PDF export doesn't work - Publisher/Designer

[DTP-Bude]

Hello.

This week I switched from Adobe to Affinity (Publisher, Designer and Photo). My first job was to create a poster (size 594x841 mm / DIN A1), first I used the Publisher. For the presentation I exported jpg´s, the Publisher created this very fine in a few seconds. But now I need to export a pdf file for printing. Nothing happen when I try to export a pdf, only the fans of my computer going extremely wild and loud. 

My test, I copied all the layers from the Publisher into the Designer. I also switched all characters into pathes, because I wanted to excluse, if the characters causes the problem. It seemed this wasn't the problem, the same game, no export but the fans going wild too.

For your info: iMac late 2012, macOS Catalina 10.15.7

I hope somebody can help me to fix the issue.

Best regards, DTP-Bude

[Hangman]

Hi @DTP-Bude and welcome to the forums,

There is no immediately obvious reason for your file failing to export to PDF...

1. Can you Save your Publisher file using File > Save as Package then zip up the .afpackage file along with the images folder and upload the zip file so we can look at what may be causing the issue...
2. Can you confirm which PDF Preset you're using when exporting the file...

[wonderings]

could it have possibly saved to a different folder then what you t thought?

 

[DTP-Bude]

3 hours ago, Hangman said:

Hi @DTP-Bude and welcome to the forums,

There is no immediately obvious reason for your file failing to export to PDF...

1. Can you Save your Publisher file using File > Save as Package then zip up the .afpackage file along with the images folder and upload the zip file so we can look at what may be causing the issue...
2. Can you confirm which PDF Preset you're using when exporting the file...

@Hangman I'm sorry but I cannot upload a package, because its contents customer data,

I describe the presets. This usual settings for prints. CMYK PDF/X-3, european color standard, marks for trim.

Edit: I just mentioned, that obviously an export from Photo to a png or tiff file also failed.

Edited August 2, 2024 by DTP-Bude

[Hangman]

@DTP-Bude,

1 minute ago, DTP-Bude said:

I'm sorry but I cannot upload a package, because its contents customer data,

Completely understand...

You can request a private Dropbox link from Serif which would allow you to upload your file/s... The moderation team can then take a look if that's an option for you...

Without access to the file it is going to be quite difficult to diagnose the problem but I would try the following as my 'guess' is that one or more of the layers in your original file are likely causing the PDF export issue...

1. Select around 50% of the layers in your file and Group them, then Group the remaining 50% so you have two Groups.
2. Toggle Group 2 off in the Layers Panel so the content is hidden and see if your file previews, if it doesn't preview that is usually a sign it won't export
3. If your file previews and exports successfully toggle Group 2 on and toggle Group 1 off then repeat the process in Step 2
4. If one Group succeeds but the other Group fails select all Layers in the Group that fails, toggle their visibility off so nothing is visible then depending on how many layers you have toggle Layer visibility on either layer by layer or in small groups, e.g., ten layers at a time and invoke the Export Window to see if the visible layer's preview (you don't need to export the file each time) until you narrow down the Layer or Layers causing the file to fail to Preview and Export and tag those layers Red.
5. Once identified, enable visibility for all Layers apart from the Red Tagged Layers causing issues and confirm your file exports

In addition, you can go to Resource Manager and select each row one by one and check that no objects show a zero X and Y Placed Size or 0 dpi, any that do (if there are any) will potentially cause your file to fail on export...

See how you get on with the above and if you still have no joy then, if an option for you, request a private Dropbox link so the Serif team can take a look at your file...

I'd be equally happy to take a look for you if it helps if you can DM or WeTransfer the zip file... I appreciate the data may be sensitive so that may not be an option for you though once checked everything is deleted so it's entirely up to you.

[DTP-Bude]

Good evening,

unbelievabe the Publisher needed round about 45 minutes to create  PDF file for printing. O.k. a poster din a1 is not a letterl But the recources are a 4,2 mb Publisher file, a image with 290,6 mb and a vector file with 735 kb. The result was a PDF with more than 100 mb. Could that be? 

