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Does anyone use Designer for doing basic layouts?


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Maybe it would be the best if all three apps use only one file extension > .affinity

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
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Maybe it would be the best if all three apps use only one file extension > .affinity

On a Mac, & I assume on a PC as well, the file extension determines the default app that opens a document. So for example, double-clicking on an .afphoto file opens it in Affinity Photo & double-clicking on an .afdesign file opens it in Affinity Designer. If all the apps use the same extension, then the default app for all of them would have to be the same, which I doubt would be a desired behavior for the vast majority of users.

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Well then, you first open the desired app, then open the file via "File > Open"...

or right click and choose the app.

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
15” Dell Inspiron 7559 i7 Windows 10 x64 Pro Intel Core i7-6700HQ (3.50 GHz, 6M) 16 GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600 MHz (8GBx2) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4 GB GDDR5 500 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD UHD (3840 x 2160) Truelife LED - Backlit Touch Display
32” LG 32UN650-W display 3840 x 2160 UHD, IPS, HDR10 Color Gamut: DCI-P3 95%, Color Calibrated 2 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
13.3” MacBook Pro (2017) Ventura 13.6 Intel Core i7 (3.50 GHz Dual Core) 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB 500 GB SSD Retina Display (3360 x 2100)

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Well then, you first open the desired app, then open the file via "File > Open"...

or right click and choose the app.

Yes, you can always do that, but often it is convenient & much faster to be able to just double-click on a file to open it in the default app assigned to it. That works whether or not the app is running at the time -- if not, the app launches & opens the file.

 

This has been a standard feature of every Mac OS since the beginning, & I assume the same is true for Windows.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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Yes, you can always do that, but often it is convenient & much faster to be able to just double-click on a file to open it in the default app assigned to it. That works whether or not the app is running at the time -- if not, the app launches & opens the file.

 

This has been a standard feature of every Mac OS since the beginning, & I assume the same is true for Windows.

 

Are you in a hurry?  :D

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
15” Dell Inspiron 7559 i7 Windows 10 x64 Pro Intel Core i7-6700HQ (3.50 GHz, 6M) 16 GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600 MHz (8GBx2) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4 GB GDDR5 500 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD UHD (3840 x 2160) Truelife LED - Backlit Touch Display
32” LG 32UN650-W display 3840 x 2160 UHD, IPS, HDR10 Color Gamut: DCI-P3 95%, Color Calibrated 2 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
13.3” MacBook Pro (2017) Ventura 13.6 Intel Core i7 (3.50 GHz Dual Core) 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB 500 GB SSD Retina Display (3360 x 2100)

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All affinity apps share file format and even edit ability when the hosting app doesn't natively support the feature. So if u open a Photo file with Live Filters in Designer, you can edit the live filter even thought Designer doesn't let u apply them. That's VERY Badass and the Devs Rock for such an ingenious feature!

 

Wow. I was totally unaware of this.

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By the way, KipV, in regards to my comment earlier...

 

 


Also, I can't remember what video it was or how this feature works in Designer, but there is an option to resize just a frame, and all other content will stay locked. I really wish I could find this again.

 

...it was a video on the constraints feature which will be released in Designer 1.5. I may have not explained it well in my quote, but this certainly looks great for layouts.

 

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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By the way, KipV, in regards to my comment earlier...

 

 

Also, I can't remember what video it was or how this feature works in Designer, but there is an option to resize just a frame, and all other content will stay locked. I really wish I could find this again.

 

...it was a video on the constraints feature which will be released in Designer 1.5. I may have not explained it well in my quote, but this certainly looks great for layouts.

 

Isn't the option to "resize just a frame, and all other content will stay locked" just the 'lock children' feature, available in AD 1.4.x?

 

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Thank you for sharing that, Alfred. I actually didn't know about the feature to lock children. (You would think I would by now.)

 

Anyway, when the man nested the paths inside the path of the frame, did he drag them under the thumbnail? (I can't enlarge the videos here.) I'm aware that will create a mask as shown, but if he dragged the paths under the adult layer, I thought that would just create a sublayer.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Anyway, when the man nested the paths inside the path of the frame, did he drag them under the thumbnail?

 

If you drag an object to the thumbnail of another object, the target object is cropped to the shape of the dragged object. You get a short vertical blue line beside the thumbnail to tell you that the target object is going to be cropped when you release the mouse button.

 

If you drag an object, or multiple objects, underneath another object so that you get a long horizontal line extending from the right-hand end of the thumbnail, the dragged object(s) will be clipped to the shape of the target object when you release the mouse button.

 

Apologies if you knew all of the above and you meant something else!

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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No apologies needed.

 

I always thought dragging paths beside the thumbnail was what did the clipping (clipping mask). I didn't know it was done by dragging paths underneath each other (or I forgot). So with the option to "paste inside," I assume that is the same as clipping. I think I was getting confused because I would always drag objects on a blank thumbnail to organize my layers, and that didn't change my drawing as the video showed. Whereas, dragging them on an actual object will clip them. I get it now.

 

If it's okay that we're still off topic, so what is the advantage of cropping when clipping can be used to do the same thing? The target object that is being clipped can just have no opacity, and then it will look as if it were cropped. Right?

