.svg export issues that must be considered a bug

[mike365]

I was hoping Designer2 should be the app to make me invest in entire Affinity suite.
But unfortunately svg export is kind of useless which makes you stick to Illustrator.
And even if you want to OWN the software you can as well rent entire Adobe suite since you have to pay a minor amount extra.

Check attached images.
Designer2 can't handle vector gradients without rasterising those, making file size explode (depending on amount of gradients).
Even without vector gradients file size is almost doubled.
And with Apps like this all kind of vector graphics is key.

Besides that, Designer2 looses the group structure when opening an Illustrator file.

Besides that 2, Designer2 also looses exact hex colour when opening an Illustrator file which in my case gave a more reddish look, even if correct hex is in exported svg file.

Affinity - I'm happy to buy your suite once this works. I like your apps!!! Thx.
Question is; when will it happen?

Export from Designer2.svg Export from Illustator.svg Export from Illustator_no-light.svg Export from Designer2_no-light.svg Export from Designer 2.svg

[fde101]

Hi @mike365, welcome to the forums!

 

This is not the correct place for bug reports - this part of the forum is for feature requests.

If you believe this is a bug, it should be reported in the appropriate bug report section of the forum, as it will get attention from the correct people more quickly that way:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/72-report-a-bug-in-affinity-designer-v2/

[_Th]

From my testing, Designer 2 does export SVG gradients without rasterizing, with the expected tiny file sizes. Also no issues with color changes here; hex values from .ai and AI-created SVGs are identical in D2. Named and unnamed layers are imported correctly from .ai files, however groups are not.

[Adam_D]

Designer will only rasterize gradients that the SVG format cannot render properly, such as elliptical or conical gradients. Sometimes, after some shape modifcations or copy/paste-ing styles, a regular linear or radial gradient can get transformed into a funny state that may also lead to it being rasterized. before exporting to Svg, check your gradients that they are all linear or radial and it'll be fine. 

[mike365]

Ok & thx for feedback! I'm very happy if I'm wrong here...

Please take a look at the attached file. What in the gradients makes them impossible to render?

5462041_2841151.ai

[Guest]

It looks like it's the bitmap masks and the elliptical gradients (SVG only supports linear and radial gradients) that are causing the gradients to be rasterized.

Update: FWIW Designer doesn't really handle SVG masks at all. It doesn't export masks even when it's a vector shape with supported attributes, nor does it import masks. See attached files. The mask.afdesign is my original Affinity Design test file, and mask.svg is a file where I've edited the SVG by hand to approximate the correct output.

 mask.svg

mask.afdesign

Edited November 30, 2022 by Guest
Add update re: Affinity Designer not supporting SVG masks at all.

[Medical Officer Bones]

How are you exporting this from Illustrator? When I use the following options:

It imports just fine into Designer 2 and retains all vector fills for the light effects:

[Medical Officer Bones]

PS Inkscape imports the SVG files from your first post without a hitch. Could also be used to convert to a belligerent SVG file that Designer 2 imports incorrectly.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Medical Officer Bones said:

How are you exporting this from Illustrator?

I think they're trying to export the *.ai file from Affinity Designer going by the first line in their original post.

[Medical Officer Bones]

@Bryan Rieger Oh, right. Should've read more carefully.

[mike365]

I don't export svg, I open Illustrator file in Designer2.
If I need to export svg from Illustrator, I still need that app...
When I open exported .svg Designer2 can render it.

I did some tests. Overall Designer2 makes .svg's 1.5-2x size on a simple gradient compared to Illustrator. Test results in zip file.

Vector gradients.zip

[mike365]

13 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

I think they're trying to export the *.ai file from Affinity Designer going by the first line in their original post.

Yes. In this case:
1. Downloaded file from Freepik.
2. Open in Designer2.
2. Make .svg

[mike365]

44 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

It looks like it's the bitmap masks and the elliptical gradients (SVG only supports linear and radial gradients) that are causing the gradients to be rasterized.

Update: FWIW Designer doesn't really handle SVG masks at all. It doesn't export masks even when it's a vector shape with supported attributes, nor does it import masks. See attached files. The mask.afdesign is my original Affinity Design test file, and mask.svg is a file where I've edited the SVG by hand to approximate the correct output.

  mask.svg 1.58 kB · 0 downloads

mask.afdesign

Question then is; (how) can Affinity improve Designer2 for "out-of-the-box" experience using an Illustrator native file available in many instances?

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, mike365 said:

Question then is; (how) can Affinity improve Designer2 for "out-of-the-box" experience using an Illustrator native file available in many instances?

Well, Serif can make the decision to invest in improving their native Illustrator file support (you can't control this), or you can use another tool that better fits your needs today (this, you can control). Given their legendary silence on future releases, and the lack of any visible roadmap, you just have to make the decision that's best for you today.

Going by your original question and the responses in this thread, I suspect it's probably not the best time for you to invest (money or time) in the entire Affinity suite.