Export PDF with layers for printing

[sgseries]

Hello,

i'm having an issue exporting a PDF for a print job. I have different layers for the artwork, the guide and the notes. When i export the file it is just a flat PDF with a white background, as apposed to a PDF that opens with the layers.

How do i export with the option to show hide layers in other software, or even with a blank background? At the moment the white artwork just gets flattened into a white background and i'm just exporting a blank image.

Thanks.

[firstdefence]

• Which PDF export settings are you using?
• Which apps are you subsequently opening the PDF in?

Exporting for Print should keep everything separate, I've just made a PDF with 4 shapes, a text frame with filler text and a white rectangle as a background, I opened in Illustrator and all the layers were there, the text frame was separated into sentence layers but was still editable.

[sgseries]

Hey mate,

Long story short, i was able to load it into Illustrator (layers and guides didn't show, just all the curves in one hideous list), then it needed to be exported as an Adobe PDF to be read properly with the layers and guides. I just signed up for Illustrator for a month, otherwise i don't need it. However if this comes up again which it likely will i'll still need it...can't get away from it!

I tried all the PDF export settings out of Affinity. Also, when applying any masks in Affinity, they didn't render out as vector so when loading in Adobe, anything with a mask or effect loaded as a terrible jpeg like image, not sure what settings or process avoids this?

Could you tell me the settings you exported with out of interest?

[firstdefence]

I just used the Export for print option. Have you had a look at the Affinity Designer βeta 1.7.0. version I know they have made improvements for PDF export.

For Mac

For Windows

 

[Gerard O]

In Illustrator many items/curves can be placed on a single layer. In affinity Designer each goes on it;'s own layer.

is it possible you are simple seeing the different way the two Applications work?

[Fixx]

Why do you need layers if purpose is to print? Though I can understand white shape on a white background can be problematic. That is though something that needs to be discussed with the printer.

[sgseries]

It's for printing boxes so theres direction labels and die cut lines then the artwork, which is transparent. Between me the supplier and the box maker it's just causing some hassles along the way.

When i exported the design in black it loaded ok in illustrator. Must be something to do with all white on a pdf export? Could be a bug or maybe i'm just missing something somewhere

[gregorj]

Exporting to .eps or .pdf does not maintain the layer structure necessary for printers to make separations.  Certainly you can export as a .eps or .pdf and restructure it in Illustrator, but what's the point of designing in Designer if restructuring the file in illustrator is required.

This Issue should be Priority 1 to make this a professional tool instead of a hobbyist application.

 

[arkeytekt]

On 5/14/2019 at 12:45 PM, gregorj said:

Exporting to .eps or .pdf does not maintain the layer structure necessary for printers to make separations.  Certainly you can export as a .eps or .pdf and restructure it in Illustrator, but what's the point of designing in Designer if restructuring the file in illustrator is required.

This Issue should be Priority 1 to make this a professional tool instead of a hobbyist application.

 

I agree with gregorj that the missing layer structure is keeping designers in the packaging and product design industry from using Affinity professionally.

Preserving layer structure when exporting is crucial to meeting printing companies requirements.

[walt.farrell]

Have you tried Layer > New Layer, which will give you a container layer identified as a Layer in the Layers panel? You can create one Layer to hold the artwork, another to hold the guide, another to hold the notes, and give them appropriate names.

You then Export and click the More button to get the detailed PDF export options, and specify "Include Layers".

[arkeytekt]

Hi Walt, thank you for your suggestion. Yes, I tried that and other possible solutions I found in similar threads. PDF export retains the layer hierarchy for Affinity Designer, but not for Illustrator — which is still used by most printers. This is how an exported PDF looks like when opened in Illustrator:

I hoped that by now there would be an update in that matter, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case.

[lacerto]

5 hours ago, arkeytekt said:

hoped that by now there would be an update in that matter, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case.

OCG layers (also known as PDF layers) -- when created by other than Affinity apps -- are global layers across the whole document (or across multiple artboards), while Affinity layers are page/artboard-wise layers, so they are often used a bit differently. They can be used for print purposes in PDF files, but then there is normally no need to open the files in Illustrator, and if this is needed, the PDF is normally saved with Illustrator editing capabilities, in which case it supports Illustrator native layers, which are multilevel.

The problem is that Illustrator (at least versions up to CS6) does not read OCG (PDF) layers, and other apps (at least Affinity apps) cannot read Illustrator layers, nor can they create ones. In addition, OCG (PDF) layers cannot be used properly to organize data because only top-level layer structure is supported (this applies also to Affinity apps so even if they support reading OCG layers -- also ones created by Adobe apps -- only the top level is retained). There is probably nothing Serif can do to improve this situation.

This means that when "layer structure" is wanted in PDF files and these files are meant to be opened in Illustrator, the "layer" refers to the native Illustrator layers, not the PDF layers. So it is worth the check with the printer, whether "layers" actually mean PDF layers, or Illustrator layers saved within PDF (by Illustrator).

[arkeytekt]

1 hour ago, Lagarto said:

This means that when "layer structure" is wanted in PDF files and these files are meant to be opened in Illustrator, the "layer" refers to the native Illustrator layers, not the PDF layers.

Thank you for the explanation. I had no idea about the technical differences between PDF layers and Illustrator layers, I assumed it was the same.

[PCGAMER]

So exporting PDFs with Layers that printers can use works now (at least for me). I had to re-structure my Publisher file using the actual "Add Layer" function instead of simple groups etc ... my printer says they can seperate the layers just fine.