mitchellm

Many thanks!

When I start up Photo I see and advert for free 1 Force macros. When I fill in name/email it tells me the email is already registered. Okay ... but nothing happens. How am I supposed to get this macro pack?

Post #23 states there will be a more refined process for this (see below). Any updates on this?

@Dave Harris: Wow many thanks! Both suggestions work well and I never would have guessed to do either one. I did try the setting tracking to 0 for all text with Helvetica and the result was much much better: there were only a couple of minor things off. With Arial Bold the result was perfect. Both approaches resulted in an SVG of 13.09 kB. I look forward to the continued improvement of SVG exporting, but your suggestions have given me great tools for working with some objects I need to prepare for the web right now. Again, many thanks!

Okay, here's the link again: http://bit.ly/1ViriRe Or: http://bit.ly/1ViriRe

Over time SVG export has gotten better and better. But I've run into a current example where the SVG export is really poor overall. It negatively impacts many of the words in the document. I am NOT exporting as "text as curves" because I want the SVG to be posted on a website, and thus as small as possible. You can use this link to download the folder containing: original PDF of mind map, AF Designer file (looks fine), and two different SVG exports. In both cases especially capital Cs are handled poorly in export. ​http://mml-2015.s3.amazonaws.com/SVG%20export%20example.zip

Dave: Thanks!

I've done similar workflows (iThoughtsX to PDF to Affinity Designer Beta) with great success previously. This is the first time I've run into a problem. Thanks for looking into this!

I have created a visual model (imported from iThoughtsX to PDF to Affinity Designer Beta). Exporting to PDF again, or to PNG, works just fine. But when I export to SVG the "links" on the left side of the diagram don't get exported. I haven't seen this problem before. Is there a fix for it? I've attached my AFdesigner file. specializations_march.afdesign

Andy: Will try to follow your provided directions this weekend and see if that makes a difference. At any rate, glad Photo will incorporate third-party plugins!

@romeojohn: Thanks. I never used the keyboard shortcut on PS. Works very nicely!

Andy: can you add any clarification regarding Actions? I'd love to import and use the Litely actions that I've bought. Not sure how to do this right now. Or, if not possible at the moment, will importing 3rd party actions also be part of the final product?

Andy: Thanks, a tutorial will be great. Understand about sandboxing trickiness.

And here's one more related question. Is there a way to import and use Actions? I only have a few, mainly through Litely. I imagine this is easier to import/incorporate than plugins, but I may be wrong. Any practical suggested steps for installing actions?

Thanks for the suggestions above. Very helpful. I already see one problem with the Google Nik plugins. The way that all of them work is they first duplicate the layer (in PS) and then do their magic. This layer duplication step is incredibly helpful for many reasons. However, within Affinity Photo there is no duplication of the layers. Is this a feature that might be added to Photo in the future? (BTW I'm not seeing an easy way to duplicate a layer. It probably exists somewhere, but it's not in the immediately obvious places I expect: e.g. by control-clicking a layer and choosing duplicate.)

Can you provide any general directions for how to install plugins? I believe when I installed the Google Nik suite of plugins that the installer auto-recognized whether I had Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I also use a few Topaz plugins, but if I remember correctly the install process was a bit different for them. Is the best way to simply find the plugins within the Photoshop folder plugin subfolder? Then duplicate and drag somewhere else? That might work with Google suite, but Topaz seems differently organized. I use plugins a LOT, so I can't really test out the beta until I can figure out how to incorporate the plugins to my workflow. (BTW I realize from another thread that some plugins may not work all the time, or work inconsistently: that's fine, it's a beta.)

MEB: Thanks for your quick response. I've been happily using iThoughtsX, a mind mapping app. Some mind maps I want to put on a web page. For that usage scenario SVGs are much better than PNGs or other alternatives. Your post gave me some good ideas and now I think I have a workflow that provides good results both with Designer and Designer beta. iThoughtsX only exports to PNG or PDF (there are other options, but not relevant to image manipulation). I've outlined the workflow below. Are there any ways you see that I could streamline this process? It definitely works, but anything shorter/simpler would help. Here's my current flow: 1. print to PDF directly within iThoughtsX 2. open in Affinity Designer (beta) 3. delete big/white surrounding box 4. select all with click-and-drag of mouse 5. group into 1 object (command-G) 6. observe size in right Transform area (typically this will be around 728 x 320 pixes) 7. go to Document Setup (command-shift-P) 8. unlock dimensions area 9. set dimensions to be current width + height with 20 pixels added to each dimension 10. choose Arrange toolbar icon. Set to vertical and horizontal center alignments 11. Save as Affinity Designer document 12. Export as SVG I realize there may be no way to make this simpler, but if there is a more efficient way to accomplish the same end result then I'm all ears!

I have tried bringing in a PNG and a PDF created by a mind map app. I then wanted to export as an SVG. When exported the SVG files "seems" okay on my desktop (i.e. I see a miniature version of the mind map). But if I try to open in Preview I just a white blank canvas. Ditto if I try to embed on a website. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Or does Designer not export to SVGs well when starting with a PNG or PDF? I've attached both the Designer file and the exported SVG. I'm not a graphics design professional so there may be some key step I'm unaware of. mytest.afdesign mytest.svg

@MEB: Got it! Many thanks for the info. This suite looks to be very exciting. Okay, now I need to make time to play with Designer!

@MEB: I only discovered Affinity Designer today via a friend. I'm not seeing anything about Affinity Photo at this website: https://affinity.serif.com So where do I find Affinity Photo? I'd love to download the beta (if there is one). And, of course, my questions still remain re: Nik Collection and how to install for Affinity Photo.

I'm downloading Nik Collection for my current computer (without PS). But the Google help page only gives directions for how to install and use with a limited number of apps (Photoshop, Aperture, etc. ). So if there are any specific instructions regarding using with Affinity those would be much appreciated. For example one of the weird things that happened when Nik moved over to Google is the HDR Efex no longer shows up in the same place as the other plugins within PS. True also with Affinity?

This is fantastic news! The ONLY reason I continue to use PS is for compatibility with the Google Nik plugins. So now for the stupid question: How do I install (or "make available") the Nik plugins for Affinity? I'm not currently on a computer that has Google Nik installed, but will be later when I go to my office. Does Affinity auto-magically find the plug-in? And if I wanted to use Nik with Affinity on my current non-PS installed machine, what steps do I take?