[Publisher] Cannot export to PDF

[feklee]

When I try to export the following file to PDF, the exporter just hangs at 5% generating a preview. When I click the export button, no PDF is created.

2024-09-29_export.afpub

Font used: Source Han Sans

I’m using Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 on Windows 11 Pro:

[walt.farrell]

There is one old reported problem with Source Han Sans, and it has a bug tag of AFB-3865, but I'm unable to tell if it was specific to that font nor if it is still open. Someone from Serif may know.

 

[kenmcd]

3 hours ago, feklee said:

Font used: Source Han Sans

Which exact font file(s) did you install?

What language are you using?

[kenmcd]

OK. I am now on my laptop and opened your document.

I see the font used is Source Han Sans SC VF - no way to tell if OTF or TTF.
The Light instance was selected.

I tested exporting from the variable TTF and it did work... eventually.
Took a long time to display the preview.
And took a long time to export and display the PDF.

Changed the font to the Source Han Sans SC Light static OTF font.
Preview showed quickly.
Export to PDF was quick.

Source Han Sans SC has 65,535 glyphs and 44,812 characters.
It appears Affinity processes all characters in a font, not just what is needed.
So a huge font like this, and being variable with two masters - it takes a long time.
Affinity needs to optimize this.

Work-around in the meantime - use the static fonts.

[feklee]

@walt.farrell, Thank you for the suggestions, and to the link to the existing bug report!

@kenmcd The font that I was using is SourceHanSansSC-VF.otf, and from it I’m using simplified Chinese characters. The main language of the document is American English.

Also, thank you for explaining what may be happening, namely Publisher processing all characters in the font. That means quite a bit of computation: As I just learned, by default these fonts create glyphs for different weights dynamically. Using the static version of Source Han Sans, with all weights baked in, indeed solves the issue. Now export is indeed fast.

Before, I never got a successful export. I even let my computer sit over dinner, and Publisher just crashed, very frustrating. I tried all kinds of improvements, such as making sure the resolutions of images used are not carelessly high. It took me a while to find that the issue is with the font.

[walt.farrell]

@feklee: Forum usage hint: If you want to tag/notify someone:

• Type the @ sign
• Start typing their name until you get the dropdown list of matching names. Type more letters to make the list smaller.
• Choose a name from the dropdown list.
• Then you get a highlighted field (as at the beginning of this post, rather than plain text @feklee and (depending on their notification settings) they will be notified..

(And, you're welcome  )

[feklee]

Thank you! (I was writing the text in the editor of my choice, then copy & pasted it.)