Black dots appear on exported pdf in Affinity Publisher

[Patti939]

Hi, all of you tech wizards!

I've been muddling through making a pdf of a children's book with Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. After my latest revision of the text and a couple of illustrations, I tried exporting the Affinity Publisher layout doc to a pdf four times, and each time black dots appeared on two illustrations. I attach the worst example here in two screen shots: the first is how it should look (a screenshot of the Affinity layout page) and the second screenshot shows the export to PDF page. I checked my export settings against those on this page, the "pdf export presets comparisons" --https://affinity.help/publisher/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Publishing/publishPDFFiles.html?title=Publishing PDF files.

I have no idea what I'm doing wrong because with the book's previous version, the exported pdf didn't have this problem. However, in this latest version I did add some more "sparkles" to the original jpeg--though they were white, not black. (See the black dots over the dog's back in the second pdf. For some reason, as I post this, it looks like there are 4 images, but there are really two, with two duplicates, and the one with black dots might be first instead of second.)

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Hangman]

Hi @Patti939and welcome to the forums…

Could you upload the illustration shown in your screenshot along with a screenshot showing the Colour tab of your Publisher Document settings so we can take a look and try and identify what is causing this issue.

[Patti939]

Thanks, Hangman! 

Okay, the jpeg  of the illustration is 756k, reduced down from the original 21MB 300 dpi jpeg, and I've used this smaller one to make a pdf of the entire book (14 illustrations). For this post, I reduced the jpeg down to 500 pixel width. And the screenshot is also reduced to 500 pixels.

First image: jpeg in Affinity Photo

 

Second image: Screenshot Affinity Publ Color Settings

[Hangman]

Hi @Patti939, Thank you for the screen shots...

To be able to effectively diagnose the issue where you'e seeing the black dots appear as part of the illustration we would need to take a look at the original jpeg file. If you are happy to zip it and upload it that would really help. It will be deleted once the issue has been diagnosed...

What I was looking for was the colour ssetup of your Publisher document, as in this... apologies, I probably didn't make that so clear...

[Old Bruce]

15 minutes ago, Patti939 said:

Second image: Screenshot Affinity Publ Color Settings

What are these two layers?

[Patti939]

Hi, Hangman,

I don't know how to zip it. I opened the Affinity Photo export settings, but there is no option for zip. The 300dpi original jpg file is 21.6 MB, so why can't I just upload that, since your limit is 1.99 GB?

I'll wait for your reply before I do it. Thanks!

[Patti939]

Hi, Old Bruce,

I used a png of swirly sparkles to overlay on the main illustration multiple times. I got it from Shutterstock but couldn't remove the background checkerboard, so I canceled my account. Then as a workaround, I turned the original Shutterstock image into a png, then used Affinity's Flood Select tool to select all of the white sparkles, then used copy and paste multiple times to put it on the illustration.

Thanks for looking into this!

[Hangman]

Hi @Patti939,

If you simply right click the jpeg in the Mac Finder and select Compress "Filename.jpg" that will create a Zip file, it's not a feature of the Affinity software itself.

You can upload it directly without compressing first but I believe the forum applies it's own compression (based on issues I've seen before) which is the only reason for zipping the file first as that way no compression will be applied to the uploaded file...

I hope that helps and makes sense...

[Patti939]

Hi, Hangman,

Using "Save As," I made a duplicate of the jpeg to zip that, instead of the original, and it turned into an AF Photo file instead of a jpeg. Was that supposed to happen? Anyway, here is the file, and it's 40 MB, which is bigger than the jpeg.

I must have done something wrong. But maybe you can decipher this anyway. Thanks!

1-SparklyDream300dpi.zip
 

1-SparklyDream-300dpi-duplicate.afphoto.zip

[Patti939]

Hangman,

Oops, I forgot that other thing you asked for. Will send in a minute.

[Hangman]

Hi Patti,

Regarding the question @Old Bruce asked earlier regarding the swirly sparkles, when you turn those layers off in Publisher does the page export to pdf correctly without the black dots?

[Patti939]

Hangman,

Here are 3 screenshots of the settings, but my box looks different from yours. I'm using AF Pub 1.10.5, so maybe yours is 2? Also, I couldn't get Screenshot #3 to compress by double clicking on it, so it's too big. Thanks!

Screenshot Document Setup #1

 

Screen Shot  Document Setup #2

 

Screen Shot  Document Setup #3

[Hangman]

Hi Patti,

Regarding the question @Old Bruce asked earlier regarding the swirly sparkles, when you turn those layers off in Publisher does the page export to pdf correctly without the black dots?

I had initially 'assumed' that the additional sparkles had been added directly as part of your JPEG file, not realising they'd been added as independent layers in your Publisher file...

My initial guess is that these will be the cause of the issue as @Old Bruce was alluding to... Basically, if you were to simply Place the swirly sparkles using File > Place in Publisher, as the file is a PNG with a transparent background it should sit happily over your illustration without the checkerboard background (which simply represents transparency) and without you needing to do anything to the file PNG itself...

Things to Try

1. Hide the swirly sparkle layers in your Publisher document and export just that spread. If it epxorts without the black dots then you know it is how they've been treated that is causing the issue...
    
2. File > Place the PNG file which should add the swirly sparkles over your illustration without the checkered background. Duplicate the newly added layer a few times and position appropriately and then again export the spread and see if it exports correctly as a pdf...

