Not able to export to a psd file!

[Elisheba]

I work on an illustration with many layers and the file size came to about 1gb. I wanted to export it to a PSD file but was not able to. It just kept crashing. Can someone shed some light on why I was not able to export it. Is it because the files size was huge? Are there some settings to optimise the software for a heavy workflow?  

[Chris B]

Hey Elisheba,

A 1GB file should not really be problematic. Would it be possible for you to share the .afphoto file with the developers using this private Dropbox link?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/XOKPFJaYJtyIl2y4oP4R

If you are happy to upload it, please @ me when you have uploaded it so I get the notification.

Thanks!

[Elisheba]

@Chris B Hey Chris, I uploaded the afphoto file to the dropbox link you sent.

[Elisheba]

@Chris B And it says PDF export issue. It’s not PDF. It is a PSD export issue.

[Elisheba]

@Chris B There is another issue also I always face. When I export an affinity file to PSD and open that PSD file, I'm not able to edit the text. The text becomes rasterised.  Why? It happens with Affinity designer also. 

[MEB]

Hi @Elisheba,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Affinity apps do not support exporting editable text to PSD as it requires reverse engineering its (poorly) documented text engine.

[Chris B]

Hey Elisheba,

I also got a crash on Windows. I tried the same export on macOS and got a 'Your system has run out of application memory' message. I'm going to experiment with some of the settings but it's likely we may need to rasterise some elements.

May I ask the reason for PSD export? Is this going to be edited elsewhere?

[Elisheba]

@Chris B Yes I'm sending it to my team across the country. They will be animating it for the main project.

I'm a freelance illustrator/ Designer, so I work with all the illustrations from time to time for the project. 

[Chris B]

Hey Elisheba,

I'm still struggling with this. 

At its default size, I was maxing out my RAM (32GB) which forced Windows to start using Swap. I had 430GB of space on my SSD and when the export got half-way through, it had used all 430GB of space. I then cut the DPI from 600 to 300 and it was still using Swap and eating all the space. 

Dropping down to 144 DPI worked but I have a feeling this may be to small for your needs. What spec are you working to? Have you been given dimensions and DPI to hit? The document was also in 16 bit which I'm not sure is necessary for an on-screen interactive map but you may be able to tell me otherwise.

[Elisheba]

@Chris B The client will be using this map in a few of their videos. They told me to give a 4k, 300 DPI map. But I made it bigger so that in future if they want to blow it up, they can without any loss in quality (Because they print stuff all the time). So I just wanted to be safe and work in the biggest size possible. I thought Affinity can handle it but it was not the case.  

[Chris B]

Hi Elisheba,

One of the developers has worked out why the export was failing. It was due to some very large mask bitmaps ont he Recolour adjustment layers. If you go through and select the layers with a child Recolour adjustment and Rasterise and Trim, the export seems to work OK. 

[Elisheba]

@Chris B If I rasterise and trim, Will I be able to edit the colours later?

[Chris B]

Hey Elisheba,

You would have to add a new Recolour Adjustment and rinse-repeat the rasterisation, unfortunately. 

The problem we have here is the sheer amount of live adjustments which is causing the swap memory issue to exceed the 430GB I have left on my machine. I imagine even if you had double that spare it would still struggle.

The reason you're probably seeing this in Affinity is becaue the adjustments are live and do not get baked like in other apps.

[Elisheba]

@Chris B Oh Okay. Thank you so much for all the help! I appreciate it! 

[Chris B]

I realise this is somewhat inconvenient and ideally, it would just export. There is still an open report to see how this process can be improved going forward. It's a fantastic project you've made and it's a shame that we've had to use a 'workaround' for you.

[Elisheba]

@Chris B No Problem Chris! I love Affinity and I have confidence that you guys will make it much better in the upcoming updates. Thank you for your time & support.