Exporting 300DPI digital art from Intaglio vector software to Affinity Designer 2

[Stoney8]

Hello Forum,

(Pat): Below is the last email I received from the Affinity Designer 2 technical support.  I recently purchased Affinity because my current design software "Intaglio" has not been supported for years and I'm losing the ability to use it with every Apple iMac update.  Intaglio is a vector software and was a very enhanced version of Apple's old McDraw program.  All of my art is created in inches, RGB1998 (Intaglio option), and 300DPI.

Here's my issue: Affinity told me to "Place" my Intaglio art via SVG or PDF.  So I exported my art in SVG, but Affinity automatically changed my art to pixels at 72DPI.

I attempted to correct the issue by clicking “Edit Document” at the top.  Rulers appeared in mm, but not in inches.  So I clicked “Document Setup” again to change it to inches, RGB, 300DPI, and clicked "Apply.".  I didn't know whether to pick “Anchor to Page” or “Rescale” so I clicked "Rescale."  After re-setting everything, all the object layers in the art displayed in "Layers" and the art was the correct size 32” x 40."

I have no other experience with other design software, so Affinity is all new to me.

Please give me some advice.  Thank you.

(Affinity): Thanks for your reply and files.

(Affinity): Looking into this further, SVG as a file format, doesn't actually use a DPI value, so Intaglio isn't exporting as a 300DPI SVG file as these don't apply to SVG.  The idea behind SVG is as long as everything is vector, then DPI doesn't apply as these can be scaled to any size.  As the SVG doesn't have a DPI, Affinity opens it at 72DPI, which is what you are seeing.  If the SVG actually had a DPI applied to it, it would open at 300DPI.

(Affinity): Whats your end goal?  Are creating a book to be printed?  Just I'm wondering if there is any need for you to working at 300DPI and not just using a DPI of 72 in Affinity which will place your artwork at the correct size?  Otherwise, you'd need to use your workaround, which isn't actually applying a DPI to your SVG just more to the placed file on the page.

(Pat):

1 - My goal is to “Place” my Intaglio vector digital art into Affinity Designer at 300DPI to maintain a high quality art piece.  I am not creating a book to be printed.  I just want to create art and export the art to a printing company as a PDF.  

2 - Also, I want to create new digital art at 300DPI using Affinity Designer 2.  

3 - My art is created in Intaglio at 32” x 40” which includes a surrounding white space (much like a poster). It was created in Intaglio at 300DPI and has an aspect ratio of 4:5.  If requested by a client, 32” x 40” would be the maximum printed size to maintain 300DPI.  Typically the 32” x 40” art size would be scaled down to fit standard 4:5 aspect ratio art frames such as 8” x 10” and 16” x 20.”  I need to scale to any size as needed.  

4 - Your comments regarding SVC helped me understand that format.  Thank you!  So my question is:  What format should I use to “Place” my art into Affinity so it loads in inches, RGB, and 300DPI?  Should I “Place” as SVG?, PDF?, JPEG?, or other.  It would be great if I could “Place” my art, setup a “New” document, do a Document Setup with a custom size of 32” x 40”, at 300DPI, in RGB, and not have to make workaround changes I described.  With the workaround changes I'm not confident that everything is setup correctly and won't accidentally be changed.

(Affinity):  When clicking Original Size, if your artwork shrinks in size, it will be due to a DPI mismatch between the document you've placed the file and invoking your workaround for step number should resolve that

(Pat): Thank you,

[v_kyr]

"Placing" would embed an SVG or PDF here, which you probably don't want to do. For an SVG just open it via "File -> Open..." which should keep track of the initial by Intaglio generated SVG dimensions then. - Exchanging a PDF (again use "File -> Open...") might keep track of a DPI setting, as far as Intaglio exported that DPI 300 wise correctly.

Other than that, setup an ADe document accordingly size & DPI wise, when creating a new ADe document and using the "Place/Embedding" import option.

See also related:

• Get started
  • Create new documents
  • New from clipboard
  • Open documents and images
  • Importing PDF documents
  • Document units
  • Document setup
  • Placing Content
  • ... etc. ...

[Medical Officer Bones]

Intaglio's primary export format is PDF. @Stoney8 Did you try exporting your work as PDF from Intaglio, and then opening it directly in Affinity Designer? It should maintain vectors, page size, resolution and other settings.

[Stoney8]

On 12/26/2023 at 7:07 PM, Medical Officer Bones said:

Intaglio's primary export format is PDF. @Stoney8 Did you try exporting your work as PDF from Intaglio, and then opening it directly in Affinity Designer? It should maintain vectors, page size, resolution and other settings.

Medical Officer Bones:  Attached below is an PDF export from Intaglio at 32" x 40", 300DPI (maximum size per my comments).  Please let me know if it imports to your Affinity Designer program as 32" x 40" inches. RGB, and 300DPI, or do you have to do the workaround to change from pixels and 72DPI and setup again (per my comments).  Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question.  I will give this a try.  Happy New Year!

