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Importing PDF into Publisher 2.5.3 produces strange characters for text


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I have imported a PDF into Publisher 2.5.3, that was originally created in Adobe Illustrator v28.5 (windows) and most of the pages contain strange glyphs instead of the text I was expecting.  Not all pages do, somee pages are fine, but most look like the image I have embedded here.  Also, if you select the text, it behaves like text characters, but changing the font to something else does not change it.

image.thumb.png.4b590dbe1bd0687c5fd53ad1e2f2664d.png

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I am guessing that it is caused by the fonts in the original. I do not have the required fonts on my machine.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 
Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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16 hours ago, Graphical Chris said:

I have imported a PDF into Publisher 2.5.3,

Please clarify "imported" for us. Did you Open the PDF, or Place it?

If you Opened it, you should have gotten a dialog with some options you could specify, and some information about the fonts and possible font substitution. In that case, can you show us a screenshot of that dialog?

If you Placed it, did you use Passthrough (default in Context Toolbar) or change to Interpret (allows editing)?

What does the Fonts Manager in Publisher show?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.1.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

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I'm uncertain there's anything one can do with that pdf as regards opening for editing in APub

That is the single worst Adobe Illustrator pdf I have ever seen. There are no/few code points for the characters. Affinity applications cannot assign proper characters to represent what one sees onscreen. 

I can make a proper pdf if you want it or need it. 

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Wadda mess.
Different encodings on different text blocks, and different pages - with the same fonts.
Crazy.

2 hours ago, MikeW said:

I can make a proper pdf if you want it or need it. 

If you can fix this, I would like to know how you did it. (and will be very impressed)
The only way I could see is OCR.

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3 hours ago, kenmcd said:

...If you can fix this, I would like to know how you did it. (and will be very impressed) ...

Well, it only works in a limited way. The code assignments are wonky. 

So still a failure. I can edit it properly, but cannot transfer it to anything else for editing. 

Sorry.

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To Will.Farrell,

I imported it, not placed it. Placing it would mean dropping it onto a newly created page and that doesn't allow you to edit the contents, correct?

I opened it and the get the following window:

image.png.9a660a36d956171ad0602389872225c6.png

I have all required fonts installed, so it doesn't ask for font substitutions and there isn't much else you can do with this window but to select how the text is grouped or performs and I have tried all various selections from this window.

I think the PDF has errors in its meta coding as when I try to drag it into the latest Adobe Indesign, it says it can't import it due to an "Undefined Error".  So even Adobe is having issues opening it and it came from an Adobe application.

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To MikeW,

Thank you for trying to help me.  I have gone back to the client and asked for the actual Illustrator file.  We'll see what happens next.  But I think, it appears that the PDF is definately the problem and not Affinity.  So case closed with Affinity.

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19 minutes ago, Graphical Chris said:

I imported it, not placed

Generally, in these forums, Import (for a file) seems to mean Place more often than it means Open. It's really best that you tell us exactly what you did, e.g. File > Open when you use the menu. Please help everyone by not saying something ambiguous like Import except when the menu action is really Import.

22 minutes ago, Graphical Chris said:

I think the PDF has errors in its meta coding

Given what kenmcd and MikeW said, definitely.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.1.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

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Well in all the years I have worked with graphics software, import  means to open a foreign file into the application and not its native file.

Whereas place, means to put a file, object or graphic into an already open native file.  That is how Adobe has been defining it for years, and Serif with their PagePlus etc.  And because I have these terms locked in my head, I will probably always say that - but I will try and remember when typing in these forums to display as much info as possible.  The trouble is, whenever I write in these forums I am also on a tight deadline - hard to think when you've got clients breathing down your necks with no understanding of graphical work. 

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10 hours ago, Graphical Chris said:

Well in all the years I have worked with graphics software, import  means to open a foreign file into the application and not its native file.

