Tony Cotterill

It also raised a separate question - unconnected with this particular issue, yet linked. Is there a way to import a pdf (File>Place) into a frame in Publisher, or open in Photo, for that matter WITHOUT breaking it down into an editable file. The same flier which I initially wanted to use as a template for further fliers, I now also want to use as an image in its own right. It which uses a decorative font that I don't have installed so the font gets interpreted as curves and goes all screwy. All I wanted was the image in this case as thought it were a JPG or TIFF for example. I tried to open it in Photo and create a TIFF from it but Photo tries to do the same thing and I get a jumbled image. Reluctantly, I had to revert to Photoshop which opened it as it looks, for this task.

I opened it. As if it were a standard Affinity document. Because I wanted to be able to edit it.

Hi, I'm using Affinity Publisher on Windows 10. Can anybody tell me why the following happens? I import an A5 pdf flier. It looks fine but when I check the document setup it says it's 'custom' but 148mmx210mm portrait - so a custom A5. Fine. So, for completeness, I change the setup to standard A5. Instantly the page dimensions change to 74mmx105mm but the elements maintain an A5 size. So I have only the central part of my flier showing. I go back to document setup and it's showing 74mmx210mm custom, and will not change - however many times I try to tell it to use A5 parameters. Obviously, I'm missing something... what should I be doing? It has happened with three separate pdfs, so it's not a problem with the pdfs themselves, it seems. Cheers, Tony

Very much so. Yes. Thanks again.

Thanks very much for the analysis, BofG. It explains much. I'll cut down the images sizes that the artist sent. It only really leaves me with two questions.... 1. Why does adding or subtracting the mask make a difference to how it is saved. Perhaps the mask causes it to automatically be flattened? 2. How did you do your analysyis? It would be useful for future such occurances. Cheers, Tony

Sure. Here you go. I also forgot to mention that the is Publisher, in case that's important, and I'm using Windows 10. Half-hexes with bleed.pdf Half-hexes without bleed.pdf

Here's a curious one. It's not a game breaker by any means, but it would be nice if somebody knew why the following happened... I have a new document and since the shape of the printed area is not rectangular I have made a bespoke shape picture box and created lines, using the pan tool, around it for a 3mm bleed. Then I made a mask and masked out the bleed area so that I can toggle it on and off for viewing ease. All tickety-boo so far. I do my designing - only two pages - and output it as a PDF. Now, when I have the mask ON, to hide the 3mm bleed the file exports nice and quickly and is around 1.2mB for a 300dpi document. When I turn the mask OFF so show the bleed the file takes an age and is around 15.5mB for the same 300dpi resolution. What I'm wondering is... HUH? Why? What on earth is taking up the other 14mB. Is this a feature/bug, or am I doing something weird? Cheers, Tony

Hi. I am so happy with AP. It's sooo much better than the previous rival whom we don't mention... There is only one feature I still miss and you've probably guessed what it is from the title of this post. Sometimes I need to switch on/off features across several different pages and it would be great to have globally linked layers to do this, instead of needing to remember where the relevant linked features are in the document. An example is language translations. Often I need to do layouts with alternate languages and changing each page of a 50 page document is a chore. I know, I could have a separate file for the other languages but global layers would be better. Is there anything like this in the pipeline? Cheers, Tony

Okay. No worries. I don't know what was going on, but a de/re install fixed it. Tony

Hi, can anyone please help me? I had Publisher running fine. I was a Beta user and bought the full package which worked fine. Yesterday I bought and installed Photo which works fine but now I can't boot up Designer. I have them both installed on my D: drive in separate folders. What am I doing wrong? Tony

Well done! Good spot. It's not at all intuitive that this would make a difference. Hopefully, there will eventually be some sort of manual or full tutorial for picking up these tiny features.

Yes, Walt, you are correct. I'm on the Beta publisher. Only spotted it a few days ago. I'm liking it a lot, but the layers and image handling are confusing me a little atm.

It even happens with a straight text box. If I put a text box layer into a created layer the same thing happens - white background and text goes black. It's as though it strips it back down to a basic black and white image, although the font is not lost.

I'm on PC and I updated to the latest Beta today, so 1.7, yes.

Ok. Thanks. I didn't spot the dedicated forum. Maybe I'll wait until it's no longer Beta, then. I just assumed it was something I was doing wrong - because it usually is. Cheers.

Sure. Here is a screenshot of my file without any actual created layers. Now, if I create a new layer and put the mine symbol inside it, for instance.... There is now an unwanted white background to the mine image. Why?

Sorry to bother everyone, but I don't seem to have the problem any more. I have since downloaded the latest update and things now seem to be working differently and it's all fine Thanks for your time, everybody.

Thanks. That's useful to have the parent/child explained. I tried creating a layer but then everything I put in it had a white background added. I don't know why. Not so useful when I have transparent objects.

Thanks Callum, but that only seems to rotate the frame. I want the frame to stay put and the image within to rotate.

Is there a generic item information screen anywhere? I can see there is a frame dimensions place bottom right, but, for example, when trying to put an exact rotation on an image inside a frame the best I could manage was to manually twiddle it until it came to the angle I wanted. Is there anywhere I can type in an exact rotation? Like typing in exact dimensions? I found the exact guides manager, and the dimension manager but not the rotational one. I figured it should be close by to the former.

I find layers VERY useful for design, but I don't quite understand how they work in Affinity, yet. I come from an InDesign/Scribus viewpoint. Each article on the pasteboard seems to have its own layer - which is new - but in order to keep them in some kind of order they need to be grouped, it seems. However when moved such that they nest inside other layers the nested layers become invisible, even though the visible tick is still showing. What am I going wrong? Also... is there any plan to have a global layer option? I see why they are currently page specific, but sometimes it's useful to be able to amend the layers document-wide.