Please help me understand exporting percentage?

[IAmGrammy]

I'm afraid I registered just to ask this question, because Google has let me down.  I use a MacBook, running Catalina.  I have Affinity Publisher 2 (2.2.1).  I haven't messed around it with for anything much, except for uploading book covers and interior files to Ingram (my printer and distributor).  I don't have Adobe software, so, in the past, I created my XCF (Gimp) layered file for my book cover design, converted it to a TIFF file (because I was told Affinity doesn't open GIMP files) and then to a PDF file (cumbersome, but I had some issues with Gimp going straight to PDF, so I opted to employ this method because, at the end of the day, Ingram prefers that I upload PDF files).  From there, I open the PDF in Affinity Publisher 2 and export it using PDF/X-1a2003, which is what Ingram prefers.  It has always worked beautifully before, but suddenly, today, it wants to export at 25% or 45%.  The highest I was able to export was 78% and I don't even know how I nudged it up to that. 

Ingram bounced it back today with the message:  "The correct template was used but the PDF appears to have been created less than 100%. The uploaded file is too small for the selected trim size. Verify the trim size; upload a new cover file PDF." 

I've never seen Affinity Publisher 2 do this before (export at less than 100%).  Of course, I'm a new user, and graphics is not really my field, I'm only involved in that now, because I want to design my own book covers and, as I said, I've not met with this issue until now, even though I've successfully rendered the PDF to meet Ingram standards with Affinity, before.  Has anyone encountered this before? 

Thank you for any help.  I appreciate it.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

It would help to have a screenshot to illustrate what you mean by 25%, 45%, etc. 

 

[IAmGrammy]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

It would help to have a screenshot to illustrate what you mean by 25%, 45%, etc. 

 

Thank you so much, Walt, for replying.  Last night, I tried again, this time, knocking out the middle man (instead of exporting TIFF to PDF before opening in Affinity, just opening the TIFF in Affinity directly, then exporting it to PDF from there).  I was hoping for different behavior, but the result was the same.  I'm attaching a screenshot of the pixel dimensions of the file (Affinity displays it at 16.5%, which I guess is no surprise; it's a large file).  It's really the second screenshot that concerns me.  Can you explain what is meant by "Export 10%"?  Is it really exporting at only 10%?  That's the only thing I can see changing from how things used to be and causing Ingram to suddenly send the file back, claiming it's the right template but not "100%". 

Edited January 5, 2024 by IAmGrammy

[Pšenda]

27 minutes ago, IAmGrammy said:

Can you explain what is meant by "Export 10%"?

It is Preview size (zoom factor) - try Ctrl+Scrollwheel.

% in first screenshot is also Zoom factor.

Edited January 5, 2024 by Pšenda

[IAmGrammy]

1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

It is Preview size (zoom factor) - try Ctrl+Scrollwheel.

% in first screenshot is also Zoom factor.
 

In that screenshot, it's showing the scale-down of the document's view size, and I can make that number change by using Ctrl+Scrollwheel.  But when I go to File--->Export, a new window opens and instead of seeing the scale-down of the document's view size, it changes to "Export 10%" (my second screenshot) and I can't get that number to change.  That's in my second screenshot.  Does Affinity Publisher 2 export 100%, regardless of "Export 10%"?  It's just that I've never seen it before and it's the first time Ingram has bounced back with the notation "not saved at 100%".   Thank you.

[thomaso]

27 minutes ago, IAmGrammy said:

But when I go to File--->Export, a new window opens and instead of seeing the scale-down of the document's view size, it changes to "Export 10%" (my second screenshot) and I can't get that number to change. 

This "10%" refer to the displayed preview size. You can influence this with keyboard shortcuts + modifier keys. Unfortunately they may vary / depend on your platform, the operating system version and the Affinity app version. Just give various a try.

Or find an option for your setup in this recent discussion:

[Pšenda]

23 minutes ago, IAmGrammy said:

it changes to "Export 10%"

If I export to PNG format (and other raster formats), then Ctrl+scrollwheel works for me, and the zoom factor of the preview is displayed in the title.

When exporting to PDF (and other vector formats), Ctrl+scrollwheel does not work, but neither does the zoom factor appear in the caption.

Maybe it's some difference between versions for different OS.

[walt.farrell]

15 hours ago, IAmGrammy said:

Ingram bounced it back today with the message:  "The correct template was used but the PDF appears to have been created less than 100%. The uploaded file is too small for the selected trim size. Verify the trim size; upload a new cover file PDF." 

The % value you're asking about has nothing to do with that message. It is only about how the preview is displayed to you during the Export operation, not about the Exported file.

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, IAmGrammy said:

It's just that I've never seen it before and it's the first time Ingram has bounced back with the notation "not saved at 100%".

Could you post this document here, maybe even with deleted/blank pages - it's just a matter of your document and export settings. Maybe someone will think of something.

[IAmGrammy]

Thank you all so much, for your kind time and attention to this.  Since you've explained to me that the export percentage value is nothing more than a preview size, and not the actual output, I'm forced to walk backward with it and determine if something happened in Gimp, when exporting to TIFF.  I've never had a file exported from Affinity before and received the Ingram notice, so I'll duplicate my steps, starting with the original XCF file and see if I'm missing a setting there.  Affinity may not be the culprit at all, in this case, since the file didn't originate with Affinity.  Thank you all again, and I'll try to do a bit more troubleshooting next time, before bringing my issue to the forum.  (But I do enjoy reading through other help threads here.  It's very educational!)