AP cannot export to PDF

[ZY Chang]

Hi,

I have recently purchased the latest version of Affinity Publisher and Photo hoping that I can design some posters to print out. But after I done with my design and tried to export to PDF for printing, it always says that "an error occurred while exporting to pdf".  The file (*.afpub) itself is about 7MB in size. It contains some Chinese characters ( I have installed related Chinese fonts on my PC).  It's so frustrating after I have spent so much time to design and in the last moment it could not export. I feel like a total waste of my money for buying it. If some one can tell me what's the cause for that, it would be highly appreciated!

Thank you!!

Zya

[walt.farrell]

As a suggestion to try to give you a workaround, try removing the Chinese characters from the folder and file name.

[ZY Chang]

Hi Walt,

Thank for your quick response. I just did what you suggested, but unfortunately it's still in the same situation. See the image attached.

Zya

[walt.farrell]

Too bad. That was the simple possibility.

The other likely possibility I know of is that you have a corrupt font installed, My suggestion for that would be to look at this post and follow the directions in it. If you examine the resulting log file (browse it with Notepad or another text editor) you may get more information about the problem. Or you can attach the log file here if you'd like someone else to look at it.

[ZY Chang]

I generated the log file.  Towards to the end, it says: [Last exception 1428 in PDF_load_font]["Required option 'fontname' is missing"].  However, I don't know which font it refers to.

Please see the log file attached.

pdflib.log

[walt.farrell]

Interesting. Yes, the font name seems to be missing, just as the message says.

I'm afraid you'll need assistance from Serif on this one, unless another user has seen that specific problem before and knows what it means. Sorry.

Edit: Though, if you're running the retail version you could try installing the beta version, and see if it happens to fix the problem. The customer beta versions of all the Affinity applications are available here in the forums. For Publisher on Windows the current beta is available in a post at or near the top of this forum.

[ZY Chang]

Thank you for your response!  I tried on the new beta version, it did not work either.  It appears working if select pdf flatten option.

[Dan C]

Hi ZY Chang

This isn't something I've seen in a PDF log before, but it seems obvious that it's one of your fonts causing the issue. Could you please upload a copy of your .afpub file, along with any font files that are being used in the design to the following link? This will allow me to investigate this further, many thanks in advance!

https://www.dropbox.com/request/hEgrRmPl53I1VFkiygDI

[ZY Chang]

Thank you Dan.

I'll submit the .afpub file and font files once I put them together.

I'd like to mention that all fonts used in the file were able to being selected and displayed within the Affinity Publisher. However, I noticed that some of my own fonts (mainly Chinese fonts) that can be used within MS PPT or MS Publisher and can be changed to different font styles like normal/bold/italic would not be either used/displayed or changed (in terms of style) in Affinity applications. I understand that most of your clients do not need to deal  with Asian/Eastern fonts, but it would be great if you can make Asian/Eastern fonts work like in the MS applications. I know you can do a lot better then MS does.  

Thank you very much for the excellent products! Keep up the great job!

 

Zya

[Dan C]

No problem at all, please do let me know.

Thanks for the info, I'll be certain to test/check this with your fonts in Affinity and log this with the developers if we can improve this in the future  

[thomaso]

This error message occurs in my experience when a font can not be embedded during PDF export.
Depending on the font file, the reason may be technical (e.g. some old PS / Postscript font files) or a matter of DRM (Digital Rights Management).

To work around this, you can either use a different font or convert the text to curves BEFORE exporting.

[ZY Chang]

To Dan C:

    I've uploaded all my font files in my PC and two *afpub files to the dropbox.  A few notes: 1) Not all fonts were installed successfully on my computer. But don't remember which ones. 2) Some fonts can be seen within MS ppt or MS Publisher but not in Affinity Publisher; 3) Most font names are interpreted or encoded correctly within MS products but not with AP. So some fonts can be used/seen within AP but their names are not readable (became simply square boxes or unrecognized characters).

 

To thomaso:  

    I tried your approach by converting the text into curves before exporting to pdf and it worked.  Thank you very much.

[Dan C]

Thanks for the info and your files, I'll log these with development and provide an update here with any pertinent information from the bug report.

I'm glad to hear you have found a workaround for the time being!