Importing Layout PDF's into graphics packages

Technical Problems
#1

I have trouble trying to import a PDF containing text (and vector graphics) created by Layout into some graphics processing packages.

When I create a PDF using Layout that includes text and try to import it into CorelDraw it fails with a “File is corrupt” message. Trying to import the same PDF into Inkscape, it will accept the graphics but omits the text. I have another package Engravelab (and fairly expensive laser processing application) that suffers the same fate of omitting the text.
Non text is processed as expected.

Is there any user out there of Layout and some other package that can process a PDF out of Layout… for example Photoshop or something that they could see if it processes text.

I haven’t attached any SKP/Layout files as any simple draw of a box with any text (eg. type “TEST”) fails for me.

I have approached SU Technical support but they claim it is the other 3 programs that have bugs and not Layout. I’d be interested if this happens to any other programs so I may refer back to SU Support.

I had posed this question before but that was before I had a workaround. The workaround is… rather than using Layout to create the PDF, I print to any PDF writer. I am not necessarily seeking a solution here but a “survey” to see if any other “Graphics” type products are affected

I am just interested how many other applications suffer this same fate.

I am using CorelDraw 8 which is the latest and I would assume that it would have all the latest fonts etc… to accept valid PDF files. PDFs created directly from Layout are legible by all the dedicated PDF readers I have tried.

#2

This is what Affinity Designer (PC) decides what the imported pdf file of text should look like. Affinity Photo does it identically.

It’s meant to read ‘Hi, Does ths work when I export it to Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo?’

I can edit the document, but the letters, although vector, it’s no longer recognised as text. It’s organised in a way that means it would take forever to edit it properly and is contained in masks and on curves and other strange artifacts. Not great.

#3

(As an analogy) I think this link is helpful when trying to understand the file type .pdf :wink:

#4

Have you tried a 3rd party PDF printer from Layout as well?

How does the output from that compare with the Layout PDF?

#5

My fairly complex LayOut page, exported to PDF, opened with no problems in Adobe Illustrator CS5.

#6

Thanks for your reply IanR. I am assuming you typed the text without the spaces. At least you managed to import the text (or at least the existence of the text).
Normally I would use CorelDraw (CD) to annotate my models with text except that Layout has the nice method of displaying dimensional measurements which I cannot replicate easily in CD which id the primary reason I attempt to import “text” into CD. This is when I replaced the dimensions with text and found CD (and Inkscape) crapped out.

The fact that you managed to import text kaboshes my idea of apportioning all the blame on Layout.

#7

J’_S’, I have tried about 4 or 5 different 3rd party PDF printers and they all produce importable PDFs from Layout to CorelDraw (CD). Because of that I do have a workaround, however, I thought that if this PDF creation by Layout was a legitimate bug, I should take up the gauntlet and try to get the SU team to address it, especially when one of the drawing (no pun intended) features of DU Pro is its ability to process PDF files (at least that was my primary reason for the upgrade)…

#8

Thanks for taking the time to try this for me Anssi. Though this looks like another vote against my petition.

My only “escape clause” may be that I believe “Adobe Illustrator” is created by the designer of PDF files so I would expect them to go to extremes to have all bases covered for PDF file processing.

I’m sure this is a case of some bit of code, fonts or sub-routine missing out of one of the application programs. The question is whether it’s Layout or the other 3rd party processors.

I do expect dedicated PDF processing software to manage the “Layout PDF file”, however, I am trying to question all those other apps floating out there that not everyone is aware of or don’t have access to (or just don’t use).

My intention was that if I could be armed with a large diversity of stats about other products processing the “Layout PDF file” I may have sufficient ammunition to leverage Corel to address the issue. I’m sure we’ve all hit the brick wall of designers always insisting it’s the other products fault and not theirs.

#9

Hi back Anssi, Forgot to ask if your complex Layout page included text and if it did, was the text visible in AI CS5?

#10

Yes, the page looked quite similar to my LO page and it included text. I didn’t use any fancy fonts, though. Font substitution might be one problem.

By the “complexity” of my page I mean that it has mixed raster and vector viewports with overlaid LO graphics and text, and some of the viewports also have SketchUp model texts.

In my experience, PDF pages with a lot of overlaid elements can prove problematic, for instance if large high-resolution raster images are overlaid with vector graphics and text. Exporting these from CAD applications tend sometimes to produce files that, for instance, are impossible to print. My workaround in these cases is to export the PDF page in question as a high-resolution raster image from Adobe Acrobat, and convert that back into PDF to “flatten” it, but it is of course not workable if I need to keep the vector content editable.

#11

In my test I just simply used the word “Test” as my text sample and the font was the Layout default font as per installation. No complexities involved. My concern (and that is my fall back workaround) is that rather than use Layout’s built in PDF creator, if I print to any “PDF printer”, that output is processable by all the applications (that I had access to in my arsenal of apps) which had issues with the direct Layout conversion.

It does seem to be a font issue, however, what I am trying to establish where the shortcoming is so I can approach the appropriate developer(s) for a potential fix.

As I have mentioned I do have a workaround and while the adage is “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”, I follow the principle of “if it’s broke, don’t ignore it”.

Alex

#12

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