I am using Windows 10 Pro
I have 32gig of RAM
Nvidia Graphic Card with 4gig of RAM
I am writing to a SSD Drive
I have also installed the application on a more modern Windows 11 Pro Laptop with better specs but I see zero improvement in performance.
I have 19 page layout for an Itinerary I am developing for a friend. I do not have a lot of images. Only 6 total. I do have a lot of layers.
I am trying to export the layout to PDF. Does not matter if I use high res, print, low res, etc. Exporting to PDF takes well over 15min making my workflow very painful.
Printing is even more intolerable as it could easily take 40min to begin printing so I export to PDF and then print from Adobe Reader PDF.
Is there any way to increase performance or is this as good as it gets? I have to finish this project but may just punt once I am done given how painfully slow this application seems to be for me.
On Windows 10 or 11 I have also experienced random crashes clicking from one set of pages in the layout to another or major slow down where it takes 5 seconds or more to render the page that I want to work on next. It has been a nightmare.
Is there any way to improve performance of PDF exports/printing?
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Hi! Has you tried changing the rasterize settings?
In my experience with some complex PDFs, i got good performance printing as bitmap, at from 150 to 300 dpi. -
If your file is not proprietary, I'd recommend uploading it to CreoFora (or if too large, to Dropbox, iCloud, etc, and provide a link) and perhaps someone can see why things are so slow. Things are usually quite fast for me and others.
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Hi! Has you tried changing the rasterize settings?
In my experience with some complex PDFs, i got good performance printing as bitmap, at from 150 to 300 dpi.The pages are to be printed as double-sided pages, if I output to Bitmap, how do I set them to print?
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If your file is not proprietary, I'd recommend uploading it to CreoFora (or if too large, to Dropbox, iCloud, etc, and provide a link) and perhaps someone can see why things are so slow. Things are usually quite fast for me and others.
Nothing proprietary but there is some PII and travel dates I need to sanitize first. I have zero idea who will be looking at this information, and I cannot trust it will not be misused.
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The pages are to be printed as double-sided pages, if I output to Bitmap, how do I set them to print?
To speed the export, i believe that the rasterize setting, the raster dpi, the "allow jpg compression", and the setting of it, can speed the export time.
About to print, i print usually from PDFXchange, something similar to Adobe Acrobat. It doesnt matter the duplex setting, i can select "print as bitmap" and then the dpi for printing. Usually 150 dpi is enough for documents as books. If you are printing photos, i guess you need higher res.
This is an screenshot of the metioned program and it settings.
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Hi turbocooler ,
the specs you provided do not contain any info about your CPU. Could you add that info?
PDF export is done mostly on the CPU so it could be the bottleneck, but it could be some object/effect layer in your layout that is causing the trouble. You can check this in your task manager: the CPU graph is probably at 100% x amount of CPU cores.
You could also try to export the first half of the layout (e.g pages 1 to 10) and then the rest and measure the time. Then again the first half of the first half and so on until you get the problematic page.
It could also be an image / pixel based graphic that is very big and is placed as a very small object so the resolution is extremely high (e.g. if an image in A4 @ 300 ppi is placed in a picture frame that is 20x30 mm big, the effextive resolution would become approx. 3000 ppi). Depending on your PDF export setting, the image resolution is then reduced to export resolution (e.g. 300 ppi) so the image must be recalculated. If there is some effect and/or transpacency applied, it could mean a slightly long export time. (But even then: 15 minutes for PDF export is quite long).
You also wrote about crashes / poor performance at page rendering: could you try to disable hardware acceleration in the settings? There were problems with NVIDIA drivers in the past and that could be a remedy.
Best regards
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Hi turbocooler ,
the specs you provided do not contain any info about your CPU. Could you add that info?
PDF export is done mostly on the CPU so it could be the bottleneck, but it could be some object/effect layer in your layout that is causing the trouble. You can check this in your task manager: the CPU graph is probably at 100% x amount of CPU cores.
You could also try to export the first half of the layout (e.g pages 1 to 10) and then the rest and measure the time. Then again the first half of the first half and so on until you get the problematic page.
It could also be an image / pixel based graphic that is very big and is placed as a very small object so the resolution is extremely high (e.g. if an image in A4 @ 300 ppi is placed in a picture frame that is 20x30 mm big, the effextive resolution would become approx. 3000 ppi). Depending on your PDF export setting, the image resolution is then reduced to export resolution (e.g. 300 ppi) so the image must be recalculated. If there is some effect and/or transpacency applied, it could mean a slightly long export time. (But even then: 15 minutes for PDF export is quite long).
You also wrote about crashes / poor performance at page rendering: could you try to disable hardware acceleration in the settings? There were problems with NVIDIA drivers in the past and that could be a remedy.
Best regards
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5930K CPU @ 3.50GHz, 3501 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s) -- Computer A
Intel Core i7‑11370H -- Computer B -- both have the same export issue.
The CPU graph is NOT 100%. It is barely 10% Exporting page 1-10 took as long as the whole document. Same for the rest of the pages
I suspect you are correct about the images. Is there a way in the pixel tab to click on a image and get the information about the image so I can tell or a way to down sample the image in the document? Or, do I need to export each image, change to 300dpi, then place the image back in the layout. I believe this may be my issue as it is the most plausible
As far as the crashes, I did disable hardware acceleration and that did solve my problem. -
Is there a way in the pixel tab to click on a image and get the information about the image so I can tell or a way to down sample the image in the document? Or, do I need to export each image, change to 300dpi, then place the image back in the layout. I believe this may be my issue as it is the most plausible
If you use the Move tool and select the image then the Context toolbar will show the information.
If you want to make the image 300 DPI then just select it in the layers panel and right click on it and choose Rasterize and Trim from the context menu.
