Bleed lines not showing on document Affinity Designer

[razorpig]

Can I run my retail 1.6 version and the beta 1.7 side by side using the same product key? ( Windows 10 )

[MEB]

Hi razorpig,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Yes you can.

[razorpig]

Perfect. Thanks for the quick reply.

[sportyguy209]

I just dowloaded the beta version and see a blank rectangular outline around the page for the bleed space when I choose "view bleed."

How do I view the actual content in the bleed?

I just created a new document and got it to work. What could be happening with the old document?

Never mind, I got it to work by copying the page and pasting it to a new document.:-)

Thanks.

[MEB]

Hi sportyguy209,
Do you mind attaching the "old" document where this was happening? Are you using Designer or Publisher and on what OS?
I can provide an upload link if you don't wish to post the file publicly.

[sportyguy209]

I started with the attached pdf since I didn't have access to the original ai file.

Then, I imported the pdf into Affinity Designer. Tried to figure out the bleeds, then came to your forum comments where you mentioned that the beta added the ability to view bleeds.

So, I downloaded the beta where I could view the bleed borders, but not the content. I figured out that if I copied and pasted one page at a time, I could view the content of the bleeds. It may simply be that I don't know Affinity Designer very well that was causing me problems.

One other off topic issue I have with your products...and I now own, Designer, Photo, and will purchase Publisher...is when I choose a different tool, since the highlight color is so dark, I end up clicking several times on it thinking it hasn't been selected. :-(

Thanks!

Rack_Card.pdf

[MEB]

Hi sportyguy209,
Thanks for the file. Regarding the highlight colour (tools) you can try going to Affinity Preferences, User Interface section and change the UI Gamma but I'm afraid it will not help much here, sorry. There's also an option there to change to a light interface but again the contrast issue may still be a problem. What OS are you using Windows or macOS?

[sportyguy209]

Thanks, I'm using macOS! Yes, the problem is with the contrast. I have fairly good vision, but the difference still isn't very apparent. AI's highlights are subtle, but still much clearer. Please consider this a suggestion for improvement. :-)

[DariuszB]

How can I see what is in the blead area? I can only see a bleed frame.

[sportyguy209]

Hello Darius:

Are you using the latest beta to view your document?

[firstdefence]

If you set bleeds after opening the PDF the graphics don't show in the bleeds. 

If you create a document and apply bleed settings first and then copy and paste the graphics into that document the graphics show in the bleed, New from Clipboard will not work because no bleeds are set during document creation, so you set them post paste and the problem rears its problematic head. 

Just done this with the file.

Note: If you take the large swash graphics outside of the Artboards they display in the bleed area so the artboard appears to be constraining the view to its boundaries. It's like it doesn't know the bleeds are there if they are created afterwards.

[cimerio]

and here, in 1.6.5. the bleed is not included, even using "when exporting click on the More button on the Export dialog and check Include Bleed." 

doesn't show, period

I'm stumped with the software. is extremely beautiful, has some innovative ideas, but lacks primary features and shortcuts.
not yet having an efficient bleed tool that already existed in the 90's coreldraw and illustrator seems unacceptable for a paid product.

almost three years to solve something that is not a new feature, but a deficiency of the system... I wonder how programmers work in England. If you have a one-hour journey with a tea break, you better produce wool.

let us agree sirs. in computing, you have to identify the problem and correct it. if free tools of open code, as gimp or inkscape work better than the affinity designer something is wrong.

[Fixx]

Designer's bleeds work as expected. Check your settings.

Only bleed guides are missing and they are added in 1.7 beta.

[Mango]

Completely baffled by this! Just downloaded the latest version as a trial  (1.71).

I was all set to try and replace Adobe with Affinity and I'm frustrated as hell already. What is the difference between a document and an artboard? If I create a document with bleeds I can see the bleed by ticking view>show bleed. If I create a multipage/artboard document and tick view>show bleeds I can not see the bleed!

This is soo confusing and makes the most simple thing frustrating! Am I missing something or can you not view bleeds on artboards? I've so far opened 2 Illustrator business card documents in Affinity to amend for clients and I'm already ready to switch back!

If I want to see bleed do I have to create every page as a seperate document and not as an artboard? Is that the only way? Big MEH!!

(Print shop owner)

[Mango]

On further review, it seems that it does work on an artboard if you drag the background with the bleed outside of the artboard group. Strange way of working though........

[simonlayfield]

On 6/20/2019 at 6:08 PM, Mango said:

On further review, it seems that it does work on an artboard if you drag the background with the bleed outside of the artboard group. Strange way of working though........

I'm getting this behaviour too. This can't be as expected, right? What if the bleed area is made up of multiple layers/objects? Do they all need dragging out of their natural placement in the layer/artboard stack?

I'm able to see the bleed 'guideline', but View > Clip to Canvas is checked and greyed out so can't toggle that to see the actual bleed content. Exporting whole document as PDF with Include bleed and Crop marks selected results in a PDF with Artboard artwork (bleed not included), and crop marks aligned to the outside of the artwork

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by simonlayfield
Inaccurate descrition of issue - fixed

[YFinder]

On 4/25/2018 at 7:07 AM, msnooze said:

In Document setup just set your margins to be the same as your bleed, then you'll see the margin lines where the bleed should be   Works if you don't want margins at a different size, if you do then you could just set guides at that position.

