Better PDF export on the admin
PDF export still lacks quality for the printing industry. This plugin works well for very small products but it's a nightmare for bigger prints like posters and even high quality calendars. On the Admin, I still cannot export a PDF for all of my products with the needed size. Support says and I quote:
"The developer says that this is simply due to the limitations of the
server. With images that are that very large and then scaled up this is
simply only possible to a certain limit. It should be better when you
use the .jpg format instead of .png. Other then that you can always use
an image editing program to scale the output image."
I am very sorry but this is not what I paid for - more than once! The image I attach is a print of what you promise on Code Canyon. You say "fit any product" and "no limitation". Not to being able to print high quality posters (100x70cm or smaller) or calendars without using Photoshop is a huge limitation. If I get 50 orders per day (between books and calenders with at least 8 pages which), I will not be doing anything else than just being in Photoshop the whole day long to adjust exported files and increasing resolution (which will also inevitable kill image quality!), if I even ever catch up!
It is also very poor to provide a solution that is on a server that is not able to export a PDF that is only 1136 per 796mm with 300 DPI. Printin industry has standard paper sizes (https://www.prepressure.com/library/paper-size). How can one work then? How can admin solution work? High quality print needs also PNG quality images! JPG is great for web, PNG is what should be used to print - always!
Summary:
- Better server capacity for bigger PDF files export with PNG images, at least 1000 x 700mm and 300DPI
- Export compatible with Printing industry ISO sizes: https://www.prepressure.com/library/paper-size and multipage documents
I like what you're saying about bleed and file formats, but lets start with what is absolutely 100% necessary: Easy access to high quality files. As long as this is in place, it's not hard to set up a folder workflow to convert files to how we want them (e.g. from an RGB PNG to a CMYK PDF). Bleed can be set up today, if you create your product right. Sure, this could/should be easier, but I think that's a different feature request.
As long as the files are generated before the order is sent, the process can be even 1 step easier then what you first described:
And yes, making it robust enough for bigger projects, as Joao says, is very important.
How about a single click download all orders of the day? Only the bounding boxes ofcourse" And the photos will be named "Ordernumber+Product-.pdf/jpg " ?
No order viewer to export each product.
@Stathis Karaolias let them build the basic requirement first, later we can discuss about this addons .
thank you !
@Phil G , i am currently trying out your method and it works perfect!
The only problem is when i load the order viewer the canvas is HUGE and i cannot scroll right to open the layers -> scroll left -> remove the background layer and then export to jpg. What is your solution to this? Also the thing about the custom hook i didnt get that. What is that supposed to do and how to do this exactly?
Thank you in advance, Love your advice - Saved me!
@Joao Figueiredo - don't be too harsh.
I'll tell you only one thing of your recommendations that will not be able to happen - the bleed lines. If they are to be implemented the whole printing process should be described to the customer in order to have a proper printing file with no need for manual work from your side.
This is impossible!
The plugin is made to offer visualisation for the end product. If you want to have bleed line of iphone cover with sublimation plate how on earth will you offer your customer the proper visualisation so he can be confident in the product looks when ordering?
If I have a rechtangle and I place some graphics in it (jpg) now I can put this vital design that I need just at the end of this jpg to be aligned with the end of my sublimation material. If I have visible bleed lines and you force your user to use them they will be confused will ask you tons of questions and believe me the support time invested will outweight the manual editing of those files.
Back on topic:
For me the most important thing is:
- full functionality on my site - I want to have all the functions of export in my admin section where I can work securely and quickly.
- FONTS export - this is really a must - I need all the fonts that my system have to be corectly exported, including spacing, color, rounded fonts, etc. At this moment every line of text that my customers order have to be redone in our vector software in order to print quality prints. Yes, the raster images may have to be redone but I would value pdf import of all vector information AS-IS this will really speed my work because most of my projects now are engraving items where there's only text. So proper font export, and proper values.
Sorry for not informing you guys about the latest development state. But I can say that we are close to the end of the first stable version.
Here a little preview of the new PDF export, so you can see that we really working on this.
http://recordit.co/OTll5jRv4q
As you can see, the scaling of images in the PDF is not working 100%, but we are close to have this fixed soon. The problem with the development is that we are using a third-party software for generating professional and high-res PDF. We invest a lot of money in this software, but its necessary because right now we could not find a open-source library that fits for our needs to have high-res PDFs.
The new PDF export will be exclusively available in our ADMIN solution, due we need to host the PDF software on our system, we can not deliver it with the plugin files.
Sooo...what can you expect?
@Jason
Right now you can already generate PDF with 300 DPI unless your images are uploaded in high-res as well. Our application can not resample images from 72 dpi to 300, but this can not be done by any solution. I also wrote you a mail, maybe you can answer me there.
Yes ADMIN includes now the new PDF export in BETA. The article how to create high-res pdf can be found here: http://support.fancyproductdesigner.com/support/solutions/articles/13000044441-exporting-high-resolution-pdf-beta-
Please be aware that its currently in BETA and a full representation from FPD to PDF is not achieved yet. To give you an idea what we are currently doing....we are trying to implement a full FPD2PDF service, that means the service reads every element in every view and embed the element as own layer. This means we also need to reset all styles like color, font family etc. with help of the PDF library we are using.
You do not need to create extra large canvas anymore in order to get a high-res PDF, you can now easily define the output format for the PDF and our FPD2PDF service will create a PDF with all elements embedded that are visible in the printing box.
This PDF library is a high-professional software which is widely used by many printing companies and is not free to use, that's why we can only offer this service on our server and can not include it in the plugin files that you download from codecanyon. In the near future we will also charge for this service, but we will offer fair pricing plans so any company from small to big can effort the new PDF service.
There is still some styles and features are missing, we are trying to implement in the next days:
I am getting an error when trying to output PDF from the admin and no images can be retrieved. I had my webhost turn on CORS as the modal says but it still doesnt work. I understand its in beta but any idea how I can get it to work? Thanks
I was told that Bleed was implemented, but i dont see anything in regards to showing it in the editor for the client.
Like a ruler button, but for margins, so Clients wont add anything in bleed or safe area
Has this been implemented on the jQuery version? If so how do we add bleed lines etc??
Hi,
New features coming on through admin solutions will really bring the plugin to the next level i believe for production printers if they are done correctly.
Have just set up all the admin solution beta test - we will be printing anything from greeting cards to large signage ( aluminium dibond + acrylic etc) We would need the new feature of small canvas representing a much larger print size so a customer could design there own very large sign from a range of templates we would have - eg 1200 x 900mm for example or larger
Running into a few difficulties - everything is set up and the orders are coming into my woocommerce as well as the admin section but the orders cannot be exported from the hosted admin section. I am getting an unspecified error as shown in screenshot
Issues I would like to know
- is it possible for customer wanting a large sign with following specs image @ 150 dpi eg size40 x 30inches to be able to upload and view a design on the one page ( i mean not a huge canvas stage of 5000 x 4000px which makes it impossible for ux?