PDF Exporter duplicates identical graphics, leading to huge files

[Yas Vis]

Hi all,

I'm trying to use Affinity Publisher in order to data merge text on top of pre-made forms. The same form vector graphic is displayed on every single page, but the .pdf exporter seems to think that the underlying image on every page is absolutely unique and needs to be copied for every distinct page. This is problematic because exporting a 75-page document with a 500 KB graphic and 30 KB of text yields a mammoth 30 MB file (for comparison, Indesign exports the same file at 300 KB). Since I need to use Publisher for print publishing and we use a lot of forms, this makes the program unusable for my use-case.

I spent the day digging into this and made an example file:

• The  SVG TESTS.afpub file is the correct size: 495 KB ✔️
• The PDF for Web (small size).pdf export is the correct size: 77 KB ✔️
• The 75-pagePDF for Web (small size) 75.pdf export of the same graphic over and over again is 75 * 77 ≈ 5529 KB 🔥 🔥 🚒

Note: Affinity Publisher exports the same size .pdf regardless of whether the graphic is Linked or Embedded.

Can anyone help?

[Dan C]

Hi @Yas Vis,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums & thanks for your report!

I can confirm I've been able to replicate this with your files provided and therefore have logged this with our development team for you now.

However I'm not 100% certain if this is classified by our team as a bug or an improvement request, as I believe the current behaviour of Publisher may be expected, but as the behaviour from InDesign is much more sensible where applicable, therefore it is now with our team for further considerations.

I hope this helps

[Celia at Grafted Works]

This issue has plagued me every since Publisher was released. Please fix it ASAP!

[Dan C]

Thanks for updating this thread @Celia at Grafted Works - I can confirm the issue is still logged with our development team at this time therefore I will be sure to 'bump' this report using your post now, to bring it to our teams attention once again.

I hope this helps!

[werfox]

Hi @Dan C,

I’m glad to see that this issue will be addressed.

There was a bug report about this already:

Quote

 

I hope there will be a solution soon.

 

Best regards
werfox

 

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "PDF export individually includes duplicated placed files unexpectedly, causing larger than necessary files" (REF: AF-3294) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.2.3213). The fix 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 @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.