I am running into a small issue, that I am not sure about.
I am using Affinity Publisher to put together a music book. Of course I am using Dorico for the music examples. Affinity Publisher is giving me an warning that the files are PDF are PDF vs 1.4 files and that they are not compatible with the PDF export format of the book. I am guessing the export format is version PDF vs 1.7. The warning tells me that the PDF 1.4 files will rasterized on export. This would not be ideal, as it is possible the files would not look as smooth.
Is this something that I can change? Is this something the Dorico team could implement in future versions of Dorico? Does anybody have experience with this?
Robby
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I ran into an issue with a few files that started rasterizing too; I found if I reimported the affected graphics that the issue was resolved. Try that on one or two of the affected samples and see if anything changes. I suspect this is an AP issue.
In my case, I had a template file that was just fine, and then all of the sudden itā¦ wasnāt. After reimporting the behavior corrected.
Edit: I should add that in at least one case I had to delete the actual graphic frame. Simply swapping out the linked file wasnāt enough. It was only after I recreated a new graphics frame that the issue corrected.
The PDF Export format from Affinity Publisher is entirely configurable from the āMoreā button.
What āCompatibilityā setting do you have in the Preset? Also, is āRasterizeā set to āNothingā, or something else?
PDF versions are supersets of the preceding ones. So version 1.7 includes everything that was in version 1.4, plus some other things. (1.7 just has some security and commenting features, plus 3D-object support.)
The version number really tells apps what features they can expect in the PDF. Nothing more. For instance, Preview saves most PDFs as v1.4, unless you add encryption, when they become v1.6.
Affinity have made some very weird decisions in their handling of PDFs. Why on earth v1.4 PDFs should be rasterized, I canāt think.
If Doricoās PDFs arenāt using features from the v1.7 extension, then its PDFs are not version 1.7.
Oh ā the other thing is that Dorico is pretty reliant on the PDF capabilities of the Qt framework.
I have it set to PDF for Print.
Robby
The āPDF for Printā preset has āRasterizeā set to āUnsupported Propertiesā. (Why v1.4 should contain something that v1.7 canāt support, I have no idea.)
Hang on: from a quick look at the Affinity Forum, it looks like this setting should only rasterize features that arenāt supported in the PDF standard. It might be something like Transparency, or Alpha masks, or Layers that need flattening, rather than the PDF format itself.
Can you screenshot the actual warning message? Also, have you actually tested the output, to see if anything is rastered?
I have not tested the output. The issue I have is Publisher keeps crashing on my M1 Mac mini.
I have 100s of PDF exports from Dorico, and 60% through the book, Publisher is starting to crash when I place PDF files into the document.
Iāll try to export and print to see what happens.
Robby
That message says that the Placed PDF is version 1.7, but is not compatible with the PDF Export version.
That might suggest that the Compatibility version is lower.
Affinity apps should be Universal Binaries, running natively on M1s. Maybe send the crash log to Affinity.
I have. They sent me a dropbox link and I have sent the file in question, along with video of the behavior, and the crash logs that the Mac generates.
Publisher is crashing very frequently with this file now. So I cannot see what other errors are showing. I swear several said v1.4. Iāll have to take a look in a minute.
Robby
Here is the v1.4 error. Sorry for the grabbing the wrong one earlier.
Some files I took into Designer as I had to add markings, etc. Those I think became 1.7 versions, but still not 100% sure.
Robby
Thanks for your help Ben! I really appreciate it. I knew you had some dealings with this kind of thing. So I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
Robby
āThirty years, man and boy.ā
I just tried loading a PDF page from Dorico into Affinity, and I get the same Preflight warning. However, nothing seems to be rasterized in the exported PDF.
The Preflight profile has the following setting.
If I change that to PDF v1.4 (or indeed v1.7) then the warning goes away. So it looks like itās just flagging that the PDF isnāt PDF/X-3. Again, why that should rasterize anything is beyond me.
Iāll mention it in the Affinity Forum.
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Iāve had the same behavior. Iāve seen the same error messages as those shared by Robby above, but if I ignore them (assuming nothing is corrupted in the file) the pdf exports as vectors, barring the weird exceptions I mentioned above.
Iāve researched this previously and found that Qt has issues with fonts. My workaround, on a Mac, is to right click the PDF file from Dorico and select Quick Actions>Outline Fonts. This results in the PDF being usable in other applications without rasterising. The Outline Fonts action can be added to Finder Preview from Mac Automator.
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Can you define āissues with fontsā more?
Certainly, Affinity apps have āissuesā with importing fonts in PDFs correctly, but thatās an Affinity problem. Iāve never had a problem importing a Qt PDF into other apps.
Thereās no āOutline Fontsā Automator action bundled with macOS, so it must be an action installed with Acrobat or something else.
Affinity say that itās been reported as a bug and they will fix it. But for me, itās just another case where you have to triple-check everything when thereās a PDF import in Affinity.
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There was an issue with Dorico on Windows creating incorrect PDF font descriptors due to a Qt bug. I found the issue and reported it to Daniel, leading to @dspreadbury reporting the issue as QTBUG-76153 (click). Whilst the Qt bug report is still open, the issue is fixed in Dorico 3.5.12. I do not know which version of Dorico first contained the fix.
