Probably you have something wrong in that last page. For example, the Text or its Frame might have the opacity lowered. Or you might have something overlaying it.

Can you share your .afpub file with us? That would be best.

Or at least a screenshot of that spread in Publisher with the Layers panel showing and that text frame selected?

Walt, I posted a message above, hope you see it. I forgot to mention something else. I printed out that PDF file that I exported, and the text printed out fine -- no different than the rest of the text in the newsletter. It almost seems to be a display problem in the PDF. I'll take it to the print house and ask him to print a press proof (he alway does) to make sure it presents no problems. But that IS still a problem for me because the next step for me was going to be to create a low-res PDF file to be sent by email. Well, page four is barely going to be readable.

But then here's the next interesting thing: I decided to try to create a PDF file using the Microsoft Print to PDF thing in the Print dialog. Guess what? The text looks perfectly FINE when done that way. See the attached PDF file -- that's from the MS PDF renderer. So my guess is that it looks like there's a problem with the Affinity PDF rendering engine. But I can't use the MS thing because it doesn't give me all the output options I need for Press use. I can use it for the email PDF, because it's only 8.2MB. Interesting thing is that I just resaved the file when I discovered a trapping problem; the file size went down from 476MB to 321MB. Weird. Still high, though. -- Rick

BHS Past Times 2022 2023 Fall Winter to Press from MS.pdf

[ashf]

Did you export the pdf with a PDF/X preset?( I mean the pdf you are bringing to the printing shop)

I posted a linked document problem. but in my case, text become bolder.

 

[walt.farrell]

Thanks for the added info, @tortoise grafik designs.

Next question for you: What is in the topmost Layer 1, and also in B-Master? 

[tortoise grafik designs]

Walt, my apologies, the timing of this issue couldn't have come up at a worse time before the holidays.

Those layers you asked about are perplexing. There were actually TWO empty Layer 1's. I did not put them in there, and don't know where they came from. They are both empty.

I can say that because I was up against a deadline, I took at chance and took the resulting PDF to my print house, and the results were fine (after doing an initial press check), it looked great on press, but those rendering problems in the PDF were disturbing. I just updated to 2.0.3 and then opened up the Publisher file, and now noticed some new anomalies that weren't there before the update related to text formatting in a paragraph style. Thankfully it wasn't a problem BEFORE the update, or I would've had another problem to deal with! Rules are overlapping text, and it didn't do that before the update. (See attachment below)

Anyway, back to the PDF issue, I re-exported the PDF files using 2.0.3, and the text on that same spread are still washed out, even after deleting those errant blank layers. The PRINT fine, but the PDF display is all messed up on that spread.

Rick

[tortoise grafik designs]

On 12/7/2022 at 10:39 PM, ashf said:

Did you export the pdf with a PDF/X preset?( I mean the pdf you are bringing to the printing shop)

I posted a linked document problem. but in my case, text become bolder.

 

Actually, my issue started out happening when I was using the Press Ready template, but I even made modifications to it, and it didn't make any difference. I just updated to 2.0.3, and it still happens. I took my file to my print shop, and it printed perfectly. It appears to be an issue with the way it's rendering its screen previews for the PDF file.

[tortoise grafik designs]

On 12/8/2022 at 6:33 AM, walt.farrell said:

Thanks for the added info, @tortoise grafik designs.

Next question for you: What is in the topmost Layer 1, and also in B-Master? 

Walt, my apologies, the timing of this issue couldn't have come up at a worse time before the holidays.

Those layers you asked about are perplexing. There were actually TWO empty Layer 1's. I did not put them in there, and don't know where they came from. They are both empty.

I can say that because I was up against a deadline, I took at chance and took the resulting PDF to my print house, and the results were fine (after doing an initial press check), it looked great on press, but those rendering problems in the PDF were disturbing. I just updated to 2.0.3 and then opened up the Publisher file, and now noticed some new anomalies that weren't there before the update related to text formatting in a paragraph style. Thankfully it wasn't a problem BEFORE the update, or I would've had another problem to deal with! Rules are overlapping text, and it didn't do that before the update. (See attachment below)

Anyway, back to the PDF issue, I re-exported the PDF files using 2.0.3, and the text on that same spread are still washed out, even after deleting those errant blank layers. The PRINT fine, but the PDF display is all messed up on that spread.

Rick

[NathanC]

Hey @tortoise grafik designs apologies on the delayed reply,

Are you still having problems with this as of 2.0.4? If so, could you possibly provide us with the original .afpub file prior to exporting to PDF so we can investigate?

Since you mentioned that the file size was rather large in an earlier thread, I can provide a private upload link for the file if it's still an issue.