please add default document units in global preferences

[dospuntocero]

Hey guys, this is something i believe its really important, in my country we dont use points as unit at all (maybe for fonts), but opening every document in points as default is akward. is it possible to define for example mm, cm or inches as default measurement for every document you open? thank you in advance

[walt.farrell]

There is no default units setting for documents you open, today, though many users have asked for it.

However, I would not expect documents to be opening with pt (points) as the default, except possibly when opening PDF files. What kind of file are you using that defaults to points as the document units?

Note: Lines (strokes) and Fonts will always use points, not the document units, unless you adjust your application Settings: 

 

[dospuntocero]

mainly when i open files from illustrator for example, the default for opening the file is points, i dont have any problems with points on texts or lines, but canvas sizes in points are weird. btw learned that you can change the unit  quickly doing right click over the rulers. but a default should be better than clicking the rulers every time i open a file. since i work in a printhouse, I open 100+ files every day (not designed by our team... mostly external files made in illustrator or other apps like canva-pdf)

[walt.farrell]

8 hours ago, dospuntocero said:

mainly when i open files from illustrator for example, the default for opening the file is points, i dont have any problems with points on texts or lines, but canvas sizes in points are weird. btw learned that you can change the unit  quickly doing right click over the rulers. but a default should be better than clicking the rulers every time i open a file. since i work in a printhouse, I open 100+ files every day (not designed by our team... mostly external files made in illustrator or other apps like canva-pdf)

When you open a .ai file in an Affinity application, you are opening the PDF compatibility file embedded within the .ai file. So, since you are opening a PDF, the units are points, which are the standard PDF measurement unit internally.

[MikeTO]

Your workflow of opening 100+ PDFs per day is a good justification for a default measurement units option. However, even if Serif were to add the option, it might be just for new documents and not for existing ones. When scripting is available, you could create a one-line script to switch to the measurement system you want and assign that script to a shortcut.

I assume Serif chose not to add a setting for default measurement units because it makes just as much sense to include them as part of new document presets. This approach avoids a user setting their default to inches and then creating an A4 document with inches as would happen with Adobe software. But the Affinity approach is inconvenient for North American users who work in picas - all of us pica users have to edit the default presets before using them.

If Serif were to add a default measurement system option in Settings, perhaps it could be an override feature - create and open all documents in the specified units, regardless of a preset's default or of an existing document's existing units. This would be helpful for your PDF workflow.

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, MikeTO said:

However, even if Serif were to add the option, it might be just for new documents and not for existing ones.

I don't understand this - the "override" of units (document unit vs application/user default) is the behavior of the application, not the document.

[MikeTO]

10 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

I don't understand this - the "override" of units (document unit vs application/user default) is the behavior of the application, not the document.

I meant that in other apps with a default measurement system setting, setting it to Inches won't impact a document that is set to Millimetres. This makes sense, you wouldn't normally want the setting to override what is stored in the document.

But PDF is different, it's almost always points so Affinity opens them in points which means users need to switch them to inches, picas, or millimetres, depending on the page size. I was suggesting that a measurement unit setting could be used to override this, although perhaps that would only be welcome for PDF.

I believe InDesign has the ability to open PDF files available in their public beta now, although just for PDFs created from ID. I don't know how they're handling this issue.

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

But PDF is different, it's almost always points so Affinity opens them in points which means users need to switch them to inches, picas, or millimetres, depending on the page size. I was suggesting that a measurement unit setting could be used to override this, although perhaps that would only be welcome for PDF.

Yes, PDF would be a good use-case for this. Also JPG, TIFF, etc. and other formats that do not have units specified in the file.

It should not apply, in my opinion, to files that do record their own units. E.g., if I opened a .afdesign document with units set in the document as mm, I would not want that overridden to inches which might be my application default. Or maybe that would need to have another setting, somewhat like the Color settings about whether to convert to a working color space or not.

[Pšenda]

I didn't expect to forcibly change the units stored (user defined) in all documents, typically *.aff files. Only in the case of documents/images where the units follow from the essence of the document type, for example the mentioned PDF, or an image (PNG, JPEG, ...) that is in pixels, units would be overrided to the user-defined units (if that user wishes and sets).

[fde101]

If Serif were to implement a feature like this, it might make sense to split it into two settings: one for document formats and vector formats like PDF and SVG, and another for raster image formats like PNG.

[Pšenda]

18 hours ago, fde101 said:

If Serif were to implement a feature like this, it might make sense to split it into two settings: one for document formats and vector formats like PDF and SVG, and another for raster image formats like PNG.

Ideally, each document/image type/format could have its own settings for document units, i.e. PDF = default (pt), mm, inch..., JPEG = default (px), mm, inch..., ...
Just because photos (JPEG, TIFF) and graphics (PNG) may not be suitable for splitting into raster images category.

Edited August 6, 2024 by Pšenda