Please add PDF passthrough option for .ai files

[vixm]

Hi,

I do page layouts in Publisher (but this could be applied to all three apps), where I need to place files supplied by others. Most of the time I'm sent PDFs, but often enough I get Illustrator files. The only behavior when placing an Illustrator file in Publisher is to interpret it, which doesn't always preserve the layout correctly.

Illustrator files have been able to embed a PDF version into the .ai file for about 20 years now, and that behavior has been default for at least 15 years IIRC.

Could we get the option for Publisher to use that PDF data, with passthrough, then fall back to interpreting the Illustrator data (with a warning?), in the unlikely event that PDF data isn't present? IMO this should be default behavior, but I'm fine with having to enable it manually.

Currently I rename .ai files to .pdf. That tricks Publisher into seeing the PDF data and doing passthrough. It works perfectly, but it would be nice to skip the renaming.

Thanks!

[vixm]

Ok, I ran into this again today, and the behavior I saw is clearly a bug, rather than a missing feature. Can this thread be moved please?

Here are my observations:

On 1/1/2023 at 4:32 PM, vixm said:

then fall back to interpreting the Illustrator data (with a warning?)

1) This is irrelevant. The Affinity apps depend on having a PDF compatible Illustrator file, and a file saved without that will not render at all. It's a choice between interpreting or passing through the PDF data. Great.

2) The Passthrough/Interpret menu is only available for .ai files when they're embedded, not linked, unlike .pdf. The default is Passthrough though. My original request is still partially valid. Can we expose this setting for .ai files in linked mode too? Or is the intention that .ai files are never interpreted when placed?

3) This menu can say "Passthrough" while getting stuck interpreting. To recreate:

a) Create an Illustrator file (or PDF) with a visually obvious interpret issue (eg. missing font), and make sure it defines a BleedBox bigger than its TrimBox
b) Place and embed it into Publisher or Designer, using the default TrimBox
c) Switch it from Passthrough to Interpret
d) Switch the page box from TrimBox to BleedBox
e) Switch from Interpret back to Passthrough

The file is now stuck in interpret mode, no matter the setting chosen in the menu. Additionally, it is stuck rendering the TrimBox no matter what, just scaling it up and down to match the size of the BleedBox, or whatever other box is selected.

4) This happens for .pdf and .ai files, so isn't specific to .ai. It also happens for PDFs exported from the Affinity apps.

5) It affects the export result as well as the on screen display.

6) Saving the Affinity file that the PDF is placed into, then reopening it, fixes both appearances, as well as the page box issue.

I noticed other erratic behavior too, but this is the only one I could figure out how to recreate reliably. I'm hoping the solution to this fixes the other issues. 

I've seen it render on screen as passthrough, while interpreting for export, and vice versa.

At one point switching from Passthrough to Interpret would be instantaneous, but going the other way would take 5 or 6 seconds, not that I ever need to do that. I was just testing.

I got it into a state where, if you carry out the steps in #3 first, any further instances of the same file, placed into the same document, would be stuck the same way immediately upon placing, but it doesn't always do that.

This is probably what was happening in my first post, and why I thought renaming to .pdf was working? It was being seen as a unique file. I'm still not sure what happened, because I almost never embed files, so there must some other trigger. I definitely had .ai files being interpreted with messed up text.

If I figure out how to recreate any of the other issues, I'll post.

[walt.farrell]

Good analysis.

If a Moderator wanted to move this for you, you have not provided sufficient information yet. They would need confirmation of the release where you identified the problem, and the OS that you're using.

[vixm]

I'm using macOS 12.6.2 with the current release versions of Publisher 2 and Designer 2 (2.0.3 in both cases).

I've been testing some more and this is more inconsistent than I thought.

I can make it happen with a PDF exported from Designer that has nothing but 2 rectangles in it. It happens with the original PDF I had the problem with, even if I remove the offending text. But then I export a PDF with a missing font (https://www.fontshare.com/fonts/aktura) from both Illustrator and Designer, and it doesn't happen.

Files mentioned above and more are attached. The ones in "error.zip" recreate the issue. The ones in "no error.zip" don't. I don't understand why.

There was another problem where colors appear wrong temporarily as soon as the file is placed (green looks teal instead). If I only switch from passthrough to interpret and back (not all the steps in #3), it fixes that, and the file always looks right after. I didn't get a screenshot of this, and can't seem to recreate. Will post if I do.

9 hours ago, vixm said:

I've seen it render on screen as passthrough, while interpreting for export, and vice versa.

I also made this happen again just now in Publisher. It's interpreting on screen, the export preview is doing something weird where 100C+100Y CMYK green shows as 255G RGB, and the scale is off, but then the PDF exports perfectly, correct size, passing through the PDF font embed and all. The file I'm using here is "1 Litre.pdf" from the error.zip file attached. At this point it wasn't even embedded, nor did I do any of the remaining steps in #3 of my last post. As soon as I placed it, this happened.

 

error.zip no error.zip afpub export of placed 1 Litre PDF.pdf

[Old Bruce]

On 1/1/2023 at 12:32 PM, vixm said:

Could we get the option for Publisher to use that PDF data,

That option you want is the only way an Adobe Illustrator file can be interpreted. Only the PDF data is read/used/seen.