Exporting PDF VERY SLOW - Affinity Designer 2

[Beck]

Hey guys!

I noticed when exporting PDF on larger projects using Affinity Designer 2 - it's super super slow & takes ages to process. Sometimes im sitting here waiting for 5-10 minutes for it to process the export. Never had this issue with Affinity Designer 1 - even on much bigger projects!

Checked out the minimum requirements and it looks like my computer still fits the specs? So not sure if it's my Specs or a Bug? 

We usually supply files in different exported files so this adds so much more time having to wait for it to process. 

I've attached my AF file. The Elements Front & Elements Back artboards were one artboard but I had to make separate because it was taking way to long. Even exporting these separate artboards as PDFs still took ages. Template - Intl artboard also took much longer than usual comparing to Affinity Designer 1 - I've just never had this issue of waiting so so long. 

My export options: 

- Preset PDF (for export)
- Area - artboard only
- Dont export layers checked 
- Allow advanced Features checked 

 My computer Specs: 

DELL Precision 5510 

Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6820HQ CPU @ 2.70GHz   2.70 GHz
Installed RAM    32.0 GB (31.9 GB usable)
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Windows 10 Pro 
GPU 0 -  Intel (R) HD Graphics 530
GPU 1 - NVIDIA Quadro M1000M 

 

Thanks! 

Beck 

 

339407218_EURAMOBOARBARRACustomShirt_Workfile.afdesign

[Dan C]

Hi Beck, 

This does seem like a fairly heavy project (the repeated grunge pattern particularly has -a lot- of nodes).

I exported this in about 4 minutes on an  i9-11900H (approx 2x the speed of the i7 6820hq) with a 3060 and 32GB so I believe the export time for this project is pretty normal.

Lee

[monkeycoder]

I'm having the same exact issue on a Mac (M1 Max) Studio using Photo 2.0.4 while trying to EXPORT to PDF (lo-res/72dpi) specifically.

I also can confirm that this issue is unique to the updated "V2" version of Affinity Photo. The base files I'm working with are extremely large, however, this problem has spanned my creating these files in Photo 1 and then updating them to Photo 2. Before the release of V2, I had NO problem. I was able to export proofs to lo-res PDF nice and speedy... now in V2, the very same files 'export progress' window just hangs there... just tried to cancel out of it after waiting 30 minutes and that didn't work either... had to FORCE QUIT the app to get out of it.

Not sure what the problem is, but it sure would be nice if someone from SERIF could jump in here and comment on whether or not they're able to duplicate this issue... and if so, when a fix might be in the works.

Personally, I pray hard for Affinity to grow more and more successful as a Photoshop killer... but issues like this are ones that grind professionals to a halt... as professionals we need to DEPEND on our software to do the simple things fast and well.

[Beck]

Hey all, 

My concern is that I never had an issue like this on Affinity Designer 1 even with much larger projects. So curious to know whether this may be a bug or this is just how Affinity Designer 2 is. If that's the case, I could at least plan to create much larger projects in Affinity Designer 1 if i know it will be too slow in Designer 2. 

As for what @monkeycoder has said above, I think it's more a concern as we are experiencing this now which we hadn't in previous Affinity versions.

Thanks!

[Beck]

Update on this topic! 

While designing, I've found that Affinity 2 in general is much slower than Affinity 1. 

I tested this on another project where Affinity 2 was so slow and lagged I had to recreate it in Affinity 1 and then had no issues at all continuing the design. I've seen other forums stating similar experience - looks like happening to alot of others. 

I'll be moving back to Affinity 1 for all our projects from now,  I hope this gets fixed

[Will G]

On 2/14/2023 at 12:07 AM, LeeThorpe said:

Hi Beck, 

This does seem like a fairly heavy project (the repeated grunge pattern particularly has -a lot- of nodes).

I exported this in about 4 minutes on an  i9-11900H (approx 2x the speed of the i7 6820hq) with a 3060 and 32GB so I believe the export time for this project is pretty normal.

Lee

That is exactly the problem. The export is so dam slow even on a fast computer.

