skylamar Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Hi. This question may have been asked by others, but the search feature for these forums doesn't seem to be working so I got no results when I searched for posts with the word "PDF." Anyway, here's my situation and question: I created a vector PDF drawing in another application. I dragged the PDF drawing into Affinity. Affinity was able to recognize it as a vector drawing. After adding additional shapes into the drawing, I then exported the Affinity drawing as a PDF. In the resulting PDF document, the vector drawing I'd made in the other application appeared as a raster image, not a vector drawing; there was pixelation when I zoomed in close. I'm just wondering when Affinity Design might improve its support for exporting PDFs. Is it one of the improvements you are planning to implement soon? Thanks. Skylamar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 It sounds like you added the PDF to an existing document, making it an embedded document. Embedded documents can have different colour models, which makes them tricky to export as vectors. We plan to improve this eventually but I can't say when. Meanwhile, it sounds like you could open the PDF in Affinity directly, rather than embedding it into another document. Either use File => Open, or else close all your Affinity documents and then drag the PDF from Finder to the blank workspace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylamar Posted October 9, 2014 Author Share Posted October 9, 2014 Thanks for the reply. Opening the PDF in Affinity directly worked. However, I'm hoping you can improve the embedding functionality soon, even though I know you said you can't predict a time table. The reason I want to embed PDF vector drawings in Affinity Designer is that I also use an older Mac drawing program called Lineform. I've never used Adobe Illustrator, but of the handful of Mac drawing applications I've used, Lineform has the best implementation of vector brushes. In Lineform, they're called artistic strokes. In my opinion, Lineform's artistic strokes are better than Affinity Designer's current vector brushes. Lineform's artistic strokes look more naturalistic to me and they are exported as vectors, not bitmaps. I'm not a professional graphic designer or artist, but my usual process for creating vector artwork is to create the outlines in Lineform using Lineform's artistic strokes, export the drawing as a PDF and then import that PDF into a more full-featured drawing program — and that more full-feature drawing program is now Affinity Designer (I had been using Sketch and also Intaglio). Opening a PDF in Affinity is an okay work around, but the problem is that I can't add additional PDF drawings to it. That means I have to create my entire outline in Lineform, without having the flexibility to create elements one at a time and import them into Affinity Designer as I go. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Once you have opened the PDF in Affinity, you can select all, then copy, then switch to your main document, then paste. That will get the art into an existing document. It's not ideal but may serve as a workaround. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylamar Posted October 10, 2014 Author Share Posted October 10, 2014 That seems like a reasonable workaround. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wesleyb Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 It sounds like you added the PDF to an existing document, making it an embedded document. Embedded documents can have different colour models, which makes them tricky to export as vectors. We plan to improve this eventually but I can't say when. Meanwhile, it sounds like you could open the PDF in Affinity directly, rather than embedding it into another document. Either use File => Open, or else close all your Affinity documents and then drag the PDF from Finder to the blank workspace. I have added an SVG as an embedded document. Doing so is my means of using "symbols" (which don't seem to exist yet in the form of a symbol library, nor linked files) between Affinity Designer documents. When I export the parent Affinity Designer document as an SVG, the embedded SVG documents (which contain only vector shapes) appear as raster images in the resulting SVG export. Though I understand it being tricky to export PDF contents as vectors, I thought SVG would be less of a problem. 1. Is the exporting of a document with an embedded SVG document, while preserving the vector of that embedded document, as tricky as doing the same with an embedded PDF document? 2. And what about if the embedded document is a .afdesign file (also contains only vector shapes)? P.S. My point in exporting to PDF and SVG were tests for two potential use cases: 1) exporting to a format legible to Adobe Illustrator, and 2) exporting to a format that I could animate in a web page. P.P.S. I tried exporting a file with an embedded .afdesign file (only vector shapes). The result was visually more appealing, but still a raster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Embedded documents are treated the same regardless of their type. Currently they all get rasterised on export, even if they shouldn't need to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmuller Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 Embedded documents are treated the same regardless of their type. Currently they all get rasterised on export, even if they shouldn't need to be. Resurrecting an old thread - is this being looked at - just finished 12 artworks for sticker designs being printed abroad and this is killing the artwork - is there a newer beta to try? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 This got fixed a while ago. Can you try with an embedded document that just contains a simple vector shape, then re-import the PDF to Affinity and see if it is still vector? If that works, something else is causing them to be rasterised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmuller Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 This got fixed a while ago. Can you try with an embedded document that just contains a simple vector shape, then re-import the PDF to Affinity and see if it is still vector? If that works, something else is causing them to be rasterised. Could it be the Color Overlay FX I use on the embedded vector? If so maybe it should/could warn when setting the FX on the embedded document that this will cause rasterisation? I will check with a simple version and get back to you :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted May 2, 2017 Staff Share Posted May 2, 2017 Hi mmuller, Yes, all layers effects (FX) will force the rasterisation of the objects they are applied to. Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 Everything in the effects panel will be rasterized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmuller Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 This got fixed a while ago. Can you try with an embedded document that just contains a simple vector shape, then re-import the PDF to Affinity and see if it is still vector? If that works, something else is causing them to be rasterised. And, just double checked exported PDFX1-A and opening PDF in Designer results in 'image' block where vector was... No Color Overlay applied just a straight placement Same with PDFX-4 too - vector ends up as image on reopening in Designer and/or Illustrator. The same functionality on both 1.5.5 Mac and latest Windows build... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 That is not my experience. Nothing gets rasterized with an embedded document here if the original document can export without rasterizing. You'll probably need to upload your file at some point. But try to export the original document (not as an embedded one) and see what is causing the rasterization. Export using the More button and choose to rasterized Nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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