[Questions on Canva acquiring Affinity]

My fist reaction to this announcement – which I got a few minutes ago – is » The end of a brilliant era.

I think the main reason for this opinion is that Canva is such a popular tool for marketers and individuals. To me, this means that it's not aimed at professional designers, graphic artists and artists, but at people who want to be creative by accessing ready-made templates. - I have often feared that this day would come, because I could not imagine that Serif could achieve at this price level what many professionals (often excessively, imho) demand in order to replace the forced subscriptions of the top dogs.
Somehow this development seems unavoidable - and there is still the faint hope that this time things will be different than usual - because Serif is Serif. And because the people at Canva perhaps don't have the greed that is generally assumed.

So I’m looking forward to the lots of cool updates that will come for the 2.x versions, wish all the best for the serif team members and stay tuned!

[Color Correction with X-Rite Colorchecker Passport]

Ich verwende dafür Master Match. Es ist gerade als Bundle im Abo erhältlich. Ich habe zur Software einen kurzen Post auf meiner Website. Siehe unten.

I use Master Match for that. It’s currently available as subscription in a Black Friday deal. I have a short post to the software on my site. In german language.

https://www.abelbeck.de/farbreferenzen-nutzen-in-affinity-photo/

[How to merge text styles?]

On 11/15/2023 at 7:58 PM, walt.farrell said:

When I try this, if the text styles are truly identical (name, and settings), the existing Text Styles are used.

Really? I have to try that – maybe I didn’t realize a small difference. I will report …

[How to merge text styles?]

On 11/15/2023 at 7:13 PM, thomaso said:

Another option could be to store the various sets of styled text frame examples on a master page. This page can get accessed easily via the Pages Panel or even with the button "Toggle Master View" to pick a wanted item of the master page + switch back to the previous page.

Yeah, I thought of that too – didn’t try it yet. But seemes a good workaround. Thank for all your suggestions 🙂

[How to merge text styles?]

 

On 10/28/2023 at 9:11 PM, thomaso said:

If @elk feels that their assets produce "more and more redundant styles" in a document I wonder for what purpose the assets got saved with saved styles (= entries in the Text Styles panel) if the styles should not get used as such but are actually unwanted for the assets?

🙂 I just wanted to have some formatted snippets at hand.

Think of a formatted image capture with 3 styles: An arrow (from a font), a title and some different styled information. It would be comfortable to just drag this in from a library instead of searching in the document to copy a fitting one. But the styles are copied then. Affinity doesn’t see that they are identical (not only names but also every style detail) and copies it in. Now I have these styles redundant in my document. So – this is no option. It’s just obviously not the idea of the asset library.

I think what I had in mind was more a sort of clipboard with multiple objects instead of only one at a time.

[How to merge text styles?]

15 hours ago, Oufti said:

 

@elk: Obviously, mapping styles as I suggested won't be enough. There will still be some search & replace to do, so that you can then erase superfluous styles

Yes, I think this works.

It would be simplier when on deleting a style there would be an option to replace with any other existing style.

 

Thank you all for your answers and suggestions 🙂

[How to merge text styles?]

I work on a brochure. I thought it was a good idea to have some formatted text elements as assets. But when I put them in the layout, the included text style is imported and copied so that I get more and more redundant styles.

It would be great to map this style copies to the original when deleting them. Or merging all copies with the original. How could I handle this?

 

[Publisher 2.2.1 | Outlining Text for print preparation]

depending on what you want to do you can directly add an outline color and width to the editable text or convert it into paths and edit the charcters there. You can use the Designer Persona for special tools. 

[Affinity publisher export freeze]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

Just hit the Export button. We don't actually need to wait.

Haha! Never guessed that!

[Affinity publisher export freeze]

It would be very handsome to have an option to shut the preview off. It’s time consuming and often somewhat annoying. In many cases I don’t need a preview. And its also much too big IMO.

[interactive pdf with form fields]

When I design an interactive form I do it in Affinity Designer or Publisher and then add the fields in Acrobat Pro. When it comes to revisions it is easy to import the changed PDF into the older one – single pages or full document – and then fix some differences. This unfortunately requires Acrobat Pro which is rather costly – but it’s a tool I always need for preprint control.

[How to handle colors and palettes on ipad?]

@DWright thanks, I did not realize that the swatches menu changes.

Palettes cannot be saved then on ipad like on desktop, right?

Also thanks for the help link, I should have known since I am a Affinity user since ages – but new to ipad versions which are really different to me in UI.

 

 

[How to handle colors and palettes on ipad?]

How can I rename an unnamed colorpalette in affinity photo on ipad?

And how to save it as a reusable palette?

And how do I add the current color to a palette?

Where can I find a manual of affinity for ipad?

 

I looked at the tuts which are really helpful — but cannot remember if this is mentioned or where.

Can anyone help?

 

 

[GREP search reference capture]

17 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I would use the parenthesis to enclose what I want to be included. Then use the backslash \ and a number to indicate which set of parenthesis enclosed search terms I want to use in the replacement.

Find:

   ^(.+)$

Replace:

   Here is the original search term: /1

Or...

   /1: That was the original search term.

The /1 is what is in the parenthesis.

Note that the $ is for the end of a line, you may not really need it because of the way .+ works for finding everything except a new line.

Oh yes, I used that search in webdesign for replacing a whole line of image names with a complete image and thumb path which worked fine.

What I needed was the reference, but /1 didn’t work it’s \1

Thanks for your fast reply, that was helpful!

