PDF Export Broken on Mac

[jonwright]

Affinity Publisher has started outputting distorted vector elements on pages when exporting to PDF.

I'm flummoxed as to why. Only two weeks ago I exported the same documents, using the same preset (that I've used dozens of times) and the resulting PDFs were absolutely fine. I'm exporting to PDF using PDF/X 1a.

I can get the elements to be output correctly if I check 'JPEG compression' on export (should that have an effect on vectors?), but then the resulting PDF is 10x the size, at 900MB!, the same file two weeks ago was around 92MB.

I've tried rasterizing the vectors before export, but they're still distorted in the PDF.

Am I missing something obvious, or is this a bug? I'm on macOS 14.4.1.

UPDATE: I've just tested my PDF export preset on Windows using a virtual machine on my Mac, and it outputs correctly. So it's an issue with the Mac version, macOS, or my Mac?

UPDATE 2: A complete uninstall and reinstall hasn't helped.

 

 

 

 

[NathanC]

Hey @jonwright,

It sounds like your vector objects are getting flattened to pixel layers on export possibly due to unsupported properties affecting the curve objects such as FX or Adjustment layers- but regardless of that happening the corruptions/artefacts present on the final document should not be occurring.

I'd suggest disabling Hardware acceleration found under the app Settings -> Performance. Once the setting has been unchecked close the interface and restart the app when prompted to before trying the export again. There's a known bug logged internally with raster corruptions occurring with metal enabled on PDF which is very similar to what you're describing, but this bug trigger relies on JPEG compression being enabled at 98 rather than disabled, so hopefully this will also work for you.

 

[Jakub M.]

Was experiencing the same. Disabling hardware support (Metal on mac) helped to resolve this issue.

[affinitymuser]

Same issue here -- same workaround resolved it. Can this bug be filed with the developers for fixing? It looks like it's been around for over a year now.

[NathanC]

17 minutes ago, affinitymuser said:

Can this bug be filed with the developers for fixing?

Welcome to the forums- this is currently logged with the developers, I've bumped the issue with your report.