aitte

You're right - it's the 512px (max dimension) PNG finder thumbnail..
 
It's probably possible for us to allow them to be disabled.. I'll look..
 
Andy.

@MEB:

Thanks for replying. The question wasn't about SVG though, and I see now that the post I linked you wasn't 100% clear on that and could have been interpreted as relating to SVG... Sorry :-(

The problem is the size of .afdesign files. Let's say I create a logo with *only* a few curves and layer effects. I and others have noticed that if we save it as .afdesign we get a file that is hundreds of kilobytes (seems to depend on document resolution used, and graphical complexity).
If we export it as as SVG we get just the vectors (maybe 1-2kb). That solves the filesize issue, but then we lose the ability to easily edit the file later.

Since .afdesign always adds hundreds of kilobytes of "fluff" to the filesize I suspect that it is saving an embedded Finder thumbnail jpeg?

With multiple .afdesign files stored in a Git repo (for revision tracking) it really balloons the repo filesize. Every revision of a file adds hundreds of kilobytes to the repo. I would happily skip the embedded thumbnail to make .afdesign files (with just vectors and layer FX settings) in the 1-5kb range instead.

I would love an advanced option for this, if you would consider it. There is already "File - Save history with document" to toggle undo history on/off. How about "File - Document setup - Advanced - Embed Finder document thumbnail"? If documents have no thumbnail, it would just show a default document icon for that file. For backwards compatibility with old versions of Affinity products it could embed a 1x1 pixel white jpeg, so that old Finder extensions/apps can still preview and open those files. So this is totally solvable, and I sincerely hope you will consider it.
 
Edit: PROOF! :)
Here is a document with *just* a single rectangle shape.
In one file, I set the fill to pure black and saved it as "blackrectangle.afdesign": 4,439 bytes Then I set the fill to a complex circular gradient: "gradients.afdesign": 166,142 bytes. Next, I exported them as SVG to see what happens: "blackrectangle.svg": 502 bytes. And "gradients.svg": 1,056 bytes. To think about this in context: SVG is a very verbose, text-based XML format which is extremely inefficient at saving designs, needing up to 10 bytes per vector coordinate. Meanwhile, .afdesign is a binary format with extreme efficiency. And yet the afdesign file for a black rectangle is 8.8x bigger than an SVG, and for the colored gradient rings it's 157x bigger than an SVG. This huge afdesign filesize is a problem for some of us (and a very big problem for me). Could we please disable the document preview thumbnail? It's making .afdesign filesizes massive for no worthwhile reason at all.  :( blackrectangle.afdesign
blackrectangle.svg
gradients.afdesign
gradients.svg

Oh you have the portable ENIAC that only takes up half the size of a bus? You lucky sod!

Affinity, @MEB, as you can see we're all wondering how to get the filesizes down so that the files fit on our state of the art hardware. Comment please?

I know a workaround for the big .afdesign file sizes: Export the afdesign to SVG instead, to get a 1kb file. That pretty much proves that the huge afdesign filesize is due to an embedded preview. I would love an advanced option; just like "Save/don't save full document history". But "Save/don't save Finder document thumbnail". It would be trivial to add. And then just make the Finder display a neutral document icon for such files.

The 150kb .afdesign filesize for a 1KB vector is a problem for me, and exporting to SVG solves it but loses all nice layers and FX I set up so I can't edit it anymore.

So, I'm using Affinity Designer on my Commodore 64, and I want to send a vector design to my friend, but even simple files with just some vectors and zero raster data are astronomically huge - in the 100-150kb range! It fills up almost an entire 170kb 5" floppy disk! This is simply too much time to transfer on my 300 baud (0.0375 kbytes/s) modem. Before I upgrade by adding another 128kb of RAM and a CPU with more megahurts and a 1200 baud modem to my Commodore 64, I thought I'd ask: Why are the files so freaking huge to just describe some vector X/Y coordinates and layer FX?  :D I bet I could design the same file format to take less than a kilobyte for that. Is it storing some sort of raster-based preview image or something? If so, can you please allow us to disable that? I need vector designs to be super small for steganography, since I work for a secret government that's so secret that you've never heard of it. 
 
 
Edit: Real info here: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/14277-vector-files-massive/&p=65016

So, I'm using Affinity Designer on my Commodore 64, and I want to send a vector design to my friend, but even simple files with just some vectors and zero raster data are astronomically huge - in the 100-150kb range! It fills up almost an entire 170kb 5" floppy disk! This is simply too much time to transfer on my 300 baud (0.0375 kbytes/s) modem. Before I upgrade by adding another 128kb of RAM and a CPU with more megahurts and a 1200 baud modem to my Commodore 64, I thought I'd ask: Why are the files so freaking huge to just describe some vector X/Y coordinates and layer FX?  :D I bet I could design the same file format to take less than a kilobyte for that. Is it storing some sort of raster-based preview image or something? If so, can you please allow us to disable that? I need vector designs to be super small for steganography, since I work for a secret government that's so secret that you've never heard of it. 
 
