Affinity Publisher PDF doesn't print

[MichaelGli]

I'm new to Affinity, so please excuse dumb questions...using latest Affinity 2 Publisher, I've exported a doc to PDF, opened it in Acrobat Pro , looks good, saved as reduced size, looks good...but won't print, errors with printer saying "PDL error".  Other PDFs, docs printing fine.

Originally I had used .psd file in my Affinity doc, I changed them out to .tif, no difference.

BTW This is a great product, I'm a 20 year InDesign user, right back to v1.4: it took Adobe 15+ years to get to where Affinity is now. I'm scaling back on design work and I don't need  the few advanced things InDesign still leads on, but I do appreciate the saving.

 

1411_Thermostat_manual.pdf

[Hangman]

Hi @MichaelGli,

Your PDF is printing without issue for me...

A "PDL error" is normally a printer driver error... If your printer supports a different PDL (page description language) such as PostScript or PCL5, try using one of those drivers instead and see if the file prints.

[MichaelGli]

Thanks Hangman

I agree the printer is the first suspect, and your successful print points in that direction,  but I have had the same computer–printer combination for 3 years, no changes to settings have been made in the past year.

I have just made a new pdf in another program and it prints fine.

I've made a new file in Affinity, exported it to PDF and it prints fine

So it does seem to be the file. I've remade the problem PDF several times, saved as reduced file size in Acrobat Professional, all the usual tricks but to no avail.

My Affinity Publisher file has multiple layers but it seems they can't be flattened in Affinity.

Maybe it's just one of those glitches that never get explained...

Appreciate your response.

[thomaso]

4 minutes ago, MichaelGli said:

it seems they can't be flattened in Affinity.

What if you export as PDF/X-1 or /X-3? They handle transparency and colour profiles differently than your used PDF 1.7.

[MichaelGli]

Excellent suggestion, thanks. Using Acrobat Pro I made a "flatten" version and an X-1 version and both work.

Strange that my genuine PostScript level 3 printer is problematic when other printers with emulations are fine.

[thomaso]

6 minutes ago, MichaelGli said:

Using Acrobat Pro I made a "flatten" version and an X-1 version and both work.

Note you can export as X-1 or as flattened from Affinity, too. Or combine the flatten option ("Rasterise: Everything") with any non-X PDF version.

[MichaelGli]

Great, thankas, that's much more convenient.