Variable fonts support

[Komatös]

41 minutes ago, Luca2024 said:

Despite the variable fonts, other parts of the same AI file (exported in CC-legacy) is not read consistently by affinity designer.

The Affinity programs cannot read certain proprietary data in the Adopay file formats; Serif would have to license an API from Adobe for this. And that three times (APhoto, ADesigner, APublisher).  This means three license fees per suite sold.

Try to open your files in https://www.photopea.com

And as far as your variable font problem is concerned, check whether the fonts are also available in the static version.

[Alfred]

44 minutes ago, Komatös said:

And as far as your variable font problem is concerned, check whether the fonts are also available in the static version.

It seems that @Luca2024 feels it isn’t worth the time and effort involved in swapping them.

1 hour ago, Luca2024 said:

I have some previous AI files with variable fonts with I CAN'T TOUCH (doesn't worth to change)

 

[Komatös]

Off Topic

@Alfred 

Yes, everyone should do what they want. My motto is: "If you want to achieve a goal, find a solution!"
And if his solution is that he wants to throw his money down Adobe's throat, then let him do so.

[Luca2024]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @Luca2024.

When you say “not read consistently”, I hope you’re not saying that the same AI file looks different each time you open it! I presume you mean that some AI files opened in AD don’t look the same as they do when opened in AI, but this is to be expected. The Affinity apps are unable to read the proprietary file format used by AI, depending instead on the contents of the PDF stream which is included when the document is saved from AI as a PDF-compatible file: some elements may be missing from that PDF stream, making them unavailable to other apps.

Oh yes of course it's not "consistent" comparing to what it does in Adobe Illustrator.
Anyway I bought the Affinity suite and gave them a chance.

The 130€ I paied today doesn't worth the HUGE effort which I'd invest to fix and corrent my existing files.
I will swap when I can move flawlessly from A->B.

Aside, If we want to do a "marketing" consideration , it's a great product but they can't really think to attack the Adobe customers if they don't grant an easy file migration. 

I did expect to export to a legacy file format, that's fair (my previous works are not complex in the structure) but the conversion is broken on a stupid TEXT frame that contains variable font...

Doesn't matter. Try again.

[Luca2024]

1 hour ago, Komatös said:

Off Topic

@Alfred 

Yes, everyone should do what they want. My motto is: "If you want to achieve a goal, find a solution!"
And if his solution is that he wants to throw his money down Adobe's throat, then let him do so.

you are right, and believe me, I am not really happy since I have seen Adobe's product going down to the hill in the last 10 years...but it is what it is.
That's why I gave affinity's guys a chance: i loved the 1-time payment and really aggressive price for a great product.
But professionals can't be fanboy. I must take care about my productivity and affinity is not my product at the moment.
Maybe a backup solution.

Edited March 22 by Luca2024

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, Luca2024 said:

I will swap when I can move flawlessly from A->B.

You will never be able to move flawlessly from AI to the Affinity applications. Even if variable fonts were supportted, the format of the .ai files is undocumented (largely, if not completely), and Serif is not interested in trying to reverse engineer that format and then maintain compatibility with future changes. If you have documents that were saved by AI in compatibility mode, so they contain a PDF version of the AI data, then Affinity can partly show the contents, but not fully.

[JoshB]

10 minutes ago, Luca2024 said:

Oh yes of course it's not "consistent" comparing to what it does in Adobe Illustrator.
Anyway I bought the Affinity suite and gave them a chance.

The 130€ I paied today doesn't worth the HUGE effort which I'd invest to fix and corrent my existing files.
I will swap when I can move flawlessly from A->B.

Aside, If we want to do a "marketing" consideration , it's a great product but they can't really think to attack the Adobe customers if they don't grant an easy file migration. 

I did expect to export to a legacy file format, that's fair (my previous works are not complex in the structure) but the conversion is broken on a stupid TEXT frame that contains variable font...

Doesn't matter. Try again.

Although this is off topic, I can understand your frustration with file incompatibility.  I work almost daily in both the Adobe Suite and in the Affinity Apps. (Adobe at work and Affinity for personal clients etc. While it would be nice to have cross compatibility, Adobe File compatibility in Affinity was never advertised and shouldn't be taken as a given.

However, I understand where you are coming from. If you have recently purchased the Affinity suite, see if you can get a refund. Customer service has always been very helpful when I needed something.

