Affinity Designer file compatibility between V1 and V2

[Morningstar.pm]

How can I save a file natively in Affinity Designer 2 that can be opened in Affinity Designer 1, without resorting to exporting the document in PDF, SVG, EPS...

[Old Bruce]

5 minutes ago, Morningstar.pm said:

How can I save a file natively in Affinity Designer 2 that can be opened in Affinity Designer 1, without resorting to exporting the document in PDF, SVG, EPS...

We cannot do that as of now. Maybe never.

However, if you still have version one of Designer on your machine you can open it alongside the new Designer 2 and just copy from Designer 2 and then paste into Designer version 1's empty document. There may be some things that are new in 2 that won't work in the earlier version so you should go slow and experiment. By that I mean "Expect some crashes in version 1 if you include new stuff form version 2.".

[rvst]

It's unheard of in the software industry for software to have forward compatibility, ie., to be able to open a newer version file in an older version of the software (which is  what we're talking about, not backward compatibility as many people are calling it. Backward compatibility would mean that Affinity V2 can open V1 files, which it can, so it's already backward compatible)

The older software would need all the code for the new file format backported into a specific maintenance release to enable this functionality, and apart from the technical challenge of doing so, there is a disincentive for the developer to do this. 

What Affinity SHOULD do, however, is issue a warning when saving a V1 file using V2 software - "WARNING: once saved with the V2 file format, you won't be able to open it in V1". That way, at least the user will know before executing an operation that cannot be reversed. 

 

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, rvst said:

What Affinity SHOULD do, however, is issue a warning when saving a V1 file using V2 software - "WARNING: once saved with the V2 file format, you won't be able to open it in V1". 

The staff(?) have mentioned that this should be included 'soon' -- but no specific timetable for that has been given.

[Old Bruce]

I have to say that I was amazed that there is no warning. The entire staff failed big time on not having this in the first release. I don't know if it is possible to have an export to Version 1 option coded, maybe rasterize and or 'expand' those items which can't be opened in version one.

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I don't know if it is possible to have an export to Version 1 option coded, maybe rasterize and or 'expand' those items which can't be opened in version one.

They have said it is too big.

They recognize there should have been a warning. I expect it to be like the warning that V1 Beta releases gave when opening V1 release files, along the lines of "Hey, you're opening a file saved by an older version. Saving can make it incompatible. You can " and some buttons to continue, make a copy which is then "untitled", or cancel.

[R C-R]

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

14 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I don't know if it is possible to have an export to Version 1 option coded, maybe rasterize and or 'expand' those items which can't be opened in version one.

They have said it is too big.

What specifically have they said is too big?

[mangauniversity]

Be warned that simply OPENING a V1 file in V2 will break that file in V1. It happened to me, and I'm not happy about it. I opened a file in V2 and immediately quit the program, realizing what I had done. But now that file won't open in V1.

I almost wonder if this was by design, to force those of us who installed the trial version to have to buy it. Did Serif borrow from the scummy Adobe playbook?

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, mangauniversity said:

Be warned that simply OPENING a V1 file in V2 will break that file in V1. It happened to me, and I'm not happy about it. I opened a file in V2 and immediately quit the program, realizing what I had done. But now that file won't open in V1.

If you did not  Save the file that seems very odd. 

[mangauniversity]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If you did not  Save the file that seems very odd. 

Odd, but true. I didn't save the file. As soon as the file loaded in V2, I quit the application. It did not prompt me to save the file, nor would I have chosen to do if it had prompted me. (I should note that this happened with Publisher. I did not install the V2 trials of Photo and Designer — nor will I at this point.

[Tom J.]

5 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

We cannot do that as of now. Maybe never.

However, if you still have version one of Designer on your machine you can open it alongside the new Designer 2 and just copy from Designer 2 and then paste into Designer version 1's empty document. There may be some things that are new in 2 that won't work in the earlier version so you should go slow and experiment. By that I mean "Expect some crashes in version 1 if you include new stuff form version 2.".

Will V2 open the V1 files? Do I even need V1?

[R C-R]

21 minutes ago, mangauniversity said:

Be warned that simply OPENING a V1 file in V2 will break that file in V1.

This does not happen for me, unless I save the file after opening it in V2. I have tested this with multiple files in all 3 apps.

[MEB]

@Tom J.
Yes, V2 opens V1 files. If you have imported all your custom assets, brushes, macros etc from version 1 and they are working fine in version 2 there's no reason to keep version 1 installed if you don't want to. Remember you can always go to the Store where you bought it and download/install the V1 version again in case you need it.

[mangauniversity]

3 minutes ago, Tom J. said:

Will V2 open the V1 files? Do I even need V1?

Yes, V2 can open them. But these are in-progress files, and I didn't want to switch to V2 before completing them in V1.

I have (well, had) every intention of upgrading to V2. But I wanted to do so slowly and methodically. I installed the V2 trial to do just that — try the software by creating new files and experimenting.

[mangauniversity]

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

This does not happen for me, unless I save the file after opening it in V2. I have tested this with multiple files in all 3 apps.

