Very bad effect export, still the same in Affinity 2. Please change this!

[rvsf]

I am very sad and disappointed, I thought that Affinity 2 would have improved the export of effects to Illustrator or PDF but it is still as bad. I understand that the effects can't be exported in vector form or with the same system to Illustrator, but why is the vector form also rasterized and not just the effect (for example only the shadow)? When I copy from Illustrator to Affinity Designer the shape and effect are separated into two, the shape remains vector and editable while the effect is rasterized. However when I export from Affinity Designer to Illustrator EVERYTHING IS RASTERIZED!!! WHY!!? I just bought the whole Affinity Designer pack for my company computer but I will not be able to work with affinity.

I am in fashion and footwear design and our manufacturers need the documents in Illustrator. My idea was to start designing in Affinity because I like it better but then switch to Illustrator but due to the bad export I can't do it. For this you don't have to apply reverse engineering, just don't rasterize everything, only the effect. It also happens when exporting to PDF, I attach the files.

pd: This happens on both Windows and macOS.
 

 

 

PDF_affinity.PDF PDF_illustrator.pdf

[rvsf]

Here a sample of a my work in a shoe, and how affinity export to PDF the effects.
 

[loukash]

1 hour ago, rvsf said:

EVERYTHING IS RASTERIZED!!! WHY!!?

That appears to be the difference between the Adobe PDF Library and PDFLib which is what Serif has licensed for Affinity.
Some time ago I started a thread about similar issues: 

You can partially work around by avoiding layer effects, and clipping such transparent objects manually instead by nesting them into vector shapes. Which is apparently something that the Adobe PDF Library does automatically on export.

[rvsf]

3 hours ago, loukash said:

Esa parece ser la diferencia entre Adobe PDF Library y PDFLib, que es lo que Serif tiene licenciado para Affinity.
Hace algún tiempo abrió un hilo sobre temas similares: 

Puede solucionarlo parcialmente evitando los efectos de capa y recortando dichos objetos transparentes  manualmente anidándolos en  formas vectoriales. Lo que aparentemente es algo que la biblioteca Adobe PDF hace automáticamente al exportar.

Hi Loukash, thanks for replying. I don't quite understand what you are saying, can you show me an example?

I have also tried to export to X-4 but in my case it still looks terrible.

[loukash]

Exporting to X-4 can't fix everything. 
Usually I'm simply avoiding layer effects. And if they are necessary, I'm making sure to "isolate" them by some means so that they don't affect objects below in the layer stack.

[rvsf]

4 minutes ago, loukash said:

Exporting to X-4 can't fix everything. 
Usually I'm simply avoiding layer effects. And if they are necessary, I'm making sure to "isolate" them by some means so that they don't affect objects below in the layer stack.

I understand, but my layer effects are fundamental, I use not only simple shadows but sometimes 3D as well. I have tried to rasterize some shape+effect and duplicate the shape without rasterizing but this is very tedious, is there any way to rasterize only the effect so that when exporting the software I don't have to manage this?

[loukash]

There are workarounds. 
For example, the inner shadow will always rasterize an object, including its edge.
The trick would be to duplicate the object first, making it slightly larger e.g. by using the Contour tool, and clip it (not mask!) with the copy that has no effect applied to hide the rasterized and antialiased edge on export. That will export the fill with the shadow as a pixel image as expected, but it will be clipped by a sharp vector curve.
Like this, for example:

Exporting e.g. as PDF/X-3 will clip the shape similarly to Adobe's export method.
This "technique" can be refined further e.g. by using symbols to make both shapes more interactive in case you'd need to make further changes.

Of course, it will be a p.i.t.a. if you have hundreds of objects like this…  

[rvsf]

@MEB Can you tell me if you are aware of this? I need to trust Affinity in a professional way

[rvsf]

On 1/30/2023 at 4:48 PM, loukash said:

There are workarounds. 
For example, the inner shadow will always rasterize an object, including its edge.
The trick would be to duplicate the object first, making it slightly larger e.g. by using the Contour tool, and clip it (not mask!) with the copy that has no effect applied to hide the rasterized and antialiased edge on export. That will export the fill with the shadow as a pixel image as expected, but it will be clipped by a sharp vector curve.
Like this, for example:

Exporting e.g. as PDF/X-3 will clip the shape similarly to Adobe's export method.
This "technique" can be refined further e.g. by using symbols to make both shapes more interactive in case you'd need to make further changes.

Of course, it will be a p.i.t.a. if you have hundreds of objects like this…  

Thanks for the help loukash, but I don't quite understand what you mean by "trimming", I simply duplicated the shape and deleted the fill and the outline, would that be enough? Can you send me a video, I would appreciate it very much. I am also enclosing an example. With your method, how could I successfully transfer it to Illustrator?

Anyway it is very tedious when there are many objects, or very internal objects.
 

example for loukash .afdesign