pyxelles

Dear Affinity Designer developers, As much as I like Affinity Designer, can you please add this quite important feature as many people have requested for this since 2014?! I have seen this topic on the forums since 2014 and it is quite frustrating that I am not able to use Affinity Designer for print on demand- the major reasons I purchase AD in the first place. I have enjoyed learning how to use AD for over a year from scratch and I'm not an experienced graphic designer as I'm still learning everyday and still enjoy discovering new features but as seen in the forums, time and time again even with examples of blurry images with jagged edges, it's evident I'm not the only one experiencing this. It's not possible that it's because all of these people complaining don't know what they are doing- even experienced graphic designers have complained about this. Below is an example of a 6000 x 6000 px file exported as a PNG at 300 dpi and imported into RedBubble and the 1st image shows the original scale at 57& as shown on the POD platform, however as the subsequent images show, when scaled down to 35% and 25% respectively, the image becomes fuzzy, with any outlines/strokes appearing pixelated/ jagged and with typographic designs, the fonts become less legible and distorted. It's odd because the more you scale down, the worse it gets. Yet other images on the platform appear crisp and sharp and I bet they used Illustrator. What I have learned is that it has something to do with switching anti-aliasing off when exporting the file. A feature other software like Adobe illustrator have but Affinity Designer doesn't. Apparently switching anti-aliasing off prior to exporting the image makes all the difference, producing that sharp crisp image everyone is after and that's why in the forums people keep asking "how to switch anti-aliasing off" in Affinity Designer (since 2014) and it's still not been resolved. What's the point of designing in a vector graphic software if you can't have crisp sharp exported images? If all of us are wrong can please put out a tutorial showing you export a large high resolution PNG image (image and typography) into a dummy RedBubble account as an example? or show us what we are doing wrong! Thank you.

Even experienced graphic designers have complained about this problem since 2014 - read the forums. It's not because everyone who has been complaining about this, doesn't know what they are doing. What I have learned is that it has something to do with switching anti-aliasing off which is a feature other software like Adobe illustrator have but Affinity Designer doesn't. Apparently switching anti-aliasing off prior to exporting the image makes all the difference, giving that sharp crisp image everyone is after and that's why in the forums people keep asking "how to switch anti-aliasing off". Even PNG files exported at 4000 x 4000 px still appear poor with jagged edges when imported into RedBubble-try it and maybe you'll understand what many people are complaining about. Even uploading at the POD's recommended sizes doesn't make a difference. RedBubble for instance has over 20 different products with various dimension requirements ranging from 2380 x 1630 px to 7632 x 6480 px which is pretty tedious uploading different sizes. Redbubble recommend uploading one large high resolution file at 7632 x 6480 px which can be scaled up and down to accommodate the various products dimensions. When the file first uploaded then image quality is OK but might be too large for the apparel and needs to be scaled down (there's a scale slider 0-100%) to smaller size. However, the image gets fuzzy, the outlines/strokes and text get distorted with jagged edges, it's odd the smaller you go the more low res the image appears and the text becomes illegible. Sometimes I'm forced to have a larger scale of the image on the product because it's sharper when scaled up! Meanwhile other images on the platform appear crisp and sharp, even the text designs with much smaller fonts are legible and sharp- I bet you those people didn't use Affinity Designer.

Oh wow, thanks for raising this as I having been having the same frustrating issue and was trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm also using ADfor print on demand and even though I export high resolution PNGs @300 dpi, when I upload my designs on t-shirts on Teespring and Redbubble, the images look OK only at 100% scale but rapidly appear more low res and blurry with jagged edges when scaled down to meet the dimension requirements of each apparel (by the time you get to 50%, it’s barely legible at a distance) and the fonts also appear fuzzy not crisp and sharp. When I compare my images (for print) to those of other designers on the POD platforms their images appear much sharper and even their smaller fonts are more legible than my large fonts. No matter what I do (I export at 300dpi) my images look low res when scaled down, which is strange because isn't this supposed to happen when you scale up instead? This appears to be an ongoing issue with AD. I’ve seen so many complaints about this since 2014! So many people using Affinity Designer have complained about this and it's not because people don't know what they are doing! People who use Adobe illustrator have sharper images because AI has the anti-aliasing feature which is switched off prior to exporting and this ensures that the images are crisp with smooth edges. I don't know why ADaren't sorting this out when so many people have complained- asking now to turn of ANTI-ALIASING. AD say the solution is to do with coverage maps but I don’t yet understand it and it appears complicated. Why can’t they just add this anti-aliasing feature? or put out a detailed tutorial explaining this map coverage stuff, showing an example of a text design exported to a Print on Demand platform and tested on several apparel with different dimension requirements. This will help a lot of us out while they sort this out. This person also posted this issue on another thread with clear images. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/114272-how-does-anti-aliasing-work-on-affinity-designer/

You can't use PDF or vector files for print on demand. They usually require raster files-PNG or JPEG. Obviously PNG is preferred by most pattern artists because designs exported as PNG are better quality than a JPEG image albeit a bigger file. PNG also have a transparent background property which is very useful as the background colours can be changed easily. When I compare my images (for print ) to those of others on the POD platforms their images look sharp and even very small fonts are more legible than my large fonts. No matter what I do (I export at 300dpi) my images look like poor resolution images with fuzzy outlines when I had to scale down to suit that particular apparel, which is strange because isn't this supposed to happen when you scale up instead? So many people using Affinity Designer have complained about this and it's not because people don't know what they are doing! People who use Adobe illustrator have sharper images because AI has the anti-aliasing feature which is switched off prior to exporting and this ensures that the images are crisp with smooth edges. I don't know why AD aren't sorting this out when so many people have complained. Even Canva exports of the same dimensions have better quality images.