[Affinity Publisher »Abstandskorrektur« or »Leading override«]

1 minute ago, thomaso said:

Ist bei mir bisher nicht passiert – weder grundsätzlich noch manchmal.

Kannst du ein .idml Beispiel hochladen?

Wurde eventuell bereits in InDesign der Zeichenabstand anstelle des Absatzabstands verwendet?

Hm, das ist ja seltsam. Da muss ich mal ein wenig herumgucken. Das kann dauern. Aber ich schreibe es in meine ToDos. – Ich bin der Meinung, dass ich immer mit Absatzabstand gearbeitet habe. Korrekturen innerhalb einer Zeile habe ich wenn nötig vereinzelt mal auf Zeichenbasis zum Ausgleich einzelner speziell ausgezeichneter Wörter gemacht. Für die Korrektur ganzer Zeilen innerhalb eines Absatzes habe ich nie Verwendung gehabt – daher war mir die Abstandkorrektur auch völlig fremd.

[GREP search reference capture]

How can I reference a search result to add it in the replace field?

In other apps there is & used or $ but in AP it doesn’t work like this. What is the right way?

Example

GREP-Search: ^.+$
Replace: & plus new text ((where & is the result string))

[Affinity Publisher »Abstandskorrektur« or »Leading override«]

On 7/15/2022 at 8:52 PM, thomaso said:

Die Abstandskorrektur ermöglicht zB den Zeilenabstand innerhalb eines Absatzes zu ändern ohne ein Absatzumbruchzeichen (¶) zu erfordern.

Es ist ein ausgiebig diskutiertes Feature, das von Vielen nicht verstanden wird und wegen seiner Eigenschaft als Zeichenformat (nicht: Absatzformat) besonders diejenigen irritiert, die entweder grundsätzlich Zeilenabstände als Zeichenformat definieren oder einfach erwarten, dass auch Zeilenabstände für Absatzformate in der Benutzeroberfläche der Zeichenpalette erscheinen würden, damit sie die Absatzpalette nicht benötigen und den Bildschirmplatz sparen.

Eine Suche nach "Leading Override" ergibt reichlich Treffer. Einer der Stränge mit den meisten Beiträgen (107) enthält u.a. zwei Videos, die mögliche Anwendungsfälle beschreiben. Der folgende Post enthält Links zu den beiden Videos:

Ah, okay, danke. Dass es grundsätzlich bei der Umwandlung von IDML-Files passiert, finde ich allerdings kontraproduktiv. (Die Übersetzung »Abstandskorrektur« finde ich auch unglücklich – ich musste erstmal im engl. Original gucken, um zu sehen, dass hiermit eine Korrektur des Zeilenabstands und nicht irgendetwas anderes gemeint ist. Aber das nur nebenbei, denn insgesamt bin ich ein glühender Anhänger der Affinity Suite 🙂

[Affinity Publisher »Abstandskorrektur« or »Leading override«]

Beim Konvertieren von IDML werden Stilformate mit Abstandskorrektur umgewandelt. Dies setzt den Zeilenabstand fest.
Kann mir jemand sagen, wozu das eigentlich gut ist? In welchem typografischen Zusammenhang benutzt Ihr diese Funktion?

When converting IDML, style formats are converted with leading override. This fixes the leading.
Can anyone tell me what this is actually for? In what typographic context do you use this function?

Thanks for your thoughts

[How to delete application palette]

Ah, ok, thanks. I obviously thought deleting an app palette is different to deleting a »normal« palette. Somehow silly. 🤪

[How to delete application palette]

Some time ago I added a palette as app palette.

Now I want to delete it as a application palette.

But how can I do this?

[How to import AD Graphics without conversion of cmyk values?]

Thanks all you, guys 🙂

@walt.farrell Yes, placed a cmyk logo from native .afdes with 3 colors: 1. 100k, 2. 15k and 3. 70y|100m in linked mode. Different color profiles btw. afdes & afpub. No pixels, only vectors. Original is .ai but I controlled every element.

@CLC Thanks for the link. I will have a deep look into it.

@Lagarto Thank you, too.

I have a simple solution now with no hassle: I just exported the logo from .afdes as uncompressed EPS.  This is imported without any conversion.

[How to import AD Graphics without conversion of cmyk values?]

When I import a designer Logo with 100k text into a publisher doc it is converted to mixed cmyk.

1. How can I avoid this or how to keep graphics original cmyk values?

2. And is there a documentation of color management in affinity anywhere covering print production?

Thanks for any help!

[Resourcen neu verknüpfen | AP 10]

On 8/7/2021 at 8:24 PM, walt.farrell said:

For Relink you just pick a folder.

Resource Manager then finds all the Missing files that are in that folder and relinks them.

Great, Walt! Habits from routine with InD sometimes make blind for really simple workflows ...

[Adjust white balance tool in Develop Persona]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

The status bar also shows that I can make a rectangular selection if I hold down the option key while dragging out the rectangle, & this seems to be a reasonably good way to average over an area, as long as every pixel I want to average can be included in one rectangle.

This one works great with a greyscale like on color checker or something similar.

[Adjust white balance tool in Develop Persona]

21 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm not sure how the White Balance Tool will help you with a grey card, as its purpose is to pick white, not neutral grey.

However, if, rather than clicking it, you drag it over an area, it will average the color of that area.

Thanks, Walt. Dragging doesn’t work, but I saw that shift click adds more references to make the white balance perfect. So – problem solved!!