Exporting multiple artboards

[Adrian M]

Hello and thank you for developing this software! I have been trying to transition from Illustrator since a friend introduced me to Affinity Designer back in 2016 and that transition gets easier with every update.

However there is one major issue that has been making this transition very painful. Exporting multiple artboards is just extremely cumbersome and tedious. Maybe I just don't have a complete grasp of Designer yet, but even now, a document I was just working on; I ran into so many issues and spent the last 3 hours trying to get my artboards exported and ended up having to redo my entire document and still kept running into multiple walls along the way. Finally after having all my alignments pixel perfect I still run into problems with my slices only automatically appearing on so many artboards and now I am stuck renaming several artboards after already having to add their slices in manually which was a chore since some of the art was still not pixel perfect. I incorrectly assumed the slice tool would snap to artboards, not the art being clipped by the artboards and then I still had to manually put in my scale multipliers for each slice one at a time and now I am about to rip my hair out as saving bunches of slices to their respective folders is hindered by needing to individually tick each slice I need in the right folder, then untick that bunch to manually tick the next batch.

I think the solution I am asking for is to have an option from the File>Export window to either type in the artboards I need exported or the ability to easily and quickly select a batch of artboards with an option for scale factor or selection of DPI as well as a tick box for transparency and for each exported file to have the name of it's respective artboard. I can't understand why I can export an individual artboard at a time perfectly without having to have gone through all the headaches I mentioned in the previous paragraph but once I need to export multiple artboards it becomes such a titanic ordeal.

I sincerely wish I could recommend Affinity Designer to my design partners and clients, but as long as exporting of multiple artboards is in this state, I just can't as something that takes a few clicks in illustrator requires a bunch of fine tuning and changing of individual values. I don't want to keep throwing money into the dumpster that is Adobe, but until exporting of artboards reaches the fast simplicity of Illustrator, my wallet will continue to have an ever burning hole in it.

I am also sorry that this has to be my first post on this forum.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Adrian M

[dominik]

5 hours ago, Adrian M said:

I think the solution I am asking for is to have an option from the File>Export window to either type in the artboards I need exported or the ability to easily and quickly select a batch of artboards

Hello @Adrian M, welcome to the forum.

I am not quite sure I understand the problem you are having completely. But from the quote above I assume you are looking in the wrong place to export multiple artboards at the same time. To accomplish this you would switch to the 'Export Persona' (File > Personas > Export). There you find for each artboard a slice that is exactly the size of the artboard. These slices are named according to the artboard's names and they can be exported in one go.

I suggest to take the time and watch these video tutorials: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/tutorials/designer/desktop/category/export-persona
This should help you to understand how it works.

Cheers,
d.

[Pšenda]

I agree with dominik, Export Persona is a fairly powerful tool. In some complicated cases, the preparation of individual Slices can be a bit more difficult, but with the help of automatic creation (Create Slices in Layer panel), or manually it is possible.
It would be a good idea to list specific cases where using Export Persona is a problem for you - then Serif can also respond and modify it if necessary. On sighs of the type "It doesn't work as I imagine !!!" you really can't react very well.

[Adrian M]

Appreciate the replies! Thank you!

I just watched those videos and for the most part I am fairly confident I already had a decent understanding of the Export Persona. My initial post was written while I was frustrated. Let me try and better explain.

In a nutshell:
Using the Export Persona gives me slices and exports that are one pixel off but exporting from the Design Persona gives me the right dimensions. Would it be possible to export multiple artboards at a time from the Designer Persona?

For more detail:
I think the majority of the problems I was dealing with stem from the fact that I was working with an .AI I had imported. Even now though on a totally fixed file and with a clear head I made some additional artboards to test. Each at 1024x768px and placed at a whole number coordinate. Once I moved into the slice persona, each slice was automatically generated one pixel off. Which for a single slice isn't a problem, but when I have several slices I need to export, it becomes a problem that I can't depend on these slices to be accurately generated especially when I constantly need to be making more artboards. What I find additionally frustrating is that when I choose to export from the Designer Persona>File>Export, I don't run into this issue. I consistently exported files at the right dimensions from the Designer Persona which left me frustrated wondering why I couldn't just export multiple artboards at a time from the Designer Persona instead of having to continue messing with the Export Persona and slices.

I have attached screen shots of my problem along with the file that was exported a pixel off. In the first screen you can see that my artboard dimensions are 1024x768, but in the 2nd screen, you can see that the generated slice is 1024x769. The exported PNG has the same error.

Sorry if my initial post may have come off as hostile in any way and thank you again.

[Pšenda]

42 minutes ago, Adrian M said:

placed at a whole number coordinate

Decimal places is maximal? (Preferences, User Interface options, Decimal Places for Unit Types).

Your screenshot show dimensions of points (pt), not pixels (px). 

[dominik]

8 hours ago, Adrian M said:

Sorry if my initial post may have come off as hostile in any way and thank you again.

Hi @Adrian M,

first off, I did not read your post hostile. Maybe a litte unclear about your procedings but that's the reason why I chimed in 🙂

 

8 hours ago, Adrian M said:

I think the majority of the problems I was dealing with stem from the fact that I was working with an .AI I had imported. Even now though on a totally fixed file and with a clear head I made some additional artboards to test. Each at 1024x768px and placed at a whole number coordinate. Once I moved into the slice persona, each slice was automatically generated one pixel off.

There come several sources for problems in mind. Without blaming AI per se you are dealing with a file that brings a 'history' with it and we never know what may have happened in the past. Compare this to the import of a Word file that has been created over a long period of time with numerous quotations copied and pasted from multiple sources. We just don't know what all these bits and pieces bring with them. Unless we reset everything to a default.

To find out what is going on it is better to start with a clean and empty document.

Second, as @Pšenda already pointed out, your screenshot shows points as units and not pixels. They are not the same and more likely the source of your problem.

I myself set up a test file with three artboards at 1024x768px and document units set to pixels. They export at exactly this size from the Export Persona. I attach my test file.

Artboard Export.afdesign

 

8 hours ago, Adrian M said:

why I couldn't just export multiple artboards at a time from the Designer Persona instead of having to continue messing with the Export Persona and slices.

Once we have sorted out the problems in the Export Persona it makes perfect sense to use this very powerful and specialised tool to export multiple files at a time. It takes perhaps a little time to get the hang of it. I do not think it is a good idea to use File > Export for multiple items at the same time. It would make things much more complicated and the Export Persona does take care of that pretty good.

Cheers,
d.

[3rdDay]

SOLUTION: I had a similar problem and came across something that worked for me. Move the artboards (while in the Designer Persona) so that they are perfectly aligned with one another (touching) – with 'snapping' on, of course, so that they are PERFECTLY aligned. Then head back to the Export Persona and delete any slices (under the 'Slices' tab to the right) that exist. Press 'Layers' (to the left of the 'Slices' tab) and select all of them and then click 'Create Slides' (below). Then head back to the 'Slides' and ensure they are all the correct size and export.

I hope you find this works or another solution!