I am on a desktop with a Ryzen 7 5800x, and its taking a couple of minutes just to export 1 PDF. Not to mention that the entire software is in a 'locked' state during that process.

During the export, it is only using 10% of my CPU resources and not making use of whatever that is available to speed up the process.

This clearly is an optimization issue.

[JCorker]

Hello,

I have been having problems with exporting to PDF format in Affinity Designer V2.
A 69 MB file with only two pages, takes 30 minutes to export. 
I never had this problem with V1. 

My computer is a 2015 iMac, with a 2.8GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB 1867 MHz DDR3 memory and Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200

I would like to know what is going on...

Thanks,
JCorker

[Beck]

9 hours ago, Will G said:

That is exactly the problem. The export is so dam slow even on a fast computer.

I am on a desktop with a Ryzen 7 5800x, and its taking a couple of minutes just to export 1 PDF. Not to mention that the entire software is in a 'locked' state during that process.

During the export, it is only using 10% of my CPU resources and not making use of whatever that is available to speed up the process.

This clearly is an optimization issue.

 

3 hours ago, JCorker said:

Hello,

I have been having problems with exporting to PDF format in Affinity Designer V2.
A 69 MB file with only two pages, takes 30 minutes to export. 
I never had this problem with V1. 

My computer is a 2015 iMac, with a 2.8GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB 1867 MHz DDR3 memory and Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200

I would like to know what is going on...

Thanks,
JCorker

Hey guys!

It's definitely a well known issue. I've been following this other post for awhile now and many having the same problem. Seems like a lot of people (including myself) are going back to Affinity V1.  

Unfortunately no update from developers that I have seen yet 

[Will G]

9 hours ago, Beck said:

 

Hey guys!

It's definitely a well known issue. I've been following this other post for awhile now and many having the same problem. Seems like a lot of people (including myself) are going back to Affinity V1.  

Unfortunately no update from developers that I have seen yet 

Hopefully there are some updates soon because some users like myself are new to affinity and do not have license for v1, and its only the PDF format that taking a really long time to export plus not leverage off the available computer resources.

Edited March 28, 2023 by Will G

[Will G]

I need to mention that this problem is also prevalent in Photo 2

[vasflf]

Dear developers, please add an option to close export preview for large documents, some complex document may cause a unnecessary CPU usage. What else, PDF export is slow as hell, and sometimes the loading bar is not appear after a long time, 2.0's export is so slow and unable to be use.

[ygoe]

It's really exceptionally slow to export PDFs! Also the preview takes the same long time. I've simply taken 3 photos with my smartphone, cropped them in AP and added an exposure compensation layer, saved as .afphoto. Then I created a new AD file with 3 A4 artboards, placed the 3 images to fit the pages. Now I want to export this. It takes some 1 or 2 minutes with all-cores full CPU load! What the heck is it doing there? Any other application could do this in a few seconds. Something is really broken in this design. Maybe the compression quality is set to an insanely high value, or the PDF encoding algorithm is just extremely inefficient. Close to unusable.

[atardvark]

Same issue in Publisher.

there is clearly a bug in the export engine   Same project in V1 exported in less than 1 minute takes over half an hour in V2 I think it is related to rendering effects.

[Damien albiser]

Hi everybody,

I'm currently experimenting the same issue (so long PDF export) with Publisher v2 even on small file with a correct hardware configuration :

• Windows 7 pro 64bit
• RTX3060Ti NVidia
• AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
• DDR3 32Gb

I regurarly experimenting flashes on the interface with Publisher, Designer V2, a bit disapointed by the V2 move as the V1 suite was so stable.

[Blue Iguana]

Hi everybody.

I'm running AP 2.4.2 on my maxed out MB Pro Mid 2012 (16 GB RAM, 1TB HD) on OCLP (latest version of Sonoma), and a Mac Mini M1 with 8GB RAM and 512 GB HD.

I have a 64-page full-color with 0.125" bleed magazine. Exporting to Press Ready or High Quality Print 300 dpi PDFs takes an unacceptable 4 hours to finish. I created a B&W version of the same file. That took about 15 minutes to export.

