To troubleshoot shifted text and objects in an Affinity EPUB on Mac, first check whether you exported fixed-layout or reflowable content. Then inspect document warnings, image pinning and text styling before comparing the same file in two EPUB readers.

Is the movement expected for your EPUB format?

Current Affinity desktop help documents EPUB 3.0 export in both fixed-layout and reflowable forms. Fixed-layout preserves designed pages; reflowable content adapts to the screen and the reader’s settings. This distinction determines what a successful repair should achieve. See Affinity’s About EPUB documentation.

For a diagram guide whose labels must remain beside specific shapes, choose fixed-layout. For a text guide whose illustrations should follow the relevant paragraphs, choose reflowable. Affinity recommends fixed-layout for publications built around imagery and precise page design, with the tradeoff that readers on small screens may need to zoom and pan. Fixed-Layout EPUB — Affinity Help Center

Use this diagnostic table to choose your first investigation. These are troubleshooting priorities derived from the documentation, rather than confirmed diagnoses of any particular file.

What you observe First investigation Desired result
Paragraphs wrap differently when the window narrows Confirm whether the export is reflowable Text remains readable and follows the intended sequence
A diagram and its labels lose their designed relationship Check whether fixed-layout was selected The page composition remains intact
An image appears beside the wrong passage Inspect its text pin and intended reading position The image accompanies the relevant passage
Text is unexpectedly enlarged in the Affinity document too Run preflight and inspect linked frame scales Consistent source text before export
One EPUB reader displays the file differently Compare the identical export in another reader Identify whether the discrepancy depends on the reader

Before editing, preserve your original document and work on a copy. Choose one representative problem: a heading, two paragraphs and one illustration are enough for an initial comparison. Record what is wrong—such as an image arriving before its introduction—so each export tests a concrete change.

How do you confirm the export settings on Mac?

Open File > Export > Export. Select a preset under EPUB (Fixed Layout) or EPUB (Reflowable), according to the task above. Adjust the available settings, optionally enable Show in Finder, click Export, then name and save the file. These are the current desktop steps documented in About EPUB.

For a fixed-layout test, inspect Area and any page selection before exporting. Affinity distinguishes pages from spreads and allows specific page ranges where supported. A spread containing two facing pages can create a different viewing comparison from separate pages. The Export dialog documentation explains the available areas and page-range controls.

Give successive test exports distinct names, such as layout-test-01.epub and layout-test-02.epub. Open the newly saved file each time and record the preset used. This simple comparison method helps prevent an older export from being mistaken for the result of your latest adjustment.

Which source-document problems should you fix first?

On Mac, open Window > Layout > Preflight. Click Check Now to inspect the document. The selected profile controls which problems appear; use Profile > Edit profile to review the checks relevant to your output. The panel provides page locations and, for some issues, a Fix button. Preflight panel — Affinity Help Center

Prioritize missing fonts, missing characters, overflowing text frames and missing or outdated linked resources. Affinity also documents a Frames in flow have mismatched scales warning. For that warning, double-click its entry, follow the linked text frames and locate a solid lower-right scaling handle; double-click the handle to reset that frame’s scale. Preflight — Affinity Help Center

For reflowable output, inspect the profile’s EPUB (Reflowable) checks. Affinity documents limitations involving absolute leading overrides, tracking, manual kerning, horizontal or vertical text scaling, shear and tab stops. It also identifies unsupported paragraph-keeping and decoration settings. A print layout using these features therefore needs attention before you expect equivalent EPUB formatting. Preflight — Affinity Help Center

When a warning identifies a style, simplify that style in your working copy and export again. Change one relevant property at a time. For example, investigate a reported text-scaling setting before repositioning every frame around the affected paragraph. This keeps the test connected to evidence from the document.

A clear preflight result applies to the checks enabled in the profile. Continue examining the exported file: preflight findings help locate source problems, while reader comparisons assess the actual output.

How do you keep an illustration with the right paragraph?

