If a large banner is cropped during Affinity export on your Mac, check the export area and document bounds first. Then establish whether content is missing, the output has been scaled down, or another app displays it differently.

This guide follows the current Affinity desktop help and its File > Export > Export workflow. Use the full Export dialog for troubleshooting: it provides the available export settings and a preview you can inspect before saving. About exporting

Identify what “cropped” means before changing settings

Keep your editable original and give diagnostic exports different filenames. Record the intended banner width and height, the document’s units, the export format, and the application in which you see the problem. Change one setting between tests so the result tells you something useful.

Use this sequence to choose your first check. These are diagnostic clues, rather than proof of a particular cause.

What you see First check Useful comparison
A whole end or edge is absent in the export preview Export Area and page/artboard boundary Export the intended named artboard or complete page
Background or decorative objects disappear Selection Only versus Selection Area Compare both with the intended page/artboard export
The complete composition survives, but dimensions are smaller Raster export size and any dimension warning Compare requested and actual pixel dimensions
Individual effects disappear while the layout remains complete Format-specific rasterization settings Export a comparison with unsupported properties rasterized
Preview looks complete, but the saved PDF appears truncated elsewhere PDF dimensions and receiving application Open the same file in another viewer and test a reduced-scale copy

The key distinction is between losing part of the composition and making the entire composition smaller. A smaller output that still contains both ends of the banner calls for a different correction from an output missing its right-hand section.

Set the export area to the banner you actually need

Open File > Export > Export, choose the required format or preset, and explicitly inspect Area. Affinity documents several area choices, including the whole document, a named artboard, the current page or spread, and selection-based output. Selection Area includes overlapping content from other layers; Selection Only excludes that other content. Export dialog

For a banner on one artboard, choose that artboard by name. This gives you a specific boundary to investigate and avoids depending on whichever objects happen to be selected. Affinity’s artboard export instructions explicitly support choosing a named artboard from the Area menu. Exporting artboards

For a banner occupying one page in a page-based document, select Current Page. If the banner deliberately spans facing pages, check whether Current Spread matches the intended output. The documented distinction is that a page export outputs a page, while a spread export includes the active spread. Export dialog

Inspect the preview before exporting. On Mac, Command–0 fits the preview into view; you can also zoom and pan to inspect each end. Confirm that the background, text, and outermost graphic are all present. At this stage, focus on composition and boundaries rather than fine detail. Export dialog

If switching from selection-based output to the intended artboard restores the missing section, keep the artboard as your export area. If the same edge remains missing, inspect the underlying boundary next.

Check the page or artboard boundary, then bleed

Affinity clips objects that extend beyond an artboard’s design area. Artwork extending across the surrounding workspace therefore does not establish that it belongs inside the exported artboard. Check where the missing section sits relative to the actual artboard edge. About artboards

If the artboard is too small for the intended banner, use the Artboard Tool in Vector Studio to resize it, then inspect the artwork again. If the artboard already has the correct finished dimensions, reposition or resize the artwork to fit those dimensions instead. The tool supports adding, moving, and resizing artboards. Artboard Tool

For a page-based banner, open Document > Setup > Document Setup and check the page or spread dimensions. When changing those dimensions, pay attention to the scaling choice: Rescale changes object dimensions along with the page; Anchor to page or Anchor to spread keeps object dimensions unchanged. Affinity notes that the available settings vary with document content, including a reduced set for artboard documents. Document setup (Desktop only)

Verify the units alongside the numbers. A width recorded in inches must be compared with an intended width in inches, or converted before comparison. You can change the displayed document units through Document > Setup > Document Setup, using Document Units. Document units

Include bleed when the missing strip is outside the finished edge

Bleed is an extension beyond the intended page size for trimming. If the missing material is specifically your bleed artwork, check its distances under Document Setup > Bleed, extend the artwork into that region, and enable Include bleed when exporting. Showing bleed guides helps you position artwork, but inclusion in the output is a separate choice. Setting bleed

Treat a missing bleed strip separately from a large missing section of the banner. Restore the correct finished page or artboard boundary first; then add the required bleed around it.

Separate raster dimension limits from missing artwork

For raster formats such as PNG, JPEG, and TIFF, inspect the export Size and retain Lock aspect ratio when changing dimensions proportionally. Affinity documents that an export exceeding a format’s maximum dimensions is scaled to fit, with a warning before you proceed. Its help does not provide one universal maximum for every raster format. Export Settings

Read the warning and compare the resulting pixel dimensions with your requirement. If the entire banner remains visible but its dimensions have decreased, investigate that scaling behavior before rebuilding the design. Do not assume that changing the extension automatically makes your requested dimensions supported.

