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Why did you choose the file format extensions .afdesign and .afphoto instead of shorter variants like .afd or .afp?


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  • 1 month later...

This is just a guess but I suspect Serif is just being progressive.  The idea of 3 a character file extensions harks back to the memory/storage limitations of very early microcomputers where the standard was 8.3, that is, file names of no more than 8 characters followed by a 3 character extension.  Modern operating system long ago ditched the 8 character name limitation but, for some reason, the 3 character extension has lived an artificially long life.

 

Also, 3 characters is very limiting in terms of creating a unique file type identifier that is also mnemonically meaningful.  The extensions .ade and .aph, for example, have already been used by other software.

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This has been explained elsewhere in the forums...all three file extenions are interchangeable so... 

 

AD can open AD/APh/APu files

APh can open APh/AD/APu files

APu can open APu/AD/APh files

 

This single format/multi-extention setup, allows for maximum compatibility as well saying which app created that file. So when you click on the file's icon the correct app will fire up and load the file for you.

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Hello Stephen_H,

There is nothing non standard about the long extensions.

The Affinity Team has explained their why already.

Please search for their explanation/rationale somewhere in the forums.

Regards

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To save a search, the quick answer is just that we were going to use .afd and .afp, but then what do you have as the extension for Affinity Publisher? It's got to be .afp again so why not just make things really clear, abandon the 3 character extension logic that came from WAAAAY back in time and just go with something more obvious? :)

 

(The fact that we've got .afdesign and .afphoto nowadays is a good thing - a while ago we were using .affinitydesigner and .affinityphoto which was really annoying because it's quite long!) ;)

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  • 2 months later...

Sorry for digging this up but I felt the need to add my two cents worth. I know that there is no character limitation anymore but long file extensions still feel kind of awkward to me, just because I (and I’m probably not the only one) am so used to three or four characters maximum. It looks strange to me if the file extension is longer than the actual file name.

 

Likewise, people still write “www.” in front of every website URL despite the fact that this subdomain is usually completely redundant nowadays.

Anyway, I still prefer a three (or maximum four) character file extension. My motto is: just because you can do something without limitations doesn’t mean you have to do it.

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Certain questions keep coming up again and again. Please search the forum first before asking. And that goes for all of us of course.  ;)

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We are in 2015 and modern operating systems can get rid of the old limitations.

And since we are talking of the Mac ecosystem, let's think different !  ;)

Well...you can now "tile your windows in Mac OS X/El Capitan".

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Certain questions keep coming up again and again. Please search the forum first before asking. And that goes for all of us of course.  ;)

Fair point Seneca, otherwise some poor soul will have to do a awful lot of house keeping, down in the cellar, removing and deleting the duplicate threads. :P

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Certain questions keep coming up again and again. Please search the forum first before asking. And that goes for all of us of course.  ;)

I didn’t specifically search for the reason why they chose the file extensions (although I was wondering about this myself, independently), I just stumbled upon this thread and thought I’d leave my two cents.

 

However, taking your advice I searched for “file extension” and found no thread of similar nature. Go figure.

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I prefer succinct 3 characer extensions too. I turn off Show extension only for affinity docs, which sucks, because it clutters up my finder columns/views having such long extensions in addition to project codes sand naming conventions....

 

could this be a preference? I propose for 3 letter extensions the following format:

 

 

Affinity Designer = .adn

Affinity Photo = .aph

Affinity Publisher = .apl, .apu or .apr (adobe has .apb)

 

To save a search, the quick answer is just that we were going to use .afd and .afp, but then what do you have as the extension for Affinity Publisher? It's got to be .afp again so why not just make things really clear, abandon the 3 character extension logic that came from WAAAAY back in time and just go with something more obvious? :)

 

(The fact that we've got .afdesign and .afphoto nowadays is a good thing - a while ago we were using .affinitydesigner and .affinityphoto which was really annoying because it's quite long!) ;)

2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Ventura 13.6

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ronnyb - you've also identified the other problem with using 3 character combinations - a lot of them have already been used.  We'd need to find consistent extensions for other existing apps (not to mention any other apps that we might want to do later).  Using a** does somewhat limit our choices.

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True, Ben it does seems that 3 letter extensions are filling up... What about adding just ONE more letter, so it's a 4 letter extension like .JPEG or .TIFF?

 

What about these, where the first 2 characters represent the company, and the last two the product:

 

Designer = .afdn

Photo = afpt

Publisher = .afpb

 

The current file extensions just seems a bit excessive....

 

ronnyb - you've also identified the other problem with using 3 character combinations - a lot of them have already been used.  We'd need to find consistent extensions for other existing apps (not to mention any other apps that we might want to do later).  Using a** does somewhat limit our choices.

2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Ventura 13.6

2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 17

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I'd say afds and afph because that is more where the pronunciation is IMO but apart from that I also like the shorter extensions.

Although I don't find the current setting awkward.

 

It really is up to personal preferences so we could just meet at the serif office and have some tee and discuss the whole thing :D haha

 

 

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MBd, I'm in, but only if they're also serving crumpets... ;)

 

I'd say afds and afph because that is more where the pronunciation is IMO but apart from that I also like the shorter extensions.
Although I don't find the current setting awkward.

It really is up to personal preferences so we could just meet at the serif office and have some tee and discuss the whole thing :D haha

2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Ventura 13.6

2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 17

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True, Ben it does seems that 3 letter extensions are filling up... What about adding just ONE more letter, so it's a 4 letter extension like .JPEG or .TIFF?

TWO letter extensions aren’t too common, there’s some room left. Adobe does it with AI and ID files, for example. We could have .ad and .ap – hmm, Publisher is really something to ponder… Alternatively one could scrap the “a” for Affinity completely and have .de, .ph, and .pu

 

Edit: Sorry, I was wrong with InDesign files, they have the extension .indd.

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