Publisher Becomes Non Responsive When Changing the Page Box for Placed PDF Files

[Hangman]

There's an existing bug logged as AFB-7740 where Publisher becomes non-responsive when placing PDF files, affecting v2.0.4, v2.1.0 and v2.1.1.

I'm not sure if this is the same or a related bug so I'm reporting it here but if considered part of the same bug this can of course be added to the existing bug report... The bug itself makes Publisher almost completely unusable when using placed PDF files.

The Bug

• When changing the Page Box for placed PDF files, again Publisher becomes completely unresponsive resulting in a Force Quit being required.
   
• In addition, prior to the unresponsive state, changing the Page Box to different settings results in cropped and misplaced content when exporting to PDF, e.g., if setting Page Box to Maximum or Minimum Content and PDF Passthrough is set to Passthrough. This doesn't appear to be an issue when using Interpret.

I have a feeling this may have been reported separately but I also think it is the likely cause of the issues reported in this thread...

 

 

[NathanC]

Hi @Hangman,

Using the original PDF files that were a part of AFB-7740 in a new document in 2.1.1 I've not yet been able to re-produce  the issue with the page box change causing a hang, or the second issue with exporting to PDF after changing the page box settings to Min/Max content on passthrough, when I re-open the exported PDF the content appears as expected without any unusual crop/misplaced content. However, I also cannot re-create AFB-7740 and Paul mentioned he is now also unable to replicate this on 2.1.1. This was on an M1 Studio Mac running Ventura 13.4 with H/A enabled. 

- Are you still able to re-produce AFB-7740 on 2.1.1?

- Could you possibly provide me with two screen recordings for the changing Page box hang/ PDF export crop? It would be much appreciated since I can't re-produce them.

It's hard to say for certain that the issues are indeed one and the same in terms of the cause, so if I'm able to re-produce the issues I'll log them separately and link them back to AFB-7740.

Many thanks

[Hangman]

Hi @NathanC,

3 hours ago, NathanC said:

Using the original PDF files that were a part of AFB-7740 in a new document in 2.1.1 I've not yet been able to re-produce  the issue with the page box change causing a hang...

While I consistently get the non-responsive state in Publisher when using placed PDF files and viewing single pages, I'm seeing the 'hang' perhaps more specifically when viewing more than one page at a time. Sadly the hang doesn't generate a crash report...

This feels more like a Publisher memory issue with it's handling of placed PDF files and it could be that changing the Page Box is actually a red herring but I can repeat the crash with any file that uses placed PDF files (with Hardware Acceleration both off and on) so it may just be a coincidence that changing the Page Box also eventually leads to Publisher becoming non-responsive.

Note: Hardware Acceleration is off in this screen recording.

 

3 hours ago, NathanC said:

or the second issue with exporting to PDF after changing the page box settings to Min/Max content on passthrough, when I re-open the exported PDF the content appears as expected without any unusual crop/misplaced content.

Publisher v1.10.6 vs v2.1.1

This seems to be very similar to the issue linked in the first post of this thread though unsure of the settings for that users file.

 

PDF Export - Passthough vs Interpret

For some reason when the Page Box is set to either Minimum or Maximum Content, exporting to PDF using passthrough creates two seemingly unneccessary mask layers, one crops the top right of the graphic, the second masks the crop marks. As you can see, opening the exported pdf and hiding the mask layers reveals that the complete file is intact.

Chairs in France v1.10.6.afpub

Chairs in France v2.1.1.afpub

Crop Marks.afpub

 

[NathanC]

Thanks @Hangman,

I'm definitely now seeing the second issue on export using min/max content on the placed PDF's with your file so I'll get this logged.

Regarding the crop marks issue, do you mind sending me the file again with the resources set to embedded? The file is currently empty as the linked resources are missing. I can't think of a valid reason for passthrough PDFs adding mask layers which remove the marks, so I'll get this logged with your file.

Regarding the app hang when changing the PDF Pagebox setting, I've still not been able to re-produce this on my M1 after a few minutes of changing the PDF Pagebox setting with all three pages in view, the app remains responsive and Activity Monitor reports no change in memory usage. I'll re-try this on an intel Monterey and Ventura mac for comparison.

[Hangman]

Hi @NathanC,

4 minutes ago, NathanC said:

I'm definitely now seeing the second issue on export using min/max content on the placed PDF's with your file so I'll get this logged.

Thanks for confirming and for logging...

5 minutes ago, NathanC said:

Regarding the crop marks issue, do you mind sending me the file again with the resources set to embedded? The file is currently empty as the linked resources are missing. I can't think of a valid reason for passthrough PDFs adding mask layers which remove the marks, so I'll get this logged with your file.

This raises another seemingly new bug, as you will see in the screen recording the pdf files are embedded in the Publisher file but there is a discussion taking place in another thread where when saving a Publisher file with embedded PDF files using PDF Passthrough and then opening the file on another machine the embedded PDF files are shown as Linked and hence missing.

If I download the Crop Marks.afpub file I uploaded in my previous post and reopen it the files are shown as embeded but if I close the Publisher file and reopen it the embedded files then shown as Linked and missing from the Publisher file...

 

The placed PDF files appear in the layers panel but not on the canvas and Resource Manager shows them with an Original Size of 0 px x 0 px and a Placed Size of 0 mm x 0 mm but still with a physical file size and Place DPI...

 

I've attached a zipped version and have included the three placed PDF files both seperately and as Embedded files but they may open on your machine as Linked. If they do appear as Embedded, try closing the file and reopening it.

Crop Marks (Embedded).zip

 

[NathanC]

10 minutes ago, Hangman said:

This raises another seemingly new bug, as you will see in the screen recording the pdf files are embedded in the Publisher file but there is a discussion taking place in another thread where when saving a Publisher file with embedded PDF files using PDF Passthrough and then opening the file on another machine the embedded PDF files are shown as Linked and hence missing.

If I download the Crop Marks.afpub file I uploaded in my previous post and reopen it the files are shown as embeded but if I close the Publisher file and reopen it the embedded files then shown as Linked and missing from the Publisher file...

Great Catch! I hadn't even noticed that when I opened your attached file originally, I had just seen the missing resources prompt, seen they were all missing in the manager and closed it down.

Your .ZIP file contains the PDF files with the policy set to linked but has correctly linked them back in the folder (even though they should be embedded), I've replicated this one between my Windows and Mac Devices and I'll get it logged as well.

[Hangman]

4 minutes ago, NathanC said:

Your .ZIP file contains the PDF files with the policy set to linked but has correctly linked them back in the folder (even though they should be embedded), I've replicated this one between my Windows and Mac Devices and I'll get it logged as well.

Yet if I open the file they're still shown as Embedded...

Again, thanks for logging... in all fairness, this wasn't discovered by me so I'm just the messenger here...

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Setting Min/Max content Page boxes on placed Passthrough PDF files can incorrectly offset/crop the contents" (REF: AFB-7889) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.0.1971".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Placed Passthrough PDFs with a Min/Max Content Page box add an unnecessary mask layer to remove crop marks on export" (REF: AFB-7891) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.2.0.1971".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.