Affinity documents that images pinned to text appear as inline images at the corresponding position in a reflowable EPUB. Consequently, a floating image’s original page coordinates are not a dependable target for reflowable output. The useful target is its relationship to the text. About EPUB — Affinity Help Center

Inspect the pin before changing offsets

Open Window > Text > Pinning. Affinity offers Float With Text, which positions an object relative to a text pin, and Inline In Text, which makes it behave like a character. Floating objects can support text wrapping in the source document; inline objects do not. Pinning — Affinity Help Center

For a straightforward illustration in a flowing guide:

  1. Select the unpinned illustration.
  2. Choose Inline In Text on the Pinning panel or enable it on the Layer menu.
  3. Inspect its position within the surrounding text.
  4. If needed, adjust the panel’s Scale to, Scale, Base position or Offset controls.
  5. Export again and inspect the illustration with its introducing paragraph.

The insertion and adjustment controls are documented in Pinning.

For an existing floating object, inspect where its pin actually lands. Affinity initially pins an object to nearby text and allows the pin to be dragged to another text position. A visually adjacent paragraph may therefore differ from the paragraph carrying the pin. Pinning — Affinity Help Center

Consider an illustrative page containing the sentence “The blue square marks the starting point” and a blue-square graphic. In reflowable output, the useful test is whether the graphic stays with that explanation as text size changes. If it must remain at an exact coordinate beside several labels, return to the fixed-layout decision.

Why does text styling change in a reflowable export?

Readers can override embedded fonts and presentation settings in reflowable EPUBs. Affinity specifically notes that Apple Books users can change font family, size, leading and margins. Establish consistent reader settings before comparing exports, then deliberately change those settings to assess how the content adapts. About EPUB — Affinity Help Center

Check custom CSS when the document uses it

On Mac, open Window > Layout > EPUB. The EPUB panel lists custom CSS files used for reflowable exports. Its Embed on add setting matters during troubleshooting: an embedded stylesheet is a copied resource and does not change when you edit the original file; a linked stylesheet refers to the original. EPUB panel — Affinity Help Center

If you have been editing an external stylesheet without seeing a difference, check whether the document contains an embedded copy. Also inspect the text style’s Export Tags settings: Include class in HTML, Class name and Emit CSS control the class and generated styling associated with that text. About EPUB — Affinity Help Center

Affinity’s export reference distinguishes generated style CSS from local formatting. Disabling generated CSS prevents text-style rules from being generated, while added CSS files remain included. Separately, the local-formatting setting determines whether local changes produce CSS classes or the text follows its paragraph’s style. Check these choices before trying to compensate by resizing text manually. Export Settings — Affinity Help Center

The same reference documents an option to replace soft returns with spaces. Retained soft returns can produce unexpected gaps as paragraphs reflow. Review intentional line breaks before changing this option throughout the document. Export Settings — Affinity Help Center

Which export controls will not repair positioning?

Match every proposed fix to its documented format. Affinity’s Rasterize choices—Nothing, Everything and Unsupported properties—are listed for PDF, SVG and EPS. They are not documented as an EPUB-wide switch for flattening a troublesome publication. Likewise, Export text as curves is listed for SVG and WMF, while PDF has its own font-handling options. Export Settings — Affinity Help Center

Fixed-layout EPUB does have image-quality controls, including Raster DPI, downsampling and JPEG compression. These address the quality and size of raster content. Choose the appropriate layout type and investigate displaced content before tuning image compression. Fixed-Layout EPUB — Affinity Help Center

How do you verify that the repair worked?

Affinity recommends testing EPUB output with different rendering engines, giving Apple Books and Thorium as examples, and validating with EPUBCheck. Use the identical exported file for both reader comparisons. About EPUB — Affinity Help Center

For fixed-layout output, compare the diagram, labels and text placement against the source at a useful zoom level. For reflowable output, inspect the paragraph sequence and image association, then vary the window width and text size. Record whether the original problem occurs in both readers, only one reader or only under particular settings.

If the discrepancy occurs in one reader, that narrows the investigation without proving which component is responsible. If it persists across readers, return to the relevant source warning, pin or styling choice and make one further controlled change. Keep the smallest document that reproduces the problem if you need to investigate beyond the documented controls.

Finish when your chosen format fulfils the intended task: fixed-layout keeps the designed composition, or reflowable content preserves a coherent reading sequence as the presentation changes. Save the working document and the tested export settings together so the next revision can be checked against the same criteria.

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