Drag and Drop Pictures directly from Browser to Affinity Designer's Document

[Roya]

I just found out that it is possible to Drag and Drop Pictures directly from the Browser to an Affinity Designer's Document, which I find perfect for quick working and brainstorming.
My question is - since the picutres are not linked - are they then embedded in the doc and the docs size will increase the more pictures I drop there?

Since pictures from the net are relatively small (in Data-Size) it shouldn't be a big thing to have - lets say 100 oder 200 pictures dropped in? The document also does not become buggy from it, right?

Does anybody have insight on that? Would be helpful.

Thanks in Advance!
Roya

Edited September 20, 2021 by Roya

[Dan C]

Hi @Roya,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

3 hours ago, Roya said:

I just found out that it is possible to Drag and Drop Pictures directly from the Browser to an Affinity Designer's Document, which I find perfect for quick working and brainstorming.
My question is - since the picutres are not linked - are they then embedded in the doc and the docs size will increase the more pictures I drop there?

I can confirm that when drag and dropping files from Finder/Windows Explorer, they will be added using the Image Placement Policy that you select when creating a new document, or through File > Document Setup -

This means you can choose to either have these resources linked or embedded, as you've mentioned with multiple placed files, Linked will be better for the apps overall performance as this should use less resources than embedded images.

If you need to change any images you have already added to your document, you can do this through View > Resource Manager.

I hope this clears things up

[walt.farrell]

21 minutes ago, Dan C said:

I can confirm that when drag and dropping files from Finder/Windows Explorer,

I may be wrong, but I interpreted the question as relating to dragging/dropping from a web browser. That will also work, and will also be governed by the image placement policy. And if set to Linked, and I try it on my Windows system, the Resource Manager shows a Linked file that is located in the normal Temp folder (for me, somewhere down in the Windows AppData folder for the logged-on user). The Resource Manager can locate it and let you access it

[R C-R]

8 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I may be wrong, but I interpreted the question as relating to dragging/dropping from a web browser. That will also work, and will also be governed by the image placement policy. And if set to Linked, and I try it on my Windows system, the Resource Manager shows a Linked file that is located in the normal Temp folder (for me, somewhere down in the Windows AppData folder for the logged-on user). The Resource Manager can locate it and let you access it

I tried creating a new AD document on my Mac with Image Placement Policy set to Linked, dragged Walt's forum user icon from this page open in Safari, but the Resource Manager shows it as Embedded:

Walt's Icon.afdesign

I am reasonably sure this has always worked this way, at least with Safari on any Mac I have tried it with -- for the image to be linked, I have always had to drag it from the Safari page to (for example) the desktop, & then to drag it from there into the AD document window.

[Roya]

11 hours ago, Dan C said:

Hi @Roya,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

I can confirm that when drag and dropping files from Finder/Windows Explorer, they will be added using the Image Placement Policy that you select when creating a new document, or through File > Document Setup -

This means you can choose to either have these resources linked or embedded, as you've mentioned with multiple placed files, Linked will be better for the apps overall performance as this should use less resources than embedded images.

If you need to change any images you have already added to your document, you can do this through View > Resource Manager.

I hope this clears things up

Hey Dan, thank you and thanks a lot for taking time to answer my question.
The Resource Manager is helpful! I will use that! Concerning the embedded Pictures: They are just found IN the document? AD doesn't create a file somewhere on the Computer (Mac) additionally where I could relink to or find them, right?

Is there an Option that the pictures are automatically resized/ minimized to screen-resolution when dropped to document, so the file does not increase so fast?
 

[Roya]

4 hours ago, R C-R said:

I tried creating a new AD document on my Mac with Image Placement Policy set to Linked, dragged Walt's forum user icon from this page open in Safari, but the Resource Manager shows it as Embedded:

Walt's Icon.afdesign

I am reasonably sure this has always worked this way, at least with Safari on any Mac I have tried it with -- for the image to be linked, I have always had to drag it from the Safari page to (for example) the desktop, & then to drag it from there into the AD document window.

Hey R C-R,

thank you for taking time to help me out.

I have also done that and checked the document settings afterward - the Image Placement Option is still on 'linked' for the doc in general, so that must mean that the document presets are for imported Pictures from the Computer only. Drag & Drop directly from the Browser creates an embedded picture automatically, to my experience.

I have no clue where that temp File can be found on Mac if it exists? Do you probably have further information about that too? Would be great!

Kind regards

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Roya

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Roya said:

I did the same and it seems as if every picture that is drag & dropped directly from another source to the document is automatically embedded.

For me, if the source is local (IOW, a file stored somewhere on my Mac) then the prefer linked preference is honored. It is when the source is on a web page (so there is no locally stored version of it on my Mac) that it is embedded.