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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If it's okay that we're still off topic

 

Oops! Probably not. Apologies to Kip for hijacking the thread. :o

 

so what is the advantage of cropping when clipping can be used to do the same thing? The target object that is being clipped can just have no opacity, and then it will look as if it were cropped. Right?

 

If the object that is being clipped has no opacity, you might find it quite difficult to see (either before or after clipping). :P

 

Suppose you start with a blue rectangle for the sky, overlapped by a green shape at the bottom for the grass and a yellow circle in the top right-hand corner for the sun. If you clip the green and yellow shapes to the blue shape, you'll get something approaching the "idyllic summer scene" (minus the fluffy clouds) in the tutorial video. If you crop the green and yellow shapes to the blue shape, the blue shape will disappear and the cloudless sky will become a skyless sky. ;)

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Well explained. When I get around to Designer again, I'll mess around with these two options again.

 

Sorry for changing the discussion, KipV. We're done now, unless you have more questions about doing basic layouts.  ;)

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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  • 4 weeks later...

After using Affinity for my first layout project I have a question on how to make multiple variations of a design. When I would work in InDesign I could link a photo or illustration in the layout and then make several copies of that file so I could make revisions to the layout. Affinity doesn't link files, which on one hand is really neat, but if I revise a photo the layout is based on it doesn't update across all the layout revision artboards.

 

Ideally to me you would want to choose whether or not a layout could get updated or stay at a previous state. For an example I wanted to see what one layout would look like with the black and white photo and another layout with a color photo.

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For an example I wanted to see what one layout would look like with the black and white photo and another layout with a color photo.

 

Are you familiar with the "Global Colors" in the Swatches panel? Aside from the regular swatches, the global swatches will change every object of that color throughout your document.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Yes I was just told about global colors from one of the staff. That looks like a great idea! However even that may not give me entirely what I am looking for. The photo I started out with didn't have color applied to it at all. If there was color applied then I could see how your global color solution would solve this problem but when the original file I placed in Designer doesn't have color it won't get updated unless photo is linked to the layout software, I think. I am pretty sure that is right. So what I am doing now is making copies of the newest color change in Designer then reapplying my layout to each of those photos.

 

I am of two minds about this because I like the idea of getting rid of linking since it is an annoying task yet for some workflows it seems to make sense to link. I have to wonder how Publisher is going to go about this? Will it too avoid linking?

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I understand. Everyone learns and benefits in a certain way.

 

But before considering Option B...

 

it won't get updated unless photo is linked to the layout software

 

As I was playing around trying to figure out a resolvent, I learned something for myself. There is an option to create a palette from a photo. To do this, import a photo into Designer, then open the Swatches flyout menu and select "Create Palette from Document." You are then asked if you want an application palette or a document palette. I don't understand the difference between those two, but either will create a palette of the colors in that photo. You can do this first, and then use them for your global colors. I hope this helps.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Well I hope it works for you. Waiting on Affinity Publisher might be a good wait.

 

Anyway, can you explain how the linking feature works that you want? Back when I used InDesign, I had to embed the links or package the documents in order to reopen them, but I never understood or was told the use of the links. The packaging makes sense to me since all of the content is put in one folder, but the links do not make sense to me.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Well I hope it works for you. Waiting on Affinity Publisher might be a good wait.

 

Anyway, can you explain how the linking feature works that you want? Back when I used InDesign, I had to embed the links or package the documents in order to reopen them, but I never understood or was told the use of the links. The packaging makes sense to me since all of the content is put in one folder, but the links do not make sense to me.

 

When you embed the picture you put it completely in the document so you can freely delete it from the disk, it will be there. But, the disadvantage of this method is that the document becomes very big in MB and slow to work with.

When linking, you just give the app (InDesign, Designer...) the path were the picture is and you see only the picture preview in the document which is about few KB and it doesn't slow your work. If you delete (or rename, or move to another folder) the picture from the disk you can still see the preview of the picture in the document but if you try to print it, it will be printed in 72 dpi.

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
15” Dell Inspiron 7559 i7 Windows 10 x64 Pro Intel Core i7-6700HQ (3.50 GHz, 6M) 16 GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600 MHz (8GBx2) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4 GB GDDR5 500 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD UHD (3840 x 2160) Truelife LED - Backlit Touch Display
32” LG 32UN650-W display 3840 x 2160 UHD, IPS, HDR10 Color Gamut: DCI-P3 95%, Color Calibrated 2 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
13.3” MacBook Pro (2017) Ventura 13.6 Intel Core i7 (3.50 GHz Dual Core) 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB 500 GB SSD Retina Display (3360 x 2100)

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Okay I think I understand now. Basically having an auto updater on the program when changing the source photo.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Linked picture will be updated (auto or manually depends on your settings into apps) if you change it or replace it with another one bout with the same name as previous one.

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
15” Dell Inspiron 7559 i7 Windows 10 x64 Pro Intel Core i7-6700HQ (3.50 GHz, 6M) 16 GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600 MHz (8GBx2) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4 GB GDDR5 500 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD UHD (3840 x 2160) Truelife LED - Backlit Touch Display
32” LG 32UN650-W display 3840 x 2160 UHD, IPS, HDR10 Color Gamut: DCI-P3 95%, Color Calibrated 2 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
13.3” MacBook Pro (2017) Ventura 13.6 Intel Core i7 (3.50 GHz Dual Core) 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB 500 GB SSD Retina Display (3360 x 2100)

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