how to disable export preview?

[loukash]

25 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

export Persona does not have preview

… while APu does not have Export persona…

25 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

and probably solves the (performance) issue in many cases

… while – as far as I'm concerned (but your mileage may vary) – it introduces a couple of workflow issues which is why I don't like to use it in the first place.  

[NotMyFault]

2 hours ago, loukash said:

… while – as far as I'm concerned (but your mileage may vary) – it introduces a couple of workflow issues which is why I don't like to use it in the first place.  

Everything is a comprise, and it depends on the circumstances.

In my perspective - and I could be wrong - those who want to get rid of preview - due to performance / waisted lifetime reasons -  normally work more with Photo or Designer and exporting files is a relevant part of their workflow. Meaning you use export a lot. Then the export persona might give you additional benefits, and those quirks (don't know which specifically you have in mind) may not matter at all.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, NotMyFault said:

you use export a lot. Then the export persona might give you additional benefits, and those quirks (don't know which specifically you have in mind) may not matter at all.

In my case it's a bit the other way around: 
I'm exporting a lot, and by using the standard Export dialog it's most of the time just a "Export keyboard shortcut → Enter → Enter → done" workflow. No need to look for and visually target the Export Slice button, just three keyboard shortcuts in a row, blindly. The "button workflow" may not matter every now and then, but it matters if you have to do it 100 times a day…

[Pšenda]

21 hours ago, loukash said:

but it matters if you have to do it 100 times a day…

Then you might find it useful to check the Continuous option in Export Persona, when the Export is performed automatically after detecting a change - without the need to press any buttons.
https://affinity.help/designer2/English.lproj/pages/ExportPersona/slicesPanel.html

[loukash]

Just now, Pšenda said:

check the Continuous option in Export Persona

Not what I need for my workflow. But thanks for trying…  

[bbrother]

The first implementation of the export preview feature wasn't as good as (Serif team) would have liked, so they provided a toggle button and everything was fine.

In version 2, the export preview is no better. It's slow, there are no buttons to control the zoom size, only keyboard shortcuts, there's no need to always use it and it's a waste of resources, users want a toggle button and yet Serif decided to keep it on permanently, leaving users in control. Where is the logic here?

[juliandalat]

It would be a wonderful function to have +1. Having to export a large poster at 300 DPI creates lag, and it's pretty bothersome when I'm trying to work in a zoom call or run another activity.

[Bit Disappointed]

In general, the export dialog came off the assembly line incredibly poorly for v2.0, so if anything, it could use a thorough redesign. The preview section of this dialog is extraordinarily challenged in terms of code and user interface.

[bbrother]

9 hours ago, Bit Arts said:

In general, the export dialog came off the assembly line incredibly poorly for v2.0, so if anything, it could use a thorough redesign.

The entire interface of version 2.0 is a degradation from V1. A thorough redesign is no longer an option but a necessity. 

• Incredibly poor contrast (shades of gray used to build panels, buttons, category backgrounds).
• Lack of consistency when it comes to the design of elements such as drop-down lists, text fields (size, padding, alignment, text line heights, appearance) 
• Different shapes of tabs in panel groups for active states, hovering states.
• Blending of the background color of the text box with the panel itself.
• Lack of consistency when it comes to the quality of icons (some look sharp, pixel aligned and pixel perfect others are blurry)
• Visual noise. (to much bad previews, icons)
• ...

It would take a long time to list. It is simply unpleasant to work with such an interface.

When I read the following article on Affinity Spotlight it gave me a good laugh.
Specifically, I am referring to the beginning of the article which reads:

Quote

You’ll find new tool and button icons, revamped panels, greatly improved mono and light UI modes, and much more. 

EDIT: link to article corrected.

[Pšenda]

A post that tries to criticize absolutely everything, including the consistency and meaningfulness of the interface, while failing to include a proper link to the cited article, doesn't sound very credible. Just such a rant without providing any concrete facts and evidence for said inconsistencies - which could be corrected.

The link goes back to the other page of this thread, not the cited article.

[Gripsholm Lion]

I thought that most of what he/she asserted is self-evident and, therefore, credible.

[bbrother]

1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

A post that tries to criticize absolutely everything, including the consistency and meaningfulness of the interface, while failing to include a proper link to the cited article, doesn't sound very credible. Just such a rant without providing any concrete facts and evidence for said inconsistencies - which could be corrected.

I see I'm dealing with a fanboy.

Link to the article corrected. It was "Redesigned with you in mind: the all-new Affinity V2 UI" on Affinity Spotlight.

Blending of the background color of the text box with the panel itself↓

Inconsistent tab shapes when activ or hover. (Panel groups, panels - trapezoid shape vs rectangle shape)↓

Poor pixelated previews (Preset panel)↓

Different spacing beween value input and increase/decrease arrows.

@Pšenda I can do this all day long.

[kirloi]

1 hour ago, bbrother said:

I can do this all day long.

