Jim Monson

I believe what is needed is a chart of the basic differences between transitioning from the desktop version of Affinity and the iPad versions. These are functions such as, creating a new doc, cutting and pasting, saving and deleting docs, importing an image, etc. I have found that once this is known then using the tools, context menu, are relatively easy, much the same. Searching tutorials (although they are good) for basic functions such as these is much more difficult than actually using the tools and other panels. Does such a basic introduction in the basic differences between the desktop and iPad versions exist? E.g., the iPad panels are not seen until one brings up a doc to edit, a non-intuitive feature that once known, is obvious. Things like this are not covered in the tutorials as far as I know. This would be very helpful for those transitioning from desktop to iPad. PS: Knowing how to do the above without a keyboard is essential for the beginner.

I have three Mac spaces on my iMac. My default is to have AffPub come up on Space Two. I bring my main AffPub doc up on Space Two. I then bring another AffPub doc up and it comes up on Space Two but then I move it to Space Three so that I can toggle back on forth from Spaces Two and Three quickly with my shortcut. This works find until I change something in AffPub’s Preferences or Hide Studio or try to uncheck Hide Studio. AffPub does this on Space Two even though I am working on the doc in Space Three … and then the spinning color wheel begins and never stops. I realize that I can not have my default on Space Two, or that I can keep both docs under one head on Space Two - but I like the system outlined above. Am I missing something in my work flow above or is this possible to avoid or fix in AffPub?

Can I copy guides from on master page to another in Affinity Publisher? It appears that I cannot select more than one guide setting (number) in Guide Manager to copy/paste my guides from one master page to another. It would be great if one could select the all to copy/paste or use the CMD key (Mac) to select from the guide numbers.

I believe Affinity should consider this problem and create an option for non-resizing the text when resizing the text frame. Yes, I know easier said than done but at least it should be considered for the future. I have headings of one word but different sizes of words. As of now I must create the word, then create via "Text Frame" the size, color and margins around the word for the heading, and finally cut/paste the heading in the text frame. If I want to edit the margins I have to cut the heading and try again (and perhaps again) until it is correct. I realize that I could simply place a rectangle with the color and then place the heading over that rectangle, but that is a rather inefficient method Thanks, Affinity for at least considering this.

I believe a solution might to be able to cut and paste actual guide numbers via the Guides Manager, This would allow one to pick and choose which guides to copy from and to various pages, master or not. Sounds easy, but this is probably and programming challenge. I find that often I do not know the guides I will be using until I am creating the doc, and then I can put them on a master page ... but then I have to taken them off the non-master page, and it gets complicated.

Thanks, Largato! That solved it. Using "Normal" is sort of counter-intuitive, however, since I would think that "Passthrough" applied in this case. Much appreciated! Also, a great idea, NotMyFault! Why didn't I think of that? Works well, also. Thanks!

Thanks, MEB. Here are three docs I'm attaching. 1_Doc to MEB = Parts of my present AffPub doc related to the problem. I would like to have red in the center and no color (zero opacity) on either end. In this doc note that going into the effects and clicking on the "Gradient" box shows that I should be getting this effect. 2_What I see onscreen = A screen snap of doc as I see it on my screen 3_Doc to MED_ from 220102b = Note the effect I created in this doc from a few weeks ago. When I move the "4000 Chart" layer *above* the "Timeline" layer, I lose the effect. Also, when I cut and paste this correct effect into a totally new AffPub doc, I also lose effect since it is a top layer. It appears that something is going on in the layers and sublayers. Could you also comment on the procedure for creating this effect from scratch? I believe that one should first assign a color to the rectangle and then add the effect. If not, I cannot get a color to appear in the effect. Does Affinity has the black/white come up at first in order to get the effect desired, and then one can alter the colors in the effect. I cannot find an answer to this online. Much appreciated, MEB! 1_Doc to MEB.afpub 3_Doc to MED_ from 220102b.afpub

Five snaps for my earlier post. I hope their names come through so you can connect them to my text above.