For an illustrative calculation, a 240-inch-wide banner at 100 pixels per inch needs 24,000 pixels across: 240 × 100 = 24,000. At 300 pixels per inch, the same width needs 72,000 pixels. These are arithmetic examples, not recommended resolutions or statements that Affinity supports either size in every format.

Choose output dimensions from the actual delivery requirement. If the requested raster dimensions encounter a documented export warning, the next decision is whether the recipient can accept different dimensions or another supported format. Repeatedly increasing resolution cannot recover artwork outside the chosen export boundary.

Check format support when only some elements disappear

An export can also be incomplete because individual design properties are unsupported. For PDF, SVG, and EPS, Affinity’s Rasterize choices include Nothing, which omits unsupported elements; Unsupported properties, which rasterizes those elements; and Everything, which rasterizes the design. Raster DPI controls the resolution of rasterized effects. Export Settings

If text and basic shapes survive but an effect disappears, try Unsupported properties and compare the same region. Use Everything as a further diagnostic comparison if needed, while recognizing that it changes the output to rasterized artwork. Neither choice expands the export area or restores objects excluded by its boundary.

Keep these tests focused. A complete rectangular section missing from one end points you toward area and dimensions first; isolated missing effects justify investigating format support.

Investigate very large PDFs without assuming a universal 200-inch limit

A very large PDF deserves a separate size check. Adobe’s current Acrobat SDK reference explains that PDF page coordinates have a 14,400-unit boundary and that UserUnit supplies a scaling factor for larger physical pages. At the ordinary unit size of 1/72 inch, 14,400 units equals 200 inches. Larger physical pages therefore involve more than simply increasing that ordinary coordinate range. Doc and Doc.Media APIs — getUserUnitSize

This makes a PDF cut off around 200 inches a reason to investigate page-size interpretation. It does not establish a universal 200-inch limit for every PDF, nor prove that Affinity caused the truncation. Affinity’s current export reference lists PDF compatibility choices but does not document a user-facing UserUnit control or promise that changing compatibility alone resolves oversized pages. Export Settings

Export a comparison with Preview export when complete enabled, which opens the result in your default PDF viewer. Then open that same saved file in another viewer and compare the composition and reported page dimensions. Agreement or disagreement helps narrow the investigation; a complete display in one viewer alone does not establish that the receiving workflow will handle the file correctly. Publishing PDF files

Prepare a reduced-scale copy when the recipient accepts it

A reduced-scale PDF is a practical alternative when full-size PDF handling is the obstacle and the recipient accepts explicit enlargement instructions. For example, a 240 × 60-inch banner supplied at 1:10 becomes a 24 × 6-inch PDF, intended for 1000% enlargement. This is an illustrative workflow, not an automatic Affinity export feature.

For a page-based working copy, open Document > Setup > Document Setup, reduce both page dimensions by the same factor, and enable Rescale so the objects scale with the page. Inspect the complete result before exporting. Use this method only where those documented page-scaling options are available. Document setup (Desktop only)

Alternatively, create a new page at the reduced dimensions and use File > Place to place your saved native Affinity document. Select the placed content and use its context-toolbar dimensions/DPI information to set the Scale percentage—for example, 10% for a full-size source reduced to 1:10. For a source containing multiple artboards, select the intended artboard from the context toolbar and check its placement on the new page. Placing content

Account for enlargement when assessing raster detail. At 1:10, material rasterized at 300 pixels per inch on the reduced page corresponds to 30 pixels per inch after tenfold enlargement. To represent 100 pixels per inch at final size, the reduced-page equivalent is 1000 pixels per inch. These calculations describe the relationship; they do not prescribe a suitable resolution or create detail absent from source images.

Verify the saved banner before handing it over

Inspect the actual saved export at both ends and along its edges. Compare its dimensions with your intended output, confirm whether bleed is included, and check any effect that changed during format testing. For a reduced-scale delivery, state the file dimensions, scale, and intended finished dimensions together.

Finish with the smallest correction that addresses the observed cause: the intended export area, a corrected boundary, appropriate handling of unsupported properties, or an explicitly scaled PDF accepted by the recipient. Keep the editable original and the successful export settings so the next revision can follow the same verified path.

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