Exporting Hi-res comic art from Publisher

[awcomix]

I'm a comic artist that has been using Publisher to layout new books. For some context previously I had a workflow using Illustrator to layer hi-res line art with 300dpi colour layer underneath and then bundle them in Acrobat Pro.

This method is not commonly known outside of comic artists, as most artists just export their images as 300DPi jpegs. With comic art you want to have Hires bitmap tifs (1200DPI) overlayed on top of 300 dip jpegs (colour layer). If you're not familiar with this process you might say '1200DPI, that is extreme!'. I have used this method for many years, it is a common industry standard in comics, and your files sizes come out much smaller than anything else and the quality/detail you get is second to none. I've done about 5 books this way in Affinity so far but every time I feel like I'm shooting in the dark and hoping for a good result. 

These are my issues/concerns I run into when exporting from Affinity Publisher.

1. It wants to rasterise in multiple areas/options IE down sample images
2. If I turn off down sampling, I get black bars go across the artwork. (usually just the cover artwork strangely)
3. The resulting PDF is larger than the sum of the files themselves.

My question is how can I export with the above file setup/process to keep the hi-res of the B&W bitmaps intact without down sampling and causing this error and creating ballooned files? Or given my previous process could I use Designer instead and somehow bundle the resulting PDFs.

I'm using a Mac mini (Apple M2 Pro chip) MacOS 14.4.1, and Affinity Publisher 2.5.2

 

[awcomix]

Ok I just retried some new setting. I also waited until the preview was loaded and file size calculated before exporting. Just incase that was tripping it up. Here's a screenshot of my settings. File size came out to 37mb which isn't too bad for an eight page pub. 

Any thought on this process and set up?

[000]

I believe "use document resolution" is the correct choice here: It doesn't change the resolution of the files you have placed on the page, leaving the high-res drawings high-res and exporting the colour layer in the 300dpi they are set up in.

I would also select "overprint black" to make sure the drawing layer covers the colour layer where they overlap.

[awcomix]

1 minute ago, 000 said:

I believe "use document resolution" is the correct choice here: It doesn't change the resolution of the files you have placed on the page, leaving the high-res drawings high-res and exporting the colour layer in the 300dpi they are set up in.

I would also select "overprint black" to make sure the drawing layer covers the colour layer where they overlap.

Thanks, I think I just rubber duckied the solution ... but always good to leave the breadcrumbs for the next person.