If you have a link to the Shutterstok image you originally downloaded that would be helpful, as the assumption is it would have been a PNG with transpraceny and if so wouldn't have required any manipulation...

[Patti939]

Hangman,

To answer your question about turning off the 2 swirly sparkle layers, I don't think those ones are the problem because their pattern includes some radiating stars. But I constructed the original image with more layers of sparkles, and some were not swirly. In other words, I used a totally different png.

But even though I Googled questions about how to access all of the previous layers of sparkles, I couldn't figure out how to do it. There are actually more layers of sparkles that are not swirly, and I think I suspected they might be the problem.

So, can you please instruct me on how to show all layers? Thanks again!

[Hangman]

Hi Patti,

I think the easiest thing to do to save a lot of back and forth would be if you could make a copy of your Publisher document by giving it a new name so you have the original file stored safely and then in the duplicate file, delete all pages/spreads apart from the one shown in your original post. You can delete the text from the page as well...

Then once your duplicate file contains just that single spread with the illustration and added sparkle PNGs, Save the duplicate file first and then go File > Save as Package. This will add all the relevant elements that appear in your single spread including the images and sparkle graphics.

If you could then upload the Package file that will make everything a whole lot easier now it's clear there are several elements involved, one of which I suspect is causing the issue you're seeing.

The JPEG itself appears to be absolutely fine so I think we need to start looking at the swirly sparkles.

[Patti939]

Hi, Hangman,

Thanks, you've given me lots of things to try, but a quick answer first: the Shutterstock files were .eps, which is why I couldn't work with them or get the background transparent. I'm clueless about all of this. So I saved them as png files.

And yikes, I think I mistakenly forgot that I should have added those 2 layers of swirly sparkles to the AF photo jpeg, not to the AF publisher layout. So I'll delete them and add them on the AF photo jpeg.

But I still have the problem of not being able to see all of the layers I put into the original AF Photo file. The only one visible is "Background," and I had at least 7 layers of sparkles (not swirly ones). So I want to access those layers and maybe delete them and redo them. But how to I get all of the layers to show?

Thanks--as you can see, I barely know my way around this software.

[Patti939]

Hangman,

I think the problem is the other sparkles, not the swirly ones.

Okay, it will take me a little while to make that new Publisher document. Thanks!

 

[Hangman]

Hi Patti,

13 minutes ago, Patti939 said:

Thanks, you've given me lots of things to try, but a quick answer first: the Shutterstock files were .eps, which is why I couldn't work with them or get the background transparent. I'm clueless about all of this. So I saved them as png files.

If they were genuine vector only .eps files then they should work in the same way as a png file would and you could add these directly to your illustration as additional layers prior to saving your illustration as the final JPEG...

Sometimes however, files purporting to be .eps files on Shutterstock often contain bitmap images which could be what's happened for you and may be why you were unable to remove the background. Without seeing the file itself it's difficult to know...

13 minutes ago, Patti939 said:

But I still have the problem of not being able to see all of the layers I put into the original AF Photo file. The only one visible is "Background," and I had at least 7 layers of sparkles (not swirly ones). So I want to access those layers and maybe delete them and redo them. But how to I get all of the layers to show?

It should just be a case of making sure the 7 layers have a check mark to the right of the respective layers. Could you perhaps make a quick screengrab of the layers panel for your Photo document as that will help determine why you can only see the background layer...

13 minutes ago, Patti939 said:

Thanks--as you can see, I barely know my way around this software.

Don't worry, it can be confusing sometimes but hopefully we can figure out what is going on and help you to resolve the issues you are having...

9 minutes ago, Patti939 said:

I think the problem is the other sparkles, not the swirly ones.

I think that is looking highly likely as well, we will be able to tell for sure once we can see all the elements in place...

9 minutes ago, Patti939 said:

Okay, it will take me a little while to make that new Publisher document.

That's no problem at all, whenever you are able to make the new file will be fine...

[firstdefence]

The image with the sparkles, (dog and girl) if you added layers to that image in Affinity Photo and then exported it as a jpeg, the export process would have effectively flattened/merged all the layers into one layer and exported it as a jpeg file you cannot unhide those layers unless you saved the edited image as a Affinity Photo file, that would have kept all the layers.

[Patti939]

Hi, Hangman, Firstdefence, and Old Bruce,

I couldn’t answer all of your emails yesterday because I was informed that I had reached my limit for posts.

So, thank you all!  By putting together advice from all of you, I figured out the problem. It WAS the non-swirly sparkles (actually in two illustrations), so I went into the AF photo files and deleted those layers, then added some more swirly sparkles, then added the new photos to the Publisher layout file, and exported it to a pdf successfully.

I was confused about how the layers work (being flattened and inaccessible when AF Photo file is converted to a jpeg), which is how I got stuck in trying to solve this.

Once again, thanks for being available and so knowledgeable!

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Patti939

[Hangman]

Hi Patti,

Really glad you've managed to resolve the issue with the non-swirly sparkles... your book looks really interesting, when will it be published?

[Patti939]

Thanks, I'm still shopping it around to agents. I've revised the text multiple times . . . We'll see. If no agents bite, the next step is trying small publishers that don't require agented submissions. So it's a long process. Take care!