I moved to AP 2 because of the new book feature. Are there any plans from Serif to fix this bug? I'm moving back to AP 1 in the meantime because I have a few more full-color book projects and waiting 4 hours to export 60+ pages is just crazy. Perhaps the new Canva owners have a fix for this? And I agree with @Damien albiser. v1 was a helluva lot more stable.

[Woest]

Why is there no response from the developers?
Did they stop supporting?

[pigdog]

Same issue for me, Affinity v1 exporting pdf's worked flawlessly and fast. But since launch V2 is a nightmare for exporting.
The other issue I have is if I create a shape, in Photo 2 or Designer 2, and then try to fill that shape with a color - 50% of the time it will do it flawlessly (which it should as its the most basic function) and 50% of the time it will cause Affinity to hang forever until I force close and restart Affinity.
I had a 2019 Imac 6 core with 48gb of ram, but exporting a 1mb pdf would take forever and often crash affinity. Since I have updated to a 2023 MacBook Pro M3 Pro with 18gb of ram. The system never slows doing anything - except Affinity exporting a PDF or adding color to a shape. Both react identically even though I am on a completely new system. 
I have tried contact Affinity support but it takes weeks to get a reply and they never read the issue and so suggest offer "suggestions to try" that I clearly list above I have already tried with a different support agent. I gave up on affinity support, I am convinced their strategy is to be so unhelpful you give up. 
I really hope some user can figure out a work around.

[caro_line]

I'm having trouble with this right now. Made an art class script of 23 pages in Publisher with a medium and tiny picture on each side.

It takes FOREVER to export to pdf.

Never had this issue before. I usually only embed vector graphics, so that might be why It's processing faster, but that's obviousl not possible because of the actual artwork necessary for the topic.

Would it be faster if the pictures weren

It's really frustrating. It's been 20 minutes so far and only 3/4 in. I'm genuinely annoyed right now. Is there any way of fixing the issue?

Edited August 25, 2024 by caro_line
Typo and adding a halfsentence

[Hangman]

Hi @caro_line and welcome to the forums,

Can you upload your Publisher file with all images and graphics embedded? If you'd prefer not to share it publicly, feel free to DM it to me. I'd be happy to take a look at your file to see if there is anything obvious causing the lengthy PDF export.

[neophus]

Same issue here, just right now... with Affinity designer 2 working on packagings, too slow just to export on PDF. Worked fine in v1. Has really to be fixed ASAP.

[Hangman]

Hi @neophus and welcome to the forums,

Could you upload your Affinity Designer file with any external graphics (if there are any) embedded so we can take a look...

[Goizeder]

Hi! I'm also facing the same issue. It seems like yesterday it was working fine, but now I get ~2 cores at max usage forever on a particular file. Would you mind taking a look? I can send this file by MP.

[Hangman]

Hi @Goizeder and welcome to the forums,

Could you upload your Affinity file with any external graphics (if there are any) embedded so we can take a look...

[hunter_sk]

These are the layers causing export go on forever.

More specific this Vibrance Adjustment. I would suggest to complete different approach on this layer:

Situation: Linked PDF contains 20700 (yes) vector objects and these are color adjusted 3 times. This graphic is then used 26 times. So for the export, there needs to be processed 538,200 vector objects.

Suggestion: Rasterize the PDF document with all 3 adjustments to some 300dpi pixel image, make it as a symbol and use it 26 times as you have in the design.

[Patrick Connor]

41 minutes ago, hunter_sk said:

These are the layers causing export go on forever.

Genius.

I downloaded the file, opened in Designer and

1. found one of them in the layers panel.
2. Right click and chose "Select Same Name".
3. Right click and choose Rasterize (or Rasterize and Trim)
4. Export the Artboard (took seconds)
   optionally if you do not want to change the document....
5. Undo back to the Select Same step (undoes the rasterize)

The file is unlikely to still be relevant to the OP but I took your lead just in case some more advice to others would help

To others in this thread, you will see that the problem was file specific and if you think you have this problem you probably have a subtly different problem and you should really make your own thread as every file will have a different cause and hopefully a different solution, but it is probably always worth making a new thread if the workarounds suggested do not help you.