Whereas place, means to put a file, object or graphic into an already open native file.  That is how Adobe has been defining it for years

It appears InDesign uses the term "import" for "place" or "paste", – not for "open" 😉

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/importing-files-applications.html

Bildschirmfoto2024-08-23um03_15_08.jpg.e7c3e458ac38622c6267089639f28125.jpg

Bildschirmfoto2024-08-23um03_25_46.jpg.5cad97042b076df1c0f7df2a98514056.jpg
 

  1. Like in InDesign a placed file in Affinity is not opened but appears in your current Affinity document as 1 object (layer) only, regardless of the number of objects and layers inside the placed file (which you might access via "open", see 3 - 5.).
  2. If you paste a file or object(s) in an Affinity document you can edit the pasted item(s) if they are compatible with editing tools of that Affinity app. (see more in this list of supported file formats)
  3. In Affinity you can get options to open a placed or pasted file either via the Context Toolbar > "Edit Image", "Edit Document", or in the menu File > "Edit in Designer/Photo" or, for an Affinity file, with double-click on its layer in the Layers Panel.
  4. If you open a file with an Affinity app, a new Affinity document gets created with properties & various elements as separate objects (layers). If you open an Affinity file its original gets opened and no new document gets created (unless the opened file was saved as "template").
  5. If you open a file in Affinity you get access to its various containing objects and may edit them.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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8 hours ago, Graphical Chris said:

Symantics, big deal. 

Semantics are a big deal, Chris. 

If we're given an imprecise description of an issue, we can go down a very wrong path trying to understand what is happening, wasting our time and your time when we could have been resolving a problem quickly.

As you can see in this case, Opening a PDF and Placing a PDF operate very differently, and it's important we know exactly what was done to understand what is happening. 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.1.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

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8 hours ago, Graphical Chris said:

Symantics, big deal.  This is not part of the post Thomaso.

When you talk about your understanding of certain terms, you are talking about semantics.   Almost your entire post is about semantics … the "tight deadline" +"clients breathing" excepted (which are neither 'part of' this thread nor the forum).

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

If we're given an imprecise description of an issue, we can go down a very wrong path trying to understand what is happening, wasting our time and your time when we could have been resolving a problem quickly.

 « Mal nommer un objet, c’est ajouter au malheur de ce monde. » (Albert CAMUS.)

To misname an object is to add to the misfortune of this world.

Affinity Suite 2.5 – Monterey 12.7.5 – MacBookPro 14" 2021 M1 Pro 16Go/1To

I apologise for any approximations in my English. It is not my mother tongue.

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@Graphical Chris, nobody attacked you, but for the future please consider what has been said about the use of the appropriate terminology for the Affinity apps & how that will aid others in helping you solve any issues you have or answer any questions you may have about it.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.6 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
A
ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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21 minutes ago, Graphical Chris said:

sorry.

Don't be sorry. A couple of us understood the terms used just fine. As well, your screen shot is worth a thousand words. 

You haven't seen the worst of the nitpicking either.

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On 8/23/2024 at 1:21 AM, Graphical Chris said:

I think, it appears that the PDF is definately the problem and not Affinity.  So case closed with Affinity.

On 8/26/2024 at 6:03 AM, Graphical Chris said:

Now have you solved my PDF problem, Thomaso?

Should I, after you had "closed the case"?

No, I replied to your later post about the semantics of "import". My response may have cleared up some confusion regarding your vs. Adobe's use/statement of "import" and was accompanied by a – politely practical? – list of five available options with their differences used by Affinity.

On 8/26/2024 at 6:03 AM, Graphical Chris said:

No, it's one word, according to your posted comic. 

The world of comics has not yet conclusively answered this question.

nit-pickinghyphen.jpg.fa07e33232df9bcdbe358ba9ce8b369c.jpg       nit-pickingtwothings.jpg.444e6ff6f2e65f7ff44bfe8c29142b46.jpg

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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