Missing features in print design and production workflow

[GregoriusX]

I just purchased the Affinity Designer Black Friday deal. I really love how fast and smooth AD works!

As a graphic designer I mostly work in the print design area I immediately noticed some essential features were missing to continue my workflow in AD.

People who are familiar with InDesign and Illustrator know these apps have a sturdy CMYK print support. I'm sure you (Affnity) are familiar with the matter.

Changing swatch properties in ID and AI is really easy. When a global swatch is created in AD the only thing one can change afterward are the CMYK values. In AD there's no way to change overprint settings of a global swatch once its created. In ID or AI you just double click a swatch and change all of its properties. Why not name these colors spot colors in AD anyway?

There seems no way to preview overprints in AD. This is essential for a CMYK print production workflow. In AI there's Overprint Preview so one can check overprint errors in advance (before  exporting to PDF):

 

I really miss the CMYK swatches from AI. I know HSL looks better on screen but I really need CMYK swatches in our print workflow. Do you have separate swatch files available for import in AD?

 

In ID and AI it is very easy to change overprint properties of objects and text. There's no control in AD for this.

 

I wisth there was a Separations Preview panel just like in AI:

 

For now I only can play around with AD, which is fun I admit.

Once the above features are incorporated in AD I can start thinking about using it in CMYK print workflow. I'm already looking forward to it.

[Mithferion]

2 hours ago, GregoriusX said:

When a global swatch is created in AD the only thing one can change afterward are the CMYK values. In AD there's no way to change overprint settings of a global swatch once its created. In ID or AI you just double click a swatch and change all of its properties. Why not name these colors spot colors in AD anyway?

Yes, you can rename the Swatch and set the Overprint option on and off. What you don't have is the same window that in the Adobe Programs.

Best regards!

[CLC]

15 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

Yes, you can rename the Swatch and set the Overprint option on and off. What you don't have is the same window that in the Adobe Programs.

Best regards!

I think you're missing the point here, @Mithferion 😉

The way AI handles overprint is object (property) based while in Affinity it's colour-based.
The object oriented system is imo way more logical, you could easily want to overprint the same colour at one place of the document, while having it knocked-out in other part.
Overprint preview is a must also, without any doubts...

Also, it's not that easy to handle colour swatches in Affinity compared to AI - you can't work with multiple colour swatches at once, and you also can't switch Spot color checkbox anymore, once you've created a Spot color swatch, you can't turn it back to CMYK (or other colour model). The only, and very counter-intuitive way is to create a new swatch, then Select > Same Colour, then change the swatch, later deleting the spot-colour swatch. What a UX I'd say...

[GregoriusX]

37 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

Yes, you can rename the Swatch and set the Overprint option on and off. What you don't have is the same window that in the Adobe Programs.

Best regards!

Have you ever worked with Adobe Illustrator or InDesign?

When you double click a swatch in AI or ID you can change all of its properties, anytime I want.

In AD you can only change its CMYK - or other color mode - values.

InDesign:

Illustrator:

 

I hope this and other print features will be added soon. Otherwise this app is pretty much useless to me.

 

 

 

[Mithferion]

44 minutes ago, CLC said:

I think you're missing the point here, @Mithferion 😉

I was simply stating what can be done, not that Designer can do the same as Illustrator  InDesign.

20 minutes ago, GregoriusX said:

In AD you can only change its CMYK - or other color mode - values.

And I told a couple of properties that you indeed can change, but not through a similar dialog. You have to right click to access a menu which allows such a change.

It's not what you are used to, and it's not all you want, but it's more than what you stated.

Best regards!

[Mithferion]

And yes, I have had to work with Frustrator, but my work only involves screen based creations. Not everything in this world is print-based.

Best regards!