What is the correct Export Version?

[Bryce]

I done newspapers for years and we export ads as PDF and then import them into a page layout. When we switched from ID to AP we get this message in preflight

on every PDF placed. I've tried pretty much everything to change (I don't want them interpreted). What is the appropriate export setting to get them to place and export correctly in the output file.

I usually just ignore this because it doesn't seem to make any difference, but if I can make it right, I will.

thanks!

[walt.farrell]

Your Preflight Profile has a setting for the PDF level you plan to use during Export, and the Preflight process just checks against that specified level. 

Perhaps the Profile setting doesn't match the actual level you're eventually going to use? In that case, you can edit the Profile, or ignore the messages. 

https://affinity.help/publisher2/en-US.lproj/pages/Publishing/preflight.html

 

[Bryce]

Ok. Thanks for pointing the obvious. That makes sense.

[werfox]

Please be aware of the fact that if you export your layout with the placed PDF 2.0 files you must also export as PDF 2.0 otherwise the placed PDFs will be most probably rasterized (i.e. converted into pixel with the document resolution). The preflight warning does not say that directly but if switched from transfer to interpret, the rasterization would be avoided,

If you layout the ads yourself, export them as PDF with a version number lower or at most equal as the intended export version. E.g. ad export as PDF 1.5 and layout export as PDF 1.6 or above.

In my tests it is also impossible to export such a layout with placed ads from different sources as a PDF-X/4 without the rasterization mentioned above.
The "press ready" presets do.

InDesign is far more proof against such things and it can reduce the image resolution in placed PDFs which APub cannot (while using the transfer method).

 

Best regards

Edited May 31 by werfox
some typos

[thomaso]

37 minutes ago, werfox said:

if you export your layout with the placed PDF 2.0 files you must also export as PDF 2.0 otherwise the placed PDFs will be most probably rasterized

Does this concern Affinity only or do you experience the rasterization also form other apps? I wonder because it seems that 2.0 does not add new features to transparency or blend mode handling that might require rasterization:

https://www.pdflib.com/pdf-knowledge-base/pdf-20/new-capabilities/

40 minutes ago, werfox said:

In my tests it is also impossible to export such a layout with placed ads from different sources as a PDF-X/4 without the rasterization mentioned above.

Does this mean in your experience PDF 2.0 is not fully compatible with PDF/X-4 … although it sounds that 2.0 exceeds X/4 properties rather than limiting them?

https://www.pdflib.com/pdf-knowledge-base/pdf-20/existing-features-from-pdf-standards/

[werfox]

Hi @thomaso,

Quote

Does this concern Affinity only or do you experience the rasterization also form other apps?

In my somewhat limited knowledge, I do not know any other applications capable of exporting PDF version 2.0.
In my experience the problem with rasterization of placed PDFs is immanent for APub if the files do not match or extend the version that shall be exported. It has not much to do with version 2.0. I don’t know if this is a limitation of the used PDFlib or the application itself.

Quote

Does this mean in your experience PDF 2.0 is not fully compatible with PDF/X-4 … although it sounds that 2.0 exceeds X/4 properties rather than limiting them?

PDF-X/4 is PDF version 1.6. So if a placed PDF has version above that, there will be the preflight warning @Bryce mentioned and there is a great chance that the contents will be rasterized if exported as PDF-X/4. With a "Press ready" preset and version 1.7 there is far more chance to preserve vector based output (and colours) of the placed ads/PDFs.

A new norm called PDF-X/6 is based on PDF 2.0 but there is even less applications capable of exporting that. And yes, PDF-X/6 has more capabilities than X/4 (page based output intent for example) but I doubt if that will be easily accessible from within APub as the problems decribed above still make it difficult to work with the X/4 standard. And even InDesign is as far as I know not capable of PDF-X/6 export at all.

Even if PDFlib / APub are capable of exporting PDF version 2.0 and/or PDF-X/4, preserving all contents (vectors and colour values) while using the transfer mode is another issue and not easily done with APub. That’s my experience so far, both in APub version 1.x and 2.x.

 

Best regards.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.