Export of placed PDFs not correctly cropped

[rcheetah]

I have a huge problem. I can't export PDFs for files that include PDFs. They will not get cropped correctly when exported, but are completely messed up and missing their cropmarks. 

When doing the same in Designer, they're already wrongly cropped in the software itself, even when I use .afdesign files. 

Everything ist in Affinity 2.0, also the files. 

I'll attach a screen video, so you can see for yourself. 

[rcheetah]

Here is the .afpub file. I embedded the files with this one. In the video they we're linked, but I tried exporting with the embedded version, and it still was the same error. 

Müllbeklebung Montage.afpub

[Dan C]

Hi rcheetah,

it appears that the PDF is not embedded.

Lee

[Hangman]

Hi @rcheetah,

I believe this is a known bug...

If you change your Page Box setting from Maximum Content to Media Box your file should export correctly with its crop marks though, from me, doing so freezes Publisher completely resulting in me having to do a Force Quit.

There are some major issues with placed PDF files in Publisher v2.1.0 and v2.1.1 and the moment.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Hangman]

This is what I get, first using Maximum or Minimum Content, then using Media Box for the Page Box Setting... Basically, using either Maximum or Minimum Content crops both the top right along with the crop marks when exporting to PDF...

[Hangman]

13 minutes ago, lacerto said:

but noticed that when initiallly trying to embed the placed PDFs, this failed (similarly as it seems to have failed with OP).

Resource Manager suggests the OP had his or her PDF files Linked rather than Embedded...

 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Hangman]

1 minute ago, lacerto said:

Yes, the behavior was identical in my test. I embedded in Windows, closed and made sure that file showed Embedded in Resource Manager, closed and transferred on macOS, where nothign showed on the canvas, and the Rsource Manager showed the status as linked.

How bizarre and somewhat worrying if embedded PDF files are suddenly no longer embedded when switching platforms. Do you see the same if using Save as Package and then transferring between platforms and is it multi-directional, i.e., does the same happen from PC to Mac and Mac to PC?

 

6 minutes ago, lacerto said:

Similarly as OP I had placed the PDFs (produced as both PDF 1.7 default and PDF/X-1a) as interpreted and then exported as PDF 1.7 (default) the selected placed PDFs.

The OP exports using PDF Passthrough rather than Interpret which turns out to be the issue...

• When the placed PDFs are either Linked or Embedded and PDF Passthrough is set to Passthrough the exported PDF is cropped and missing the crop marks.
• When the placed PDFs are either Linked or Embedded and PDF Passthrough is set to Interpret the PDF exports correctly.

 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Hangman]

5 minutes ago, lacerto said:

Oh yes, I seem to have missed the part they switched back to "Transfer" after first having switched from "Transfer" to "Interpreteren".

5 minutes ago, lacerto said:

Then nothing surprises me. You basically cannot place PDFs for interpretation and export to PDF without experiencing some sort of issue.

I guess that depends on the source of the PDF, if it's one you've created yourself and have all the associated 'elements and fonts' for then it doesn't appear to be an issue.

7 minutes ago, lacerto said:

There are certain specific workflows that  can be used without problems, but having e.g. crop marks in placed files seems to work only if the placed files are rasterized (either because of "compatibility rule" violation, or beforehand on the canvas, or intentionally at export time. This has never worked properly in Affinity apps.

Obviously, that depends on the version of PDF you're exporting to... exporting to PDF 1.7 certainly allows crop marks in placed files to be exported without rasterisation.

What is odd, however, are the PDFs exported using Passthrough which end up cropped and minus visible crop marks... take a look at the attached PDFs, in particular, the layers for the two using Passthrough, the crop marks are there and the file only appears cropped because of the addition of two additional mask layers (which don't appear in the Interpreted exports).

Uncheck the two additional mask layers and the file appears correctly...

Müllbeklebung Montage (Max Embedded Interpet).pdf

Müllbeklebung Montage (Max Embedded Passthrough).pdf

Müllbeklebung Montage (Max Linked Interpet).pdf

Müllbeklebung Montage (Max Linked Passthrough).pdf

 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Hangman]

reminiscent

23 minutes ago, lacerto said:

Yes, here it happens when saved on macOS and transferred onto Windows:

Did you also spot that when you opened the file in Publisher on Windows and selected one of the placed PDF files (1m 26s), the Original size is shown as 0 px x 0 px and the Placed size as 0 mm x 0 mm which is interestingly reminiscent of an old Publisher bug that caused an error where the Publisher file couldn't be opened because it contained features from a newer version of Publisher, though that is clearly not the issue here...

