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Publisher PDF failure going to client's InDesign


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A little complicated to explain, but I hope you'll bear with me.

I received a phone call today from a panicked local publisher. I had done a full page black and white ad using Publisher and exported as a PDF. When he placed the ad in his InDesign (ID) document and attempted to export the ID file as PDF for his printer, the export failed with this Background Task Alert in ID: “Failed to export the PDF file.” He had to go through a long document to isolate my ad as the problem.

I was able to duplicate the problem when I exported my Affinity Publisher (AP) document to PDF and placed the PDF in a trial ID document. Same result as the publisher: “Failed to export the PDF file.”

I tried exporting from AP “without layers.” Although the PDF succeeded in placing and appeared to be complete in ID, and the export from ID to PDF succeeded, when I reviewed that page in the PDF not all the content was now visible and that page in the resulting PDF (from ID) generated this alert: “An error exists on this page. Acrobat may not display the page correctly. Please contact the person who created the PDF document to correct the problem.”

I have been doing this ad for years using ID, and now that Affinity Publisher has been released, I thought I’d give it a try. Needless to say, I’m not volunteering information to the publisher about my new software. We solved the problem by having him convert the PDF to a high resolution JPEG in order to meet the press deadline. I would like to continue using Publisher but for this client, I’m now going back to using ID.

Any ideas? Do you want the AP file with links? PDF file?

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5 hours ago, ErrkaPetti said:

Harry, you’ve been using Affinity Publisher since beta release in august 2018, but, has’nt tested that this ”send PDF to client for proprinting”?

After nine month you should be aware of what that can go wrong here...

The beta versions were not meant for real production work.

 

5 hours ago, ErrkaPetti said:

And, why mount this PDF in Indesign for export to PDF again for print job?

A typical scenario would be a magazine with advertisements in it. There's nothing uncommon about placing PDFs in publications. All magazines and newspapers want customers to send their ads as PDF files.

 

5 hours ago, ErrkaPetti said:

Are you yet another user here to glory Indesign over Affinity Publisher? 

Affinity Publisher is a fine piece of software (and I pre-ordered it the very minute it was possible), but it's no replacement for InDesign in professional print production yet. Especially not, if there's PDF compatibility problems. PDF export needs to be flawless and users need to be able to fully trust the files Publisher produces.

Of course we should remember that the very first commercial version of InDesign had so many missing essential features that it was little more than a curiosity. The second version was already useful for work. Publisher is surprisingly useful for a first version of a new DTP application. I'm sure it's going to be amazing by 2.0.

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I was part of the beta testing and I experienced the same issue yesterday. @ErrkaPetti I don't know what the relevance of your comments are to the problem and add no value whatsoever to either the discussion or finding a solution. I'm in a similar situation with artwork for newspapers, magazines and printers for that matter (artwork sometimes runs with other jobs and the printer puts it through their own systems and checks. Any helpful input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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Update, next day:

After a process of elimination, I found that one or more of the placed photo images (edited in Affinity Photo) seems to have become corrupted. Once I simply replaced all of them (unchanged), the PDF placement worked!

For everyone's information and to clear up misunderstandings, I did not attempt publication from a Beta version. Instead, I had saved the Publisher file using the released version. My objective is to replace "rented" Adobe software as much a possible with working alternatives. I own Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher. Hopefully, Affinity's software will work out for me in the future.

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@HarryW

That's interesting. I used mainly AP (exporting as JPG or PNG), and AD for creating PDFs that I check in Pitstop before importing them in ID. I did 1 or 2 PDF from APub, but there few images in those files.
It you kept the files (PDFs and APub before and after correction), perhaps it would be usefull for Affinity team to check them.

Was the problematic PDF diplayed badly when you opened it?

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  • 10 months later...

I revisited my problem of last June (see posts above) as I persist in moving away from Adobe software (old CS6) on account of their costly leasing policy.

The issue here seems to come from an art file with white art on a transparent background, done in Photoshop CS5 or 6 a long time ago. When using InDesign, there is no problem, but when I try to do the job (a one-page B&W ad) using Publisher on an IDML export from InDesign, everything goes perfectly well throughout the process until I try to convert a long InDesign doc with the placed PDF as a multi-page PDF (I'm simulating the problem at my local publisher). The attached screen grab is what I get (and what my local publisher got last summer). The publisher claimed that the faulty PDF caused him to lose his entire 64-plus page InDesign-to-PDF file right on deadline. I think this story may be hyperbole because I did not lose anything here.

The problem is with the Cole Real Estate logo in the upper left corner ("sign white_GS.psd"). I have tried working with the same original logo (black on white background, invert, clipping path) in Photoshop, and then in Affinity Photo (Invert, Flood Select white, delete), both with the same failure resulting. It works fine when I have a black background in the art, but for many reasons I would prefer to be able to use a transparent background against the black background box because we may some day go to printing in color.

The upshot is that I have never again tried to submit any more Affinity Publisher ads.

Can anyone help me escape Adobe's costly $600 per year subscription commitment? See attached screen grab, Publisher file and placed art file. I will happily attach whatever other files you need.

Screen Shot 2020-05-05 at 6.21.08 PM.png

Cole_RE_May_2020.afpub sign white_GS.psd

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Are you certain the failure is that logo? The ad placed and output from ID was fine...I used pdf/x-3 out of APub and ID.

Capture_000642.png.79693e9a08133e32b6c6dee443293d00.png

Could something from all the missing images and AI stuff be the issue?

Mike

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  • Staff

Hi @HarryW :)

I recommend running the PDF logging, as outlined in the below post -

 

You should find the file generated has an 'exception' towards the end of the file, this will likely show the reason your export is failing locally.

I hope this helps!

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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I had been exporting using the Publisher "PDF (for print)" or "PDF (press-ready)" presets with the problem happening each time I had transparent art.

I just now set the export preset to "PDF/X-3:2003" and the problem seems to have been solved.

On to trying this out on my local publisher next month...

Thank  you MikeW, Lagarto, and Dan C.

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