This makes some sense because once I close the web page or quit the Safari browser, there would be nothing permanent to link to.

[Dan C]

No problem at all, more than happy to help

7 hours ago, Roya said:

Concerning the embedded Pictures: They are just found IN the document? AD doesn't create a file somewhere on the Computer (Mac) additionally where I could relink to or find them, right?

That's correct, 'Embedded' resources are saved within the Affinity document - however through the Resource Manager you can use the 'Make Linked' option, if you wish to change this.

If you have, for example, drag and dropped an image from online, this will not be saved locally on your mac, therefore when selecting the 'make linked' option, you should be shown a Finder window allow you to choose where you want the image to be saved/linked from.

7 hours ago, Roya said:

Is there an Option that the pictures are automatically resized/ minimized to screen-resolution when dropped to document, so the file does not increase so fast?

Unfortunately such an option does not exist AFAIK, my apologies!

[walt.farrell]

@Dan C: We seem to have two Mac users reporting that images dragged from a web browser into their document give Embedded documents, and one Windows user reporting that it gives Linked documents. That inconsistency seems odd.

[Ron P.]

24 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

@Dan C: We seem to have two Mac users reporting that images dragged from a web browser into their document give Embedded documents, and one Windows user reporting that it gives Linked documents. That inconsistency seems odd.

We now have a tie, add me to the Windows giving Linked documents.

Edited:

Playing with this more, it seems for me anyway, it depends on what the preference is set to. If I change from Linked to Embeded, that's what is done. This is in both AP & AD.

[Dan C]

23 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

We seem to have two Mac users reporting that images dragged from a web browser into their document give Embedded documents, and one Windows user reporting that it gives Linked documents. That inconsistency seems odd.

Thanks Walt, I agree this should certainly be consistent, provided the OS allows for this (I can't see any reason why it would not, however I'm not as knowledgeable in regards to mac temporary files) - so I'll get this logged with our developers now

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Dan C said:

Thanks Walt, I agree this should certainly be consistent, provided the OS allows for this (I can't see any reason why it would not, however I'm not as knowledgeable in regards to mac temporary files) - so I'll get this logged with our developers now

Just guessing, but for Macs there might potentially be a sandboxing issue, at least for those of us who bought AD from the MAS.

[Old Bruce]

10 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Just guessing, but for Macs there might potentially be a sandboxing issue, at least for those of us who bought AD from the MAS.

Just checked with my copy of Publisher (which is from Serif) and the dragged-from-a-web-browser picture was embedded into the Prefer-linked-images Publisher document.

[R C-R]

29 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Just checked with my copy of Publisher (which is from Serif) and the dragged-from-a-web-browser picture was embedded into the Prefer-linked-images Publisher document.

Thank for checking that. I also bought APub from the Affinity store, so I was thinking of testing that but you saved me the trouble. 😀

[Roya]

17 hours ago, Dan C said:

No problem at all, more than happy to help

That's correct, 'Embedded' resources are saved within the Affinity document - however through the Resource Manager you can use the 'Make Linked' option, if you wish to change this.

If you have, for example, drag and dropped an image from online, this will not be saved locally on your mac, therefore when selecting the 'make linked' option, you should be shown a Finder window allow you to choose where you want the image to be saved/linked from.

Unfortunately such an option does not exist AFAIK, my apologies!

Alright thank you! I am asking because Walt spoke about a temp File created be the App when dropping pictures directly from the Browser. So there is no folder which is created?

Yes,  I understood that and know that from other programs.

In case a real Newbie reads this: the embedded pictures need to be collected first in a folder which you save somewhere int the computer via the option in the Ressource Manager and can then be relinked.


 

[Dan C]

5 hours ago, Roya said:

Alright thank you! I am asking because Walt spoke about a temp File created be the App when dropping pictures directly from the Browser. So there is no folder which is created?

There would only be 'temporary' files in use if you have your document set to Preferred Linked, and the location of these 'temporary' files would show in the Resource Manager.

if you have Preferred Embedded enabled then the app doesn't need to use any temporary files/folders 

[Roya]

3 hours ago, Dan C said:

There would only be 'temporary' files in use if you have your document set to Preferred Linked, and the location of these 'temporary' files would show in the Resource Manager.

if you have Preferred Embedded enabled then the app doesn't need to use any temporary files/folders 

Okay, then everything is cleared on this topic. Thank you again and kind regards from Germany.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, Dan C said:

There would only be 'temporary' files in use if you have your document set to Preferred Linked, and the location of these 'temporary' files would show in the Resource Manager.

if you have Preferred Embedded enabled then the app doesn't need to use any temporary files/folders 

I think @Roya is a Mac user. If so, as two of us Mac users have reported, there is no temporary file created, even when Prefer Linked is set, & the Resource manager shows the item as embedded, not linked. Clicking on 'make linked' brings up a dialog asking where to save the file.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I think @Roya is a Mac user. If so, as two of us Mac users have reported, there is no temporary file created, even when Prefer Linked is set, & the Resource manager shows the item as embedded, not linked. Clicking on 'make linked' brings up a dialog asking where to save the file.

