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.

Sounds like a decent app, but like many of the other similar suggestions, it doesn't appear to do what the OP was asking for related to pre-press. Checking spot-colour separations seems to be the feature most lacking in these apps. Check out the full conversation for some options.

There's a project for a keen bean. Not sure you could charge any money for it though, depending on Ghostscript's licensing. Do we need Acrobat Pro to see the separate layers? 😝

That's brilliant. Yes, not nearly as convenient as a desktop app that shows all the seps as a bunch of layers you can selectively turn off and on, but a great option for all us starving artists. Thanks again for testing and reporting back. I'm getting the 'Sorry, you cannot add any more reactions today' forum alert, so here, I'll award you with another of these… Most Helpful Comment of the Month™️ award… 😄 🏆 Ah, okay. I didn't see any pricing on their website, which did lead me to wonder. 😂 😐 😭

Hey, not bad for a free tool! Thanks for testing!! No worries! Yes, I'd be willing to pay for something like that too. Of course, we'd all be even happier if Affinity could roll that sort of functionality into their own apps.

Like others, I long used Acrobat Pro (good old 32 bit CS6) for checking spot colour separations before sending off that print-ready PDF. I'd check on-screen that each of the spots was on a separate plate and knocking out or overprinting as expected. The three apps listed here are just absurdly expensive when that's all you need to do: Adobe Acrobat Pro 2020: US$449 + tax Callas pdfToolbox: €500.00 + tax Enfocus PitStop Pro: €735 + tax So I went searching. This is what I found: A command-line tool called Ghostscript. Someone on Stack Overflow asked about extracting CMYK and spot separations from PDF with Ghostscript. The answer included a one-liner for generating all separations. (Installing on a Mac involves building from source, and I haven't gone to the trouble at this stage. If someone else does try it, perhaps they can report back here.) An app on the Mac App Store called ExtractPDFSpotColor. This one I did try, and I'm now waiting for Apple to refund me the $30 or so. It simply doesn't do what it says on the tin. It failed to find spots in one file, and when it did find spots in another, it crashed as soon as I tried to export them. An online demo of a JavaScript-based SDK called PDFTRON Webviewer. This isn't really a standalone product; it's something developers can license for their own apps. But by golly, the demo is pretty darn useful! It finds all the spots and lists them (alongside the CMYK inks) with checkboxes that you can turn off and on, just like Acrobat Pro. And it runs in a web browser. So I'm not sure what makes this feature so elusive for all the devs of those cheap PDF utilities out there.

🏆 @Lagarto, your comment should be pinned to the top of the forums permanently and turned into an official tutorial. Or better still, Affinity devs could fix this whole mess!

Yes, reminds me of the days of needing to support Internet Explorer 6 as a front-end web developer. My face regularly looked like your profile pic back then. And yes, a great shame that Affinity didn't get this one thing right—it was kind of important.

Colour swatches are the singly most ill-conceived, poorly designed aspect of the Affinity software suite. Working with spot colours is an absolute nightmare (and I don't use those terms lightly.) That's one thing Adobe got right, and something the Affinity devs would have done well to replicate, rather than trying to get clever and do their own thing. Gosh I hope version 2 starts to take this seriously.

@JGD, try rereading my comment with your irony detector turned on! My point exactly. I was clearly too subtle for some readers, so here's my irony-free summary… I find it concerning that Affinity published that article. The title implies that Separated Mode works just fine, offering increased efficiency. The FAQ section titled 'Separated Mode window management tips' appears to be their response to user frustration, which doesn't address our concerns at all. It leads me to think that fixes to Separated Mode aren't coming soon, if ever, and that's disheartening.

According to Affinity 'this is intentional behavior'. See this comment on another discussion. They gave no explanation as to the logic the program uses to determine the actual 'distance from text', nor Affinity's rationale for making it behave this way. IMO, this makes the text wrap feature virtually useless when we don't wish to snap to a baseline grid.