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, DTP-Bude said:

O.k. a poster din a1 is not a letterl But the recources are a 4,2 mb Publisher file, a image with 290,6 mb and a vector file with 735 kb. The result was a PDF with more than 100 mb. Could that be?

Why wouldn’t it be? You have a 290 MB image and a JPEG quality setting of 98%, so you’re only allowing a very small amount of compression. Try changing that setting to 90% or even 95%: you might be surprised at just how much the file size can drop without a noticeable difference in the appearance of the image.

[Hangman]

3 hours ago, DTP-Bude said:

Unbelievabe the Publisher needed round about 45 minutes to create  PDF file for printing. O.k. a poster din a1 is not a letterl But the recources are a 4,2 mb Publisher file, a image with 290,6 mb and a vector file with 735 kb. The result was a PDF with more than 100 mb. Could that be? 

I don't know if it's just down to processing power but I ran a quick test with an A1, CMYK Publisher document containing a 328.81 MB image and a 1.76 MB vector, exporting to a PDF/X-3 file using identical export settings...

• The Publisher file is 4.3 MB
• The file took 13 seconds to export
• The exported PDF/X-3 file is 153.5 MB

I appreciate this is of little comfort but it does suggest the issue isn't with Publisher... I think someone would need to run some tests with your file to see if there is anything in particular causing the seemingly excessive export time...

[DTP-Bude]

Hello again.

I tested out the poster document. By activating one layer after another. My conclution is now: The Publisher is simply overstrained with the huge size of the file. With the same computer, by using the old InDesign CS5 and a bigger document, the program needed approx 3 minutes to write a correct PDF/X-3 file. The Publisher at least approx 16 minutes. 10 points to Adobe.

But there is another issue. The colours of the PDF/X-3 written by the Publisher becomes very flat. So I must say the result is poor. The colour presets are in princible the same as in InDesign.

Yesterday I made an another much more smaler layout by adjusting similar colours in cmyk. The result was in the same way poor. Orange and yellow tones becomes too flat. The brilliance was going in the wind. Remark: when I export a jpg file anything is fine.

I worked for more than 20 years with InDesign, I never had have such bad PDF/X-3 files. 

And yes, I tried out all possible (european) presets in the Publisher.

 

 

[Hangman]

Hi @DTP-Bude,

3 minutes ago, DTP-Bude said:

I tested out the poster document. By activating one layer after another. My conclution is now: The Publisher is simply overstrained with the huge size of the file. With the same computer, by using the old InDesign CS5 and a bigger document, the program needed approx 3 minutes to write a correct PDF/X-3 file. The Publisher at least approx 16 minutes. 10 points to Adobe.

That sounds like a big improvement over the 45 minutes to export your Poster Artwork but still slow compared to InDesign... Publisher and InDesign use different PDF libraries but I have no idea how the two compare when exporting files...
 

11 minutes ago, DTP-Bude said:

But there is another issue. The colours of the PDF/X-3 written by the Publisher becomes very flat. So I must say the result is poor. The colour presets are in princible the same as in InDesign.

What Colour Profile does your Publisher document use and what Colour Profile do your image and vector content use?

I appreciate it's not likely an option owing to the customer data but I'd be happy to run some export tests privately if it helps but appreciate you may not wish to do that...

[DTP-Bude]

9 minutes ago, Hangman said:

What Colour Profile does your Publisher document use and what Colour Profile do your image and vector content use?

The presets in Photo and Publisher are the same.

[Hangman]

1 minute ago, DTP-Bude said:

The presets in Photo and Publisher are the same.

Which Colour Profile are you using in the Document Setup Window, sRGB or Coated FOGRA39 and which profile does your 290.6 Mb image use, sRGB or Coated FOGRA39...

[DTP-Bude]

3 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Which Colour Profile are you using in the Document Setup Window, sRGB or Coated FOGRA39 and which profile does your 290.6 Mb image use, sRGB or Coated FOGRA39...

The same settings.