This gives me hope, then, that I might be able to get V1 to open them again. I'm in the process of uninstalling the V2 trial so no trace of it or its preferences remain on my computer. Then I'll uninstall and reinstall V1 and see if the files can be opened and edited.

[R C-R]

Just now, MEB said:

Remember you can always go to the Store where you bought it and download/install the old version again in case you need it.

Even so, I think it is a good idea to backup the various V1 application support files somewhere, just in case they get deleted along with the V1 apps.

[Tom J.]

1 minute ago, mangauniversity said:

Yes, V2 can open them. But these are in-progress files, and I didn't want to switch to V2 before completing them in V1.

I have (well, had) every intention of upgrading to V2. But I wanted to do so slowly and methodically. I installed the V2 trial to do just that — try the software by creating new files and experimenting.

Thanks. I will do so as well.

4 minutes ago, mangauniversity said:

Yes, V2 can open them. But these are in-progress files, and I didn't want to switch to V2 before completing them in V1.

I have (well, had) every intention of upgrading to V2. But I wanted to do so slowly and methodically. I installed the V2 trial to do just that — try the software by creating new files and experimenting.

 

[R C-R]

Just now, mangauniversity said:

This gives me hope, then, that I might be able to get V1 to open them again. I'm in the process of uninstalling the V2 trial so no trace of it or its preferences remain on my computer.

Both V1 & V2 of all 3 apps are on my Mac & they do not share any preferences, so it should not make any difference if you keep or remove the V2 trials.

It should be enough just to make absolutely sure you do not save a file created in V1 in V2 before closing it in V2.

[tarknz]

I loaded a V1 file I am working on for a client. All went well until I tried to save as a prepress PDF. Time after time it came up with an error message that it cannot save to PDF. I converted images from psd to png but with the same end result. I tried the 72dpi smallest pdf file size and same result. 

Is this a translation problem from V1 to V2?

I have also noticed that images drop off the page for no reason and disappear from the layers menu, meaning I have to re-open the file! 

I am concerned that this has been a rushed version, released to meet the Black Friday market. 

Until the PDF and image dropping issue is fixed I will rebuild the panel in Indesign, where I know there is no problem exporting to prepress PDF regardless of file size.

[mangauniversity]

12 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Both V1 & V2 of all 3 apps are on my Mac & they do not share any preferences, so it should not make any difference if you keep or remove the V2 trials.

It should be enough just to make absolutely sure you do not save a file created in V1 in V2 before closing it in V2.

Because I beta-tested V1 and was familiar with backwards-compatibility issues, I knew that saving a file in V2 would render it useless in V1. Which actually brings me to a second concern. Why does the V2 trial automatically get set as the "default" app on a computer that has V1 already installed? Because that's what led me to unintentionally open my V1 file in V2 — I double-clicked the file and expected it to open in V1 (and as soon as I saw that doing so had launched V2, I quit without saving).

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

What specifically have they said is too big?

Sorry for lack of clarity. The effort to save a file from V2 in a way compatible with V1.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, mangauniversity said:

Why does the V2 trial automatically get set as the "default" app on a computer that has V1 already installed?

That did not happen on my Mac either. All my files created in V1 still open in V1 by default -- in fact, all the files created in V2 also default to trying to open in V1 as well because I have not (yet) set any V2 as a default.

I have no idea why it is so different for you.

[mangauniversity]

5 minutes ago, R C-R said:

That did not happen on my Mac either. All my files created in V1 still open in V1 by default -- in fact, all the files created in V2 also default to trying to open in V1 as well because I have not (yet) set any V2 as a default.

I have no idea why it is so different for you.

Well. at least it was an easy fix. Simply had to do a "Get Info" on one V1 file and then change the default app so no V1 files would be opened by V2. (And now that I've removed V2 altogether, it won't be an issue in any case.)

[lacerto]

15 hours ago, rvst said:

It's unheard of in the software industry for software to have forward compatibility, ie., to be able to open a newer version file in an older version of the software (which is  what we're talking about, not backward compatibility as many people are calling it. Backward compatibility would mean that Affinity V2 can open V1 files, which it can, so it's already backward compatible)

It is not unheard of, though. I remember that Microsoft Office 2003 (and earlier) were once able to open, edit and save to newer versions of Office apps.

https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Office-Compatibility-Pack-for-Word-Excel-and-PowerPoint-File-Formats/3000-18483_4-10648733.html

And many graphic design apps are capable of saving back to earlier versions for interoperability, resolving one way or another how new features will be saved back (simply just omitted, or e.g. converted to curves, rasterized, etc. so that the features stay somehow useable even if not fully editable in older versions). Some apps have also a specific interchange format that is designed to stay compatible between new and old versions of the app. 

This kind of file version compatibility is of course not a trivial task to develop, but it might be useful to Affinity users some of which are now behind an operating system version wall (Windows 7 and 8 and pre-Catalina support now gone). 

[mangauniversity]

And now I can't open any of my V1 files, even those that haven't been touched in months, without the app crashing.

EDIT: Just checked Activity Monitor after launching the app (not working with it, just launching it) and check this out: