Horribly confused about print-quality output in AD. HELP!

[dkistner1111]

I publish books. I have to submit a PDF file for the wraparound covers that is at least 300dpi to our print-on-demand printer, who then checks the proof and tells me if this condition is met or not. I had templates set up in Adobe Illustrator that were very clearly press-quality, and I never had difficulty with the printer bouncing my files. But now they are bouncing. I tried starting over and setting up a completely brand-new (in AD) template so nothing would be coming over from Adobe Illustrator, but I still haven't resolved my issues. I started with the BookCover6x9_BW_90.pdf file and set up the AD template (both attached). I am using the latest Beta version of AD.

 

In Affinity Designer, I am never confident about what I'm going to get. I can go into Document Setup and change the dpi setting to 300, but it will go back to 72dpi as soon as the file is output. The same is true when I select Print (Press-Ready); it will pop back to Devices and doesn't save with the file. I'm used to working in pixels and know all the numbers I need, but I can't get anything to stay in pixels; it always goes to points, even though I tried to set up my preferences with pixels.

 

I've called myself trying this using Rescale and Anchor to the Page (not understanding exactly how they work relative to dpi), and my template layout won't "hold" to how I set it up. Now, on my latest book, I've somehow wound up with everything output at 200dpi, which has bounced.

 

I know this is just a matter of learning curve for me, but I just want to get a darned template set up that I can use over and over for all the books I do and know it's going to be press-quality when it's output. I'm losing too much time with these files bouncing.

 

Will you please enlighten me? I love, love, love Affinity Designer, but if I'm not going to be able to control the output more easily, it's not going to work for me!

 

 

BookCover6x9_BW_90.pdf

CS-FCP-Cover-Template.afdesign

[toyotadesigner]

What is the actual size/format of your cover? You specified 6x9, but the template neither matches centimeter nor inches.

 

I have created an A6 document, units mm, resolution 300 dpi, CMYK/8 (why is there no 16 bit cmyk available?), added a headline, exported it as a pdf, checked it with Acrobat Professional X and everything was ok, even the image turned out fine with more than 300 dpi.

 

So I guess your images are not 300 dpi...

 

Anyway, usually I use Scribus to perform all my printing stuff. It's much more precise and simpler than any Acrobat product and generates the cleanest PDF files I've ever seen. Maybe an idea for you as well?

[dkistner1111]

toyotadesigner, that file I put up, BookCover6x9_BW_90.pdf, is the actual size I have to upload. (I think the sheet itself is 19"w x 13"h.) The area of the front/back cover and bleeds is in the orange. The width of the template part (as laid on top of the larger sheet) depends on the number of pages, so what I've done is set up an Affinity Designer template with grids that allows me to enter a spine width, then bump the front and back cover grids against the spine. I created this template using the original PDF template from the printer so it would be the same size.

 

My handprint image in the Unfounded cover file I uploaded is definitely NOT 300dpi, even though I started with an even higher resolution file than 300dpi. (The printer says it's 220dpi.) It's got to be something I'm doing wrong with the settings in AD, but I can't tell what because the settings keep changing back to Devices and 72dpi, as I stated. I am exporting from Affinity to PDF format, which ought to be sufficient. I do not want to have to bring these files into other programs to make it work. If Affinity is not capable of outputting at 300dpi for print, it's no good to me.

 

I just need to know what I need to do to ensure my export from AD stays 300dpi AND the correct size.

[toyotadesigner]

I have no idea what you are doing wrong. Just set up an A4 landscape, placed some elements and exported the page to PDF.

 

The preflight PDF check showed no errors, but the PDF/x-3 showed errors because of transparency of the placed *.png screenshots, missing intent, etc.

 

You can download the PDF with all information here.

[MattP]

Hi dkistner,

 

Take a look at my attached files. The .afdesign file I have attached was used to create the .pdf file. The content is output at the resolution I placed it at - it's a picture of a cat that I placed at 389dpi, and if you open the pdf into Affinity Designer you can see that it is placed at 389dpi as you'd expect :)

 

BookCover6x9_BW_90_SetTo300DPI.afdesign

BookCover6x9_BW_90_SetTo300DPI.pdf

 

(EDIT: I tried to upload the .afdesign file containing the high-dpi cat image and it failed because the file size was too large to attach here. Instead, I have replaced it with an image of a lower dpi kitten, but just replace my kitten images with your own and they will correctly go out at the DPI they report being - sorry about that)

 

This file should hopefully help to get you on the right track... I think that all that was basically wrong was that your original document contained elements that were the wrong physical size? Your document was set to 300dpi, but your front/back cover for example were specified as being 666 pixels high - which would equate to 2.22 inches high (666 pixels / 300 dpi = 2.22 inches) whereas they were meant to be 9.25 inches high. They would have been 9.25 inches high if the dpi was 72 dpi, so the numbers weren't crazy it's just that you were working in pixels at 72 dpi when talking about physical sized output which is a confusing thing to do.

