Affinity Publisher, problem to generate PDF for KDP Amazon

[GT70]

Hi, I hope someone can help me because I can't seem to correctly print a book that I have typeset with Publisher to be finalised in KDP Amazon.

Basically of the printed proofs that I get from Amazon I find the pages have one part of the text in black (correct) and one part in dark blue (incorrect colour and never set in the project). In addition, the images appear streaked, as if they had run out of tuner ink.

After a week, Amazon replies to me that the problem occurs because there are transparencies in the file, which cause problems when loading the file and therefore on printing.

I was advised to flatten all the transparencies and above all to export to PDF/X-1a. In the export actions, however, I see the possibility of exporting the pdf as 'flattened' (now I don't know what it is called in English, see picture). I could use that, but if I wanted to use PDF/X-1a, where would I find the options to flatten the transparencies?

Also, can you give me other tips, in case there is someone who has already produced books or something else with Amazon's Publisher peer KDP?

Thank you

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[GT70]

Thank you very much for your valuable information.

To tell the truth, I did not use transparencies. At least not consciously. The book is full of text and photos. There are no graphics other than a logo. Perhaps that is what caused the problems.

Anyway:
1) the document was initially set in CMKY. Now checking the document settings I see that it is set to CMKY/8 and that there is a "convert" button enabled (sorry, I don't know what it is called in the English version). Is everything correct here?
2) I checked the text. You are right. I don't know what happened, but some pages - the ones that are a slight dark blue in print - are not pure black. I attach photos. Should I then check all the texts and set their values to 0,0,100? Or will I solve the problem if I convert to PDF/x-1a:2003? But perhaps it would be better to set the values for texts that are not pure black, what do you think?
3) If I set the document in CMKY, will the photos also go in CMKY once exported? Or do I have to select them individually and do some sort of conversion?

Sorry for all these questions, but technically I have no in-depth knowledge of printing. I had printed a draft near a printing service under my house and the problems that came up in Amazon's proofs were not reported...

[Hangman]

Hi @GT70,

6 hours ago, GT70 said:

I checked the text. You are right. I don't know what happened, but some pages - the ones that are a slight dark blue in print - are not pure black. I attach photos. Should I then check all the texts and set their values to 0,0,100? Or will I solve the problem if I convert to PDF/x-1a:2003? But perhaps it would be better to set the values for texts that are not pure black, what do you think?

Yes, you need to make sure all the text in your document that is intended to be black is set to K100 as it won't automatically be converted to K100 when exporting to the file to PDF/X-1a:2003.

6 hours ago, GT70 said:

If I set the document in CMKY, will the photos also go in CMKY once exported? Or do I have to select them individually and do some sort of conversion?

As @lacerto mentions above, exporting to PDF/X-1a:2003 guarantees that all colours are converted to CMYK, so any RGB images in your document will be converted to CMYK, but be mindful that this can reduce the vibrancy or flatten the appearance of your images (not to be confused with transparency flattening) because CMYK has a narrower colour gamut than sRGB.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[GT70]

Thank you all very much for your help. You are so valuable that I would send you my book once it is printed. Unfortunately it is in Italian and I don't know what you could do with it, but the idea is to then translate it into English to give me the possibility of it being read outside Italy.

Having said that, I am going to respond to your interventions (thank you always!):

@Boia 

3 ore fa, Hangman disse:

Sì, devi assicurarti che tutto il testo nel tuo documento che è destinato ad essere nero sia impostato su K100 in quanto non verrà automaticamente convertito in K100 quando esporti nel file in PDF/X-1a:2003.

OK, I'll go ahead and fix all the pieces of the text by hand. More or less randomly, they consist of both pure black text and non-pure black text. In this way I immediately fix an initial problem that was causing some parts of the black text to become bluish. It must also be said that some of these parts strangely seem to be in bold, but in fact they are neither in the Publisher project nor in the PDF I generated (see screenshot). I have compared two pages: on the left the correct page (correct black text and thickness) on the right the anomaly with bluish text and thicker font. However, the font is identical.

3 ore fa, Hangman disse:

Come@lacertomenziona sopra, l'esportazione in PDF/X-1a:2003 garantisce che tutti i colori siano convertiti in CMYK, quindi qualsiasi immagine RGB nel tuo documento verrà convertita in CMYK, ma sii consapevole che questo può ridurre la vivacità o appiattire l'aspetto delle tue immagini (da non confondere con l'appiattimento della trasparenza) perché CMYK ha una gamma

Yes, I had guessed that the method flattened everything. I don't understand what the difference is between "flattened PDF" and "PDF/xa:2003". Both flatten everything, but obviously one of the should generate a more qualitative file...?

For the images in the book, to prevent them from losing their vibrancy when flattened, what advice do you have for me?
Sorry for the constant questions but I am trying to learn from my mistakes. Thank you
 

25 minuti fa, lacerto disse:

Si prega di notare che molti effetti F/X sono costruiti sulla trasparenza, quindi se hai ad esempio effetti ombra o placcati applicati a immagini o altri elementi, ciò potrebbe comportare trasparenze irrisolte nel PDF esportato. Se puoi inserire un campione della tua esportazione PDF finale sul forum (ad esempio da una pagina che ha causato problemi) è facile determinare se ci sono tali elementi rimasti nel documento

Thank you for your availability. I enclose one of the many pages that appear in blue and especially in bold, settings that I never gave...
The page was extrapolated from the original file that was sent to print. I hope it did not change during extrapolation (I used Preview on my Mac and deleted all the other pages).

