Add/hide Affinity files in PDF & TIFF formats to improve efficiency (like Illustrator and Photoshop)

[lightlin]

I hope we can add PDF format, TIFF format and more formats to improve efficiency. Both illustrator and Photoshop have this function, but affnity only has the original affnity file format, so we can't give up the efficiency of illustrator and Photoshop.

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @lightlin.

Affinity Designer can export to numerous formats including PDF and TIFF, but you need to use the ‘Export’ command or the Export persona. The ‘Save’ and ‘Save As...’ commands are mainly for use with the native file format (*.afdesign), although you can also open an image file (e.g. *.jpg) and ‘Save’ it back to its original format.

[lightlin]

Export is not as easy to use as save. If you have used AI and PS, you can really experience the difference. There's a big difference between the two. The feeling is totally different. I just hope other software has good functions, and the new software also has them. Those who win users win the world. what you think? thank you!

[Wosven]

There's not really big difference but the order of actions:

• PS, etc. : choose file name, choose type file, if needed options, save
• Affinity apps : choose type file, if needed options, choose file name, save

[RNKLN]

Yes, let's have this discussion again. 😀

At least on Mac, the rule is the following:

• Save, Save As - meant for the native file format
• Export/Share - meant for exporting to other formats, including the ones referred to above

It works this way in Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Affinity Publisher, Vectoraster, Logoist, Art Text, Letters …

The software where it doesn't work that way if often software developed for Windows and (poorly) ported to Mac, e.g. Adobe software.

[Wosven]

5 minutes ago, RNKLN said:

• Save, Save As - meant for the native file format
• Export/Share - meant for exporting to other formats, including the ones referred to above

It's standard, interestingly Affinity app ask about overwritting JPG/PNG when saving.

Also interestingly, Gimp can export depending of added extension.

 

10 minutes ago, RNKLN said:

The software where it doesn't work that way if often software developed for Windows and (poorly) ported to Mac, e.g. Adobe software.

I can't remember big differences exporting from PS on OS X from Windows, but as you said, the principles are similar.

[loukash]

@lightlin, having already read and replied to some of your other posts today, I think you may definitively want to read the help files and watch some tutorials first.

[uneMule]

21 minutes ago, RNKLN said:

The software where it doesn't work that way if often software developed for Windows and (poorly) ported to Mac, e.g. Adobe software.

Nous n'avons pas la même historicité. 😉

We do not have the same historicity . 😉

[ashf]

Non-native formats in Save command may cause the confusion.
Like in other software, if you save as a non-native and continue to edit the file, you will make the change on it but the original native format.
People often don't notice it and later they will regret.

So saving non-native format from Export command is logical and safer.
 

[PaoloT]

What I would find handy, in being able to save as TIFF or PDF, is that you will not need the original and the exported file to be incorporated into other apps.

For example, if you use InDesign as the layout program, and Affinity Designer and Photo as the drawing/illustration apps, you can't open the original file via the Edit Original command from InDesign. You have to locate the placed file, then the original source, open it, and then export it again. Then, update the links in InDesign.

If you could have the same file as the original Affinity and the placed file, you would save a lot of space and clicks.

At least in Photoshop, TIFF can save most or all what you can save in a PSD file.

Paolo

 

[walt.farrell]

45 minutes ago, PaoloT said:

For example, if you use InDesign as the layout program, and Affinity Designer and Photo as the drawing/illustration apps, you can't open the original file via the Edit Original command from InDesign. You have to locate the placed file, then the original source, open it, and then export it again. Then, update the links in InDesign.

If you could have the same file as the original Affinity and the placed file, you would save a lot of space and clicks

You need to use Affinity Publisher rather than InDesign

[StuartRc]

31 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You need to use Affinity Publisher rather than InDesign

That is so true!

[uneMule]

Mixer les écosystèmes est possible mais c'est se priver de l'avantage d'utiliser les formats natifs, dans certains cas. Les développeurs travaillant à une intégration forte de leur propre solution. StudioLink en est un exemple.

*****

Mixing ecosystems is possible, but it means losing the advantage of using native formats in some cases. Developers working on a strong integration of their own solution. StudioLink is an example.

[PaoloT]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

You need to use Affinity Publisher rather than InDesign

In perspective, this will be the ideal solution. But I think AfPub will reach feature parity with InDesign not sooner than in three-five years. In the meantime, some of us will probably have to work in a mixed environment, where common interchange formats will be needed.

This is due to AfDesigner and AfPhoto being already viable replacements for the Adobe counterparts, so it will be completely legit using them together with software from other suites.

(As a matter of fact, I’m already enjoying working in AfDesigner more than in Illustrator!)

Paolo

 

[uneMule]

@PaoloT

Vous avez sans doute raison. Et il ne manque pas grand chose à Designer pour être un bon outil de conception de formes.
Il appartient à chacun de définir objectivement ses besoins et la proposition pléthorique d'un Photoshop n'est pas toujours nécessaire.

*****

You are probably right. And Designer doesn't lack much to be a good shape design tool.
It is up to each individual to define his or her needs objectively, and the plethora of Photoshop fonctionnality is not always necessary.