Same idea but i set bleed to zero and then i use a rectangle (no Fill + 0.50 Stroke) for safe (red) and cut (Black) lines in a grouped layer.  This is in publisher but wouldn't it be the same?  Just set the document size the same as your bleed size for the printer then wherever their safe & Trim lines are duplicate them in a grouped layer.  Keep all important stuff in the Safe, everything beyond the black (Trim) is bleed.  Group it so toggling is easy.

Edited August 12, 2019 by YFinder
added doc setup

[affinity4Christ15]

Maybe Affinity will step up their game after reading all these embarrassing comments? Who knows. I want to love AD, but like so many, we're left crawling back to AI (kill me now)! 

[Fixx]

Bleeds in artboards seem to work almost like it should. I can make multiple artboards, assign bleed, export with bleeds and printer marks. There is no "bleed preview" though as objects partially covering artboards show only content in artboard, nothing outside it, be it bleed area or not. Mac Mojave, Designer 17.3.

What is artboard group and how it affects that...?

[Lorox]

I, too, am feeling completely unnnerved because of being not able to see/preview the bleed area. Of course, there may be workarounds by setting the document's dimensions to include bleed and then having some auxiliary shapes to mark the cropped area, but when you need proper crop marks eventually, this is bound to cause problems.

When you do print ready artwork the feature of being able to switch the visibility of the bleed area on and off is just a definite MUST HAVE.

BUT – What's more – there's obviously something about the "Artboard", which I don't seem to understand:

For hours I've been struggling to export a Designer file (A2 artboard plus 3 mm bleed) as a JPG but every time the bleed just didn't make it into the JPG – although I positively had checked "Include bleed" in the export "More"-options as well as having chosen "Whole Document" (instead of just "Artboard 1")!  I'm completely at a loss about what's been happening here...

As it happened the size of the exported JPG was actually and correctly A2 plus 3 mm bleed (426 mm x 600 mm) BUT the supposed bleed area (basically a 3 mm wide frame) is just plain white and doesn't show any parts of those elements supposed to reach into the bleed area.

HOWEVER:

When I delete the artboard from my file (by moving everything else above the artboard in the layers panel and then deleting the empty artboard at the bottom of the staple) and THEN export with the same setting as before, the bleed area DOES show up correctly in the exported JPG.

Is there a thought behind this, which I possibly do not understand yet?

[Uli62]

On 12/12/2019 at 3:07 PM, Lorox said:

I, too, am feeling completely unnnerved because of being not able to see/preview the bleed area. Of course, there may be workarounds by setting the document's dimensions to include bleed and then having some auxiliary shapes to mark the cropped area, but when you need proper crop marks eventually, this is bound to cause problems.

When you do print ready artwork the feature of being able to switch the visibility of the bleed area on and off is just a definite MUST HAVE.

BUT – What's more – there's obviously something about the "Artboard", which I don't seem to understand:

For hours I've been struggling to export a Designer file (A2 artboard plus 3 mm bleed) as a JPG but every time the bleed just didn't make it into the JPG – although I positively had checked "Include bleed" in the export "More"-options as well as having chosen "Whole Document" (instead of just "Artboard 1")!  I'm completely at a loss about what's been happening here...

As it happened the size of the exported JPG was actually and correctly A2 plus 3 mm bleed (426 mm x 600 mm) BUT the supposed bleed area (basically a 3 mm wide frame) is just plain white and doesn't show any parts of those elements supposed to reach into the bleed area.

HOWEVER:

When I delete the artboard from my file (by moving everything else above the artboard in the layers panel and then deleting the empty artboard at the bottom of the staple) and THEN export with the same setting as before, the bleed area DOES show up correctly in the exported JPG.

Is there a thought behind this, which I possibly do not understand yet?

I had exactly the same problem yesterday. Setting an A6 Artboard plus 3mm bleed was for nothing. I cannot move pictures visible into the bleed and exporting it to PDF X4 doesn´t show the bleed at all. So the workaround was to add the 3mm bleed to document size 148x105mm becomes 151x111mm and placing helplines 6mm instead of 3mm safety distance. 

Do I something wrong?

[Lorox]

On 12/18/2019 at 9:22 AM, Uli62 said:

I had exactly the same problem yesterday. Setting an A6 Artboard plus 3mm bleed was for nothing. I cannot move pictures visible into the bleed and exporting it to PDF X4 doesn´t show the bleed at all. So the workaround was to add the 3mm bleed to document size 148x105mm becomes 151x111mm and placing helplines 6mm instead of 3mm safety distance. 

Do I something wrong?

Quite reassuring that I don't seem to be alone with that problem here...

The workaround you mention is exactly the one I chose, too. But the problem remains that if you do so you won't get proper cropmarks, should you need them, as the document format (now including bleed) is no longer that of the cropped finished product...

So the solution seems to be – for now – to set up the document not using an artboard at all (thus limiting yourself to just on page). With me this at least got me back my crop area while exporting. Not being actually able to see what's in that area while working on the file remains highly annoying, though.

[Mike W077]

And I thought it was me...  

[Lorox]

Did you already test on version 1.8? I've updated but haven't looked into this again so far... 

[ElwoodP]

Checking back after 2 years to see if its worth purchasing yet. Disappointed bleed still doesn't work properly . 

Sending a big project to print is stressful enough without messing around with hacks, moving layers around out of order, to get bleed working. Something like bleed needs to be rock solid functionality before I trust it for production.

Affinity?