Normally, even if the resource is missing, Publisher still shows both the Original and Placed sizes in Resource Manager...

23 minutes ago, lacerto said:

As can be seen, I deliberately eliminated the chance that this could have been caused by the OP's missing files. As the OP had placed the files to be passed through, the placement method does not seem to play any role here, either. 

Passthrough vs Interpret however does make all the difference as shown in the previously posted PDF files...

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[R C-R]

28 minutes ago, lacerto said:

Well, it is obvious that nothing is really embedded in current 2.1.1 versions (at least in Publisher).

At least for me in the 2.1.1 Mac version, it seems to depend on the type of item(s) that are embedded vs. linked. So for example a file with several >10MB PNG files saves at about 32.5 MB if embedded but just a bit over 500KB if linked. I also tried a mix of PNGs, afphoto, & NEF files, all at least 4 MB each, & that also showed significant differences when all were linked vs. embedded (around 2 vs. 20 MB).

Annoyingly, in one file containing a different mix of file types there was no difference in file size when linked vs. embedded, but I could not repeat that & I do not remember exactly what file types I used.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Hangman]

2 hours ago, lacerto said:

It seems so. PDF files will not be embedded even if their file size is large.

EDIT: But oddly, the file size of the Publisher file does get increased, so it is possible that the PDF files are actually embedded but there is a glitch in the code when it is time to render these files (the embedded resources are not found or something goes wrong in processing, resulting in these files being marked as linked).

Thinking about this it makes little sense. I've downloaded loads of user files in the forum created in Windows, containing embedded PDF files and opened them on macOS without any issues with the placed PDFs shown as embedded in Resource Manager so I'm really unsure what is going on here...

Could you perhaps create a simple Publisher file on Windows (if you have time), place a couple of embedded PDF files in the document, Save it then Zip it up and post it. I'll then take a look to see if the PDFs are still embedded when opened on macOS or whether they show as Linked just in case this is a new v2.1.1 bug...

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Hangman]

13 minutes ago, lacerto said:

The behavior is identical on macOS and Windows and you can easily test it by embedding a large PDF file (e.g. one that contains embedded raster images, I tested this with a 10 MB PDF containing lots of low-res images). Then after having embedded the PDF in Resource Manager, save the Publisher document and rename the file that you embedded in the file system, then open the Publisher document. The supposedly embedded PDF file is no longer rendered on canvas and if Resource Manager is opened it is shown as "Linked", not embedded. Any raster images embedded are rendered normally and their status is "Embedded". Notice how Publisher file size nevertheless increases and decreases depending on whether it is embedded or linked (or removed), which indicates that the file would appear to be embedded, but just cannot be rendered.

I'm seeing the exact same issue, this definitely looks like a new bug...

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Hangman]

I've reported it as a bug now in the Bugs thread along with a couple of other oddities, e.g., based on your earlier screen recording I noticed that renaming the placed pdf and replacing it causes the replaced pdf to appear with a negative 2^31 dpi in Resource Manager...

[rcheetah]

 

Sorry for being absent so long. I had my settings misconfigured, so I didn't receive any notifications.

Well, this thread escalated quickly. There seems to be more bugs related. I don't know of how much help I am at this point. Do you need anything from me? To be honest, a lot of things discussed went a little over my head. I just realised, that Affinity has a lot of troubles with embedded colors, and maybe even from other affinity suite files.

I come from Adobe, and I still use it daily as a professional. I use Affinity only for private projects, and this is not so  often the case. Every time I try to do something, I become very frustrated, because things just won't work. Some of this are missing features (e.g. still no raster vectorisation for designer …), some of them are like this just bugs. I understand I have a hard time because it's a different software, and I have to get used to it. But often it's so utterly frustrating. I was completely in rage when writing the original post, that's why it was so straightforward. I used all my focus to not be impolite. 

In my workflow, I mostly create the designs in one file, and when I print them myself, I montage them in a different file by placing it in there. In this case I printed on labels, so I wanted to save space, and put everything on one page. Of course I wouldn't waste three A4 pages of label paper by printing each design separately. So exporting print-ready designs with crop marks and placing them into a new A4 file is my workflow for this, coming from Indesign. This way I don't have to create the cropmarks myself, and have the bleed for cutting it myself. Would you suggest a different workflow? If not, which export and import options should I use for this workflow?

Aside from my workflow – as you figured yourself – Affinity clearly has a lot of bugs with this sort of stuff. So this would really need fixing. Color management and placement of files seems to be a pretty core thing, and this is Affinity 2.0.