eindietmar Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 My biggest problem with the current implementation of the Pasteboard is, i currently have all my illustrator files created with the use of illustrators pasteboard, which just shows everything even if it is off the canvas/artboard. As mentioned above this could be similar versions to the item of the artboard, a pallette or else. The main problem for me is that i haven´t found a way of importing illustrator documents showing the whole content of the illustrator pasteboard. Even if i resize the current artboard, only the items will get visible that where clipped before. Files that where created in illustrator by having an empty artboard (I usually just use the artboard to put things on while printing, and then put it back from the artboard to the pasteboard, so an empty artboard could happen often) but a filled pasteboard don´t show any content in Affinity Designer. So all my current Files which have been created in Illustrator show nothing but a blank canvas, since the pasteboard is not supported. And currently this is the only reason why i am still bound to illustrator. Is there any solution on how to import illustrator documents that heavily rely on illustrator artboards? If this is possible, i can finally make the switch. Thanks guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted December 1, 2015 Staff Share Posted December 1, 2015 My biggest problem with the current implementation of the Pasteboard is, i currently have all my illustrator files created with the use of illustrators pasteboard, which just shows everything even if it is off the canvas/artboard. As mentioned above this could be similar versions to the item of the artboard, a pallette or else. The main problem for me is that i haven´t found a way of importing illustrator documents showing the whole content of the illustrator pasteboard. Even if i resize the current artboard, only the items will get visible that where clipped before. Files that where created in illustrator by having an empty artboard (I usually just use the artboard to put things on while printing, and then put it back from the artboard to the pasteboard, so an empty artboard could happen often) but a filled pasteboard don´t show any content in Affinity Designer. So all my current Files which have been created in Illustrator show nothing but a blank canvas, since the pasteboard is not supported. And currently this is the only reason why i am still bound to illustrator. Is there any solution on how to import illustrator documents that heavily rely on illustrator artboards? If this is possible, i can finally make the switch. Thanks guys. Hi eindietmar, This isn't a pasteboard limitation you're having problems with - it's a problem caused by the fact that Illustrator's 'compatibility PDF' (the PDF it embeds in its files in order to allow other applications to open them - including Adobe's own applications) is actually clipped and trimmed to the visible artboards. If you have an object off the side, it will not be in the PDF stream in the file, hence nothing we do could ever bring it back. If you opened the Illustrator file in Adobe InDesign (for example) you would also find that the items off the page are no longer in the file at all for this same reason. It's a limitation of the compatibility file format in Illustrator. Thanks, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted December 1, 2015 Author Share Posted December 1, 2015 Yep, for me the only answer is to move all objects onto the visible artboards, open in Designer and move them back out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eindietmar Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 Today i have played around with that issue. What i found out is really suprising: What MattP is saying only accounts for Illustrators AI files. Now i found a workaround wich does much more then just allowing me to import my illustrator pasteboard. I exported a rather complex document with a heavily used pasteboard into SVG and EPS. When opening the exported SVG file with Affinity Designer it shows the initial canvas siuze to be the same as the original in Illustrator When you select all items (CMD-A) all the pasteboard items are also present but not shown, You can just see the blue selection rectangles around those items, but outside of the initial canvas. So SVG would work for me with one issue, the blending options within an SVG are not displayed correctly (seems to be a file format issue not supporting all blending options. When opening the EPS file with Affinity Designer the initial canvas size is not the same as the illustrator Canvas size, it actually adopts the size of all the pasteboard items to the initial canvas size so all the pasteboard items are inside the initial canvas size. (Problem with EPS is moreover the format of the document type, it won´t let you edit your graphics (if you have FX like blur or alike) because it creates slices of your vector arts.) Is there any know format i could export to within illustrator apart from SVG and EPS that will include my pasteboard items? thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VIPStephan Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Just chiming in to say that the current implementation (in a document without artboard) where objects are hidden outside the canvas (i. e. the working area, to not name it “artboard”) is 100% similar to Fireworks, so for me there is no difference at all, and I’m happy with it. What I could imagine would be that you can set a global “opacity” value for objects outside an artboard. So, if you move an object partially or completely outside, the outside part is not completely hidden but semi-transparent as you have set in the preferences or whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imacken Posted December 2, 2015 Author Share Posted December 2, 2015 Out of interest, why are you happy with your objects being invisible off the canvas? Personally, I can't see any reason why that is preferable to all objects being visible? Only asking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eindietmar Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Same here, items only visible on canvas kind a limitates the space i could use to draw on. What i am used to is, to have the artboards itself beeing white whereover the pasteboard area is light grey, which perfectly works for me, to differentiate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VIPStephan Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Out of interest, why are you happy with your objects being invisible off the canvas? Personally, I can't see any reason why that is preferable to all objects being visible? Only asking! I usually don’t just move objects aside, that’s too cluttered up for me. If I don’t want to see something I make it invisible or I delete it right away. And if an object is just partially in the working area (artboard) I just want to see the part that’s in the zone – makes it easier to visualize the whole picture. It’s probably a matter of convention (people are used to the functionality of their previous application of choice) but for me there is no point in having objects visible outside the canvas/artboard. What do I need artboards for in the first place then? I could as well just have an infinite canvas then. anon1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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