 

I'd suggest that all you really need to do is just have a document set to inches, set the dpi as you desire and then start making objects which the transform panel reports are the correct dimensions - then everything will be happy :)

 

Incidentally, whenever you import a PDF it will always report that the PDF is 72 dpi - that's because a PDF doesn't have a DPI itself, only the elements in it have an effective DPI. PDFs are specified in a points unit type and always at 72dpi - this is why the document setup dialog will be reflecting this. The fact that it says 'Devices' in the category type is just misleading - no information is ever stored in a file to show what type of document it may be, we just try to infer what type of document it is based on a number of criteria - unfortunately in this case, the 72dpi setting is leading the dialog to think that it's probably something that was created for a screen - so try to ignore that information and we'll look at sorting something out there to be less confusing, sorry :(

 

As I said, look at the attached .pdf file in Affinity Designer - you'll see that the document may report it is 72dpi, but when you inspect the image used in it you can see that the context toolbar is reporting that the image is placed at >300dpi as expected.

 

Hope that helps a bit :)

 

Thanks,

Matt

[toyotadesigner]

Acrobat Pro Preflight will always tell you the real dpi setting of any image element. If an image features 300 dpi, the preflight check will definitely show the 300 dpi.

 

However, there is a difference between the export of a file and printing a file to pdf: the printing falls back to the Mac OS X system inherent 72 dpi based on the Quartz filter. 

 

As an alternative you can install GhostScript and set up a printer (to file), then print to file with GhostScript.

[toyotadesigner]

Matt, Preflight shows these details for your pdf:

 

[MattP]

Preflight is agreeing that the file correctly contains the 389dpi image I intended, isn't it? :)

 

When I print I am also seeing exactly the same results - it places the image into the stream at the placed resolution (in this case 389dpi). We are using the OS X print path, but the data we give to it has sufficient resolution. I've attached the same file printed to PDF for your reference. I might've misunderstood what you meant though, so please forgive me if I have. Either way, I think dkistner shouldn't have problems now as they are able to output at the correct resolution now.

 

This file was produced from the Print dialog...

PDFdVersion.pdf

 

:)

 

Thanks,

Matt

[toyotadesigner]

Matt, you are correct. With the purchase of Affinity I had upgraded to Mavericks, and obviously the former limitations of the PDF print limitation is gone. I've confirmed this even with printing a PDF from Pages. This is really a large step forward, thanks for the hint.

[mac_heibu]

The limitation you talk about, never(!) existed in OS X. Since the very first version, images and their resolution never have been touched in standard PDF output. Even if you place a picture and scale it down in layout, the system PDF containes the full resolution image. The "large step forward" you Re talking about therefore exists since some 10 years.

[toyotadesigner]

mac_heibu, I never could print to pdf from pages with a higher res than 72 dpi before I upgraded to Mavericks. What caused the limitation? The old Pages?

[dkistner1111]

I've just gotten up and come in to find this lovely, lovely discussion! Very enlightening. And I'm sure what I did, Matt, was open my finished PDF file, so that's why I was getting the crazy settings (as you explained). (I used to work in Adobe Illustrator, then save out to a PDF prior to removing all the artboards because my printer won't accept multiple artboards.) I am so happy to know I wasn't completely losing my mind there. And I think the reason why my sizing was so wrong is because, as an AD newbie (well, aren't most of us?), I was trying different ways of trying to get the 300dpi to "lock in" to the document and probably rescaled and screwed things up. I'm going to start over with your files. Toyota, thank you so much for the wealth of information you posted. I couldn't download the first PDF you created because it's password-protected, but your preflight info posted to Matt is very helpful. The sizes there look like what I was working with in Illustrator. I'm good to go now, I think! Thank you so very much. I had nightmares last night about this bloody cover!

 

Oh, Matt. I just tried to open your Affinity file, and it said it could not be opened because it has features from a newer version. I've got the most recent beta, but you've apparently done more work on the program since then. Any way you can save it out to an earlier version so I can use it? The PDF, of course, has the same 72dpi and related sizing that was confusing me before...

 

Thanks so much.

[MattP]

Hi dkistner,

 

I just went to save it out of my older version, but I actually found I could load it in my current beta version? If you open your beta version and in the menu click 'Affinity Designer'->'About' does yours say it's version 1.0.21458? That's the version I'm using - and the version I created it in :)

 

EDIT - I should also mention at this point to please not use the adorable kitten photograph in the file for anything because it's not mine so I do not own copyright for it.

 

Let me know if you still have a problem :)

 

Thanks,

Matt

[toyotadesigner]

I'm sorry for the pw protection - try this one, it should be without protection.

[mac_heibu]

@toyotadesigner: It does no matter, what application you use, the PDF-output of OS X has never touched a picture: Resolution, size, color system (CMYK, RGB) – all is preserved and fins its way into the PDF document. The only thing you have to consider: The system PDF output uses PDF version 1.4 and some "old fashioned" print shops can’t handle this.

[dkistner1111]

toyota, thanks! Got it. Matt, I was on the .21212, so I'll download and install again. Your team is quick!