Affinity Photo Stroke Problem - Scale with Object Not Translating in Adobe Illustrator

[ThinkDifferent]

On Mac OS 10.11.3, Affinity Photo 1.5.2, the stroke "Scale with object" feature works fine while in Affinity Photo. However, it does not translate when exporting to PDF or other vectorized formats (PDF for example) and then opened by Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator does not scale stroke when resized which results in destroyed artwork. What this means is that for all artwork involving outlines or "strokes", I have to draw out all lines in my line art by hand if I expect compatibility with print vendors who use different software. I'm hoping someone can help me on this.

Question 1: Aside from instructing every vendor to select all strokes in Illustrator and select "Scale Strokes & Effects" before resizing artwork, is there a known workaround for my current version of Affinity Photo, or would this require an upgrade?

Question 2: If this fix requires an upgrade, is there an upgrade compatible with MacOS 10.11.3 that will include the fix.

Question 3: Does the latest version of Affinity Designer for the same OS have this issue as well?

My apologies if this has been asked before. I scoured the web and these forums for half an hour before creating the topic.

[Hangman]

Hi @ThinkDifferent and welcome to the forums...

To be honest I wouldn't expect Illustrator or any other software to recognise Affinity's Scale with Object setting. If you reopen your pdf in Photo or Designer Scale with Object isn't set by default and you'll have the same issue when scaling an object unless you turn this option on.

Basically Scale with Object in Affinity software doesn't talk directly with Scale Strokes & Effects in Adobe Software.

What is the reason for scaling the artwork in Illustrator in the first place, i.e., is there a case for creating artwork in Affinity Photo at the correct size so no scaling is required?

Edit: If the pdf file is Placed rather than Opened in Illustrator I believe the artwork will scale as you want it, in the same way it does when Placed rather than Opened in Designer.

[walt.farrell]

First, though it won't matter for this, Affinity Photo 1.5.2 is seriously (at least 5 years) out of date. 1.10.5 is the current release.

Second: "Scale with object" is a setting in the Affinity applications and in the Affinity file formats (e.g., .afphoto). I'm pretty sure that PDF files do not have that concept

[ThinkDifferent]

Thanks to both of you for the replies.

Hangman - Your statement about Affinity's scale not talking to Adobe's scale seems to match what I've experienced. Thanks for confirming that. So far as the reason for scaling in Illustrator -- I had an experience with a t-shirt vendor years ago who used the same artwork on the front pocket location as well as larger on the back. This was the first I ever noticed the issue, and it nearly ruined the project. And you're right, looking back I should have created the artwork at two sizes. Nevertheless, realizing that often logos and art are used in many different applications of various sizes, stroke scale inconsistencies have been a challenge to work around.

walt.farrell - I realize my version of Affinity is old which is one of the reasons I specified it in the post and questions. Upgrading to the latest is not a possibility for me at this time. Also, thanks for confirming that the scale with object isn't something that PDFs recognize. That too makes sense to me because it seems to me that Illustrator has trouble with that regardless of where the PDF comes from.

As an update to this post, I'll say that I may have a workaround in progress. I have finally stopped putting off the purchase of Affinity Designer and I have version 1.10.4 installed which I'm guessing is the latest available for my OS. My layers from Photo copied into Designer directly without issue, and I have discovered an awesome feature called "Expand Stroke" which solidifies a formerly unpredictable stroke into a shape. So far, Illustrator's scaling of this shape works perfectly. I'm still experimenting with this workaround. However, I'm still open to hearing other ideas anyone else might have.

[Hangman]

15 minutes ago, ThinkDifferent said:

I had an experience with a t-shirt vendor years ago who used the same artwork on the front pocket location as well as larger on the back.

In all honesty the t-shirt vendor should have picked up on this and applied the scaling for you, it must have been pretty obvious about the scaling issue...

Expand Stroke will certainly work...

I don't know if you saw the Edit I made to my previous post, but placing the pdf rather than opening it will also achieve the same thing if you didn't want to expand the stroke for any reason though now you purchased Designer 1.10.4 Expand Stroke is perhaps the safest method to avoid the intitial issue when sending files to external sources, though bear in mind you then end up with a separate fill and a stroke layer (in any instance where both are used) and both would need to be scaled together or grouped so the group can be scaled if that makes sense...

