Q: Best practice for Publisher import of multiple Designer illustrations?

[sfriedberg]

I'm working on another technical report in Publisher which will have lots of small-ish illustrations done in Designer.  Beause the illustrations will be used in other documents, I don't want to use Publisher's Designer persona and draw them directly within Publisher.  Because there is a lot of element sharing among the illustrations, I would prefer to work on them inside a single Designer file.  In Publisher, the illustrations will be either placed with text wrap (traditional layout) or pinned within the text flow, depending on what they are.  Probably there will be some edits to some, but not all, of the illustrations, so layout will not be "once-and-done", and it would be nice to be able to do an update in Publisher of individual illustrations as needed.

This is an aspect of Affinity workflow I haven't dealt with so far.  What's the most appropriate way to set up the Designer file(s) and bring illustrations into Publisher?  Put each on its own artboard in Designer and do something like add Pages in Publisher?  Export each as a separate SVG file and place them as images?  Just put everything on one canvas, bring the whole mess into Publisher at once, then drag the individual illustrations off to where they belong?  What do people recommend?

[walt.farrell]

Your choices that I know of are:

1. Copy the layers from a Designer document and Paste them into your Publisher document. This may allow you better control over the text-wrapping and allow better insertion inline within the text flow. It will also allow easy editing within Publisher if further changes are needed, without affecting the original Designer document.
    
2. Exporting from Designer as SVG files, and Placing the individual SVG files into your Publisher document, either Linked or Embedded.
   
   If Embedded, you will be able to edit them further within Publisher, without affecting the original Designer files. However, the text-wrapping and pinning inline may be more difficult than approach 1.
   
   If Linked, you will not be able to make further edits, and text-wrapping and pinning inline may be more difficult than approach 1.
    
3. Saving the .afdesign file from Designer, and Placing individual artboards into your Publisher document, either Linked or Embedded.
   
   Either Linked or Embedded you will be able to make further edits within your Publisher document. However, if Linked any edits will affect the original Designer document. And, as in 2, text-wrap and pinning inline may be more difficult than with approach 1.

[Wosven]

I would use depending of the work:

• An imported APub file with each illustration on a page (work nice with same format objects, like stickers, since it's difficult to see at first glance different spread format in APub, if they are homothetic),
• on an imported AD file with multiples artbaords, that you can dupplicate if you need to tweek a specific illustration and want to keep the original. You can also modify this file directly in APub later, keeping the artboard view  in the Designer persona.

This way, you can keep a colour palette and modify it in the original file. If you copy-paste them in the APub file, you'll loose those link to the colour and the palette.

[sfriedberg]

@walt.farrell @Wosven Thank you both for the quick suggestions!

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

[Petar Petrenko]

Just import the multy artboard file into Publsher and you will be prompted to put the first artboard to the page.

Then, an icon "Artboard: Artboard1" appears on the context toolbar where from you can add the additional artboards into the document.

[Ralph Hulick Art]

I don't see where to select the artboard. I am trying to place a multiple social media icons from a single Designer file; they are each on their own artboards. I am using the "place" command, is there a different way to do it?

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, Ralph Hulick Art said:

I don't see where to select the artboard. I am trying to place a multiple social media icons from a single Designer file; they are each on their own artboards. I am using the "place" command, is there a different way to do it?

What application are you using when you Place the Designer file, Ralph?

And, if you're using Publisher, are you Linking or Embedding the Designer file?

 

[Ralph Hulick Art]

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

What application are you using when you Place the Designer file, Ralph?

And, if you're using Publisher, are you Linking or Embedding the Designer file?

 

I'm using Publisher, and I am Linking the Designer file. I thought that would be the best option in case I need to update something of the icons across all my Publisher files.

 

edit: Oh, I just found it. I had been looking at the content inside the frame, but the artboard selection dropdown was on the frame itself.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Ralph Hulick Art

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, Ralph Hulick Art said:

edit: Oh, I just found it. I had been looking at the content inside the frame, but the artboard selection dropdown was on the frame itself.

On the Context Toolbar, I think.

[Ralph Hulick Art]

15 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

On the Context Toolbar, I think.

Yes, thank you again!

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome