Formats from other Apps

[BHIP]

Apologies up front but I've been doing search words and I can't find what I need and I'm not a graphic designer. I just do my thing and it works for me.

If I have a designer make something for me in an app that is not Affinity, what format should they save it in so I can edit in Affinity Designer? 

I think PDF is good, but I want to make sure that if they use Adobe or something else, everything comes over as is.

Bill

[GarryP]

If you have a file which is not an Affinity document – AFDESIGN, AFPHOTO, AFPUB, etc. - there is always the chance that it might not open in the Affinity applications without some loss of content and/or formatting.

This is because the Affinity applications cannot handle all of the functionality inherent in those other file types.

Sometimes this is simply because the Affinity applications haven’t had time to mature enough to handle everything yet, but it can also be because of legal/technical reasons – e.g. proprietary file formats.

Serif generally recommend exporting as PDF from their legacy applications – e.g. PagePlus, etc. - in order to get documents into the Affinity applications, so that’s probably the way to go unless you notice some specific problems.

If you do notice some problems then someone might have a ‘workaround’ which will let you import the file more completely but that would be dependant upon the exact problem you encounter.

[PaulEC]

PDFs are generally the best option if you want them to look the same, but not necessarily for editing. PDFs don't support layers the same way as Affinity apps do and also text blocks can become split up, so it really depends on the content of the file. I'd recommend that you ask for PDF and PSD copies of each file, which should cover most eventualities.

[Andreas Scherer]

Also SVG comes to mind, e.g., as export format from InkScape.

[thomaso]

For initial layouts in InDesign: Its exchange file type .IDML can get imported in APub. This transfers the initial master pages, layers, groups, text styles etc. and thus is a more flexible workflow than via PDF for editing.

[BHIP]

Thank you so much for your help!