[ThinkDifferent]

Hangman - Agreed. The experience with the t-shirt vendor was apparently an expensive learning experience for both of us at the time.

As for placing the PDF, are you talking about dragging the file into a canvas that's already opened in Illustrator?

On scaling fill and stroke layers in an expanded stroke, I'm guessing this behavior wouldn't be much different than simply scaling a document with 100 layers that together create the art, correct? In the past, when I manually create strokes (ie. strokes as shapes) in an illustration, I normally create layers beneath all of my "manual stroke" layers in order to fill the art with color. This makes it easier for me to remove all color. It sounds like a color-filled Expand Stroke would work similarly, except from what I see with Designer the fill layer is directly underneath the stroke layer in every case.

[Hangman]

Just now, ThinkDifferent said:

As for placing the PDF, are you talking about dragging the file into a canvas that's already opened in Illustrator?

Either that or using File > Place in Illustrator, selecting the pdf and then placing it on the canvas, both I believe should result in the same thing (I think)...

2 minutes ago, ThinkDifferent said:

On scaling fill and stroke layers in an expanded stroke, I'm guessing this behavior wouldn't be much different than simply scaling a document with 100 layers that together create the art, correct?

Exactly, I was just thinking in terms of handing the file off to someone like said t-shirt vendor and them not realising in the same way they didn't spot the scaling issue previously...

4 minutes ago, ThinkDifferent said:

When I manually create strokes in an illustration, I normally create layers beneath all of my "manual stroke" layers in order to fill the art with color. This makes it easier for me to remove all color. It sounds like a color-filled Expand Stroke would work similarly, except from what I see with Designer the fill layer is directly underneath the stroke layer in every case.

Exactly that...

[walt.farrell]

34 minutes ago, ThinkDifferent said:

As an update to this post, I'll say that I may have a workaround in progress. I have finally stopped putting off the purchase of Affinity Designer and I have version 1.10.4 installed which I'm guessing is the latest available for my OS.

No, 1.10.5 is the latest version. See here.

[ThinkDifferent]

Hangman - Thanks for clarifying 'placing the PDF'. I'll give that one a try. Everything else makes sense. Thanks a bunch.

walt.farrell - Thank you. Sure enough, I see 1.10.5 in Designer's "Check for Updates". Good to know El Capitan is old but not forgotten. I only wish "Check for Updates" was available in Affinity Photo so I could check. I may not be seeing it. I'm certainly curious to see how far I could go on El Capitan with Affinity Photo as well. But I remain as always quite update-hesitant for fear of adding too many variables into my well-worn OS, legacy software and many old client projects built on those foundations.

[walt.farrell]

20 minutes ago, ThinkDifferent said:

I only wish "Check for Updates" was available in Affinity Photo so I could check. I may not be seeing it. I'm certainly curious to see how far I could go on El Capitan with Affinity Photo as well.

You can get to 1.10.5 with Photo, too. Just sign in to the Mac App Store with the same credentials you used for the initial purchase and you should be able to update it.

[ThinkDifferent]

Thanks, walt.farrell. You guys are the best.

[iconoclast]

If you simply want to get strokes scaled with objects in Illustrator too and don't want to edit the curves, you could select all Curves in Photo and click "Expand Stroke" in the "Layer" menu. In that case the strokes would become shapes itselves and would be scaled relative to the whole graphic. Maybe this is some kind of solution for you.

[ThinkDifferent]

iconoclast - Thanks for the input. Unfortunately, my version of Affinity Photo doesn't seem to have an "Expand Stroke" feature. But installing Affinity Design did allow me to do this (mentioned above), and has been a life saver of a solution so far.

[iconoclast]

1 minute ago, ThinkDifferent said:

iconoclast - Thanks for the input. Unfortunately, my version of Affinity Photo doesn't seem to have an "Expand Stroke" feature. But installing Affinity Design did allow me to do this (mentioned above), and has been a life saver of a solution so far.

Sorry, my version of Photo doesn't have that too. Confused it with Designer.