Nathan Shirley Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 (edited) In addition to the last PDF display issue I just posted about, I'm also still seeing this problem when printing imported PDFs. Everything in them seems to print rasterized, with very noticeable jagged "pixelation." Rather than printing directly from Publisher, if I instead export as a PDF, the PDF looks perfect when viewed in any program. However, when I try to print this PDF, it too will be rasterized, not nearly as badly, but it's still noticeable (after closer inspection it seems just as bad overall). It doesn't seem to matter if you set rasterization to "none" in the PDF export options. And one other note, everything created within Publisher prints fine, fonts, lines, etc., so this is only an issue with imported PDFs. I first noticed these PDF problems toward the end of the pre-release beta, and hoped they would be fixed with all the recent PDF improvements, but they seem to still be present. Edited August 21, 2019 by Nathan Shirley correction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted August 21, 2019 Author Share Posted August 21, 2019 (edited) So I just tried this with an SVG file imported into Publisher with the same results. The SVG looks perfect in Publisher, but when printed it has the noticeable blocky rasterization. If I export it from Publisher as a PDF, it looks perfect on the computer, but again prints with better, but still noticeable rasterization (after closer inspection it seems just as bad overall). And again, all images/text created in Publisher on the same page print perfectly either way. This would really kill my ability to use Publisher for most projects if there isn't a fix around the corner (or something I'm overlooking). Thanks for any help. Edited August 21, 2019 by Nathan Shirley correction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicdesign__ Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 what export pdf settings are you using? can you improve the quality there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted August 21, 2019 Author Share Posted August 21, 2019 When Publisher was in beta I tried all sorts of things with no difference. Since the latest release update I've tried default settings, and also setting rasterization to never. No difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted August 21, 2019 Author Share Posted August 21, 2019 I've attached two magnified images taken as examples of material I've printed. The 1st image of the music notation shows heavy rasterization. This was imported as an SVG file prior to printing. The 2nd image of boxed text shows normal printing without rasterization. This was created from scratch within Publisher prior to printing. Both look perfect on the computer, including after being exported as a PDF, but printing shows the issue. If the imported image is printed before being taken into Publisher, it prints perfectly. So Publisher is definitely messing something up. (A correction: In the OP I stated that it looked a little better if I exported a PDF from Publisher and printed from that, rather than printing directly from Publisher. I don't think that's true after closer inspection, they seem about the same when taken as a whole.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wosven Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 Did you tried to open the PDF in APub to check if the SVG file is rasterized to low resolution or if it's vectors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted August 21, 2019 Author Share Posted August 21, 2019 I just tried it. If I export a PDF from Publisher and then bring the resulting PDF back into publisher it is not rasterized, displays as vectors. However a curious thing happened which might be unrelated... I started another post about a bug when importing certain PDFs into Publisher, misplaced objects, etc. I got around this bug by importing SVGs instead. However, when I generated the above mentioned PDF from Publisher (using a page that had an imported SVG), the PDF had the same misplaced objects that I had avoided by using an SVG! Very strange. Anyway I do hope there's a workaround for this printing rasterization. If not, it seems that any project that needs to be printed that has an imported PDF or vector file will be compromised. I do hope there's a fix in the works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted August 23, 2019 Author Share Posted August 23, 2019 I just remembered, during the beta a moderator told me that this bug was due to PDFs needing to be aligned "pixel perfect," so that the X/Y position matched whole pixels, rather than decimals (32 rather than 32.02 for example). However aligning to whole pixels doesn't fix this either. Has anyone successfully printed a project with an imported PDF or SVG without rasterization problems?? I can't be the only one to notice this, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wosven Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 10 hours ago, Nathan Shirley said: I just remembered, during the beta a moderator told me that this bug was due to PDFs needing to be aligned "pixel perfect," so that the X/Y position matched whole pixels, rather than decimals (32 rather than 32.02 for example). However aligning to whole pixels doesn't fix this either. This sound strange, since I never work in pixels but with cm, mm and pt, and when importing PDF in other app we take care of alignement, but nothing else. And we certainly aren't the only ones working like this, without pixel notion in our workflow but for PPI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 1 minute ago, Wosven said: This sound strange, since I never work in pixels but with cm, mm and pt, and when importing PDF in other app we take care of alignement, but nothing else... Yeah, but that erroneous statement was made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wosven Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 I'm wondering how other applications work... perhaps they only use full pixels? It would be nice if those bugs were solved, this one and when merging layers produce a blured content, if they are related. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted August 23, 2019 Author Share Posted August 23, 2019 5 hours ago, MikeW said: Yeah, but that erroneous statement was made. Oh right, and then Gabriel actually did follow up with this correction: Quote "We've had another look and it turns out that an embedded document does not pass through, but rasterizes before print, even if it's just vector data... That's why I said initially it's something to do with everything being pixel aligned. This should not rasterise though. I've logged it with our developers." So yes, pixel alignment has nothing to do with this problem. I do hope they find a fix soon, otherwise no one importing vectors/PDFs will be able to print anything at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted September 2, 2019 Share Posted September 2, 2019 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted September 2, 2019 Author Share Posted September 2, 2019 So these files should show the issue. As they are they both print perfectly, outside of Publisher (even if I bring the SVG into Designer it prints perfectly). Once brought into Publisher, they look perfect on the screen, but they both print rasterized. If they are exported from Publisher as a PDF--again--they look perfect on screen, but print rasterized. 000.2 Basic Rhythms v2.svg Basic Rhythms v2 - Full Score.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted September 2, 2019 Author Share Posted September 2, 2019 Okay so this definitely seems like Publisher has a bug in how it prints/exports PDFs. I created a vector image in Designer, exported as an SVG and brought it into Publisher along with a PDF of just a plain text document created in a word processor, nothing fancy. They both print rasterized from Publisher, and when exported to PDF and then printed, still rasterized. This is with default settings in Publisher. In the print dialog within Publisher I then bumped the "rasterize resolution" up from 300 dpi (default) to 1200 (and also 4800 later). The resulting print is definitely better, but still rasterized. At this point you'll likely miss the rasterization at casual glance, but on closer inspection it's definitely there, and still not acceptable. If you export a PDF from Publisher you are limited to 400 dpi, and the resulting print is very rasterized (no difference if "rasterize nothing" is turned on or not). If you've imported any PDF or SVG and printed it without noticing this, I'm guessing you need to look closer. If Designer can print vectors perfectly, I'm assuming (hoping) Publisher can be fixed to do so too. Otherwise Publisher is simply not useable if the project is intended for print (and includes imported PDFs/vectors). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wosven Posted September 2, 2019 Share Posted September 2, 2019 You're not limited to the DPI values in the drop down menu, you can manually enter 1200 or another one before exporting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted September 2, 2019 Author Share Posted September 2, 2019 I see, good to know. Still the basic bug here needs to be addressed. It would be nice if an admin could verify this specific issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 So I get that files are rasterized in order to print. And I get that the lack of passthrough in Publisher is an issue, but does this also explain why imported SVG files have the exact same printing issues as PDFs? I started using SVGs instead of PDFs to avoid the issue of Publisher misplacing objects as you noted, so far SVGs work perfectly in that regard, but not in printing. I don't think this is a printer issue either because these PDFs and SVGs print perfectly in other programs. Also, I have tried opening files in Publisher rather than importing them, no difference. And regarding the PDF object placement issues, yes, I started another thread about those issues a while back. I do hope that can be fixed as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Shirley Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 I have noticed that even with professional laser printers, regardless of software used, high-res image files are printed less optically perfect compared to vectors/text. So I'm wondering if that's key to what is wrong here, Publisher is converting imported vectors into rasterized images at an earlier than usual point before being printed. I'm no expert in the process so just a guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted September 3, 2019 Share Posted September 3, 2019 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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