 
Edit: Real info here: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/14277-vector-files-massive/&p=65016

You (Serif) could also save a few bits by having 8.3 filenames, as is the industry standard.

You know how many Windows viruses I have? None! Because I don't have Windows. I have Window. Yep. Just one window at a time on the Commodore. And viruses need many windows to get in through. My single window is guarded by my 1 megahurts CPU equipped with brass knuckles *and* a hootentoot (a type of small and very annoying musical instrument). Ain't no viruses getting on this Commodore! Anyone that tries gets a face full of brass while listening to really, *really* annoying music. Some scientists believe it's actually the music that kills them by making the viruses lose all will to live. Commodore 64 power!

It would be great to get your feedback on our new branding for Affinity, All feedback welcome both positive and negative.
  http://www.creativebloq.com/software/affinity-new-branding-61515327    

Thanks, Alex :) 
 
Yes, you're right that the whole reason we have the 'More' button is that it does share the same component that is used in the Export Persona, but this doesn't make for the best experience for the user, so it would be nice to look into this in the future :)
 
Thanks again,
Matt

I have fond memories of my Commodore 64, especially the ´Still loading...´ message with the cassette reader. Also of the huge size of the floppy disk reader, once I thought I needed and purchased that.  :lol:

So, I'm using Affinity Designer on my Commodore 64, and I want to send a vector design to my friend, but even simple files with just some vectors and zero raster data are astronomically huge - in the 100-150kb range! It fills up almost an entire 170kb 5" floppy disk! This is simply too much time to transfer on my 300 baud (0.0375 kbytes/s) modem. Before I upgrade by adding another 128kb of RAM and a CPU with more megahurts and a 1200 baud modem to my Commodore 64, I thought I'd ask: Why are the files so freaking huge to just describe some vector X/Y coordinates and layer FX?  :D I bet I could design the same file format to take less than a kilobyte for that. Is it storing some sort of raster-based preview image or something? If so, can you please allow us to disable that? I need vector designs to be super small for steganography, since I work for a secret government that's so secret that you've never heard of it. 
 
 
Edit: Real info here: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/14277-vector-files-massive/&p=65016

Great!
 
There are still many television switchers out there that require TARGA files to load images. It is a big plus for those of us who work in television to not need to resort to workarounds. 
 
Thank you for meeting our niche needs, it is things like this that make lives easier for broadcast professionals.
 
Bravo!
 
William Cartwright

The TIFF image file header instructs the application about endianness of their internal binary integers. If a file starts with the signature "MM" it means that integers are represented as big-endian, while "II" means little-endian. Those signatures need a single 16-bit word each, and they are palindromes (that is, they read the same forwards and backwards), so they are endianness independent. "I" stands for Intel and "M" stands for Motorola, the respective CPU providers of the IBM PC compatibles (Intel) and Apple Macintosh platforms (Motorola) in the 1980s. Intel CPUs are little-endian, while Motorola 680x0 CPUs are big-endian. This explicit signature allows a TIFF reader program to swap bytes if necessary when a given file was generated by a TIFF writer program running on a computer with a different endianness.
 
^ So as long as Affinity outputs "II" in the header to denote intel-order, then the fault is entirely with the viewer applications on your powerpc mac. And I would assume Affinity does the header correctly, otherwise we wouldn't be able to view the files on any systems that read the byte order header.

Nice surprise! Got it first! Haha :P BTW, congrats for being on the new iMac's display on Apple's website: http://www.apple.com/imac/performance/

So, I'm using Affinity Designer on my Commodore 64, and I want to send a vector design to my friend, but even simple files with just some vectors and zero raster data are astronomically huge - in the 100-150kb range! It fills up almost an entire 170kb 5" floppy disk! This is simply too much time to transfer on my 300 baud (0.0375 kbytes/s) modem. Before I upgrade by adding another 128kb of RAM and a CPU with more megahurts and a 1200 baud modem to my Commodore 64, I thought I'd ask: Why are the files so freaking huge to just describe some vector X/Y coordinates and layer FX?  :D I bet I could design the same file format to take less than a kilobyte for that. Is it storing some sort of raster-based preview image or something? If so, can you please allow us to disable that? I need vector designs to be super small for steganography, since I work for a secret government that's so secret that you've never heard of it. 
 
 
Edit: Real info here: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/14277-vector-files-massive/&p=65016

So, I'm using Affinity Designer on my Commodore 64, and I want to send a vector design to my friend, but even simple files with just some vectors and zero raster data are astronomically huge - in the 100-150kb range! It fills up almost an entire 170kb 5" floppy disk! This is simply too much time to transfer on my 300 baud (0.0375 kbytes/s) modem. Before I upgrade by adding another 128kb of RAM and a CPU with more megahurts and a 1200 baud modem to my Commodore 64, I thought I'd ask: Why are the files so freaking huge to just describe some vector X/Y coordinates and layer FX?  :D I bet I could design the same file format to take less than a kilobyte for that. Is it storing some sort of raster-based preview image or something? If so, can you please allow us to disable that? I need vector designs to be super small for steganography, since I work for a secret government that's so secret that you've never heard of it. 
 