[lightlin]

Thank you for your replies, because the design is a complex work that needs to be completed with different software. TIFF, PDF and other formats are used as intercommunication formats between them, which are very useful. At present, the affnity series software is only realized by exporting. Compared with Adobe's, the code is actually changed after a change. Since the export can be done, why can't the save be realized? This may be related to the product manager's idea when designing!😃

[Wosven]

9 hours ago, PaoloT said:

At least in Photoshop, TIFF can save most or all what you can save in a PSD file.

Long ago, we discarded PSD format to TIFF made with PS. It was better than PSD, huge files not importable in QXD, and was able to keep mask, curves, layers, etc. Integration of PS' TIFF in QXD was optimal.

I was really disapointed using AD/AP, to learn than those TIFF weren't regular TIFF files, Adobe adding extra data in them, not always visible when those files where opened in other apps (broking the choice of TIFF format as an universal and long term format).

 

Affinity apps could do the same (extra datas in  TIFF files), but in the end, the problem would occur when opening them in other apps. I hope one day we'll have a really "universal" format, able to keep layers, effects, curves, mask, etc. An equivalent to the PDF format for images. (It probably wouldn't be 100% compatible, but general rules as with W3C specifications).

[walt.farrell]

31 minutes ago, Wosven said:

Affinity apps could do the same (extra datas in  TIFF files), but in the end, the problem would occur when opening them in other apps.

Affinity apps can already do that. One of the options when Exporting a TIFF file is to "Include Affinity Layers", which basically creates a flattened raster image that other applications can read, and an embedded Affinity document that preserves all the layers, masks, etc. (but only Affinity can read).

[Wosven]

58 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

which basically creates a flattened raster image that other applications can read, and an embedded Affinity document that preserves all the layers, masks, etc. (but only Affinity can read).

Since long ago, in the first discussions about TIFF, they said they woudn't, I supposed they didn't, like with 1 bit TIFF/Bitmap support.

[walt.farrell]

39 minutes ago, Wosven said:

Since long ago, in the first discussions about TIFF, they said they woudn't

I don't know when it was implemented, but they've had support for Affinity Layers in TIFF files since before 1.6.

[Alfred]

6 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I don't know when it was implemented, but they've had support for Affinity Layers in TIFF files since before 1.6.

It was added in version 1.5.

 

[lightlin]

Thank you for your reply, but hope to perfect the function of affinity more and more!

[Fixx]

9 hours ago, Alfred said:

It was added in version 1.5.

Seems AP can read Photoshop tif layers but PS (CS6) cannot read Affinity layers.

[uneMule]

Bonjour,

Non mais le tiff 1 bit !?
Et toutes les bricoles qu'on insère dans les compositions, les signatures, les petits logos... à mettre en couleur.
Il me semble que ma grand mère utilisait déjà ça à son époque dans la beta de PageMaker ...

*****

No but the 1 bit tiff!?
And all the odds and ends that are inserted in the compositions, the signatures, the little logos... to be coloured.
It seems to me that my grandmother already used this in her time... 😁

[loukash]

4 hours ago, uneMule said:

but the 1 bit tiff!?
And all the odds and ends that are inserted in the compositions, the signatures, the little logos... to be coloured.

Export as palettized b/w PNG instead. It will be a true 1-bit image. You can then place and colorize it as if it were a 1-bit TIFF.
On Mac, you can also use the built-in Preview app to convert the PNG to 1-bit TIFF if you wish, but it will often only increase the file size without much benefit. For Affinity apps, it doesn't make a difference anyway, they are fine with placed PNG.

More on that in the following thread, starting here and continuing on the next pages:

In fact, you can colorize any placed image by using the "K Only" option button in the context toolbar. Works nicely with CMYK images if you use just the K channel.
Works even with RGB images: the K channel will be converted on the fly, albeit just as a "rich black" approximation, so you'll end up with a paler tint of the applied color.

So, to create a "pseudo-1-bit" TIFF in Photo:

1. convert RGB image to CMYK
2. add an adjustment to make it grayscale, e.g. Levels in "Gray" mode
3. add Threshold adjustment, adjust the "1-bit" look
4. flatten all layers; you will now have a C100 M100 Y100 K100 pixel layer
5. in Channels panel, clear the CMY channels content, they are now just duplicates of K
6. export as CMYK TIFF, optionally check "resample: nearest neighbor" to be on the safe side, avoiding any antialiasing glitches

You have now a "de facto 1-bit" TIFF, with the CMY channels being blank. Place in APu/ADe/APh, colorize with K Only active, behaves exactly the same as "de iure" 1-bit TIFF.

^ Edit:
Forgot to mention that PDF export still remains a problem, however. Unfortunately Affinity lacks the export options how to handle 1-bit images separately, so you must disable downsampling and JPEG compression on PDF export to keep the 1-bit appearance intact. There's no way to work around that, as far as I can tell, without resorting e.g. to Acrobat to downsample any placed regular images in an extra step.

Edited May 18, 2021 by loukash