9.625" page width in Publisher, exports to 9.63" width in PDF

[mcripster]

I am working on a photo book I want printed at Blurb.com. They have specific dimensions that a PDF must match, so I entered those dimensions in my Spread Setup. I am working on a landscape 10" x 8" book and blurb wants the page dimensions to be 9.625 x 8.25 inches.

When I export this document to PDF, the page width is 9.63" instead of 9.625" and Blurb rejects my PDF. I opened the PDF in Preview and PDF Expert and confirmed the incorrect dimensions.

Are you aware of this problem?

See attached PDF with some screen shots that demonstrate the problem.

Thanks for any help  you can provide!

 

2019-09-22-notes.pdf

[garrettm30]

Just as a first thought that might perhaps help identify a problem or work around the issue, do you have at least three decimal places allowed in the user interface preferences? If not, does it make a difference if you change it and try again?

[Hangman]

An Affinity file that is 9.625 x 8.25 inches is generating an exported pdf sized at 9.6267 x 8.25 inches (a width error of 0.0017 inches or 0.04318 mm). This can be evidenced by:

• Placing the pdf file into any of the Affinity apps, AD, AP and APub
• Looking at the PDF's metadata which shows the size as 693.12 x 594 pts which also translates to 9.6267 x 8.25 inches

However, opening the exported pdf in any of the Affinity apps shows the size to be the same as the original, i.e. 9.625 x 8.25 inches so it looks as though there may be a small rounding error somewhere?

[mcripster]

I went to Preferences -> User Interface, and the Decimal Places for Inches was already set to 3.  So I increased it to 4, then did another export to PDF and am seeing the same problem. I agree with the post from Hangman, it appears there is a rounding error in Publisher. See attached PDF for more details.

2019-09-23-notes.pdf

[Jon P]

This is something we are currently aware of, thanks for ensuring it got reported

[kinvermark]

As a newbie I am not 100% sure this is correct, but....

It appears that if you setup the document using POINTS  (using  Blurbs size specifications calculator) then the PDF x/3 export is the correct size.  

Can someone with more knowledge & experience confirm this please.

[Hangman]

The basic issue is that AD is exporting the page width slightly incorrectly, the PDF format isn't really relevant here in as much as the exported width is slightly larger than the source page resulting in an error when uploading the PDF to Blurb.

An AD file that is set to 9.625" x 8.25" or 693pt x 594pt is being exported as 9.627" x 8.25" or 693.12pt x 594pt regardless of the PDF version used.

[kinvermark]

@Hangman

Agreed.  PDF format is not the issue here (I only mentioned PDF x3 as that is what Blurb asks for.)

Issues are  1) possible rounding error, and  2) bleed handling when exporting as single pages (also asked for by Blurb).

On Windows version, if you specify the document using points you will not see a rounding error.  You will notice, however, that your width will be out precisely by 9 points (the bleed on ONE side).

I see someone else on the forum scrapped setting bleeds and just set a 693 x 594 page size for output. This includes bleeds that will be trimmed assymetrically, so you need to look at your margin settings to make sure everything stays even. Maybe there is an easier way?

When I have a chance, I will try a test on Blurb to confirm what the PDF uploader does with this.

 

[kinvermark]

OK, tested with Blurb.   Passed preflight no problem / no messages.  Everything appears to line up (e.g. jacket spine, flaps, etc.)

I tried a standard landscape size, with all dimensions specified in points.    Bleeds set to 9 points EXCEPT for inner bleed is ZERO.  Page size is 684 x 576.  Publisher correctly exports pages as 693 x 594.  Dust jacket worked correctly too (single page; all bleeds 9 points.)

 

Using Publisher version 1.7.3 for Windows 

[Hangman]

This may be mac-specific, I'm unsure, but it is a known issue as @Jon P mentioned above. Basically exported pdf's are incorrectly sized which in the OP's case causes an issue when uploading the pdf to Blurb. I tested it with blurb and had the same issue with the file being rejected because the size was incorrect, although there is a pre-flight option on Blurb to correct the file but I can only assume it either slightly crops or squashes the file to match the correct dimensions. The addition of bleed isn't really relevant here because it happens both with and without bleed. Hopefully, it is an easy fix.

Source vs Exported Sizes

[Seb K]

How has this not been fixed in four months?

Is there any workaround? Any way to print my document in the correct size?

[mcripster]

I'll 2nd that question!

In fact, I recently switched from Lightroom Creative Cloud to Lightroom Classic in order to try out the Blurb Integration - yuck! The Blurb module in Lightroom is very simple. I've been able to put together a couple wonderful photo books using AP and really want to have Blurb print them, but I can't at the moment because of this bug.

I hope you guys (AP developers) can make it a priority to get this bug fixed.

Thanks!

[Snarf]

I've stumbled upon this discussion as I am currently preparing a flyer and realised that something was wrong with Affinity Publisher as the created PDF under macOS 10.4.6 was slightly larger.

I've done now several tests and to me it looks like an underlying macOS problem. Test is simple to reproduce. Create a document with size A6 landscape (148mm x 105mm). Create a filled rectangle of 148mm x 105mm with x/y 0/0 and without stroke. Export to PDF. Check with preview inspector size. I've done this with Affinity Publisher, Affinity Designer, OmniGraffle and Pages. All the time I get a pdf that is 148,1mm x 105,1mm. With Designer I also get a thin white line to the right and bottom.

Hope that this helps to get that fixed soon.

[Snarf]

did some more testing with 10.14.6 and 10.13

it looks that inspector in preview has a bug an reports a false size

checking with acrobat reader and pdf expert shows correct size

[Hangman]

If you check the metadata or open in Acrobat Pro you will see it is oversized. Acrobat Reader doesn't show enough decimal places.