Affinity (all) never purge useless data at saving

[vjsouza]

Hello, guys at Serif. I would very much like this post to be read by the Affinity programmers.

Before proceeding, please download this file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mg7GLmxeihpIWuNmpbMt7_Az8TKLvuwO/view?usp=sharing

I have noticed, since many versions ago, that Affinity (all, Photo, Designer and Publisher) never delete the information of deleted objects after saving. Let me explain in detail.

I have a document full of bitmaps for my contractor to choose the best version. After choosing, I delete the unused bitmaps and save the file, but the size of the saved file does not decrease. The information about the deleted objects is inaccessible to me, but even if I have deleted them, they still occupy space in bytes in the saved file. This problem accompanies the products of the Affinity line since the first version.

I sent sample files. The download link is above. The file 01 Certificate.afpub, 157,607,759 bytes, is a A4 300DPI with lots of bitmaps. Is a very huge file. The file 02 Opening.afpub, 163,838,875 bytes, is an adapted version of 01 with some objects excluded. I just added the background. Despite having deleted data, the size in bytes is larger than version 01, which is very strange!

Then, I deleted everything but the background and added 7 vector objects and saved the file with the name 03 7 boxes.afpub. The file size in bytes should have decreased dramatically. But that is not what happened. Inexplicably the file size was being 144,508,567 bytes. This is a tremendous absurd BUG!

To try to get around the problem, I grouped everything in document 03 into one group, I copied it and I created a new document from clipboard. I saved the new document as 04 Copied and Pasted from 7 boxes.afpub, with only 1,500,625 bytes!

Document 04 is an identical replica of document 03. The only difference is the size in bytes.

"Save history with document" is disabled. So, that is not the source of the problem.

The cause of the problem is this: I have already reported this problem on other occasions, but it have fallen into blind eyes and deaf ears!

 

I hope this time will be solved.

 

 

 

[Wosven]

Really interesting.

(But why is this written in 250px instead of the regular font size? I had to dezoom dramatically to read your post)

[Jon P]

Hi @vjsouza

I'm querying this to see where the filesize is coming from, did you ever have save with history enabled, and did you then disable it at some point?

[vjsouza]

On 12/15/2020 at 5:52 PM, Wosven said:

Really interesting.

(But why is this written in 250px instead of the regular font size? I had to dezoom dramatically to read your post)

Sorry. I did Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V in Google Translator. I do not understand English!

[vjsouza]

2 minutes ago, Jon P said:

Hi @vjsouza

I'm querying this to see where the filesize is coming from, did you ever have save with history enabled, and did you then disable it at some point?

Jon P, I never enable save history.

[carl123]

On 12/15/2020 at 6:15 PM, vjsouza said:

Then, I deleted everything but the background and added 7 vector objects and saved the file with the name 03 7 boxes.afpub. The file size in bytes should have decreased dramatically. But that is not what happened. Inexplicably the file size was being 144,508,567 bytes. 

03 7 boxes.afpub has a snapshot saved with it

You can see that if you open it in APhoto and go to the Snapshot studio

If you delete the snapshot and resave the file it drops from 144MB to just 1,458KB

Publisher does not create snapshots!

Did this Publisher file originally start out as an APhoto file?

 

[vjsouza]

Carl123,

I always start my projects with Affinity Publisher, as it allows me to go directly to Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer without having to change programs.

I will pay more attention to this snapshot. Thank you very much.

[carl123]

Did you manually create a snapshot at any time?

[vjsouza]

Carl123, I never create snapshots, for nothing! I'll check if the program creates on its own.

[carl123]

APhoto automatically creates a snapshot whenever you File > Open an image file

If you always start with Publisher, then the only way I can see you getting a snapshot is if the first thing you do is switch to the Photo persona and open an image file

Then that snapshot will be forever in your Publisher file (or until you manually delete it)

 

[vjsouza]

Carl123, thank you for the information. I did not know that. This is a program failure. Once I deleted the image, the program should delete the snapshot when saving.

[carl123]

1 minute ago, vjsouza said:

Once I deleted the image, the program should delete the snapshot when saving.

The snapshot is a history of the initial state when you open an image so no it should not be deleted when you delete the image

But there should be a setting in preferences to say don't create the initial snapshot

Don't need it
Didn't ask for it
Takes up space
Have to always remember to delete it
It's a pain in the butt

[vjsouza]

3 minutes ago, carl123 said:

"It's a pain in the butt". 

I fully agree

Another super annoying thing about Affinity (all versions). I have a 1920x1080 canvas, so I paste on it (Ctrl + V) a 1920x1080 pixel image, but the pasted image is never in the position it should be. Affinity pastes wherever the program wants, except in the correct position. The program should paste everything in the exact center of the canvas.