Crash when opening PDF file

[jp.ptn]

Affinity Designer consistently crashes when trying to open a PDF file that software from other vendors doesn't seem to have trouble handling.

I've attached a crash log, and the file I'm having trouble with can be found below:

https://happylilac.net/pdf/calendar-nenbox-a4-2-2023.pdf

 

Any workarounds would be welcome, and a fix even more so. Thank you in advance!

Affinity Designer 2-2023-01-20-195510.ips

[Pauls]

may be a font issue can you zip up the fonts for us ?

[jp.ptn]

This isn't a file I worked on, but rather one I downloaded from that link (and intended to use as a starting point), so I don't know what fonts to zip up, to be honest.

It does have Japanese text – not sure if that helps.

[Pauls]

I've found some fonts and that file is opening for me - are you simply opening the file ? May be worth trying to open it from a different location

[jp.ptn]

Yes, I'm simply opening it. The window displayed below shows up, and as soon as I click "open" it crashes.
I've tried a number of different combinations of options (favor editable text, not favor it, set DPI manually, etc) to no avail.

I also tried opening the file from different locations. First it was on a subfolder inside my Desktop folder. Trying to open it from my home folder ( ~/ ) and from iCloud Drive made no difference.

Lastly, I tried opening it on my other Mac (an Intel iMac, as opposed to my M1 laptop), both with 2.0.0 and 2.0.3, and the result was the same.

Can I ask you to save it as a Designer file and post it here (with both options checked)? That would be more than enough of a workaround for me, at this point. I'd still do what I can to figure out what's causing this, though.

[Pauls]

hopefully this will load for you

calendar-nenbox-a4-2-2023.afdesign

[jp.ptn]

Thank you! It did.
Hopefully it's fixed in a future update, but thanks to your help it's not urgent anymore.

[jp.ptn]

Sorry to ask so much from you, but one of the import options messed up the position of the days of the year… Could you try again with the "group lines of text" option unchecked, to see if the calendar layout is preserved? I'm sorry to bother you, but I can't find any other way around this issue at this point…
 

[Pauls]

remember we could be using different fonts

calendar-nenbox-a4-2-2023-nogroup.afdesign

[mvanputt]

I've also had problems with Affinity Designer crashing when trying to open a PDF. In some cases I can open the PDF without error in Affinity Design 1 (and it crashes in 2). In other cases, both crash.

One work around that I just discovered was to open the PDF in question using the Preview app on your Mac. Then choose File > Print. In the bottom part of the Print dialog window, click the PDF button and choose "Save as PDF." Enter a new file name and click the Save button. I haven't had a chance to test this extensively, but so far this work around has proven successful for me -- and PDFs that would crash Affinity Designer every time, the resaved version opens without error.

[jp.ptn]

21 hours ago, Pauls said:

remember we could be using different fonts

calendar-nenbox-a4-2-2023-nogroup.afdesign 198.13 kB · 0 downloads

How can I change the fonts on an outsourced PDF file? I couldn't find any such options on the import page…
Anyway, thank you for converting the file once more! There are still some rendering artifacts, but nothing I can't handle. 

15 hours ago, mvanputt said:

I've also had problems with Affinity Designer crashing when trying to open a PDF. In some cases I can open the PDF without error in Affinity Design 1 (and it crashes in 2). In other cases, both crash.

One work around that I just discovered was to open the PDF in question using the Preview app on your Mac. Then choose File > Print. In the bottom part of the Print dialog window, click the PDF button and choose "Save as PDF." Enter a new file name and click the Save button. I haven't had a chance to test this extensively, but so far this work around has proven successful for me -- and PDFs that would crash Affinity Designer every time, the resaved version opens without error.

I had tried the Preview method you mentioned, as well as some online tool to convert PDFs to AI files, but neither worked. I hadn't thought of trying with Affinity Design v1, so I did, but it crashed as well. Thank you for the suggestions, though!

[jp.ptn]

Just a couple of notes regarding this issue:

• It's not fixed on 2.0.4
• The issue is with opening with the CMYK color space. If we set that setting to either CMYK or "Estimate" (which I assume would try to use CMYK) it crashes, choosing Gray or RGB the file is opened without any trouble.

So, if anyone else is having this issue, try a different color space. It's still a bug I'd like to see fixed – hard crashes are never a good sign – but at least now I know a way around it.

[jp.ptn]

I'm just bringing back this thread from the dead because, more than a year later, it's still happening. Hard crash when opening a similar file, if the color space is set to CMYK or Estimate.

[Hangman]

Hi @jp.ptn,

Not much help but I'm not experiencing any crashes opening your original file... do you have a link to another file so we can test this as well...

[jp.ptn]

calendar-nenbox-a4-2-2024.pdf
Hello,

Here's the file I tried to open this time.

Affinity Designer 2 2.4.0, mac OS 14.3.1, iMac (Intel). Opening the file and having the color space set to Estimate or CMYK consistently makes the app crash as soon as we click the "Open" button.

[Hangman]

Hi @jp.ptn,

Again, I'm having no issues opening that file either with a CMYK profile...

1. Which CMYK profile do you have set as your default in the Colour Preferences Panel?
2. Do you have the three fonts used in the file installed on your Mac?

[jp.ptn]

Hello @Hangman

Well I'll be damned… Changing the default CMYK profile fixed it.

I had Coated FOGRA27 as the default; changing it to Euroscale Coated fixed it. I tried changing it to Generic CMYK and it worked again. I changed it back to Coated FOGRA27 just to make sure it was the issue and… iUnexpectedly, it worked again. It's a wild guess, but I'm assuming that the settings file had some invalid value (perhaps a leftover from older versions?) which only caused trouble when importing CMYK files. Changing the setting must have reset it to valid data.

Tested it on both my Intel iMac and M1 Max MBP, both of which had the issue. It's fixed on both.

Thank you so much for the hint, I would neve have thought of that possibility!

[Hangman]

Hey @jp.ptn,

That's really great to hear, I'm glad switching the Colour Profile has fixed the issue for you and that you can now open the PDF files without issue...