Is text in Affinity Designer automatically vector text?

[Karina]

Okay, this might be a stupid question, but is all tekst you type in Affinity Designer automatically vector text (as opposed to pixel text)? I need to make some vector text for foil printing. 

And question number two: if you can enlarge tekst/images infinitely and the borders are still sharp, can you then assume you are dealing with vector text or a vector image? This was my first instinct for finding out if tekst in Designer is automatically vector. But I thought it was smarter to ask you guys.... 

Thanks for helping a vector newbie out! 
 

 

[GarryP]

Unless you deliberately rasterise a text layer – or use a rasterise option in your export – your text should always be vector graphics (whether that is vector curves or the font glyphs themselves).
Vector graphics are resolution-independent so they will scale infinitely (within reason). If you can scale something very large and you don’t see very large pixel blocks then you are probably using vector graphics (unless you are using an image with a very large resolution).
If you can edit the text as text – rather than just editing the curves – then you are using font text glyphs and they are vector graphics.
I hope this explains it a bit.

P.S. There may be some exceptions to what I said above but what I’ve described should be valid for most purposes.

[Karina]

Thank you very much, I had no idea about all this. So, if I understand you correctly, even text written in Affinity Photo will be vector text, as long as I make sure I don’t rasterise text while exporting as a PDF. 
 

 

[R C-R]

By default, the Affinity apps (there are 3 of them) create text objects. Like vector objects they are not rasterized by default, but unlike vector objects text objects support a large number of additional typographic attributes in addition to the usual vector ones like stroke & fill color.

The Affinity apps support all the common ones (& many of the uncommon ones as well). With the appropriate settings you can control everything from the space between characters, words, & paragraphs to their alignments, indents, alternate character forms, & much more. Text in this form is often referred to as "editable text" because you can edit it in much the same way you could in a word processor.

If you convert it to vectors ("convert to curves" in Affinity-speak) you lose the ability to edit it as text, but it retains the usual properties of vector objects like scaling up without becoming pixelated or blurry. Note that this conversion will result in lots of individual vector objects (at least one per character & often more).

Rasterizing text converts it to a grid of pixels, with all the usual limitations of that format. Even if you do not do this explicitly in Affinity, this will occur automatically in any export file format that does not support vectors or text objects (like JPEG), or if you use certain Affinity features like effects, filters, etc. Also, as things are now (& most likely for years to come) exporting to the PSD file format will convert text to pixels.

Be aware that in Affinity Photo (but not in Affinity Designer or Affinity Publisher) text objects will always look pixelated with anti-aliased edges, but as long as it remains a text object it actually is not.

[Karina]

Thank you very much for all the information. Very helpful and interesting! I use all three affinity programs to prepare artwork for digital printing, and love them, but there’s always more to learn. I have two more questions:

1) I have to prepare a pdf with vector text for a foil printing job, that’s why I needed to learn about vector text. I this possible with Affinity? Or will a pdf file automatically pixelate text like a jpg or psd file, like you wrote? The reason is that the edges of the letters have to be real smooth for the foil printing process.

2) Do I have to convert the text to curves before making a pdf? And if so, how do I do that? 

P.S. On the website of the printing company it says you can only prepare a foil printing job with Adobe, but they always say that, and Affinity normally is absolutely fine for prepress work. Even the graphic designer of the printing company was really impressed when he finally downloaded the Publisher beta version, which made me laugh after all their negative comments about Affinity I had to endure for a whole year. 

Hope you can answer my questions! Thank you in advance!!! 

 

[thomaso]

5 hours ago, Karina said:

1) I have to prepare a pdf with vector text for a foil printing job, that’s why I needed to learn about vector text. I this possible with Affinity? Or will a pdf file automatically pixelate text like a jpg or psd file, like you wrote? The reason is that the edges of the letters have to be real smooth for the foil printing process.

2) Do I have to convert the text to curves before making a pdf? And if so, how do I do that? 

1) As @R C-R mentioned all text objects created in Affinity apps are vector by default. Exporting them to PDF will keep their vector attitude, exporting to JPG, PNG, TIGF etc. will convert them to rasterized pixels.

If you assign an Affinity effect to text then text can get rasterized on export, depending on the effect, and will loose its vector attitude even on PDF export, depending on the PDF version. The most commonly used are from PDF 1.4 – PDF 1.7, whereas a higher number offers more vector abilities. If you do not apply an effect and use just text and colors then you don't need to care about that.

2) When you say "foil print" it might also mean foil cut-out plot. For the cut-out plotter the text must be converted to curves. Then they are still vector but no letters/charactrs any more but rather just shapes, like the letter O will be just a torus. I recommend to ask your printer if the text you deliver as vector shall be converted to curves.

To convert text to curves you have two options:
– either before export with the button in the toolbar:

– or for export only in the Export > "More" options:

If you choose the toolbar button then the text will be converted to curves within your document and makes it almost impossible to change text content, font and other typographical properties, also mentioned by R C-R above. So it is more flexible to convert to curves only during export.

If you convert text to curves even if the foil print doesn't demand it, there will be no disadvantage for the print process or the resulting quality.
Some print shops even demand curved text by default, regardless of the used printing technique. This way any issues which can occur with not-curved texts and their font files become prevented. (because a PDF with non-curved text either has font files embedded or needs the according fonts on the receiving computer).

Finally, for your foil print:
– avoid effects with/on text
– export as PDF/X-4
– convert text as curves on export.

[Karina]

Thank you very much!!! This is all very helpful. So glad there are people who actually know these things! Hope the printing company accepts PDF/X-4, they prefer another PDF file format. I’ll just make the PDF/X4 as you say, and send it to them to check if they can print it, this has done the trick so far. In my opinion they only ask for a specific PDF format because they think it’s the format that is least prone to give printing errors, but they can print all sorts of PDF files. 

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.
I don’t know if there are many forum members getting their work transferred to foil as you are (I only know of one other, who also has their own cutting plotter) but any techniques/tricks/tips/advice you come across, and share in the forums, may benefit other people in the future. Learn a bit, teach a bit.

[Karina]

 

On 1/22/2020 at 9:54 AM, GarryP said:

You’re welcome.
I don’t know if there are many forum members getting their work transferred to foil as you are (I only know of one other, who also has their own cutting plotter) but any techniques/tricks/tips/advice you come across, and share in the forums, may benefit other people in the future. Learn a bit, teach a bit.

Well, here are a few things I learned since I printed a few foil jobs:

- Everything should be in vector (curves), so make sure you make the foil bit of your design in Affinity Designer as it is vector based

- Your foil layer should be on top of all the other layers

- Usually your foil layer should be a global colour that is set to 'spot colour' and 'overprint' and is called something like 'Foil' (no typos allowed, check your printing company for the exact term they use).

Export to PDF X1 A:2003, make sure you check the box to convert text to curves if you use text. Set the colour profile to CMYK FOGRA 39, or even better ask the printing company what colour profile they use (It's usually FOGRA 39 in Europe and Asia).

Always carefully check your PDF before sending it off to the printing company, as weird things can happen when exporting to PDF.

Good luck!