Fonts Lost when opening .afpackage file

[walt.farrell]

I prepared a .afpackage file on Windows, using two fonts that I know are not installed on my iPad: Algerian and AlienCarat.

When I transfer the packaged files (.afpackage file, Fonts directory) to my iPad, and Open the .afpackage file, the Fonts are not properly processed. They show as having a Sandbox Error, and are considered missing in the document.

Also,

1. The on-screen info seems to indicate it's doing its processing twice. And then
2. there is an extraneous "Open" dialog, before I get to see the Package Summary. It's not clear what it wants me to do, but Cancel and Open seem to do the same thing (nothing), and do not affect the outcome.

I've attached a .zip of the package. And a video of trying to open it after unzipping. 

 

V2-Package-Test.zip

[Paul Mudditt]

Hi Walt, I got no error message when I browsed the second open dialog to the same folder the package file was located.

 

[Paul Mudditt]

I recorded it a second time in Publisher as Photo would not do it twice, there is a message at the top of the screen requesting the location of the package folder.

 

[walt.farrell]

Interesting find, @Paul Mudditt. I did not try that.

It's a bit odd. On the desktop, the Fonts directory is assumed to be in the same directory as the .afpackage file. And it must be there, there's no attempt made to find it elsewhere. But on the iPad, apparently it's allowed to be someplace else?

And thanks for noticing and capturing that message. Now that you've pointed it out I can see it on my screen, too. Very subtle. And there's a small bug in the message, which says to press Done. There's no Done, it's Open.

[Paul Mudditt]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Interesting find, @Paul Mudditt. I did not try that.

It's a bit odd. On the desktop, the Fonts directory is assumed to be in the same directory as the .afpackage file. And it must be there, there's no attempt made to find it elsewhere. But on the iPad, apparently it's allowed to be someplace else?

And thanks for noticing and capturing that message. Now that you've pointed it out I can see it on my screen, too. Very subtle. And there's a small bug in the message, which says to press Done. There's no Done, it's Open.

The font is there, but when you look under preferences there is no sign of it. I checked in Pages and no sign of font Algerian. So yes it must stored somewhere else within Affinity.

[walt.farrell]

Just now, Paul Mudditt said:

The font is there, but when you look under preferences there is no sign of it. I checked in Pages and no sign of font Algerian. So yes it must stored somewhere else within Affinity.

They're temporarily installed for use while the package is open. It works that way on the desktop, too. 

But there's an additional issue on iPad that I'm researching. 

[walt.farrell]

Next discovery: If I re-Package the file, when I close the file from Live Docs, and then Open the .afpackage again, it doesn't ask me to navigate to the package directory. It will open it directly.

So it does seem like it might be related to a pathname being stored in the .afpackage file.

[stokerg]

 

On 11/26/2022 at 4:20 PM, walt.farrell said:

It's a bit odd. On the desktop, the Fonts directory is assumed to be in the same directory as the .afpackage file. And it must be there, there's no attempt made to find it elsewhere. But on the iPad, apparently it's allowed to be someplace else?

 

Due to the sandboxed nature of iPadOS, if the font folder (or images folder) is any place other than the Affinity Publisher folder on your iPad/iCloud, you'll always be prompted to select the directory on first opening.  If you try a brand new package and copy it to the Affinity Publisher folder and then open it from there, you shouldn't get prompted to select any directory.  

On 11/26/2022 at 4:47 PM, walt.farrell said:

If I re-Package the file, when I close the file from Live Docs, and then Open the .afpackage again, it doesn't ask me to navigate to the package directory. It will open it directly.

I would expect that, as you've already told it where the package directory is and allowed access.

I know this workflow isn't as smooth as working with packages on the Desktop version of Affinity and it's something we would like to improve but the Dev team are somewhat limited by iPadOS and what it allows us to do.