IDML and Text layer on PSD file

[marcoborghesi]

Great update so far with good stuff. Really good price as well for the launch offer. Well done guys.
Just 2 thing i think I'm a bit ... why didn't happen yet?

IDML.
So. On in this one I'm might going to far but I've raised in the past. If you can import, to provide great flexibility to designers (freelance expecially) you should be able to export as well as IDML.
PSD text.
This one i'm really annoyed that it is not been update. Any text in Photo and exported as PSD file, will be rasterised. I've raised this as well a while ago for version 1 and answer was it doesn't allow but ... PIXELMATOR PRO that's does that. So it is possible.

If we aim to maximum flexibility add this feature. When people like work with office full of Photoshop, i need to be able not just to open their file and change the text but keep it that text modifiable when sent back as PSD.

[feitendo]

Affirmative. PSD text should be a basic function. This helps when I  want to promote AFFINITY to my fellow if they still using PS.They will confuse if affinity even can't fully support PSD.

[marcoborghesi]

I was thinking last night that maybe, this version 2 is a refined version of V1 with some new additions and from now on they will look and add extra feature. This one will be really appreciated. I'm really confident on the great work these amazing guys are doing since they've started

WELL DONE again

[juliomarquez]

Since you cannot export a file to an idml one (or a compatible format) most of the companies that need to translate their documents will go on with Indesign even though it's more expensive... Xpress lost thousands of clients for the same reason...

[Sergio Ballesteros]

This has been an issue since the beginning. Still I get answers from users in Facebook that say things like "tell them to buy Affinity".

People forget that Photoshop is still the standard, wether we like it or not, and we need to deal with it. For me, this feature is the only one that keeps me in Adobe prison, because I need to be able to send and receive the same PSD file, and keep text layers modifiable.

I remember in this forum, in the very beginning of V1, when speaking about this topic, that Affinity answered saying that they need to reverse-engineer the text-layer engine from Photoshop to add this feature and, at least at that point, it was very difficult.

So hopefully it gets added in V2. On the other hand, and if we think of evil… they might just be holding back on this feature in order to force their software as a standard and keep their audience also captive in their ecosystem. More so if they are now bundling together their suite. But I don't want to think badly of the Affinity team.

I'm really eager to let Photoshop go and forget about the subscription to pay for the whole bundle and be able to use it also in my iPad Pro. But the text layer compatible feature is a must for now.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Sergio Ballesteros

[marcoborghesi]

1 hour ago, juliomarquez said:

Since you cannot export a file to an idml one (or a compatible format) most of the companies that need to translate their documents will go on with Indesign even though it's more expensive... Xpress lost thousands of clients for the same reason...

Yes I'm well aware ... that's why I was hoping in this but ... this one isn't really a big problem. At the end of the day you share with the printer a high rest print ready file. It is a shame you can't do it to have a true full external collaborative workflow.

[juliomarquez]

Unfortunately, being a freelancer DTP specialist I need to use several programms depending on the clients I have. So if Affinity adds this function and companies start to use it, I'll have to buy it as weel but I won't leave Adobe programms in any case...

[marcoborghesi]

3 minutes ago, Sergio Ballesteros said:

This has been an issue since the beginning. Still I get answers from users in Facebook that say things like "tell them to buy Affinity".

People forget that Photoshop is still the standard, wether we like it or not, and we need to deal with it. For me, this feature is the only one that keeps me in Adobe prison, because I need to be able to send and receive the same PSD file, and keep text layers modifiable.

I remember in this forum, in the very beginning of V1, when speaking about this topic, that Affinity answered saying that they need to reverse-engineer the text-layer engine from Photoshop to add this feature and, at least at that point, it was very difficult.

So hopefully it gets added in V2. On the other hand, and if we think of evil… they might just be holding back on this feature in order to force their software as a standard and keep their audience also captive in their ecosystem. More so if they are now bundling together their suite. But I don't want to think badly of the Affinity team.

I'm really eager to let Photoshop go and forget about the subscription to pay for the whole bundle and be able to use it also in my iPad Pro. But the text layer compatible feature is a must for now.

I agree and this i'm more eager about than the IDML. To be true (not Adobe Killer because it is impossible. They have so much more power) full alternative to adobe you need this. I'm happy with literally everything else (although a lot of people moaning about missing features etc) but as a creative person, you do get a lot done with AFFINITY software. Just exporting lacks of a real external collaborative workflow

[PaoloT]

These are two of the main reasons I can't still abandon the Adobe world, and totally switch to Affinity. A third one is full support for CJK and RTL languages.

I've just had to send the original files to a translation agency for cost estimate, and they asked for InDesign files. Their tools are not compatible with the Affinity Publisher file format, so I simply can't use it. Being able to export to IDML would have solved this issue, now.

That work involves translating to Japanese. As far I understand, the new Publisher don't have full support for Japanese yet. And this add issues to the existing Chinese translation, that I wouldn't be able to satisfactorily convert to Publisher

Let's hope these things will come soon. I understand the focus on other features, and I appreciated how well they were implemented. Only, there are still things that are sorely missing.

Paolo

 

 

[PaoloT]

1 hour ago, juliomarquez said:

Unfortunately, being a freelancer DTP specialist I need to use several programms depending on the clients I have.

I'm tied to a limited number of clients and collaborators, so I'm lucky enough to be able to know their workflow and tools. What I'm planning to do is to know the lowest common denominator between the tools they use, and the ones I decide to use. I could therefore use an all-Affinity toolset, if it is compatible with the Adobe toolset other may continue to use.

