AlanH

It would be useful to be able to set the Initial View options for PDF exports from Designer (and other Affinity apps). I prefer to give people files that open in Single Page/Fit Page view, which is seldom the reader default. Cheers!

Thanks, I'll put in a feature request!

I like to export PDFs that are set for initial view of Single Page & Fit Page. Is there any way of setting that option directly in Affinity Designer (Windows)? Thanks!

Hi - I appreciate there is still a bug where image files (or at least their bulky data) stay embedded after out-linking in Resource Manager (see other posts), but in addition, file names seem incorrect. Sequence: I made a photo album with 20 or so images across 15 pages. All initially embedded (by policy, which it asked me for). File size 35-odd MB. Image names "image10.jpg" etc. Decided to make all images Linked using Resource Manager per the Tutorial video (did not know about the bug at that time). New set of images exported "image10_1" etc. I'd not expected that; thought it would strike back to the original source images, but it's probably logical as the original may have no longer been available, depending on workflow. But I note that in Resource Manager, the new images are missing the underscore character so read "image101" etc., even though the bandolier below the list shows the correct underscored name for the selected list entry. Looking forward to linking being fixed!

Just doing a test document with several images. I pull them in, and as explained in the tutorial, by default they are embedded. The afpub file when saved is ~45MB. Following the tutorial instructions, I then set each image file to linked in the Resource Manager (multiple select not working - mentioned elsewhere). I then save the afpub file again and surprised to see it's still 45MB. Do a Save As with another file name, but afpub still 45MB. I then delete all images from the document and resave, this time it's 15kB. Looks like the embedded files are being cached in the document somehow, even though marked Linked in Resource Manager.

Good job I searched for this before reporting it! But as a supplementary in this dialogue window, mouse scroll wheel doesn't scroll through the list, which I sort-of assumed it would do.

Thanks, Owen & Mike - I think I understand it now! The key to it all was my having selected Blurb CMYK profile in the Preferences at some time in the past. As Mike points out, that adds about 2.3MB of code to the project file and, by default, embeds the same amount of code in the PDF output, hence the large file sizes. Selecting 'no embedding of profile' on export restores the small PDF size regardless of the project default. This explains why, when I tried Owen's copy and 'new from clipboard' trick, my project file size stayed big - until I changed my Blurb default profile to something else. I did try Allow advanced features on and off, but didn't see much difference in PDF output filesize. So, problem solved - thanks once again, chaps! Alan

Hi Alfred - sorry, I should have given an example. Looking again at the project document settings, it was originally set to CMYK/8 colour space, and the export for Print was huge, Web was small. Changing the project to RGB/8 colour space exported small PDF files for Print and Web, but the source project file has stayed big. I have purged some of the text, which has not affected file sizes, and attach examples of the two colour-space project files and the four PDF exports. Is AD incorporating some form of preview bitmap into the CMYK Print version of the PDF - which is big due to the A3 paper size - and not in the web version? Any ideas would help. In the meantime, I'll do my designs in RGB/8, overriding to CMYK/8 only for print-specific jobs. Alan PDF-Size-Test_CMYK.afdesign PDF-Size-Test_RGB.afdesign PDF-Size-Test_PRINT_CMYK.pdf PDF-Size-Test_PRINT_RGB.pdf PDF-Size-Test_WEB_CMYK.pdf PDF-Size-Test_WEB_RGB.pdf

Could someone enlighten me about the size of PDF files produced by AD, please? I have created a simple A3 family tree using only text (Arial), vector lines and vector boxes. For some reason the AD project file is 2,412kB, and although I don't understand that, I'm not particularly bothered about it. However, when I export a PDF (rasterizing nothing) in any format except 'For Web', the PDF is around 2,343kB. But if I export for web, it is a tiny 7kB! Both file sizes look identical when viewed. I know storage space is cheap, but nonetheless this is a massive difference, and seemingly unnecessary. When I look at the bigger PDFs in Notepad, there's a massive amount of unreadable gobbledeygook there. Any idea what's going on? Alan

Please, please provide an option to show visible tab indications in the text boxes. I lay out CD inlays with Designer and rely heavily on tab settings to do track lists and other things. The Designer tab setting scheme is hostile enough without having to guess where tabs are falling. This has been a function of all word processing and text/page layout programs for over 20 years, and the lack of it here is driving me to my wits' end. I'd be losing my hair over this problem if I had any left to lose...

Thanks, MEB, but It's not working for me! Did I understand your reference to 100% zoom correctly? In this second example I have made sure view is set to 100%. Again, I can get a useful effect on preview (just wanting to broaden the thin black lines), but it will not apply. I could not attach the screen capture MP4, so it's here: https://youtu.be/3rvplnQO0wc Cheers, Alan [Edited - movie clip re-homed on YouTube]

I'm trying to emulate one of my old PSP9 tricks for making fine lines more readable: one of your contributors suggested using Affinity Photo's Maximum and Minimum Blur filters to emulate PSP's Erode and Dilate. Using the split-screen preview, I see a useful degree of black-line dilation at blur levels between 0.5 and 1.9 pixels. However, when I click Apply, the image reverts to its original appearance. Only when I set the blur to greater than 2 pixels will the filter effect commit with the Apply button. Is there something wrong with this - and is this filter really the best way for me to emulate PSP's 'Erode' effect? Thanks, Alan Affinity Photo 1.5.1.54

Aha! I knew it must be simple. Had not looked at those filters - still getting used to the workflow - all a bit of a culture shock after nearly 20 years with JASC! Thanks for the quick reply! Alan

Transparent PNG export used to be trivial with Paintshop Pro 9 - PNG export asked what colour I wanted to be transparent, and that was sorted. But I'm struggling with Affinity Photo (and Designer - I have and use both). Example: I have a JPG snippet of music score - black notes on white background. I simply want to invert to white notes, and export a PNG where the resultant (black) background is clear, for use as an overlay image in a video project. I start with document option for transparent background checked. I can apply an Invert adjustment to get white notes on black background, but where do I go from there? I cannot find any blend options that turn the black clear, and there is no 'this colour will be transparent' option in any PNG export dialogue, as far as I can see. This is such a fundamental procedure that I'm sure it must be explained somewhere but, for the life of me, I can't find it. Any ideas? Thanks! Alan