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turbocooler One additional thought, which may or may not apply...
If you use a LOT of "Live Filters", these filters are...well....Live! As such, they need to be recalculated in real time, which can be slow, especially with a big file, a LOT of live filters, and if your GPU doesn't lend a hand to speed things up. A fast GPU will make a big difference in the speed of these recalculations on pixel based images.
That may not be the issue. But you can test this for yourself. If you have a lot of Live Filter Layers in your document, try turning them OFF temporarily, then re-export your file to PDF. If your export is snappy, then it suggests Live Filters may be part of what is slowing you down. This was one reason why I suggested earlier that you upload the file, but I understand that this is not always possible or desirable. Anyway, check this out. It's also worth trying different Performance Settings to see if another setting works better. (On Mac, Affinity > Settings > Performance > Acceleration...that's probably different on Windows).
If that IS the issue, you can Merge those Live filters into your document, in which case they are no longer Live and Editable, but it may speed things up. I'd try that on a duplicate document if experimenting, so you retain your original document in "non-destructive" mode.
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Here was my final solution:
1) Rasterize and trim all images. I had some images above 300dpi and extra unneeded data for some other images.2) I am not sure how this was introduced into the text (see image below) but removing the underline by making it 0pt and removing the blue color was the biggest gain. I am a software engineer by trade, so I wrote a python program to examine the structure of the PDF. The setting that I removed had created nearly 700K Cubic Bézier curve commands. Now I only see 1,498. That alone decreased the PDF file size by 10mb and allowed the export to finish under 10min. Better than the 30+min prior. Still slower than I believe it should be but acceptable for what I am trying to do. I find it crazy that a simple setting like that could cause so much data to be created in the PDF file. It also prints much faster. But I feel the application is like a trap where you can find yourself in this loop by something I believe was valid and simple but cause me so much trouble. Unclear how Canva is trying to create the PDF but I was able to repro what I was trying to do using python and some pdf libraries, and I had 3,600 commands for what they generated nearly 700K and produced valid pages. I would submit what I found if I kn
I like to Thank EVERYONE on this thread for the assistance and the ideas that lead me to the solution. I am very grateful for the help. Thank you!
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[…] removing the underline by making it 0pt and removing the blue color was the biggest gain. I am a software engineer by trade, so I wrote a python program to examine the structure of the PDF. The setting that I removed had created nearly 700K Cubic Bézier curve commands. Now I only see 1,498. That alone decreased the PDF file size by 10mb and allowed the export to finish under 10min. […]
Unclear how Canva is trying to create the PDF but I was able to repro what I was trying to do using python and some pdf libraries, and I had 3,600 commands for what they generated nearly 700K and produced valid pages. I would submit what I found if I kn
AFAIK Affinity uses PDFLib to generate PDF.
If you can submit a bug report through the in-app feature (Help menu) with a test file attached and perhaps a link to this thread or a contact address, it would certainly be of interest to the app devs.I suspect you are correct about the images. Is there a way in the pixel tab to click on a image and get the information about the image so I can tell
Beside the immediate information shown by Old Bruce , you can also see this information for all the images in the Resource Manager (Document menu):
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I am on Windows and my issue with the Resource Manager is that it does NOT display all the images in my document. I will report it as a bug as well.
You probably know this, but it's worth mentioning. Images that are "copied and pasted" into your document do not show up in the Resource Manager, since they are just seen as additional pixel or vector layers in your document. So, if you copied and pasted, they will not be seen in Resource Manager.
"Placed" images, developed RAW files, using RAW Layer (Linked or Embedded), etc, DO show up in Resource Manager. If you Develop an image as a "Pixel Layer", it will be like copying and pasting, and will not show up in Resource Manager.
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I am not sure how this was introduced into the text (see image below) but removing the underline by making it 0pt and removing the blue color was the biggest gain.
I understand the issue from your screenshot, the 0.2 pt stroke was applied to the entire text? Is that correct?
This seems to be either a bug (which you should report) or – if there was such a feature like "object styles" – it was applied by coincidence. In my opinion, it should not affect the PDF export in such gravity, unless you convert all text to outlines on export (there is a checkbox for this in the dialog box).
Could you check this? And maybe give us a screenshot and/or description of your PDF export settings?
As far as the crashes, I did disable hardware acceleration and that did solve my problem.
As ldina already stated, rendering of live filters can affect performance and you already turned hardware acceleration off because of the crashes that occured with it turned on. So you can have worse performance or better stability. Choose one…
"Placed" images, developed RAW files, using RAW Layer (Linked or Embedded), etc, DO show up in Resource Manager.
You could also try (with another copy of your layout document) to place the images you use instead of pasting them. This should affect the size of the layout file and may resolve some of the export problems, but it’s difficult to say how the images are used in your layout and whether the aforementioned live filters and/or effects are applied.
I would always recommend placing (or 'linking') images/graphic files in a layout instead of pasting them. And use the option "linked" and not "embedded".
I look forward to hearing about your experiments with the different approaches presented here.
Thanks to everyone who provided answers and/or solutions in this thread!
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And use the option "linked" and not "embedded".
In my own experience — your mileage may vary — I generally prefer to use "embedded" images (unless there are too many heavy ones). It's easier to manage when I move, copy or send files and I experienced less corrupted files.
However "linked" files have their own advantages: they can be maintained externally and later updated,. Files are lighter, especially when different files use the same illustrations (notably for versioning).
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easier to manage when I move, copy or send files
I assume you know about the "Save as package…" feature which collects all (linked) elements and fonts (that allow this) for use on another machine.
But of course your experience may be different, you even mentioned corrupted files – which fortunetely I did not experience at all (fingers crossed).
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