Mind you: this is already something I have to do with some designers using programs other than Adobe and Affinity. It's an open flow, where what counts is finding a way to be able to exchange our files with reliable compatibility.

Paolo

 

[marcoborghesi]

Like we said, they can beat monster like Adobe but the can largely compete with Quark in the long run (not yet) but if they manage to really create a true full external collaborative workflow they have a killer suite for many of us Freelancer (I believe it is already a huge suite for us)

[juliomarquez]

1 hour ago, PaoloT said:

These are two of the main reasons I can't still abandon the Adobe world, and totally switch to Affinity. A third one is full support for CJK and RTL languages.

I've just had to send the original files to a translation agency for cost estimate, and they asked for InDesign files. Their tools are not compatible with the Affinity Publisher file format, so I simply can't use it. Being able to export to IDML would have solved this issue, now.

That work involves translating to Japanese. As far I understand, the new Publisher don't have full support for Japanese yet. And this add issues to the existing Chinese translation, that I wouldn't be able to satisfactorily convert to Publisher

Let's hope these things will come soon. I understand the focus on other features, and I appreciated how well they were implemented. Only, there are still things that are sorely missing.

Paolo

 

 

That's a very good point and I agree with you 100%.

[bayustudio]

5 hours ago, Sergio Ballesteros said:

So hopefully it gets added in V2. On the other hand, and if we think of evil… they might just be holding back on this feature in order to force their software as a standard and keep their audience also captive in their ecosystem. More so if they are now bundling together their suite. But I don't want to think badly of the Affinity team.

I'm really eager to let Photoshop go and forget about the subscription to pay for the whole bundle and be able to use it also in my iPad Pro. But the text layer compatible feature is a must for now.

Agree. I'm also hoping for editable PSD text as I'm using it for web design with a lot of text. Yes most of the time, clients expect PSD format as the final deliverables.

Unfortunately, the PSD format situation looks exactly the same as v1.

Hopefully, it got better PSD format interoperability soon. But I doubt this will ever get prioritized as i also starting to think Affinity will focus on popularizing its own format & ecosystem, especially for semi-pro or younger audience (who can work with ipad). 

I'm also Adobe CC user, but I prefer to use Affinity due to its superior performance when working with concepts containing a lot of layers. Currently, I use an ugly workaround for exporting & merge text to PSD. It's getting worse because Affinity doesn't support any scripting to help automate this.

Such a missed opportunity and a deal-breaker, since I think AD is a better tool than Figma when the design contains a lot of drawings and illustrations.

Other than that, ver 2.0 looks solid.

[PaoloT]

One of the reasons I would need editable text in exported image files is in this typical workflow:

1. Create screenshots, with a layer containing numbers/letters pointing to details. These will be references in the text.

2. Export the resulting image as a TIFF (or PSD) file.

3. Reuse the same images for a different or more recent project.

4. Replace the text styles, to adapt the numbers/letters to the new/different product's manual style.

Paolo

 

[marcoborghesi]

59 minutes ago, bayustudio said:

Hopefully, it got better PSD format interoperability soon. But I doubt this will ever get prioritized as i also starting to think Affinity will focus on popularizing its own format & ecosystem, especially for semi-pro or younger audience (who can work with ipad). 

This would work if you are Adobe where pretty much 90% use their software.
But if you want to succeed than be open a proper external workflow.

Again. Only reason i'm talking at least about PSD text layer it is because Pixelmator PRO that doesn't want to be a PRO app, does it without any problem.

[bayustudio]

Yeah, free online tool Photopea.com can also read & write PSD file nicely (The programmer is genius though)

It support affinity files as well, but too bad can't open the complex one. Otherwise photopea can be a perfect converter.

So yes i believe PSD text is technically hard but doable, just not sure if it ever get prioritized.

[Foucault]

7 hours ago, marcoborghesi said:

I agree and this i'm more eager about than the IDML. To be true (not Adobe Killer because it is impossible. They have so much more power) full alternative to adobe you need this. I'm happy with literally everything else (although a lot of people moaning about missing features etc) but as a creative person, you do get a lot done with AFFINITY software. Just exporting lacks of a real external collaborative workflow

I agree. Import (IDML, joboptions) and Export (PDF) are - for me - the main weak spots of Publisher.  Apart from Ressource (i.e. Image) Management.

[SKent]

This is incredibly annoying seeing as photopea proves it is possible. I'd far prefer using this tool knowing I'm not going to make some non-affinity users life in the future difficult. It was the only feature I searched for in the announcement, and the wording in the product details page made it sound like this was improved. 

[SKent]

4 hours ago, bayustudio said:

So hopefully it gets added in V2. On the other hand, and if we think of evil… they might just be holding back on this feature in order to force their software as a standard and keep their audience also captive in their ecosystem. More so if they are now bundling together their suite. But I don't want to think badly of the Affinity team.

As software with a free trial doesn't seem to be the most solid lockin. I'm going to hold off on recommending affinity for a while.

[marcoborghesi]

@SKent the software are really good and solid in my opinion. You can truly use them as alternative to Adobe if you can't afford them. You need to be sure in your workflow you don't need this compatibility. So as I was hoping to have these 2 features or at least editable text on PSD file once you open in Photoshop, I'll always recommend them.

 

[PaoloT]

On 11/9/2022 at 2:22 PM, marcoborghesi said:

IDML

What I can't still believe is that Serif didn't implement something to comply with CAT tools. Serif, unpredictably indifferent to cats!

Paolo