Package font folder is ignored when using Dropbox storage

[TonyO]

When opening a package file with a fonts folder from iCloud storage, there is a second prompt during the opening process asking for the location of the supporting files, which finds the fonts and images folders and allows fonts to be installed. 

When opening a package file from Dropbox on the side panel on the open screen, the second package folder prompt doesn't appear, so there's no option to locate the fonts, the stats screen will show all fonts as missing when loading the document. 

 

[Lee D]

@TonyOCan you do a screen recording showing the process. Are you saving your package file directly to Dropbox from within Publisher for iPad and then opening in Designer for iPad or a different workflow?

[TonyO]

No prob! After a bit more testing, the whole packaging system in AfDesigner seems a bit botched. 

Workflow: Create an AFdesigner doc on desktop with fonts, package this file. Drop package into cloud storage. Open on iPad. I'm not using Publisher.

What it looks like is happening are a few things:

1. Loading from Dropbox doesn't bring up the package asset location prompt.
2. Loading from iCloud DOES give the asset location prompt, and the file loads with fonts intact.
3. Once a package is properly loaded from iCloud, all other open documents with the same missing fonts are now active...
4. ...but only for the current open session. Once AfDesigner is closed out and re-opened, all fonts from all documents (even the icloud loaded one) are missing, and there is no prompt to find them again. The fonts are also never "installed". So at this point, im stuck with no fonts and other than installing them manually in settings, there's no easy way to automatically get them back again.

I think other than fixing the dropbox loading issue, It would be awesome if there was an option to "intall fonts from package" which would permanently add all fonts to the internal font manager under settings. As of now, only having fonts active invisibly in the background for a single session isn't really working. 

Thanks for looking into this, this has been the big barrier for me using AFD on ipad for layout work. I use it for illustration daily, but never do layout since font management is such a pain. 

You guys are much appreciated!

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, TonyO said:

...but only for the current open session. Once AfDesigner is closed out and re-opened, all fonts from all documents (even the icloud loaded one) are missing, and there is no prompt to find them again. The fonts are also never "installed". So at this point, im stuck with no fonts and other than installing them manually in settings, there's no easy way to automatically get them back again.

That's a known problem that I've reported before. When you revisit the project from Live Docs you're no longer using the .afpackage file, and therefore the Fonts aren't recognized any more.

[TonyO]

Yes, this is why offering a prompt to install packaged fonts into AFD's internal fonts manager would be a great idea.

Most designers tend to stick to a few favorites, if you were prompted to install them permanently into Designer on package load, then after a while all your usuals would just work on iPad and you wouldnt have to worry about making sure they're included with a package every time. 

Another idea would be to just embed the fonts into the package file instead of putting them in an external folder (sort of how a mac App is actually just a folder of files with a dot extension), that way there would be no separate files to keep track of. If the package requires external assets, why do we even need a separate dot extension for a package if the contents are just a regular AFD file?

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, TonyO said:

Another idea would be to just embed the fonts into the package file instead of putting them in an external folder (sort of how a mac App is actually just a folder of files with a dot extension), that way there would be no separate files to keep track of. If the package requires external assets, why do we even need a separate dot extension for a package if the contents are just a regular AFD file?

The contents are not just a regular AFD file, though.

But your idea about putting the fonts into the .afpackage file is a good one, and it's how the fonts which are delivered as .affont files are handled when using packages. Maybe the solution to this problem will be to do that for all fonts. Or maybe it will be something else.

[TonyO]

I feel like the main problem with packaged art files for the past few decades (in apps like indesign, illustrator and others) is that packaging ends up being a collection of files that requires additional management outside of the app that made it. This kind of defeats the purpose IMO.

I've always been in the camp that a package should be every asset saved inside one encapsulating file with no external links to manage. If you're editing a package and importing new assets, they should be automatically added into the package file, you should never have to manage a package outside of the app that made it. 

Microsoft actually does a fantastic job with this in modern Office apps. If you take a DOCX file and open it in an app like 7zip or another archive manager, you'll find that a modern word doc is actually a full folder structure inside of a zip archive containing the base file, all images, embedded fonts and all other relatable assets, but you only have to worry about managing one single file on your computer. It's works like a charm.