Why Does Adobe Illustrator Maintain .PS File Layers Better Than Affinity Designer?

[Ashu_T]

Hi all!

I've been using Affinity Designer version 2 (ADV2) for a while to edit the Postscript (.ps) images I create for my work. However, when I import the .ps file into ADV2, the texts appear as individual letters, unlike Adobe Illustrator, which imports the same file with well-organized layers. I'm wondering if this is a limitation of the tool or if I might be overlooking something? I have attached a .ps file for your reference.

 

Best Regards

Ashish Tiwari

MORB_TMH2O.ps

[David in Яuislip]

Affinity has interpreted the text as curves, run it through Ghostscript to produce a pdf and see if that's better, it's certainly smaller

MORB_TMH2O.pdf

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, David in Яuislip said:

Affinity has interpreted the text as curves...

For what very little it is worth, opening the ps file in Apple Preview shows the text as text runs, so it seems like there is yet another bug in Affinity that needs to be fixed....

[Ashu_T]

 

10 hours ago, David in Яuislip said:

Affinity has interpreted the text as curves, run it through Ghostscript to produce a pdf and see if that's better, it's certainly smaller

MORB_TMH2O.pdf 50.59 kB · 1 download

@David in Яuislip is Ghostscript available for Mac?? I was using gsview in windows but I have not been able to get a Ghostscript or similar software for Mac. If the letters can be converted to text it would save a lot of time. 

[firstdefence]

You can install ghostscript on mac using homebrew

Homebrew website: https://brew.sh/

• App name: ghostscript
• App description: Interpreter for PostScript and PDF
• App website: http://www.ghostscript.com/

Install the App

1. Press Command+Space and type Terminal and press enter/return key.
2. Copy and paste the following command in Terminal app:

   /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

   
   and press enter/return key, wait for the command to finish.
   If you are prompted to enter a password, please type your Mac user's login password and press ENTER (Note: as you type your password, it won't be visible on your Terminal (for security reasons), but rest assured it will work.)
3. Now, copy/paste and run this command to make brew command available inside the Terminal: 

   echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> ~/.zprofile

    

4. Copy and paste the following command: 

   brew install ghostscript

    

Done! You can now use ghostscript.

[Hangman]

Hi @Ashu_T,

Or to keep it really simple, convert your .ps file to an .svg file using an online converter like converter.io which maintains editable text when opened in AD.

https://convertio.co/ps-svg/

It won't overcome the issue with the grey background being split into hundreds of rectangles however but a potentially simple option if you just want to edit or extract the text.

MORB_TMH2O.svg

[Ashu_T]

Thank you @firstdefence and @Hangman for the suggestions. I have installed Ghostscript and would surely try the online converter, hopefully it will solve my problem.