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why? gone in V2: import/export (systemwide) color palettes


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Hi,

I am missing following options which seem to have disappeared in V2

importing/exporting photoshop file format colour swatches

exporting created colour palettes as systemwide available color swatches

Why are these gone? It does not make sense to me to dumb down features in what is supposed to be a superior version of the same application

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Which Affinity application are you using, and what OS?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7

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I'm not seeing any difference in V1 and V2. You access importing and exporting through the Swatches Panel.

Designer On-Line Help for Swatches Panel

Affinity Photo 2.5..; Affinity Designer 2.5..; Affinity Publisher 2.5..; Affinity2 Beta versions. Affinity Photo,Designer 1.10.6.1605 Win10 Home Version:21H2, Build: 19044.1766: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s);32GB Ram, Nvidia GTX 3070, 3-Internal HDD (1 Crucial MX5000 1TB, 1-Crucial MX5000 500GB, 1-WD 1 TB), 4 External HDD

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Thanks.

A couple of comments:

  1. System-wide color palettes are a function of macOS, and have never been available in the Affinity apps on Windows.
  2. As far as I know, the support for importing .ase files (Photoshop swatches) should still be there. I don't have any, so I can't test.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7

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3 hours ago, mkayi said:

2. Photoshop swatches are not offered as possible import file formats.

FWIW, I downloaded a zipped CS2 file at https://www.dunnedwards.com/colors/download-photoshop-swatches/ containing one *.ase & one *.aco file.  The *.ase file imported without issues into AP2 on my Mac from the Swatches panel. The *.aco file could not be imported. I did not test the CS & earlier versions.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
A
ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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3 hours ago, mkayi said:

2. Photoshop swatches are not offered as possible import file formats. Hence why I said it seems to be gone

I just downloaded a ZIP file from the same site as @R C-R, unzipped it, and the .ase file imported just fine into the Swatches panel on Windows 10, too.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7

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Hi,

What I tried is importing an aco file, as that is what is created in another software when exporting color palettes in adobe format. What is the difference between thos file formats and why can't I export from affinity apps in the ase format, if it imports it?

My goal was to freely exchange color palettes between drawing apps and this strikes me as weirdly hard to ddo

Edit: typo

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1 hour ago, mkayi said:

What I tried is importing an aco file, as that is what is created in another software when exporting color palettes in adobe format. What is the difference between thos file formats

They are, simply, different. A .aco file contains data in a different format than in a .ase file. The Affinity apps do not (and have never, as far as I know) understood .aco format. So nothing is "gone" in V2.

1 hour ago, mkayi said:

why can't I export from affinity apps in the ase format, if it imports it?

Why? Simply because export in .ase is not a function that Serif has implemented.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7

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3 hours ago, mkayi said:

Why can't I export from affinity apps in the ase format, if it imports it?

That decision is for Serif Software to answer, it is simply a decision they made for reasons only known by them. I don't understand it either.

Affinity Designer is simply the wrong program to use if this is something you need in your workflows - therefore I use another vector program for my personal work that does exchange palettes with just about any major player:

image.png.c332fc8d8b8ac8bcf853546ef29e8b2a.png

 1) You have completely wrecked the layers panel, Serif.

2) I recommend Reddit groups instead of this forum. Not the same few bot-like users replying to everything, a wider representation of users, fewer fanboys, more qualified users. In short, better!

3) I was here to report bugs and submit improvement requests for professional work professionally in a large setup and to bring a lot of knowledge from the world, i.e. professional product development, web- and software development, usability, user experience design and accessibility. I actually know what I am talking about!

BUT! We are phasing out Designer and Affinity in 2022 Q1 - and replacing it with feature complete and algorithmically competent alternatives.
Publisher is unsuitable for serious use, and was never adopted.

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