G115-E1-32x40 Art Size-300 DPI.pdf

[Stoney8]

On 12/26/2023 at 1:36 PM, v_kyr said:

"Placing" would embed an SVG or PDF here, which you probably don't want to do. For an SVG just open it via "File -> Open..." which should keep track of the initial by Intaglio generated SVG dimensions then. - Exchanging a PDF (again use "File -> Open...") might keep track of a DPI setting, as far as Intaglio exported that DPI 300 wise correctly.

Other than that, setup an ADe document accordingly size & DPI wise, when creating a new ADe document and using the "Place/Embedding" import option.

See also related:

• Get started
  • Create new documents
  • New from clipboard
  • Open documents and images
  • Importing PDF documents
  • Document units
  • Document setup
  • Placing Content
  • ... etc. ...

v_kyr:  Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.  Attached below is an PDF export from Intaglio at 32" x 40", RGB, 300DPI (maximum size per my comments).  Please let me know if it imports to your Affinity Designer program as 32" x 40" inches. RGB, and 300DPI, or do you have to do the workaround to change from pixels and 72DPI and setup again (per my comments).  Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question.  I will give this a try.  Happy New Year!

G115-E1-32x40 Art Size-300 DPI.pdf

[Medical Officer Bones]

@Stoney8 

I imported your document in Affinity Designer 2, PhotoLine, Illustrator, and PDFExchange Editor (alternative to Acrobat). I also placed it in InDesign and Affinity Publisher 2.

ALL of them tell me that your PDF's settings are: 81.28 by 101.6 centimeters at 300PPI (9600 by 12000 pixels). Or in inches: exactly 32 by 40 inch.

When I import into Affinity Designer 2 it will ask for the PPI (DPI). The default "Estimate" results in a 72PPI document (which is wrong), so it should be manually set to 300PPI.

As far as I can tell there are no issues. Just tell Designer 2 to import it at 300ppi. It is strange however that only Affinity Designer fails to identify the 300ppi (dpi) in your document and that we have to manually set the PPi, because none of the other applications require manual intervention.

So: all good.

PS in all apps the boxes remain vectors. No bitmaps in sight. 🙂

[MikeW]

12 minutes ago, Medical Officer Bones said:

...It is strange however that only Affinity Designer fails to identify the 300ppi (dpi) in your document and that we have to manually set the PPi, because none of the other applications require manual intervention. ...

A pdf doesn't have a document dpi/ppi as do Affinity applications. Raster elements (this pdf has no raster elements) do have a ppi. All there is as regards vector  elements are coordinates measured in points. A pdf uses 72 points per inch.

[Medical Officer Bones]

@MikeW True, I forgot. That said, a PDF file does include media size, and it is safe to assume that this document is supposed to be imported at 300ppi. At least, all the other design software does - including Affinity Publisher.

At the very least Affinity Designer ought to just assume 300ppi as the intended PPI (as the others do).

My opinion, of course.

[MikeW]

My opinion is, and always has been, APub and Designer should only have a dpi setting for raster effects. No document dpi as per other applications. 

APub's document dpi causes problems with .idml files, too.

But no one listens to me, either. 

[Stoney8]

16 hours ago, MikeW said:

A pdf doesn't have a document dpi/ppi as do Affinity applications. Raster elements (this pdf has no raster elements) do have a ppi. All there is as regards vector  elements are coordinates measured in points. A pdf uses 72 points per inch.

Thank you Mike for your time and comments as I learn how to correctly transfer my art to Affinity.  Best Regards and Happy New Year!

[Stoney8]

16 hours ago, Medical Officer Bones said:

@Stoney8 

I imported your document in Affinity Designer 2, PhotoLine, Illustrator, and PDFExchange Editor (alternative to Acrobat). I also placed it in InDesign and Affinity Publisher 2.

ALL of them tell me that your PDF's settings are: 81.28 by 101.6 centimeters at 300PPI (9600 by 12000 pixels). Or in inches: exactly 32 by 40 inch.

When I import into Affinity Designer 2 it will ask for the PPI (DPI). The default "Estimate" results in a 72PPI document (which is wrong), so it should be manually set to 300PPI.

As far as I can tell there are no issues. Just tell Designer 2 to import it at 300ppi. It is strange however that only Affinity Designer fails to identify the 300ppi (dpi) in your document and that we have to manually set the PPi, because none of the other applications require manual intervention.

So: all good.

PS in all apps the boxes remain vectors. No bitmaps in sight. 🙂

Thank you for taking the time to import my document and explaining the manual steps necessary to change from 72 DPI to 300 DPI.  Sounds like you are okay with me exporting all my art from Intaglio as a PDF.  Callum, at Affinity Support originally recommended SVG or PDF, but later, another support person explained SVG and that went over my head.  My main concern has always been that Affinity could import at 300 DPI.  I admit that when Affinity changed my document to 72 DPI, my first thought was that 300 DPI could not be achieved.  Again, I'm not a geek type, and I really don't understand the programing that allows a 72 DPI import to be changed to 300 DPI.   I guess until Affinity allows an automatic inches, RGB, and 300 DPI import, I will have to do a manual workaround to get 300 DPI.  Best Regards and Happy New Year!