**********

I may run contrary to the others on this forum in that, although I am certainly not a fanboy, I can appreciate what Adobe is doing. It is pretty stiff to pay the subscription price they are asking for personal, but when you look at that cost from the aspect of a business, they do offer pretty good value (if you are using all the apps). 

What am I saying? It seems like a lot of folks have the expectation that Affinity can completely replace Adobe, feature for feature. In reality, they are being marketed more as an alternative.

In conclusion, while I'd love to see Affinity get more of the Adobe features, I understand that a small team can only do so much. I am happy to keep using the software in its current form. As they say, never purchase software or tech today for the features promised tomorrow. 

-Cheers!

[Luca2024]

18 minutes ago, JoshB said:

Although this is off topic, I can understand your frustration with file incompatibility.  I work almost daily in both the Adobe Suite and in the Affinity Apps. (Adobe at work and Affinity for personal clients etc. While it would be nice to have cross compatibility, Adobe File compatibility in Affinity was never advertised and shouldn't be taken as a given.

However, I understand where you are coming from. If you have recently purchased the Affinity suite, see if you can get a refund. Customer service has always been very helpful when I needed something.

**********

I may run contrary to the others on this forum in that, although I am certainly not a fanboy, I can appreciate what Adobe is doing. It is pretty stiff to pay the subscription price they are asking for personal, but when you look at that cost from the aspect of a business, they do offer pretty good value (if you are using all the apps). 

What am I saying? It seems like a lot of folks have the expectation that Affinity can completely replace Adobe, feature for feature. In reality, they are being marketed more as an alternative.

In conclusion, while I'd love to see Affinity get more of the Adobe features, I understand that a small team can only do so much. I am happy to keep using the software in its current form. As they say, never purchase software or tech today for the features promised tomorrow. 

-Cheers!

this is not the first migration I have done in my life. Again I "wished" since my existing file are quite simple to have a "possibility" to move to. It's not . No problem.
Anyway I will not ask for refund since I really believe it worths to support such application (which I will probably use in future).
I would debate about Adobe's "unfair" policy in another thread maybe

[JoshB]

1 hour ago, Luca2024 said:

this is not the first migration I have done in my life. Again I "wished" since my existing file are quite simple to have a "possibility" to move to. It's not . No problem.
Anyway I will not ask for refund since I really believe it worths to support such application (which I will probably use in future).
I would debate about Adobe's "unfair" policy in another thread maybe

Understood! 😃

Well, no worries about a debate coming from me...  Although I see the value of the Adobe Suite in some ways, I have many gripes about their policies as well. I certainly won't sit here and defend them! 😃 

[pixelshrink]

Desperately hoping that Canva's involvement means that variable fonts will be prioritised.

[Luca2024]

I also look forward to that. I will continue monitoring the Affinity Suite if/when I will be able to swap.
Unfortunately I have found other severe limitations in Affinity Publisher with Spreads of only 2 pages which (again) doesn't allow me to work smoothly with several paper/adv use cases.

My migration is postponed

[Brian_J]

14 minutes ago, pixelshrink said:

Desperately hoping that Canva's involvement means that variable fonts will be prioritised.

Affinity/Canva stated in an email sent about 1.5 hours ago that variable font support will be added to Affinity V2.

[Luca2024]

WOW!!! 🥳

all the missing (PRO) features that we need.
CROSS FINGERS!!

But let's hope they will continue to maintain the one-time-payment and not move to subscription based model

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, Luca2024 said:

But let's hope they will continue to maintain the one-time-payment and not move to subscription based model

Read the post/email, it is addressed in the first of four points.

[Luca2024]

Again.
Amazing.
I wonder WHY Affinity guys didn't realize that a TOP-REQUESTED feature was needed *BEFORE* the whistles&candies they offer....

Bad strategy up to now.
Cross fingers.

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, Luca2024 said:

I wonder WHY Affinity guys didn't realize that a TOP-REQUESTED feature was needed *BEFORE* the whistles&candies they offer....

They know, but Variable Fonts are a complex issue to handle, and much more complex than many users realize.

[Brian_J]

Just now, Luca2024 said:

WOW!!! 🥳

all the missing (PRO) features that we need.
CROSS FINGERS!!

But let's hope they will continue to maintain the one-time-payment and not move to subscription based model

No doubt! There are some good features coming down the pipe.

