1.5.0.15 - Export to PDF is rasterizing vector elements when masked

[Felonius]

I don't know if this is a bug or not, but on a  couple of different documents, I've created object masks in the layers panel and then exported the document to PDF. 

 

Without fail, the masked elements in the PDF are ALWAYS rasterized instead of remaining in native vector. I re-generated the same content in Illustrator, and the output PDF kept the masked elements in vector format. 

 

So my question is, is this behavior by design or unintended? It seems somewhat strange to me that using a vector object mask on another vector object would case the object to be rasterized when exported to PDF. As a designer this was very unexpected especially is it could potentially affect the quality of print output down the line.

 

Just curious. 

[MikeW]

If you use as-shipped PDF/X-4 profile, are the currently bit-mapped elements still bitmaps? What are the contents of the clipping mask? If this happens with anything on your end that is clipped, consider making a sample file and uploading it.

 

thanks, Mike

[Hokusai]

Felonius,

 

I thought that masks in Designer are only for raster objects right now. I would imagine that in the future they will add vector masking capabilities but for now I have only seen masking for raster elements (and if you make a mask of a vector object, it will become a raster when exported). I could be wrong but that is how I understood it. Maybe one of the staff can confirm or correct my idea. 

 

Hokusai

[TeeJayR]

Sadly I learned this the hard way today, too. I did not expect Affinity Designer to rasterize the PDF output when using a mask, but it seems to.

 

But more sad is that the author of this topic asked this question in september 2016 and still there is not an official statement from the Affinity Designer team. Same holds for several other (in my opinion) important questions in this forum. Thumbs down on the user support!