28 minuti fa, lacerto disse:

Non ho alcuna esperienza personale di KDP Amazon e sono un po' confuso dal tipo di istruzioni miste/doppie che ho trovato quando ho cercato di capire questo servizio di produzione. D'altra parte, sembrano raccomandare flussi di lavoro RGB puri utilizzando app come Word o Pages, e d'altra parte, danno istruzioni mirate ai flussi di lavoro in cui i documenti sono preparati con InDesign, tutti i colori definiti in CMYK (neri usando K100) e stampano PDF prodotti utilizzando PDF/X-1a. Il primo flusso di lavoro di produzione non può produrre CMYK controllato professionalmente, quindi Amazon utilizza le loro routine interne per convertire questi file in offset CMYK standard, e quest'ultimo ha flussi di lavoro standard del settore integrati che sono garantiti per produrre PDF CMYK senza problemi utilizzando le impostazioni predefinite, senza il problema relativo ai "neri ricchi". Le app di affinità cadono in mezzo, richiedendo molto di più dagli utenti di uno di questi flussi di lavoro, e il supporto Amazon, a quanto pare, purtroppo non può aiutare.

I have no experience in printing technology. I have done a few courses in graphics and page layout, but certain technical topics are out of my reach. I have learnt how to use Publisher in the last month thanks to a complete course on Udemy which gave me a lot of information and enabled me to create my own book, but certain issues presuppose technical knowledge which unfortunately I cannot have. In any case, I also realised that Amazon uses some pretty confusing systems for self-employed authors who decide to publish their own books. Just to understand how to set up the margins is already a challenge.
Among other things, they don't even tell you which color profile to use. I left it as USB WEB COATED, but I have no idea if this is correct because they don't provide any information about it.

43 minuti fa, lacerto disse:

Se ti senti confuso (e non me lo chiederei), sei il benvenuto a contattarmi tramite messaggio personale (cliccando sull'icona "L" in alto a sinistra) per ottenere istruzioni più dettagliate...

True, they mainly accept files in Word or Pages. They do not consider work done in Affinity Publisher, InDesign, QuarkXPress and it is probably as you say, they do a conversion to post. The problem is that although they then check the file, they still sent me two completely wrong copies, which means that these conversions or checks are not that reliable. I am sure they would have put the book on sale in this condition and not made me look good. OK, it's my fault. After all, I prepared the PDF file myself with the preparation I have, but since I write and they sell and earn money on the copy, maybe some cooperation wouldn't hurt.

37 minuti fa, lacerto disse:

Comunque: dici che "inizialmente" avevi il tuo documento in modalità colore CMYK -- qual è la modalità colore ora? Menzioni anche la confusione con le opzioni "Converti" e "Assegna" all'interno di File > Impostazione documento > Colore. Questo è un problema costante con le app Affinity perché è facile causare inavvertitamente la conversione/ricalcolazione dei valori di colore esistenti semplicemente accedendo a questa scheda e cambiando il profilo colore. Questo, e la modifica del profilo di colore al momento dell'esportazione, sono probabilmente i due motivi principali per cui le persone finiscono per avere calchi di colore in nero, o aspetto neutro, ma ancora quattro-color-black nei loro file di esportazione, anche se inizialmente hanno una corretta produzione di nero a un colore. Quindi, come dici tu, il problema della trasparenza potrebbe effettivamente essere irrilevante per i problemi a cui stai assistendo e la causa principale dei problemi è che i tuoi "neri" sono una conversione mista di valori iniziali di inchiostro nero inavvertitamente convertiti in neri a quattro colori o valori grigi (che nelle app Affinity sono basati su RGB) esportati in modalità colore CMYK

I set the CMYK method right from the beginning because I know that when printing on paper, this is the correct method. In fact, when you initially provided me with the correct values for the text color, the first thing I did was check the mode I had set for the document. And it was correctly set to CMYK. The problem is that I don't remember (I didn't pay attention, to be honest) whether the first or second button was activated.
Now, if I go back to check, the "convert" button is activated, but I'm not exactly sure of the meaning of the two buttons.

45 minuti fa, lacerto disse:

Se ti senti confuso (e non me lo chiederei), sei il benvenuto a contattarmi tramite messaggio personale (cliccando sull'icona "L" in alto a sinistra) per ottenere istruzioni più dettagliate...

You're very kind. I don't want to take advantage of your kindness by bothering you privately. I hope to resolve this issue as soon as possible because otherwise, I won't be able to print the book. Now, after making the changes you suggested, I request another proof print, and if everything goes well (hopefully), I'll authorize the publication...

sample02.pdf

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Hangman]

Hi @GT70,

Amazon KDP is a bit of a mystery, they provide little useful information, certainly no information about colour profiles but I think that is likely because they strip out any colour profiles anyway.