In case the mess above is confusing, I here paste the text alone for easier reading. I'll paste the examples in a separate post that follows. - - - I have been creating gradient overlays for years with no problem at all. As recent as three weeks ago I made example 1 below with various gradient overlay effects (ovals, long rounded rectangles and vertical red rectangles. The red vertical rectangle in example 1 below has zero opacity on both sides of the center red which allows the red to fade beautifully into the underlaying background colors which is also an underlying gradient overlay. My settings are seen in examples 2 and 3. Note that 3 shows black on both sides in the top preview but no color in the lower spread since both sides are zero opacity. In a recent iteration of the same document my overlays continue to appear as they should, but last week the red vertical overlay rectangle has become solid (example 4). None of the gradient overlays had been edited. Thinking it might be a layer issue (which I did not find), I moved the red rectangle layer to a completely new layer. The problem persisted, even when I copied the good red rectangle from my earlier doc and pasted it in this later version of the same doc. Example 4, a closer snap, but the same exact rectangle size in my doc. I also made a completely separate rectangle document but could not replicate the zero opacity on both sides of the center red. Thinking that the problem might be that this red rectangle is an overlay gradient on two other gradient overlays, I deleted the blue oval, but nothing changed. Example 5 shows the setting for this solid red rectangle = zero opacity on both sides of the center red, the same as example 3 above! Why would the gradient overlay work fine throughout my current doc, and this red vertical rectangle not maintain its opacity on both sides? I Has something changed in Publisher and Designer? To double check my procedure I've searched for a specific Affinity video on creating a gradient overlay effect but as yet have not found one.

I placed all five snaps correctly in the "Drag Files..." box but they come up dispersed throughout the text. Sorry about that. Not sure what happened.

I have been creating gradient overlays for years with no problem at all. As recent as three weeks ago I made example1 below with various gradient overlay effects (ovals, long rounded rectangles and vertical red rectangles. The red vertical rectangle in example 1 below has zero opacity on both sides of the center red which allows the red to fade beautifully into the underlaying background colors which is also an underlying gradient overlay. My settings are seen in examples 2 and 3. Note that 3 shows black on both sides in the top preview but no color in the lower spread since both sides are zero opacity. In a recent iteration of the same document my overlays continue to appear as they should, but last week the red vertical overlay rectangle has become solid (example 4). None of the gradient overlays had been edited. Thinking it might be a layer issue (which I did not find), I moved the red rectangle layer to a completely new layer. The problem persisted, even when I copied the good red rectangle from my earlier doc and pasted it in this later version of the same doc. Example 4, a closer snap, but the same exact rectangle size in my doc. I also made a completely separate rectangle document but could not replicate the zero opacity on both sides of the center red. Thinking that the problem might be that this red rectangle is an overlay gradient on two other gradient overlays, I deleted the blue oval, but nothing changed. Example 5 shows the setting for this solid red rectangle = zero opacity on both sides of the center red, the same as example 3 above! Why would the gradient overlay work fine throughout my current doc, and this red vertical rectangle not maintain its opacity on both sides? I Has something changed in Publisher and Designer? To double check my procedure I've searched for a specific Affinity video on creating a gradient overlay effect but as yet have not found one.

Thanks to all above for comments and your time. I have all of these docs on my ssd internal drives, both on my iMac and iMac Pro. Sorry that I happened to snap the path from my Dropbox, always kept totally synced. The error message came up when trying to open them on my iMac, but in writing this the thought came that I should try opening them on the iMac Pro - and bingo, they came up fine. They are exactly the same docs on both Macs so not sure what's happening, but they are now up, so if it works, don't fix it. Many thanks, as usual! PS added later: I saved them on my iMac Pro as aPub docs, brought them over to my iMac Pro and they come up fine. Strange.

In 2016 I converted many of my vector docs from Illustrator to AffDesigner and sorted out all of the layers, a lot of work. These 2016 AffDesigner docs always came up well but I did not save them since then. Now they will not come up on the latest Designer and Publisher programs. Below is the message I get and the name and date of one of these docs. I have also tried to shorten the name without any extra keyboard strokes. Is this a common problem and if so how do I bring them up to date? A lot of my detail work in 2016 is at stake. Thanks.

For what it is worth, Lagarto has very much helped me in a related post. Toward the end I summarized the process and Lagarto further clarified it. This might be useful to some of you out there. .

I am slowly understanding the bits and pieces of achieving this from your words kindly posted above, Lagarto, and from other links in which you have written, e.g., https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/134136-k-only-button-in-ad-desktop-missing/. Thanks for bearing with me as I sort out the procedure (below) 1. Via APhoto I checked that my original tif was in generic grey scale format and I exported as a tif. 2. I created a new AD doc. In Document Setup I checked to be sure the document settings were were CYMK/8 color format and a U.S. Sheetfed Uncoated v2 color profile. The color profile was what we use and not necessarily required as such. 3. I placed this tif in the above AD doc so that AD would recognized it as an image and not a pixel layer. AD states (in light grey) that it is an image. This Affinity video was very helpful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVlhZYcPZ_E 4. In AD the “K Only” button appeared (hurrah!) in the context toolbar and I activated it. 5. This allowed me to assign spot PMS 464 to the tif, as you see in the doc attached. 6. I then added a vector circle with a PMS 3005 fill in order to have both colors appear Adobe’s Outline Preview as spot colors. Without the second color the tif will appear as black in Adobe’s Outline Preview although it is 464. Beware, folks! 7. To be sure the tiff was embedded I opened the above AD doc in APub and embedded the tif via APub's Document/Resource Manager. I am attaching this APub doc for your review. 8. I rejoiced that Adobe’s Outline Preview at last showed both 464 as a spot color on my map relief, together with the blue 3005 circle. For anyone listening, as I've said, be sure to have at least two colors in your doc in order to see both colors in Adobe’s Outline Preview. Your patience and help are much appreciated, Lagarto. I wish there had been a specific Affinity video detailing this procedure. It would have saved me ten days of frustration. Perhaps you should ask Affinity if you could do a video for them on this, especially since in this post above, much is assumed and not made specific with the entire procedure. Jim PS: I have taken note of your note on exporting if one had transparent parts of a map = Please note too that if you have transparent parts in the map, you need to export using PDF version 1.6 or later (e.g. PDF/X-4 when using PDF/X based presets). JET Tif-CRP-GenGreyScale.afpub

Again, thanks, Lagarto, Here is the problem in a nutshell. 1. Attached is a snap of the readings in my APub doc. The relief is an image with the spot color PMS 464 as you can see. The relief is part of a larger map, thus the fact that it does not appear to be selected.. This should be what is required as per your instructions above. The Spot 3005 (blue) for the drawn sea is 100% shore and 20% fill. Both of these 3005 come out fine in the PDF Outline Preview below. 2. From this APub doc I exported a PDF, being sure that "Honor Spot Colors" was checked in the "More" export panel. As you see by opening this PDF in Acrobat's Output Preview, the 464 does not appear and the relief has been shifted to CYMK. Any idea what cold have caused this? SpotTest_210924.pdf

Again, thanks, Lagarto. You are very patient in all of this. I am very interested in your remark above that "You can assign a spot color on a grayscale bitmap (or make e.g. an RGB bitmap behave as a grayscale image and then assign it a spot color)". I have assigned PMS 464 to my grayscale image (map relief) and it is recognized as such in my swatches (see attached), but the color is not reflected on screen. Should it show on screen? I tried the channel mixtures but only black really responds to changes, plus as you state, superimposing multiple raster images is would be iffy. In order to clarify how this particular map production works, here is a summary of how I create the three color/ink maps docs seen at https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/regional-study-maps. 1. PLATE ONE: Rivers, wadis (dry stream beds), lakes, swamps and seas are all vector curves (some tint filled) that I have drawn. Thus there is no problem assigning a spot color (100% or tint) of PMS 3005 (Blue). This is the ink that feeds this plate on press. Since all of these objects are vector (curves), they appear as a spot color in Acrobat's Output Preview and on paper come out clean and crisp (non-rasterized). Thus the blue plate is not a problem. 2. PLATE TWO: The same is the case for all text, routes, borders, etc.that appear of a second press plate that is fed by the 100K ink. Again, these are not my problem. 3. PLATE THREE; Beneath Plates 1 and 2 above is my map relief on a separate, a tiff that always showed up as PMS 464 spot color in Acrobat's Output Preview when I assigned 464 via in Adobe Illustrator. However, in Affinity I must colorize my grey scale tif via a different method by blending it with with a 464 spot color in AffPhoto. This 464 tif does not appear as a spot color in Acrobat's Output Preview - nor does my spot 464 tif from Illustrator. Thus, it appears that Affinity does not recognize a spot color tif but somehow coverts the spot to CYMK. This is my problem since the press has no CYMK ink but only PMS 464. Unless I am missing something, the only way to solve the problem is for my printer to remap the CYMK color to be a spot color and assign it to this third plate. I hope I'm not just repeating something you already know. If so forgive me. I just wanted to be sure that any one reading this understood exactly what I am doing in preparing my doc so that the three printer plates and inks above will do the job. Again, thanks!

There has been quite a discussion about spot colors at this link. Two points are covered. 1) How to create a colour palette for PMS colors, and 2) Does Affinity allow a spot color to be applied to a tiff, in my case the underlying relief for my three-spot colour maps? See: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/149506-how-do-i-make-globalspot-colours-from-specific-pantonecmyk-colours/

Thanks for the background and explaining your Affinity simulation trials, Lagarto. Very interesting. I should add that I took my map relief tiff in Adobe that showed no CYMK but only PMS 464 in Acrobat's Output Preview. When I pasted this into my AP doc, the 464 color remained but Output Preview came up as no spot colors, only CYMK. I may be wrong but It appears that Affinity does not recognize Adobe's generated PMS 464 raster relief as a spot color. I'll have to see if my printer's RIP can remap it for the relief plate. that may be the only solution.

Thanks, Twinger, for sharing this work around. We have hoped for a long time that Affinity would address this problem, but I suppose first things first. Affinity developers have done so many great things up to now. I'm sure this is on their (long) list.

Exactly! I had to do this to apply a 20% 3005 tint to the sea fills. BTW, if you want to see the maps we make you can go to the links below. Are you still making maps of Greece and the Aegean as I believe you once told me? https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/copy-of-study-materials https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/your-quick-view

Repost since my attachments appear to have covered my full text, at least when I checked them in "all activity," -- - Lagarto - Your method of choosing the color for a drawn object (your rectangles) and then adding it to the palette worked well. My mistake was simply trying to put the Pantone colors directly into a palette as I have done with CYMK colors. I should have realized that was not possible. Thanks for your help! Jet - Thanks so much for taking time for such a full explanation. Somehow I missed it before my last question to Lagarto. Yes, at the printer my three plates are always just grey scale and the inks to the job. In specifying the spot colors in AffPub I did not want to go searching the Swatch panel for each for each of my many layers but wanted a simple palette. Thus my query on palettes. Since we are dealing with inks via spot colors, I always go through the Acrobat Pro's Output Preview befpre submitting the doc to my printer, to be sure no CYMK got through. The maps were in Adobe Illustrator before bringing them over to AffPub. In Illustrator I could assign PMS 464 to my map relief, and I had no problem (see my former Output Preview attached). In AffPub, however, I must use a different method to apply PMS 464 to my greyscale map relief by bringing the greyscale into AffPhoto, creating a new fill layer with my PMS 464 and then merging them via a special blend mode. My exported tif from AffPhoto always shows up in Acrobat Pro's Output Preview as a CYMK (see attached below). I may be able to Question: How can I avoid my PMS 464 map relief from appearing as a CYMK combo rather than a spot PMS 464? PS: My attachments are out of order but I'm sure you can figure them out.

Lagarto - Your method of choosing the color for a drawn object (your rectangles) and then adding it to the palette worked well. My mistake was simply trying to put the Pantone colors directly into a palette as I have done with CYMK colors. I should have realized that was not possible. Thanks for your help! Jet - Thanks so much for taking time for such a full explanation. Somehow I missed it before my last question to Lagarto. Yes, at the printer my three plates are always just grey scale and the inks do the job. In specifying the spot colors in AffPub I did not want to go searching the Swatch panel for each of my many layers but wanted a simple palette. Thus my query on palettes. Since we are dealing with inks via spot colors, I always go through Acrobat Pro's Output Preview befpre submitting the doc to my printer, to be sure no CYMK got through. The maps were in Adobe Illustrator before bringing them over to AffPub. In Illustrator I could assign PMS 464 to my map relief, and I had no problem (see my former Output Preview attached). Question: How can I avoid my PMS 464 map relief from appearing as a CYMK combo rather than a spot PMS 464?

Thanks much, Lagarto, for your message and examples. As your first example shows (in Acrobat's Output Preview) I do not want any Process CYMK but only Spot colors. My problem is as follows. Jim CREATING A PALETTE OF THREE PANTONE COLORS - In my complex maps I have a myriad of layers and sublayers for objects (names, curves and raster tif). I am trying to put the Pantone colors (3005 U, 464 U and Black U=0/0/0/100 9 and no process colors) in a palette so I can simply assign them to the appropriate layers/objects. These are the three inks on our printer's press. in printing these maps. I do use CYMK in many other docs and have special color palettes for various documents, but it looks like it is impossible to put these Pantone colors in a palette via Swatches panel. The only method appears to be your second example, i.e., create the CYMK equivalent via sliders, go the global/spot color route and rename each color the appropriately. I have tried to get these three colors into a palette as you show in your second illustration. Could you outline how you created the palette? I find no way to go from choosing Pantone 3005 U and adding it to my palette as a global/spot color, and then adding the other two colors to the same palette. It might be so simple that I am missing something.

Thanks much, Lagarto, for your message and examples. As your first example shows (in Acrobat's Output Preview) I do not want any Process CYMK but only Spot colors. My problem is as follows. Jim CREATING A PALETTE OF THREE PANTONE COLORS - In my complex maps I have a myriad of layers and sublayers for objects (names, curves and raster tif). I am trying to put the Pantone colors (3005 U, 464 U and Black U=0/0/0/100 9 and no process colors) in a palette so I can simply assign them to the appropriate layers/objects. These are the three inks on our printer's press. in printing these maps. I do use CYMK in many other docs and have special color palettes for various documents, but it looks like it is impossible to put these Pantone colors in a palette via Swatches panel. The only method appears to be your second example, i.e., create the CYMK equivalent via sliders, go the global/spot color route and rename each color the appropriately. I have tried to get these three colors into a palette as you show in your second illustration. Could you outline how you created the palette? I find no way to go from choosing Pantone 3005 U and adding it to my palette as a global/spot color, and then adding the other two colors to the same palette. It might be so simple that I am missing something.