Oh wow, thanks Schmu for raising this as I having been having the same issue and was trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Affinity designer is vector software but when any designs have a stroke/outline or line- the edges become pixelated when I change the orientation or rotation of the object or line. I'm also using AD for print on demand and even though I export high resolution PNGs @300 dpi, when I upload my designs on t-shirts on Teespring and Redbubble, the images quality look quite poor as compared to other seller's T-shirts. The resolution of the images looks low and the fonts also appear blurry even when I try re-uploading the edited version of the same image with larger font sizes and it's no better. The worst is when I try resizing the image to fit smaller products, the image looks worse- slightly distorted at times and any outlines or sharp lines become jagged and blurry. When the image is at 100% it's just OK but once you start scaling down it gets the fonts and image quality gets worse. Yet when I look at the work of others on the POD platforms their images look sharp and even very small fonts are more legible than my large fonts. I had to delete all my designs because they look really bad next to others. When resizing the image the smaller I go the worse the image gets which confuses me because I thought it the image quality worsened when you increased the size. I'll try reuploading at various sizes and still poor images. It's quite frustrating because the whole point of designing in vectors is having the flexibility to export high resolution images.

I don't get it either, it's ridiculous. I thought the knife tool was a basic necessity for any graphic design software. The boolean operations can't be used in every situation where the knife tool would just do. Besides, I feel the boolean operations must have functionality issues as there times when I select the desired objects to either add or subtract etc and the boolean buttons are simply greyed out!

It's not a matter of taste, it's a fact. I've learnt how to use symbols and templates in AD and It is a workaround. AI has the pattern making tool and it's straight forward- Object, pattern make. Not only will it create your pattern in seconds, you can go in an edit the symmetry, orientation, sizes, repeat type. This is a feature in AI not a workaround. It appears one is having to do a lot of workarounds in AD to compensate for the absence of: the warp tool, vectorizing tool, curved text, pattern tool, knife tool etc. It appears people have been requesting for the pattern fill tool for years now. I use symbols for now but when I watch tutorials with Illustrator using the pattern tool where you can change the orientation, symmetry, and repeat type of the patterns, I feel envious of AI users!

This feature is available on Gravit Designer. I had Gravit Designer Pro and I used it to vectorize raster images. I'd vectorize it (under the Modify menu), ungroup it, then split the paths, remove the background then export as an SVG to open it on Affinity Designer! The only thing is I don't know if it is available on the free version, but I guess you can try, you've got nothing to lose. Don't know why AD still hasn't got this feature🙄🤷‍♂️

That tutorial is for Affinity Designer on the iPad. I've learnt to use symbols but it's still different from AI's pattern tool!

This is exactly what I need too. It appears people have been requesting for the pattern fill tool for years now. I use symbols for now but when I watch tutorials with Illustrator using the pattern tool where you can change the orientation, symmetry, and repeat type of the patterns, I feel envious of AI users! I also don't understand why up to this point, Serif hasn't the Warp tool and ability to do curved text!

I feel the same way. Don't understand why such a basic tool was omitted. It's highly irritating having to go to the edit menu every time you need to undo or redo something!

Initially I thought it was just me experiencing the crashing and freezing issues, as my Affinity Designer (1.7) used to also freeze constantly. I was hopeful that the update (AD 1.8) would improve it but it got much worse. Now it's practically unusable because practically every single operation even the simplest move causes it to freeze and it's just so frustrating. I'm also using Windows 10, 1Tb HDD, 12G RAM, Intel Core i5 I ran a compatibility test and I don't understand why it showed compatibility from windows 8 and older but didn't show Windows 10. Simply frustrating when you've purchased a software that's not working efficiently or not designed to be compatible with the latest version of Windows?! This seems to be the case as there are several complaints about this issue from users who upgraded to Windows 10 - I would like to know what Serif plans to do about this though?

Initially I thought it was just me experiencing the crashing and freezing issues, as my Affinity Designer (1.7) used to also freeze constantly. I was hopeful that the update (AD 1.8) would improve it but it got much worse. Now it's practically unusable because practically every single operation even the simplest move causes it to freeze and it's just so frustrating. I'm also using Windows 10. I ran a compatibility test and I don't understand why it showed compatibility from windows 8 and older but didn't show Windows 10. Simply frustrating when you've purchased a software that's not working efficiently or not designed to be compatible with the latest version of Windows?! This seems to be the case as there are several complaints about this issue from users who upgraded to Windows 10 - I would like to know what Serif plans to do about this though?

I thought it was just me as my Affinity Designer used to also freeze constantly. I was hopeful that the update would improve it but it got much worse. Now it's practically unusable because practically every single operation even the simplest move causes it to freeze and it's just so frustrating. I'm also using Windows 10. I ran a compatibility test and I don't understand why it showed compatibility from windows 8 and older but didn't show Windows 10.

That is exactly why I'm thinking of moving from Gravit Designer to buy Affinity Designer. I'm still on the trial period and I am watching tutorials to find out if I can successfully use Affinity Designer to design all types and styles of repeat patterns. I have heard of the pattern tool in AI and have seen this requested for a while now but it appears it has been ignored. I'm new to AD and it appears suggestions, requests are ignored by Affinity Designer- not encouraging! However I do hope they add this pattern tool. I'll compare tutorials of both and decide if I'll bother buying AD especially if they aren't responding to requests or suggestions!