[Designer Issue] I'm getting a Curve file with Raster characteristics. Why?

[albertkinng]

A client sent me an Adobe Illustrator file to work on a project. I open the project and see that one layer is showing a curve content but is actually a raster one. And I don't see any mask applied on it. Any idea why I'm getting this? Thanks in advance.

[firstdefence]

That's a bitmap fill by the look of it, did you expect it to be a vector pattern? 

Is the original a vector fill?

What file type is this? PDF, Ai?

I have Illustrator and can look at it in Illustrator if you like?

 

[albertkinng]

@firstdefence here you go: https://d.pr/f/7qZBAE

[firstdefence]

Morning @albertkinng

Ok, I took a butchers at the file in Illustrator and I think the primary reason for the perceived rasterisation of the fill is because the shapes are filled with Illustrator patterns and Affinity doesn't know how to handle them. 

The dotted shapes are simple compounds; simply ellipses subtracted from a shape filled with black, the rest are compound paths filled with ai patterns. I have extracted what I think are relevant swatches as SVG files, probably the first four but I also extracted the lines as well.

SVG.zip

Got dragged away before I finished the post, so with the SVG patterns, you can replace the raster patterns with an array of each pattern element using Power Duplicate. Until Affinity can handle pattern creation better and create arrays it's pretty much the only method in Affinity Designer, Unless anyone knows a better way. You can control colour and the components that make up a pattern element using the symbol panel and you can amass a collection of pattern elements by saving them as Assets. You can also save symbols as assets to use in other documents.

See the file attached for how I made patterns within the compound paths that are now scalable.

HONDA TRX450ER.afdesign

I've also noticed the AMSOIL is a mess unless it's intentional? it's a mess in Illustrator so it's not a consequence of opening in Affinity Designer

I know the Hinson logo is supposed to be a bit scrappy
 

[Dazmondo77]

I'd recommend using this cheeky workaround which works great as a substitute for vector fills for me, but can only be done in publisher using the data merge layout tool - super quick and simple, but does the job until we get proper vector fills.

 

 

[loukash]

3 hours ago, Dazmondo77 said:

this cheeky workaround which works great as a substitute for vector fills for me, but can only be done in publisher using the data merge layout tool - super quick and simple

Just two days ago I finally (!) watched the tutorial videos about Data Merge which I've never used yet, and I had exactly the same thought.  
I've already done similar things using Symbols, but this is even easier.

[Dazmondo77]

I have fully editable halftone screens and hatching fill patterns set up this way which has always worked great for me, as whatever you place inside your data merge layout box, effectively acts as a symbol.

For halftone screens, I've found the quickest way is to place a data merge layout box inside a data merge layout box (see grab) as it seems more repeats start to slow things down but you still have the benefit of only one nested graphic to edit

[albertkinng]

@firstdefence @Dazmondo77

 

[albertkinng]

17 hours ago, firstdefence said:

the AMSOIL is a mess

Where is the AMSOIL logo? I don't have it in my document.

[firstdefence]

There you go

Amsoil.afdesign

[albertkinng]

@firstdefence I’m confused. Did I send you that logo by mistake?

[firstdefence]

lol no I downloaded that logo from a website: https://seeklogo.com/free-vector-logos/amsoil

[albertkinng]

@firstdefence I was going crazy over here, man! Thanks for clarifying!