Flatten In Designer?

[darita]

I have many layers going and would like to flatten all, when I'm done.  I know I can do this in Photo.  I'm wondering if I can do it in Designer?

[R C-R]

The only way to "flatten" everything in an AD document that I know of is to export it to a raster format, which would result in a one layer image file with no vector objects you could edit.

[MEB]

Hi daria,

To flatten the whole image you can export to a raster format as R C-R suggested or select the preset flatten in the Export dialog in teh case of vector formats ( PDF, SVG etc).

If you need to flatten just a few objects/layers in Designer group them all ( ⌘ (cmd) + G ), right-click on the group in the Layers panel and select Rasterise...

[WhiteX]

Hello,

 

I'm going to send a detailed feature request soon, but this Flatten feature will be on the top of my list. Since the Designer is a vector creation app it would be very important to keep the flattened layer in vector format (not rasterised). For brand designers the final deliveries are often flattened artworks.

 

+1 for this feature.

 

Cheers!

[R C-R]

WhiteX,

 

"Flatten" means to rasterize into a single layer. If you want a file containing only vector objects to export as a single-layer vector file, you can try the boolean operations to create a single curves (note the plural) layer, but whether that works will depend on the vector filetype you export to.

[Fixx]

Traditionally "flatten" in PDF production has meant removal of transparency effects and rendering necessary parts to bitmap objects. I do not think AD layers even appear as "layers" in PDF file (?) but just as separate vector objects which is how it should be. PDF layers is mostly meant for CAD files and is is a newcomer feature in PDF files.

[Terry44]

The ability to flatten all layers down to ONE would be nice to have, while keeping everything vector objects that you can change later.

To do the Flatten or Rasterize your layers into a single bitmap select all layers and then right click and choose Group.  Duplicate this group and hide the first one. Preserves editing in future. 

On the second group right click and select Rasterize.  Done.

[Terry44]

In Fireworks the groups are created automatically, in Designer you have to create groups yourself. Unless there is a setting somewhere I don't know about.

[WhiteX]

WhiteX,

 

"Flatten" means to rasterize into a single layer. If you want a file containing only vector objects to export as a single-layer vector file, you can try the boolean operations to create a single curves (note the plural) layer, but whether that works will depend on the vector filetype you export to.

 

 

The ability to flatten all layers down to ONE would be nice to have, while keeping everything vector objects that you can change later.

 

To do the Flatten or Rasterize your layers into a single bitmap select all layers and then right click and choose Group.  Duplicate this group and hide the first one. Preserves editing in future. 

On the second group right click and select Rasterize.  Done.

 

Thank you for your replies :)

 

In other software I use "Flaten" and "Rasterize" are different things, flattening operations generate vectors, while rasterizing converts to pixels. I do not really wish to rasterize my vector later directly in the editing software, only when I export in various formats, which works good in AD. But the feature I'm looking for is to reduce the complexity of a detailed artwork with many layers into a single layer with transparent sections with just a few clicks. Ideally this action would expand all the strokes, effects (like rounded corners) and distortions on shapes (for future releases) and would remove any construction areas which are not visible - similarly to "Divide", just the hidden geometry would not count.

 

This can be achieved with consecutive "convert to curves" and different boolean operations as you said, but the necessary amount of work is unreasonably high just to make a design deliverable. When you design you're doing it non-destructively, so you can't really do this along the way while you're designing. When you're done ideally this is just a few clicks and you can send the design to the client, but doing this at the end is very troublesome, especially when the client comes back for a "last change" if you know what I mean :)

[R C-R]

WhiteX,

 

I was with you right up to the point you said "... just to make a design deliverable." Unless you are sending the client a native Affinity file, which seems unlikely, you will have to export the AD document to some other file format. The most obvious choice is PDF, & I am not sure why you would care if all the vector elements are on different layers or not.

[WhiteX]

R C-R,

 

actually you're right, I don't care how many layers are there, but to "burn" the desired look into the design I often need to merge all layers into one. This happens when I work on a logo with transparent elements (while designing I use the background's color for those). See the example below, the full color version I can export it as is, but for logos usually is a must to provide pure black or white variants for different applications. Now that I used different shades in the color version, and I do want to keep most of the features of the logo in the monochrome version too I need to use delimiter strokes. When I set the correct stroke widths and I'm happy with the result I want to expand the design (all corners and strokes, etc are converted to curves) and I want to merge all the layers so the white areas can be deleted - to become really transparent.

 

If you have a better idea how could we deal with this it would be great to see. As I said earlier, using tens or thousands of boolean operations manually is not the preferred way.

 

Thanks :)

[R C-R]

Please bear with me but I am still having a few problems understanding this issue.

