Kal

Thanks @Lee D. I haven't had the problem happen again since I filed the bug report, but then I'm mostly working on existing files. I'll let you know if it starts happening again.

Thanks @stokerg. No, I'm not using an external monitor or iPad—just the built-in iMac display. I'm not using Photo in my work at the moment, but if I do have more problems in future, I'll try out the beta and report back.

When trying to save a file for the first time, I find that I am frequently unable to enter a filename, as though Designer has frozen. If I click somewhere else, and then back to the filename field, text may suddenly appear and I can type as normal. I have also had some issues with the Save dialogue in Photo since upgrading to macOS Monterey. My system: iMac 5K 2017 RAM: 24 GB macOS Monterey 12.2.1

Photo totally froze up when I tried to save a file. It became completely unresponsive (spinning beachball), and after a long wait it became clear to me that it was not going to recover, so I had to do a Force Quit. (Thankfully, the autosave recovered most of what I had worked on.) I have also had some issues with the Save dialogue in Designer since upgrading to macOS Monterey. My system: iMac 5K 2017 RAM: 24 GB macOS Monterey 12.2.1

Okay, I understand now. You didn't mention the slice tool in your first comment, and it sounded like you were talking about snapping guide lines to the grid. I guess we just hit a language barrier. Yes, you're right, slices don't snap to guides. Earlier in the thread, Meb confirmed that 'slices only snap to the Pixel grid'. I think everyone who has tried the slice tool would agree—you just expect this kind of basic snapping behaviour from such a tool. Affinity, in my experience, is not quick to respond to user feedback. As you can see, this was posted almost 6 years ago, and nothing has changed.

Are you saying that a vertical guide doesn't snap to a horizontal grid line? A vertical line always crosses a horizontal one, at infinite points—what is there to snap to? Perhaps I don't understand what you're trying to do. Are you wanting it to actually snap to your cursor?

@X-Raym, do you mean 'guides'? Guides should be snapping to the grid. Go to View > Snapping Manager, and make sure 'Snap to grid' is ticked.

An incredibly useful thread, but yes, it takes a bit of work to sift through 11 pages of discussion! So, if you’ve just tuned in, and you’re wanting to check your print separations in a post-Adobe world (without breaking the bank), here are the highlights: PACKZVIEW: a free app to preview and inspect production PDF files. This seems to be the best option out there. The only catch is, you need to register, and registrations are reserved for ‘labels/packaging’ companies. If you’re a graphic designer with a commercial website, you should qualify. Otherwise, you might want to try one of the other options. (Thanks to @leob, developer of PDF Checkpoint.) PDFTRON WebViewer Demo: This isn't a standalone product; it's a JavaScript-based SDK that developers can license for their own apps. But if all you need to do is check print separations, the online demo may very well suit your needs. It finds all the spots and CMYK inks, and lists them with checkboxes that you can turn off and on, just like Acrobat Pro. You can move your cursor over the preview image and see ink coverage percentages. (Original comment) PDF Output Preview: This useful little app was created by fellow forum member @Lagarto in response to this very thread. It uses Ghostscript, a free command-line tool for working with PostScript and PDF, so you’ll need to install this too. I believe the current versions (as of 15 October 2021) of PDF Output Preview are 1.0.0.16 for Windows and 1.0.0.10 for macOS. (I don't think there's currently a single web page where you can find and download the latest versions, but Lagarto can update us if that happens.) We can update or repost this as necessary to keep the information fresh.

You're most welcome! Also check out PDF Output Preview by fellow forum member @Lagarto if you haven't already. (Links on the previous page.)

Indeed it does! Great job Lagarto. Hey, it's not Acrobat Pro 😄 but it shows me those colour seps, which is what I really need to see. Thanks again for investing your time to make life easier for all of us! 🏆

On the command line (Bash or Zsh), I find it much easier to just enclose file paths in single quotes, rather than muck around with escape characters. With scripting, if you're storing your command as a string, you might need to escape the backslash itself before you can use it to escape another character in the actual command. It gets confusing—my tip, just go with single quotes! 🙂 So I can confirm that your app is working, so long as there are no spaces elsewhere in the path. If one of the containing folders has any spaces in the name, it still crashes.

You're right. That file of yours opens no problem, and the app works beautifully (when it's working). 😊 I've sent you my PDF as requested. Ah okay. I did skim the whole conversation, but I can't recall what your Automator plugin does? I don't mind running Ghostscript from the Terminal, but the layering of seps provided by Lagarto's app would really take it to another level.

Thanks, I've sent you a PM. When it silently crashed on my production file (print-ready artwork with 2 spot colours) I tested a bunch of other PDFs, and the same thing happened every time. So I wonder if there's some other issue on my system. I'm on macOS Big Sur 11.2.3.

I've been away from this thread for a while, but I see much has happened… @Lagarto, absolutely legendary stuff, to get in there and actually make this app for everyone! I just downloaded the latest version, but unfortunately the app is crashing for me when I try and open any PDF. I have Ghostscript 9.50 installed in the usual place (/usr/local/bin/) and can confirm it is working to produce separations from the same PDFs. This is the error in the console, which probably isn't very helpful: com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (application.com.lagarto.pdfoutputpreview.PDF-Output-Preview.65202316.65202319[7782]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1 Any ideas what to try?

How strange that we have two different tools to accomplish the exact same thing (rounded corners), and they're completely incompatible with each other.