But this could simply mean that MacOS works differently than Windows. For example, on Windows dragging from a browser Window to one of the Affinity applications acts like it is a form of File > Place (or Drag from File Explorer) using a local downloaded file, with a sequence like:

1. Browser: download the file into the Windows temp folder.
2. Application: drag from temp folder into the document. This ends up Linked, as it would when dragging from File Explorer or using Place, and there is a local file to be linked.

But on Mac, it seems to be more like copy/paste:

1. Browser: copy image file into clipboard.
2. Application: paste the image into the document from the clipboard. This is then Embedded, because there is no local file to be linked.

 

[Roya]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I think @Roya is a Mac user. If so, as two of us Mac users have reported, there is no temporary file created, even when Prefer Linked is set, & the Resource manager shows the item as embedded, not linked. Clicking on 'make linked' brings up a dialog asking where to save the file.

That is correct from my side. Yes, I am a Mac User.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

But on Mac, it seems to be more like copy/paste:

1. Browser: copy image file into clipboard.
2. Application: paste the image into the document from the clipboard. This is then Embedded, because there is no local file to be linked.

Good guess, but according to Finder's Edit > Show Clipboard, & one other clipboard viewer, the image is not copied to the clipboard. 

However, I just retried adding your forum icon to a new AP file from Safari 15, which I just now upgraded from the 14.x version I used before.

This time, in the Resource Manager it still showed the file as embedded, but unlike before, when I clicked the "Make Linked..." button, "Show in Finder" became active & clicking it showed a file stored deep in private/var/folders. I don't know if this had anything to do with the Safari update or what, but it does now store the file in that folder, whereas before it asked me to choose a location.

EDIT: Weirdly, I can not duplicate the above underlined behavior after quitting & restarting AD. It now acts just like it did before updating Safari -- if I click the "Make Linked..." button, once again it offers a choice of where I want to store the linked file.

EDIT 2:  In fact, there is no longer anything buried deep in the private/var/folders where "Show in Finder" once said there was. It's still there -- I was just looking in the wrong subfolder. 

I will have to check at some point but the /var/ folder usually is cleared on restarting a Mac, so it is a good thing that this is not (normally?) the default behavior.

[Roya]

15 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

But this could simply mean that MacOS works differently than Windows. For example, on Windows dragging from a browser Window to one of the Affinity applications acts like it is a form of File > Place (or Drag from File Explorer) using a local downloaded file, with a sequence like:

1. Browser: download the file into the Windows temp folder.
2. Application: drag from temp folder into the document. This ends up Linked, as it would when dragging from File Explorer or using Place, and there is a local file to be linked.

But on Mac, it seems to be more like copy/paste:

1. Browser: copy image file into clipboard.
2. Application: paste the image into the document from the clipboard. This is then Embedded, because there is no local file to be linked.

 

No No. I don't copy the image i really drag and drop it from the browser diretly by having both windows parallely open and grabbing the picture from the browser-window and droppin it directly on the artboard in Affinity Designer. Very intuitive fluent style of working - by the way.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, Roya said:

No No. I don't copy the image i really drag and drop it from the browser diretly by having both windows parallely open and grabbing the picture from the browser-window and droppin it directly on the artboard in Affinity Designer. Very intuitive fluent style of working - by the way.

I did not say that you copied the image. I said that it acts like the browser copied the image.

It has to live somewhere, and that must be either in the clipboard or in a folder somewhere that holds temporary files. (Actually, there's also the possibility that an OS could setup a kind of network-based file such that an application would perform a "read" operation and some part of the system or network software would do the I/O over the network, without the application having to worry how it works. But I don't think that's what's happening.)

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

It has to live somewhere, and that must be either in the clipboard or in a folder somewhere that holds temporary files.

Where it is living is in the Affinity document. That's because even with the "Prefer Linked" option enabled, dragging it into the document window embeds it in the file, as the Resource Manager shows. As I reported above, clicking the "Make Linked..." button now automatically adds it to a subfolder in private/var/ but since the var folder is emptied when the Mac is restarted, that does not seem like a good place to store it.

This apparently is different from the Windows versions.

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

Where it is living is in the Affinity document.

Yes, once the drag has completed, it's in the Affinity document (for you, on Mac). But where is it while you're dragging it? If it's not in the file system at that point, there's no way for the Affinity application to Link to it. It would have to Embed it.