Non Printing Layers/Objects

[DGCON]

Is it possible to create different layers and define some of them as non printing.

I need different objects for visualisation only but not visible when I create PDFs and I want this automated, not manually hide these Objects all the time.

[Hangman]

Hi @DGCON and welcome to the forums,

As far as I'm aware you can't specifically designate a layer as non-printing but if you work with Layers (Capital L), created using the Layer Icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel or via Layer > New Layer, you can selectively show and hide those Layers in PDF Readers...

I don't know if that would give you what you need.

[walt.farrell]

If you're using Publisher, you can create a Layer (capital L) on a Master Page, create your non-printing objects in that Layer (on the Master Page, or on a document page you've applied the Master to), and then you can Hide the Layer on the Master Page when you want to Export or Print. Everything in that Layer will then be hidden on all the document pages you applied the Master to. Later, you can Show the Layer again on the Master Page if you want to see everything again.

[smadell]

This would be a nice feature. But, as it stands now, there is no "info" panel for a layer in which you can designate its printing vs non-printing status. What you can do, however, is to use "Layer States" to set a global on/off switch for layers you want to turn off prior to printing or exporting a PDF, etc.

The easiest way to do this is probably to create a "Smart State" using (for instance) a color label. For instance, on a document-wide basis, mark the first non-printing layer as Red. (Right click on the layer, and choose the Red swatch at the bottom of the drop-down menu.) Open the States panel and create a new Smart State. When asked for a name, call the smart state "Turn OFF Red layers" or something similar. In the panel, check the top filter "Layer tag is…" and click in the Red circle.

Now, you have a way to designate that layer, and any subsequent layers you create, as non-printing by turning the Layer State to "Hide" or "Show". Before printing or exporting, simply turn the Layer State to "Hide" - turn it back to "Show" when you're done.

[Hangman]

Another option, depending on your workflow and which app you're using could be Snapshots which are available in both Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo. They allow you to save different views of your artwork and even create new documents from each different view though would be more applicable for completed artwork.

You could set different versions of your artwork by showing and hiding the relevant layers and then save that view as a snapshot and name it accordingly so if you have numerous variations on a theme where you want to show and hide different layers or to show different colour variations or show and hide printing and non-printing layers, you could create snapshots for each variation with a single click.

Then it's simply a case of selecting the relevant snapshot before exporting...

[walt.farrell]

On 12/5/2023 at 5:46 PM, smadell said:

The easiest way to do this is probably to create a "Smart State" using (for instance) a color label. For instance, on a document-wide basis, mark the first non-printing layer as Red. (Right click on the layer, and choose the Red swatch at the bottom of the drop-down menu.) Open the States panel and create a new Smart State. When asked for a name, call the smart state "Turn OFF Red layers" or something similar. In the panel, check the top filter "Layer tag is…" and click in the Red circle.

Interesting approach. Thanks.

For others experimenting with this, Layer States are only in Photo or the Photo Persona of Publisher, but in Publisher they do work across all the pages of the document.

[Ash]

Hi All,

As it's relevant to this thread thought I'd mention that we have now added Layer States to be available in the 2.4 beta of both Affinity Publisher and Affinity Designer (so in Publisher you do not need to switch to the Photo persona to do it, the States panel is available directly in the Publisher persona). More info here: