benwiggy

My attached video shows one simple technique using the Quick Grid functionality (press arrow key while drawing the shape) and Clipping (drag layer onto the name of another vector layer).
2023-10-01 12-35-55.mp4

There are several posts on the Designer and Photo forums requesting some sort of Automation, so I thought I'd echo the sentiment here.
It would be great to see the Affinity Suite using AppleScript, or JavaScript or Lua. Or python!   (Assuming I'm not missing something!)
There are many people who are dependent on Adobe because of the scripting capabilities.

Welcome to the Serif Affnity forums.
Have you checked:
The Use Baseline Grid setting in the Text Frame studio panel? The Use Baseline Grid setting in the Baseline Grid Manager? The Leading Override in the Character studio panel?

Ah! There it is! Thanks so much.

I would say yes, but if Italian and English are in separate frames, click the text frame and pick the language from the Character panel.

It's not like this feature was never asked for or the default option is causing problems, but it seems Affinity won't modify this setting, when stats show that we export to all pages 99% of the time (spread is only for specific small pages, when needing easy to read copy-editing/checking, and to avoid using a lot of paper when printing, since most PDF readers are able to display facing pages, or print different pages on a page: this setting is less and less usefull with time, and shoudln't be the default one):
 
 
...

There are times when people want to enlarge the text in the frame (and only in that frame) without having the actual words enlarged and flow into the next frame. I think it is rather niche, but I do see that it is a good feature. Sadly the only option for turning it off is Eternal Vigilance.

Not that I've found.  But if you copy the text, delete the text frames, re-insert the frames and then paste your text it should be sorted - or you can auto-flow from the first frame if that will work in your layout.
Hope that helps.

Have a look at this thread: 
 

It's been well-observed that the Affinity Suite 'doesn't support' the import of PDFs with embedded fonts, and attempting to do so causes a variety of issues.

However, Designer imports EPS and PostScript files with embedded fonts perfectly accurately, because it outlines all the embedded font data.

It would solve a great many problems if Designer offered the option to outline the embedded font data, as for EPS files, in the PDF import dialog.

I'm presuming that this would be a 'relatively easy fix', as Designer can already outline EPS at import, (and it can outline font data in PDFs when exporting).

Sigh. There are just so many needless quirks to Affinity's PDF handling, that make it unreliable for this kind of work. 

Sigh. There are just so many needless quirks to Affinity's PDF handling, that make it unreliable for this kind of work. 

Hi BenWiggy,
Welcome to the forums
As far as I'm aware this behaviour is logged as a bug it should hopefully be fixed soon.
Thanks
C

In the export options the "Area" always is reset to "All Spreads" after closing the window, regardless what was recently used.

For example, I often just want to export a specific page (or selection) to check the result of my layout fine-tuning or various PDF options. I would expect and appreciate if my current area selection was remembered. Instead, I need to reuse the pulldown menu for each individual export to get a selection other than "All Spreads."

Even though if I've used recently "All Pages" with a single page number, the UI remembers the page number – but not the area setting for pages but instead got reset to spreads again.
Besides simply auto-remembering the last used Area setting even a File menu option like "Export once more" could be possible and useful and possibly would directly open the filename dialog, not displaying the export options at all. Useful, when changes in the document get fine-tuned and should get exported with identically settings each time.
The general "All Spreads" is in particular disturbing for exports of a selection of specific objects which get exported again and again for detailed fine-tuning. For instance exports as jpg with finding an optimum for a certain object property or an optimum between export detail quality & compression rate or maybe file size.

When exporting a PDF, the default seems to be "All Spreads." Is there a way to save a preference such that the "All Pages" setting is the default instead? Or do I have to select "All Pages" from the menu each time?
I'm referring to Affinity Publisher and I don't see how to save this setting in version 1.9.3.
Thanks for any clues.

If I load a PDF that is not PDF/X compliant (but otherwise a perfectly 'normal' and valid PDF for printing) as a "Pass-through" onto a page, and then Export the page as a PDF, I get a Preflight warning that the PDF version is "not compatible with the export version" and "the PDF will be rasterized". 
Firstly, this seems to depend on the Preflight profile, whose default is for PDF/X-3 PDFs -- regardless of the PDF Export Profile's "Compatibility" setting for PDF versions.
Secondly, the PDF does not, in fact, get rasterized.
Thirdly, it claims the PDF is version 1.7, when in fact, it's actually 1.4. Or does it mean the intended version of the exported PDF? It's not clear.

Fourthly, l can't remember InDesign ever complaining about PDF versions in this way: it would just create a PDF/X-3 PDF, regardless of the 'image' PDFs' versioning. Transparency might get rasterized, but that's slightly different from "This PDF will be rasterized".

Is this another quirk of Affinity's bizarre approach to handling PDFs, or just a bad UI, or something else? The warning seems to be incorrect, inappropriate, and lacking in detail.

 

Having refused to join Adobe's subscription scam, I have been trying to replace my aging creative suite. I was successful with Affinity Photo (thank you very much).
My documents tend to have a lot of footnotes/end notes. Last I checked, Publisher did not support this (beyond what ancient Adobe did). I thought I would check in and see if footnotes have been implemented yet so I can cross another Adobe product off my list.

Hi @benwiggy,
Thanks for spotting this. We are aware of it and it has already been logged with our developers. 

When I launch any of the Affinity apps, they bounce in the Dock about 30 times -- about 20 seconds or so --  before I get the splashscreen. The app launches quickly after this point. 
Subsequent launches are faster. I'm not sure whether it's just the first time after every boot or after ... some time has passed.
Anyone else had this?
 
I'm on Big Sur, if that's a factor. I'm on a 2018 Mac Mini, so it's not a slow hard drive ....!

Hi benwiggy,
Thanks for your feedback. We are already aware of these issues. They seem to have started after Big Sur update. As you noticed if only happens after a cold boot. Subsequent launches are quick. We are still investigating what's going on. Are you using the Mac App Store or Affinity Store version?

Dear MEB
I would be very grateful if you could explain to me why Affinity has made this curious choice about PDFs, and what benefits it brings over the conventional methods used by every other application. It is a cause of huge frustration.  I cannot raster a PDF into a bitmap accurately; I cannot open a PDF for editing; I cannot get an accurate representation as a page object. And yet EPS files work perfectly.
Thanks

Everything I know tells me this should be changed.  There's not much point testing any further if it can't just plonk a PDF on a page properly.

As an end user working in the professional pre-press environment our only concern is that AP should be able to interpret embedded fonts and has a reliable pdf passthrough. The technical issues as to why this is not working are of no importance. Workarounds, third party software etc. are just a distraction. Serif need to fix this problem before lasting damage is done to their reputation as a serious developer of professional design software (Description from their website ‘The Next Level of Professional Publishing’)
This dialogue has been ongoing for over two years, so they are well aware of the importance of this issue. One can only conclude, that at present, they either do not have the inclination or the ability to resolve this.
As a consequence I have contacted the MD of serif directly to say how important I (and many others) feel this problem is and that it prevents the use of AP as an alternative to indesign. I hope that he hears our collective plea and is able ensure the team dedicate the required time, and necessary expertise, so that this can be resolved. (As yet no response)
I believe the development team at Serif are doing their upmost to create a viable alternative to adobe and I am sure we all wish them to succeed in this endeavour. All we ask is that they listen to the professionals trying to use their apps.

Hi tariq,
The fonts display correctly in Preview because it supports embedded fonts. Affinity apps currently don't support them and thus use (or replace them if not available) the fonts installed on the system (which sometimes may be a different version than the ones embedded in the document) leading to some differences. Likewise we do not support PDF passthrough, rasterise PDF's on import until support for embedded fonts is implemented.

Call me crazy, but what about showing an accurately rendered PDF, displayed on the page? Like InDesign does. Like Pages does. Like Word does. Like Uncle Bob's BrochureMaker™ and every other app in the world does.