From a bit of research I did a while back I believe Amazon use HP Indigo digital presses to print their material... If you want to upload a couple of pages from the corrected pdf that you've resubmitted to Amazon we can take a look and check all is as it should be.

The Assign and Convert options in the Document Setup window are not relevant in this particular instance as you're not assigning or converting anything. Your Publisher document is set using CMYK and U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) V2 so as long as you maintain those settings, then set all your black text using the CMYK sliders in the colour palette to K100, i.e., CMYK 0, 0, 0, 100 and export your file using the PDF/X-1a:2003 preset your file 'should' be fine but again one of us can certainly check it for you if that helps.

The font in the sample pdf you uploaded is a bit odd, it's showing as

rather than Baskerville which is I believe the font used...

[GT70]

@lacerto thank you very much for help! Knowing that there are people willing to help you is something extraordinary.Yes, I will now make the changes and before sending the file I will post a selection of pages here on the group for checking. It will take me 3/4 days, but as soon as I'm done I'll post here and ask for opinions.

@Hangman I will do as you say and then, as written to @lacerto, I will post a selection of pages from the finalised file here. Thank you!
PS: Yes it is Baskerville.

[GT70]

Hi guys, I'm rechecking the 'pure black' of the text and where it's not there I apply it by changing the colour parameters in the text box.
However, I'm not sure if this is a glitch or if it's normal, but I get two different text colour information. If in fact I select text inside the box this is correctly set to 'pure black'. If I select the box, however, I get different indo... 
Does this mean that applying the colour must be done both by selecting the text internally and also by selecting the entire box?
I am a bit confused...

[Hangman]

Hi @GT70,

It should be sufficient to select the text box without highlighting the text itself...

My best 'guess' is that when you've been highlighting some of the text you may have missed the very first character in your selection. In that instance, you can have a situation where highlighted text appears as K100 but the text box itself appears as a CMYK mix, though your screenshot doesn't seem to indicate that.

If your text uses text styles then you should be able to edit the text styles to apply them universally across your document.

Happy to take a look at your finished document or your exported pdf to check everything is correct if you'd like us to...

[GT70]

I believe there is an issue with the indentation, which for some reason has recorded a non-pure black. In fact, if I position cursor before the start of the sentence, the color changes and then becomes black on the first useful character.
Who knows what happened. Lesson learned though... next time, I will set the text with the correct color from the beginning.

[GT70]

I was also seeing that some pictures in the print tend to blue. It is not something absolutely present, but the blacks seem to be very dark blues. Is there anything I can do to prevent this problem? Maybe there is some correct setting to apply to the document?
(I wanted to take a photo but with my smartphone the effect is not noticeable).

Thanks

[Hangman]

Hi @GT70,

Are you able to upload a sample page with one of the images embedded where the black appears as a very dark blue so we can take a look at what might be happening?

[GT70]

Hi guys, here is a final demo of my layout file.
I took care of all the details following your instructions. I am ready to send the book interior to Amazon, can you please check the file's goodness?
I also attach the screenshot of the final settings.

Thank you very much!

 

demo.pdf

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[GT70]

Thank you for the quick feedback. These are the settings I used . The PDF/x-1a2003 should avert any errors because from what I understand it should flatten it out.
In any case I still don't understand how there can be transparencies. I imported those photos and turned them into image frames. I didn't do anything else. 
At this point do you recommend that I rasterize any graphic elements?

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[GT70]

Basically for almost all the photos I needed to rearrange, I turned them into picture frames as in the picture. That's the only operation I did because there are no graphics in the layout that I made...

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[GT70]

Thank you for the helpfulness!
Here are the photos for you. However, if you exported directly as a flattened PDF it would be better so we avoid these problems. Because the file I sent you is only part of the 200 pages. I wouldn't want there to be problems in other images as well.
Or I could rasterize all of them and then try to export again....

images.zip

[GT70]

I will point out that these are screenshots taken from the video of the film. Dealing with film images for the most part I had to make screenshots from video.

[Hangman]

Hi @GT70,

Apologies, I totally missed your last post... to add to @lacerto's comments...

I've quickly looked at the pages you provided in your demo.pdf file and have the following comments.

• All the text is now showing as K100 so all good there...
• One of the Amazon KDP specifications says...

Quote

All images (both cover and manuscript) should be at least 300 DPI.

• A number of the images in the supplied pages fall below 300dpi...

If you enable Image Resolution in the Pre-flight panel and set the minimum dpi to 300 you will see which images fall below that. A few of the images are very slightly showing as disproportionally scaled (though that shouldn't be an issue unless they fall below 300 dpi in either dimension).

I can't be certain but my 'guess' is that Amazon KDP 'could' possibly reject the file on that basis but I could equally be wrong.

I'm also picking up an odd 1-bit grey image on page 52 but I'm unsure what it is as I can't locate it when I open the pdf file itself in Publisher but it clearly relates to the left-hand image based on the size shown.

 

Apart from that, as far as I can tell technically, the provided pdf meets the Amazon KDP requirements but you can certainly double-check the remaining pages against the minimal specs Amazon provide here...

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202145060