(I use this feature every day, multiple times a day, to export vector line art to PDF files - and have NEVER had this issue until now).
All vector lines are being transformed into bitmap rendered line segments (they are several pixels wide and have gradations in shading within the width and length of the lines). No options available under 'Publish to PDF/Settings' dialog box to remedy this issue. Tried every option under the 'PDF Preset' dropdown (Archiving, prepress, document distribution, etc), but that did not fix the issue. The dialog box also shows "1 Issue detected in document', this issue is 'there are fonts below 18pt in your document'. I don't know why that would affect the vector lines, but it's worth noting as I did not have this issue before the update.
Work-around: The only work-around I have found is to use the 'Print' command, then change printer to 'Adobe PDF'. This results in vector lines remaining in the final pdf, not being converted into bitmap. This is, however, not the same as Publish to PDF, and takes significantly longer to 'Print' the file (ie, it's not an ideal workaround).
Can you upload the CorelDraw file (you must zip it to upload it here) and the resulting PDF?
unfortunately, it wouldn't let me upload here.I've uploaded the zip files to our dropbox instead, here: dropbox link
Thank you.(Writing as I test)First of all, I backsave to 24.3 (2023), open in Draw 2023 and create a PDF, and the result is the same.So, the problem is not specific to Draw 2024 or latest update, it must be something else.What strikes me when I open your file, is that it takes so long to render this relatively simple file.If I zoom in or out for example, it takes seconds to redraw.This indicates that there is more in it than we can see.So I start to check some of the objects/curves that build up your file, and immediately find that there seems to be a Lens applied to many of them.Looking closer, it looks like most of the objects used to build up the lamps have a 0% "If Darker" transparency. Don't think I have to investigate any further, because this is most likely what's causing it.The question is why there is such a transparency when it doesn't do anything?I assume these lamps are imported from a CAD app or something, because the way the objects are built up doesn't look like a typical Draw construction.So, is this something that happened during export/import, or was the transparency added deliberately?Anyway, remove all transparency and Publish to PDF, and I think everything will be just fine.You cannot use the Transparency tool to do this because it only allows you to change one object at a time, so I think you have to do like this:Select all objects.Go to the Properties docker and click the Transparency icon.The docker will say "Normal" but none of the icons will be active (because there are objects with different transparency selected).You must now first click the "No transparency" icon, then change the Merge mode to "Add" (for example), and then change it back to "Normal".This should remove all transparency and you can check by selecting a couple of subcurves to see what the Status Bar or Properties docker says.Publish to PDF.Good luck, and please let us know how it works.
THANK YOU!!This worked as a 'fix', but now we're trying to figure out what the 'cause' is. Firstly, we've narrowed it down to the output file from Autocad. We tried opening output files from just last week, and they do not have this issue - so it's something that changed in Autocad, maybe an update or patch, or somehow our presets were reset? The output from Autocad that we use is the 'Print', then 'Print to PDF'. This is the only we've found to maintain the lines as vector (when imported into corel) from Autocad. EPS files do not work, as they become wireframe (and we work in solid models).
CorelDRAW has limitations with exporting artwork where objects have transparent fills applied. If the transparent fills are flat it will be hit or miss on whether the objects get rasterized or not when publishing to PDF. When exporting in Adobe Illustrator format the vector objects with transparent fills are usually preserved when the AI file is opened in Illustrator. If the CorelDRAW document has objects with gradient fills and those gradient fills have varying levels of transparency those objects will be rasterized when published to PDF or exported in Adobe Illustrator format.
Ronny, Thank you again for helping so much. We're able to get back to our workflow.Please consider for your curiosity:I've just uploaded another file to that dropbox folder - titled 'TP1734_KR16815-Front3.pdf'It was output from Autocad 8/31/24It does not need to have anything done to it in order to enable 'publish to pdf' to work correctly, resulting in a small file containing vector lines (not the lenses)Is there a noticeable specific difference between this and the other Autocad output .pdf you inspected? Beyond what i've written above, we've entered into Autocad support territory, so: Thank you, Ronny, and everyone else here who chipped in to help answer this technical issue.
This one interested me because of two things, the small size of the outlines and the transparency. I have had zero issue with CorelDRAW transparency in output and as such I decided to test transparency in fills and larger sized outlines.
I'm thinking that it may be transparency combined with the small size of the strokes/objects. There was a post just recently where the issue was small objects being rasterized incorrectly. I'm wondering if it's that error combined with transparency.
In the capture below there are 4 stacked layers of transparency including both CMYK and spot colors. While this is live transparency and should only be attempted in a true PDF RIP, I found that the RIP handled it properly and even as a round trip CorelDRAW process CorelDRAW imported its own PDF correctly. The orange square is actually the red square with a different outline and a transparency applied, the red square has a spot color drop shadow.
The importation filter being highly suspect, I wonder if one can create the issue with an all native CorelDRAW file?
I did some more testing on fine lines converted to objects. You can reproduce errors in PDF rendering with a RIP viewed and round-trip PDF in CorelDRAW. The magenta rectangle has 6 objects created as outlines in .001", .004" and .007", then converted to objects.
The bottom left 3 had normal merge lens applied directly to the original object and when published to PDF they remain vectors.
The bottom right 3 had the objects copied and pasted on top and the lens applied to the top copy only with if darker merge applied and when published to PDF, they became palleted bitmaps.
The top left 3 were the original objects, far right and middle with an if darker merge applied, the far left remained a vector, broke apart and became partially invisible, the middle became a palleted bitmap. The far right had a subtract lens applied, it remained a vector and had a significant color shift.
I have used the normal merge significantly and multiply quite a bit with zero issues.