 

What do you mean when you say that you use the background's color for transparent elements? Why not just use transparency to begin with wherever that is needed? If you want to view the design against a particular color background, why not add that as rectangle of that color below all the other layers & don't include it in any exports. You can stack several different rectangle backgrounds this way & preview one or another by turning off the ones above the desired one.

 

For the monochrome delimiter strokes, is there some reason that as you create them you can't put them all into a group positioned above the color layers so you can turn that on only for monochrome exports, perhaps with the Erase layer mode set for that group? It seems to me that you need to create these strokes separately anyway so unless I am missing something it does not seem to involve much extra work.

[WhiteX]

R C-R,

 

the "Erase" layer mode seems to resolve 50% of the issue. Thank you for the tip. With a little extra work I can achieve visually what I want, and I suppose it works perfectly with raster exports like PNGs. The remaining 50% would be to find a solution to get correct vector output. See examples.

 

Hopefully what I'm asking can be resolved with a simple change in my workflow.

 

Thank you for your time!

 

 

Logo v3 - Transparency - Vector.pdf

[Fixx]

Guys, I did a test and exported a document from AD to PDF and opened it in Illustrator. It behaved very expectedly: AD has 3 objects which are 3 layers; Illy has 3 objects within 1 layer. 

 

Layer in AD does NOT mean same thing as layer in Illy. There is no sense in trying to combine AD layers. They are just separate objects which AD calls as layers. Well they can be layered on top each other (of course) which in a way means they can be thought as layers.

 

Best practice in AD work flow would be to develop a layer/object grouping scheme which keeps work space tidy. I believe that is what OP needs.

[JET_Affinity]

In other software I use...flattening operations generate vectors...

 

WhiteX,

 

What other software would that be? It sounds like you are confusing the term "expand" (used in several vector drawing programs, which does things like outlining strokes), with the term "flatten," (which in a raster imaging program generally refers to combining multiple "layers"--which are actually separate raster images--into one image).

 

JET

[WhiteX]

Hello JET,

 

as far as I know Flatten means making one layer from several layers, regardless if it's raster or vector. I don't confuse the terms, I'd like to "expand" the design first, and "flatten" next. You can see my attachments and previous comments to understand why I want this. (In short, I just want to get transparent strokes cut out of multiple shapes without one hundred of boolean operations). Most of my questions were partially answered, but I still can't seem to find an answer how to get correct vector output when using layers in "Erase" mode. I really don't care how many layers I have, but flattening the layers was how I could burn the visible layers into one previously (in Illustrator). Affinity Designer seems to have a different workflow for preparing a design for delivery and printing.

 

Thanks!

[JET_Affinity]

Again, you said the term "flatten" is used in some other drawing program for what you want to do. What drawing program is that?

 

In a vector drawing program, making all layers a single layer is simply a matter of moving all objects to a single layer.

 

Please answer the question: What vector drawing program are you referring to which has a "Flatten" command to do what you are trying to achieve?

 

JET

[WhiteX]

I answered that JET, I'm coming from Illustrator, it has a "Flatten Transparency" feature, which would be nice in AD, but my workflow was a bit different, when I'm done with a design I expand everything and use "merge" from pathfinder. Mainly because in most of the cases I have to cut out some transparent elements from the design.

 

So again, please check my latest attachments to understand the issue. A good tip from R C-R was to add the elements that are meant to be cut out in "Erase" layer mode, which looks good, but when I try to "burn" that effect into the design the invisible elements become visible, they appear in the export. The preferred outcome would be to get those elements cut out from the vectors.

 

I don't mind if I have to change my workflow, I just want to achieve that, and again, I'm not interested in the amount of layers I have, or to replicate a single specific feature, I just want my transparent lines and shapes to become really transparent in vector output without the need of many many boolean operations.

 

I appreciate your willingness to help. Any recommendations on this?

[AzSandMan]

I think I found an easy way to flatten artwork. cmd + p > PDF > Save as PDF saves the file as a flattened PDF file.

 

Printers can't handle layers so the print cmd automatically flattens the file.

 

 

EDIT: This would only work on a Mac.

Edited December 11, 2016 by AzSandMan

[Butler To Cats]

AD has 3 objects which are 3 layers; Illy has 3 objects within 1 layer. 

 

Layer in AD does NOT mean same thing as layer in Illy. There is no sense in trying to combine AD layers. They are just separate objects which AD calls as layers. Well they can be layered on top each other (of course) which in a way means they can be thought as layers.

 

Objection!

 

While AD does not require layers for organising your objects, it certainly provides layers into which you can place objects. You can certainly have those 3 objects within 1 layer in AD as well.

 

 

Now, back to the discussion on transparency. (I'm going to have to try playing with this tonight.)

[WhiteX]

Any thoughts on merging transparent strokes / shapes into a series of layers? Like "burning" some strokes with the "Erase" layer mode into the design and getting vector output.