PDF in Affinity Publisher

[BobJax]

Thanks for providing so many PDF choices! I am using Microsoft Publisher to create 4 children's books that I will publish soon on Amazon.

I was ready to upload the 4 books, then problems surfaced. The books are full of graphics and looked good on the large Windows computer screen. But I found that if the books are saved as  PDFs and I email the PDFs,  weird shading showed up in areas where I had transparencies or lightly shaded colored areas (in the emailed PDFs). I finally realized it was caused by the type of PDF MS Publisher creates (PDF-A).  (Note: Amazon wants an X-1 version.)

To reduce some of the issues I imported the MS Publisher PDFs into Affinity Publisher beta.  Affinity Publisher opened the MS Publisher PDFs.  I exported it as an X-1 version PDF using Affinity Publisher. The transparency and added color traces are now almost gone. I tried all of the PDF versions you have available.  The odd thing is that all of your PDF versions (Including X-4) look like PDF-A, except X-1 which produced the best PDF.  Question: Isn't X-4 supposed to hide the transparencies? Is it working properly?

The strange thing is that the images in the book look great on the Windows computer but the imperfections in the MS publisher PDF doc ( and all your versions, except X-1) shows up when the emailed PDF is viewed on a Chromebook.

I don't know what the print copy will look like. May have to redo the 4 books in your software, even though it is a beta.

Would also like to know what version PDF you are using in the "Print" PDF and the "Flattened" PDF option.

Thanks for the beta!  Can't wait for the final version! 

 

[SiedlerH6]

I've discovered similiar problems with the export to PDF. Exporting to PDF X3 2003 results in weired colours, liked being washed out. After trying the exportoptions several times my file looked finally ok. Suppose there is something to be fixed. 

[BobJax]

8 hours ago, SiedlerH6 said:

I've discovered similiar problems with the export to PDF. Exporting to PDF X3 2003 results in weired colours, liked being washed out. After trying the exportoptions several times my file looked finally ok. Suppose there is something to be fixed. 

Which software did you use for creating the PDF?

[Alfred]

On 10/19/2018 at 3:50 AM, BobJax said:

I finally realized it was caused by the type of PDF MS Publisher creates (PDF-A).  (Note: Amazon wants an X-1 version.)

PDF/A is intended to be used when creating PDF files for archiving, so some features are disabled.

Quote

To reduce some of the issues I imported the MS Publisher PDFs into Affinity Publisher beta.  Affinity Publisher opened the MS Publisher PDFs.  I exported it as an X-1 version PDF using Affinity Publisher. The transparency and added color traces are now almost gone. I tried all of the PDF versions you have available.  The odd thing is that all of your PDF versions (Including X-4) look like PDF-A, except X-1 which produced the best PDF.

Partial transparency is prohibited in PDF/X-1a.

Quote

Question: Isn't X-4 supposed to hide the transparencies?

I don’t understand what you mean. PDF/X-4 allows transparency.

[BobJax]

5 hours ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

PDF/A is intended to be used when creating PDF files for archiving, so some features are disabled.

Partial transparency is prohibited in PDF/X-1a.

I don’t understand what you mean. PDF/X-4 allows transparency.

I am not an expert in PDFs. All I know is what I learned from hours of reading and experimenting trying to solve the MS Publisher PDF issue that so many people complain about and that I experienced. 

An interesting experiment was to create an object with transparency plus other objects based on common PDF issues sited in various forums and from personal experience. Place the objects on a page then export the page in every PDF format that Affinity Publish provides. I studied the results. Thus, my comments.

These two little articles are the basis for my basic knowledge.

https://www.pdfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/PDFX-in-a-Nutshell.pdf

Excellent:

http://12on14.us/free/pdf.pdf

I am very appreciative that Affinity Publisher offers so many PDF options.

 

[Alfred]

54 minutes ago, BobJax said:

I am not an expert in PDFs.

Me too neither!

Quote

These two little articles are the basis for my basic knowledge.

https://www.pdfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/PDFX-in-a-Nutshell.pdf

Excellent:

http://12on14.us/free/pdf.pdf

Thanks for the links. This site is the source of much of my limited knowledge about PDF.

[BobJax]

Thanks for the link. The article about Preflighting is good. Guess I am a student pilot in the world of PDF preflighting. 

[carrieph2]

I'm would like to report major problems with export to pdf.  Firstly, the program crashes everytime I use the Export function so we have been going through the Print function to save as a pdf.  However, there is significant distortion of colours - greens are coming out neon - and so we have decided not to continue using the program.  I'm back to PagePlus until this one is sorted.  On the upside, actually creating the document was a significant improvement on PP.  

[BobJax]

Exporting a PDF file is one of the most important things a Publishing package must do accurately.  I will quickly pitch a publishing package if it cannot produce a quality PDF file. If this is a problem, I hope it will be fixed. I bought Affinity Photo yesterday and Affinity Designer a month ago. But I will pitch both if I can't get a quality PDF from Affinity Publisher as Carrieph2 says.

[Gerry Fraiberg]

On 1/6/2019 at 9:28 AM, carrieph2 said:

I'm would like to report major problems with export to pdf.  Firstly, the program crashes everytime I use the Export function so we have been going through the Print function to save as a pdf.  However, there is significant distortion of colours - greens are coming out neon - and so we have decided not to continue using the program.  I'm back to PagePlus until this one is sorted.  On the upside, actually creating the document was a significant improvement on PP.  

How big is your document/PDF? What version of Windows? Does your PC meet specs? https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/desktop/full-feature-list/

What colour space are you working in? How are you exporting? How are you viewing your PDF? Are you printing from the PDF? What type of printer? Does the printer profile match your document Colour Format? I ask these questions for basic troubleshooting.

My experience with this beta is somewhat different. I created a trifold brochure in Publisher 1.7.0.206 on a vintage 2009 Mac Pro running OS 10.11.6 with a calibrated 22" Dell monitor. In the Document setup, Colour Format is CMYK/8, Colour Profile is U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2. On Export, I selected PDF for Print, Raster DPI 300. I have created seven versions, all saved as PDF with no problem. The PDFs were sent to a local shop and printed on coated stock. Publish has performed flawlessly. The laser printed colour proofs were colour accurate. I am not a designer by trade, but occasionally produce print material for clients and organizations I volunteer with.