PDF export has some odd issues I cannot nail down

[Timber]

Attached are two slices of a PDF document from Affinity Designer 1.5 Beta 9 and two from AD 1.4.2

Not there's a flourish embossed and a text box over the flourish that's also embossed separately.

When view on screen in AD and when outputted as a PNG or JPG (I've tried so far), the embossing is for each item, flourish and text, separately, But when exported as a PDF, the layers form a combined embossed image which is not what is seen on screen.

 

I've also notice if I export the full document for print PDF, the PDF from AD 1.5. Beta is many times larger than with AD 1.4.2 PDF's and I mean much larger file sizes.

 

Any suggested fixes? Or is it just not to stack embossed items, using the embossed style.

 

– Timber

 

 

AD1.4.2.pdf

AD1.5.pdf

[Timber]

I've done some additional testing. Using Export from File menu > Export, AD 1.4.2 produces a pdf of around 5 MB. Using the same file, and same workflow, Print > Export, the Export hangs and never finishes. If I go to Export Persona and Export as PDF there, the same file produces a PDF of around 50 MB. Massive size difference!

 

Also if I delete or hide the flourish, the Text renders wrong embossing than seen of screen and I'd get exporting to JPG or PNG.

 

- Timber

[Timber]

One more update... finally when I went back to AD 1.4 and tried exporting as a PDF x1a, x3 or x4 - it retained the embossing as seen on screen.

However in AD 1.5 Beta 9, the PDF X versions output the embossed items fine, but produce a 29MB file vs the 5MB file AD 1.4.2 products and I don't see any visual differences.

I'll have to check with my printer if they accept the PDF X series files, as I usually send them PDF for print from AD.

Anyone with any insight in the whys and ways this is happening and why the AD 1.5 Beta PDFs are so massive, I'd love to hear back.

- Timber

[Jon P]

Hiya Timber,

 

I've done a couple of tests with exports from 1.4.2 and 1.5.0 (beta 10), the beta was only released today so it might be worth double checking if you still get this behaviour on the new beta.

 

If so can you upload the file you are exporting to dropbox and PM me the link so I can look into it? My tests produced quite similar sized PDFs so i'd like to see if I've missed anything compared to what you are exporting.

 

Your printer shouldn't have any issues with X pdfs as they are fairly industry standard for printers (see here).

 

Thanks!

[Timber]

Over in AP Beta, someone posted a insightful observation to part of the PDF export issues:

 

vonBusing, great observation! It does appear that Both AD and AP betas exhibit this bug (Only the lower edge of the buttons in the export dialogue - from the file menu is actually responsive to mouse clicks) and it's not only on the Export menu but I've noticed it elsewhere in the programs now that you've pointed this out! i.e.. the More button in Export and even the recovery dialog if one is lucky enough to kick it up.

 

- Timber