The Affinity forums are inundated with nay-sayers at the moment, speculating about the future of Affinity. After receiving The Affinity and Canva Pledge email, I’m cautiously optimistic. Company strategies can change, but I’m hoping there is a space in the market for Affinity/Canva to continue offering perpetual licenses while remaining competitive and being a viable competitor to Adobe.

[Luca2024]

Making a plan is a complex decision (I am aware).
For sure they have a TERRIBLE agenda.
There is a HUGE market of people (like me) super SICK of Adobe's sharking policy but it's also a HUGE amount of work to do.
Now it's crucial for them to CHOOSE they right battle (I know what I am talking about since I am also a product owner).

Best Luck.
I stay tuned.

[Luca2024]

5 minutes ago, Brian_J said:

No doubt! There are some good features coming down the pipe.

The Affinity forums are inundated with nay-sayers at the moment, speculating about the future of Affinity. After receiving The Affinity and Canva Pledge email, I’m cautiously optimistic. Company strategies can change, but I’m hoping there is a space in the market for Affinity/Canva to continue offering perpetual licenses while remaining competitive and being a viable competitor to Adobe.

You are right but I am pretty sure that an affordable subscription system (who said 10€/months???) would also win the game.

suggested: we also need a professional PDF EDITOR that could swap the heavy-weight Adobe Acrobat PRO.
 

[fde101]

1 hour ago, Luca2024 said:

an affordable subscription system

I would rather pay $100 a year to upgrade a software product than a penny a decade for a subscription.

Ick. No thanks.

[SallijaneG]

8 hours ago, fde101 said:

I would rather pay $100 a year to upgrade a software product than a penny a decade for a subscription.

Ick. No thanks.

That is a major difference; there is a lot of room between Affinity‘s one-time pricing and Adobe’s subscription—and with the one-time purchases, one can choose for oneself when to upgrade, not have money constantly dripping out of one’s accounts.

[SallijaneG]

10 hours ago, Luca2024 said:

You are right but I am pretty sure that an affordable subscription system (who said 10€/months???) would also win the game.

suggested: we also need a professional PDF EDITOR that could swap the heavy-weight Adobe Acrobat PRO.
 

not for me; I don’t need a constant siphoning of my fixed income.  I would pay somewhat more for a new version, but again, when I choose, when I need it or it is required to keep up with upgrades in hardware or planned future versions.

[SallijaneG]

On 3/8/2024 at 9:03 PM, Bobby Henderson said:

Some of us need to use multiple applications in our daily work. I currently have copies of Affinity Designer, Inkscape, CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator installed on my computer. One of the biggest reasons is being able to handle customer provided art files accurately. None of these applications have 100% feature overlap or 100% compatibility with each other. It's usually a lot easier to open an art file in its native environment than wasting time fighting with it in a rival application. Some of these applications have their own unique features as well as their own strengths and weaknesses. CorelDRAW has long been popular in the sign industry; although Illustrator has eaten into that lead via its strengths in large format digital printing. The branding work of most major companies is done using Adobe software. So we get a lot of AI and PDF files as art assets. I decided to check out Affinity Designer when Serif was having its 50% off covid pricing sale a couple years ago. I figured it might be good to have the app handy in case I started getting .afdesign files from clients. Lately though, uh, it seems like more and more client art is being generated in Canva. That's just creating more hurdles and wasted time dealing with customer provided art.

Interesting that you mention Canva, given the new development. . . .

[Teal_B]

I'll just add my voice here, asking for Variable Fonts support Rather Soon Please. I only realized two days ago that Designer did not support Variable Fonts, after searching for the missing axis configuration for ... a while. And it's not even just that I cannot edit the different display axes, but e.g. installing the Roboto Flex Variable Font straight from the Google Fonts website doesn't even show up right in Affinity Designer 2.4.1 with the predefined weights - I just get Roboto Flex "Regular" x7. Meanwhile, everything just works(tm) in Figma. Honestly, I was quite surprised that in mid-2024, illustration and design software would not let me use Variable Fonts, let alone not properly recognize them?

[walt.farrell]

27 minutes ago, Teal_B said:

but e.g. installing the Roboto Flex Variable Font straight from the Google Fonts website doesn't even show up right in Affinity Designer 2.4.1 with the predefined weights - I just get Roboto Flex "Regular" x7.

If you want to use that font in Designer you'll need to uninstall the Variable version and install the Static version that Google Fonts also provides in the download file.