Although I agree with you, as others pointed, the off topicness of the rant should be addressed in a more appropriate post. The Export UI is also a bit confusing in some regards but the UI problems, and theres a lot of them, either this bully users want to address it or not, I should say there should be a place for it. In this regard, idk if theres a topic about the UI, if not one should be created and this discussion should happen there.

If for anything, for a better way to follow a feature progress by the affinity team. As i said in other topic, off topic crap (like calling out users for a missing link when they tell exactly were the quote is from), shouldn't be discussed in a feature topic because it will only lead to the topic itself being archived for lack of direction to a solution.

[Bit Disappointed]

I agree that the discussion needs to get back on track, which is basically that the export dialogue is really badly designed in terms of architecture, performance and usability, so it would be welcome if customers could disable a bit of the problem, the preview, to start with. It must be within reach to implement.

[Granddaddy]

I agree with others in this Export Preview thread that off-topic comments about the UI are best posted to the many earlier threads about the Affinity UI.

Let us note that @bbrother joined these forums only in July 2023 and may be unaware of the extensive discussions concerning the dysfunctional Affinity UI that erupted during the Big Debacle when Affinity Version 2 was released in November 2022. I myself started one of those threads concerning minimal contrast and lack of readability at

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/173835-what-ergonomic-design-principles-call-for-minimal-contrast-and-reduced-readability-in-user-interfaces/

Many other threads at that time are full of examples provided by many other Affinity users. Just last month a new thread about the size of UI elements was started, and I commented there with reference to earlier discussions in other threads.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/195678-affinity-photo-v2-interface-question/#comment-1151830

As I said there

The user interface is unpleasant to use and even dysfunctional in many ways. Still, some of us continue to put up with it for reasons of our own.

Eight years of begging Serif to make the UI readable have fallen on deaf ears. The upgrade to Affinity 2 actually made the interface worse and doubled down on reducing contrast.

Returning to the topic of this thread, in nearly seven years of using APhoto I have never seen any need for an Export Preview. I would welcome an option to turn it off.

[bbrother]

I'm sorry everyone for getting a little off topic. I'll try not to do that again. But I had to respond to the absurd accusation that what I wrote was not credible and that I was making a tirade without providing any facts.

Again
+1 for an option to turn on/off export peview in the export dialog. 

[debraspicher]

I don't see this mentioned, so I will mention it here (at least). Export potentially uses lot of processing power as its default. That's battery. So to make the applications more mobile-friendly, it really should not be the norm to eat up processes willy-nilly just because we can. (This can also lead to the impression the apps are un-optimized/"wasteful" as a default, but that's a deeper discussion...)

Disabling preview could also make the window quite a bit smaller, which may help people with getting through the options quicker.

[Corosekb]

+1 for this feature, & it being turned off by default. For multi-page documents with a lot of images, it does just add uneccesary friction the process.

Alternatively, previewing one page (current page) would be much more helpful than trying to preview the whole document each time I change one of the export settings... it takes so long that I may as well just export it at that point.

[Valtos]

This is a must, I just don't understand why this hasn't been implemented already. Please, just give us a toggle. 

[Old Bruce]

On 5/27/2024 at 4:42 AM, Corosekb said:

it takes so long that I may as well just export it at that point.

 

59 minutes ago, Valtos said:

This is a must, I just don't understand why this hasn't been implemented already. Please, just give us a toggle. 

I have never actually looked at the Preview let alone waited for it, I just export and check the export. So the way I work means I have no need for a toggle.

[Valtos]

If you are working on a huge file, the Preview takes a lot of time to fully load; and for some reason, the actual export process won't start until it's fully generated. (fun fact: it will continue generating it in the background even if you clicked "Export", and then the "Export Item" process bar will pop up afterwards - this is unbelievably bad UX)

I hope this gets finally addressed sometime soon. 

[elaf]

I am creating pdf/X documents for offset printing for a 20-page newspaper in broadsheet format. Previously I used InDesign for this, but now I've decided to switch to Affinity Publisher.
The export settings always remain the same for the print shop and are saved as defaults in the PDF export.
The newspaper contains a lot of images and it takes quite a long time to create the PDF file. What is the advantage if this process also takes place beforehand so that I can see the newspaper as a preview?
After the export, I have the created PDF file and can then have it checked again by a soft proof if necessary.
A setting with which I can switch off this feature, which is usually useless for PDFs, would be extremely helpful. Ideally, a checkbox in the export dialog with which the generation of the preview can be switched off and its status saved, for example “Always show preview”, would be extremely helpful.

[Old Bruce]

12 hours ago, elaf said:

The newspaper contains a lot of images and it takes quite a long time to create the PDF file. What is the advantage if this process also takes place beforehand so that I can see the newspaper as a preview?

The preview is something I ignore. Hit the export button and check the PDF/TIFF/JPEG/SVG etc. I just don't trust the preview for checking the output.