 
Edit: Real info here: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/14277-vector-files-massive/&p=65016

Hi
As a long time user of Adobe Illustrator there are some functions that I use quite often.
1) Shape builder tool
2) 3D function
 
I have both Affinity Designer and Photo which are, I must say great and I'm using them more and more. Also I keep finding more and more functionality within these programs that I thought it couldn't do. Just goes to show, you need to experiment. However I would be pleased to here that you will consider adding these additional functions (1&2) above. At the moment I keep having to dip back into Illustrator to perform certain tasks and it would be just fantastic to have these functions within Designer so I can eliminate the need to keep using Illustrator.
 
I know that you have a lot of functions that people want within both programs and I'm sure you will satisfy most peoples requests within the next year but for me, in order to fully move away from Illustrator, I would want to see these added sooner rather than later as they are important for workflow and creativity.
 
Great going though guys!! I'm supporting you all the way.

Maybe this is a Publisher feature but I think it should work as well in Designer:
Images should also be placeable as mere references. Embedding is fine for convenience in some use cases but I see many cases where it is the less desireable way to deal with pixel images in a vector environment.
 
With non-embedded images I can change a picture externally and have it updated automatically as long as its name hasn’t changed. But more importantly: This would keep file size small.
 
Today I am working on a package design with lots of imported images – the AD file size keeps on growing. But this is redundant as I have to keep my original image files anyway.
 
 
Best
Matthias

Hi Matthias,
This is already planned (linked files/images) but it may still take a while.

Apple Photos happily imports RAW files and sorts them by shooting time and location (if GPS available). You can further group photos into albums/smart albums. It also allows you to hit "Edit in Affinity Photo." So since Macs already have a free DAM, the market for a dedicated DAM is small... Dev resources are better spent on Designer/Photo/Publisher.

Oh my god. If Designer can ever do this I'll be blown away:
http://astutegraphics.com/software/vectorscribe/

To show the results for some graphics, here are some compression numbers. The "Input size" is the size that was created by Affinity Designer, and the "Result size" is the zopflipng result.
 
+ $ ./zopflipng --filters=01234me -m ~/Downloads/backgrounds.png ~/Downloads/backgroundzop.png 
Optimizing /Users/Aitte/Downloads/backgrounds.png Filter strategy zero: 152892 bytes Filter strategy one: 109296 bytes Filter strategy two: 115480 bytes Filter strategy three: 113140 bytes Filter strategy four: 107029 bytes Filter strategy minimum sum: 105744 bytes Filter strategy entropy: 105074 bytes Result is smaller Input size: 130432 (127K) Result size: 105074 (102K). Percentage of original: 80.558%   + $ ./zopflipng --filters=01234me -m ~/Downloads/test.png ~/Downloads/z.png Optimizing /Users/Aitte/Downloads/test.png Filter strategy zero: 108460 bytes Filter strategy one: 97149 bytes Filter strategy two: 100206 bytes Filter strategy three: 101311 bytes Filter strategy four: 98841 bytes Filter strategy minimum sum: 98427 bytes Filter strategy entropy: 97128 bytes Result is smaller Input size: 124845 (121K) Result size: 97128 (94K). Percentage of original: 77.799%     Also, you will notice I ran with all filters (01234me), but they recommend "0me" because usually one of those three is gonna be the winner. So a good default profile is "0me". And the extra "-m" flag I specified just makes it do more iterations to try to make the file even smaller, but usually that's not needed.

Please add an option in the assistant menu, for "show handles around selected object", to disable this.
 
And make it possible to scale/rotate objects just by hovering in the vicinity of where the ball would have been if it was visible.
 
Or better yet, something like "ctrl+drag" = scale, ctrl+alt+drag = rotate, so that we can permanently work without the blue outlines.

Adjust, spacebar, adjust, spacebar, zoom, move to different location, spacebar, zoom out, spacebar, adjust, spacebar...

I recently did a logo design where I wanted to zoom out to a postage stamp sized view to try different fonts and offsets between objects to make the logo work at small sizes. The blue box with its round balls were larger than the font! I couldn't see anything! The box is really distracting when trying fonts.
 
I had to hold down space permanently and the box kept coming back whenever i clicked a gui element like a dropdown list.
 
Suddenly, Affinity Designer bugged out and the blue box permanently vanished. I thought I was in heaven. I could see everything clearly and my blood pressure went down 50 points.
 
Unfortunately the awful blue box was back after the next restart. I crid evrytim :(