Affinity Photo

[Iztok]

Messy, import pdf in Photo, hundreds of layers of text, it is alo problem in Designer or Publisher if change text to curves, so many layers make the document completely messy. Suggestion, group text as text layer

[Hangman]

Hi @Iztok,

This isn't specific to any Beta release and has always been this way so it would be better off as a feature request since it's not a bug... I'm sure someone in the moderation team will be able to move your post to the Feedback for the Affinity V2 Suite of Products forum...

If you convert the text to curves you will end up with an individual layer per character resulting in potentially hundreds or thousands of layers. The Affinity apps will have no way to distinguish these layers from any other Curve or Curves layer, in that instance there would be no logical way to group 'text elements'...

[walt.farrell]

48 minutes ago, Iztok said:

import pdf in Photo, hundreds of layers of text,

"Import" is a confusing term. Do you mean Open, or Place?

[Hangman]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

"Import" is a confusing term. Do you mean Open, or Place?

It would have to be 'Open' since editing a 'Placed' PDF fails to maintain Text Frames (as shown in the screenshot) instead, converting everything to Artistic Text which I think should be considered a bug but again, not Beta specific...

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, Hangman said:

It would have to be 'Open' since editing a 'Placed' PDF fails to maintain Text Frames (as shown in the screenshot) instead, converting everything to Artistic Text which I think should be considered a bug but again, not Beta specific...

Thanks, but in that case I'm confused about it giving "hundreds of layers of text" if it hasn't been converted to curves, unless @Iztok simply didn't choose the correct options when Opening.

[Hangman]

14 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Thanks, but in that case I'm confused about it giving "hundreds of layers of text" if it hasn't been converted to curves, unless @Iztok simply didn't choose the correct options when Opening.

I 'think' (but maybe wrong) that @Iztok is just proposing that all text layers (whether Frame or Artistic) appear as a single grouped layer when the PDF is opened. I don't believe the post has anything to do with the 'Favour editable text over fidelity' or 'Group lines of text into text frames' options in the 'PDF Options' dialog since he clearly has the latter checked otherwise we'd be seeing Artistic Text in the Layers panel in the screenshot...

Opening a PDF will largely (but not completely) mirror the source document in terms of the number of text layers, 'hundreds' is perhaps an exaggeration unless there are literally hundreds in the source file...

[Iztok]

Art text conversion is OK, thanks in Publisher and Designer

[Hangman]

3 minutes ago, Iztok said:

Same is in Designer or Publisher, when some text convert to curves, every single letter has his own layer and there are hundreds

There will be since they are now all individual objects which can have individual characteristics...

You can select all the respective layers and group them if that's what you want to do but once converted to curves, as mentioned above, I don't see any way for the Affinity apps to differentiate between a curve that happens to be in the form of a text character and a curve that is a generic shape so it would make it almost impossible to selectively group text converted to curves as part of that process I imagine...

[Pyanepsion]

Hello, @Iztok,

✅Converting text into a curve can have a number of advantages, such as:

—Preservation of the layout: a guarantee that the layout remains identical, whatever the software or device used.
—Protection against unauthorized changes: useful for documents such as invoices.
—Compatibility: ensures that text is displayed correctly on all software.
—Detailed handling: can be worked letter by letter for design purposes.
—Incorporation into graphics: easy integration of text into graphic compositions.
—Print optimization: improves the print quality of specific fonts.
—Fixing version: useful for freezing a final version of a document.

🔴However, there are a number of disadvantages:

—Inability to modify the text: once the text has been converted into a curve, it can no longer be easily modified. Any correction requires starting again from the original text, which can be time-consuming.
—Increased file size: curves significantly increase file size, making it harder to share and manage large files.
—Complex handling: handling curves requires more technical skills and can be difficult for less experienced users.
—Reduced accessibility: assistive technologies cannot read curves, posing accessibility problems for the visually impaired, and text-based help tools.
—Search and replace impossible: Search and replace functions no longer work on text converted into curves.
—Screen display quality: curves may appear blurred or pixelated on some screens.
—Limited compatibility: some software may not handle files containing complex curves correctly.
—Messy layers: the transformation create as many curves as letters, or even more, making the document messy.

All this can often be advantageously replaced by artistic text or the incorporation of a specific font, thus avoiding the many disadvantages associated with converting to curves.