Does anyone use Designer for doing basic layouts?

[KipV]

Can someone please help me on how to import Word files into Affinity Designer? I am trying to import some basic body text in but Affinity isn't letting me resize the text blocks (see what they look like in the attachment.) When I move the handle on the text block it stretches the text which I obviously don't want to do.

[MEB]

Hi KipV,

You are probably using Artistic text frames. Create a text frame with the Frame Text Tool and paste the text there. You can then resize the frame and the text will reflow to fit. To access the Frame Text Tool click on the small triangle in the Artistic Text Tool icon to open a popup menu.

[KipV]

I see, yes that was the problem (I was using artistic text.) Also is there anything like text wrap or least some type of work around if there isn't?

[MEB]

Hi KipV,

Currently there's no specific tools/features to wrap text around and image. I believe this will be introduced with Affinity Publisher later.

Meanwhile there's a workaround you can use for simple layouts: check this thread for more details and sample files.

[KipV]

I hope text wrap also comes to Designer as well for people who use it for basic layouts.

 

As I have been doing my first big project in Affinity and one Designer feature that would be nice to have in Photo is the ability to work with artboards. It doesn't seem like I should have to move to another app to just edit, resize, or create an artboard. 

[Bri-Toon]

Similar to the discussion MEB pointed out, you can have text flow within the borders of a shape, so you can imitate text wrapping. Just make sure you use the frame text tool and not the artistic text tool.

 

 

As I have been doing my first big project in Affinity and one Designer feature that would be nice to have in Photo is the ability to work with artboards. It doesn't seem like I should have to move to another app to just edit, resize, or create an artboard. 

 

Looking on the roadmap, I saw briefly a few replies from people who are excited for the feature, but I didn't see it listed. I'm curious now if it's going on or if plans changed.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/10075-affinity-photo-feature-roadmap/

[KipV]

WOW! I just noticed the auto adjusting of DPI when you resize a raster image! What an incredible feature! So tedious when using InDesign the links panel would tell you the image was the wrong DPI so you would have to open the image in PS, go to the resize dialog, find the right size to get you 300 DPI, save the image, and then update the image in the links panel. Big time saver especially if you have lots of images that need to be adjusted and have to go through that whole process for each image.

 

@bleduc

It seems like it would be an easy enough feature to add since they wouldn't be making it from scratch just bringing it across form the other program. It was only recently added to Designer (1.4?) so they are probably getting the feature improved before bring it across to Photo. The other feature I would like to see brought to artboards is the ability to turn the pasteboard off (including the bleed area) so that I can get rid of all the distractions when I am trying to just look at the artboard.

[Petar Petrenko]

I hope text wrap also comes to Designer as well for people who use it for basic layouts.

 

As I have been doing my first big project in Affinity and one Designer feature that would be nice to have in Photo is the ability to work with artboards. It doesn't seem like I should have to move to another app to just edit, resize, or create an artboard. 

 

As you can see from the attachment, only "Layout" and "Type" menus (and few panels) are those that make the difference between the layout and vector kind of apps. So, if you and the others insist in puting some Publisher features into Designer and Photo, there would be no need from Publisher, because as you can see there are already some of them into Designer and maybe in Photo (but I am Windows user so I don't know that).

[Bri-Toon]

I'm interested to see what features will come exclusive to Publisher that are not in Photo or Designer. I haven't used Photo, but I recall many of those features being in Designer.

[Alfred]

I'm interested to see what features will come exclusive to Publisher that are not in Photo or Designer. I haven't used Photo, but I recall many of those features being in Designer.

 

Linked text frames and multiple pages are the first and most obvious ones, along with linked (i.e. external rather than embedded) images. Then there are the things that go with multiple pages, such as dual master pages, facing pages, mirrored margins, pagination and running headers. I would also expect tables, calendars and a mail merge facility to be added at some point.

[Bri-Toon]

Good to know, though I think multiple pages is planned for Designer.

[KipV]

So, if you and the others insist in puting some Publisher features into Designer and Photo, there would be no need from Publisher, because as you can see there are already some of them into Designer and maybe in Photo (but I am Windows user so I don't know that).

 

There are some layout features that you would want even in an app that has the most basic layout features. Text wrap was in FreeHand and is probably in illustrator. Artboards are important in drawing and photo software because you need to make variations of designs in those programs and you need a solution that works better then putting the variations on the pasteboard. When I get an idea for a design variation in the photo app it is too time consuming to quit out of the app, find the right version of Photo and then open the right file all to just make a copy of that artboard so that can now quit out of Designer, reopen Photo and reopen that file. This needs to be a one step process; it's too basic to not be included in Photo.

 

Where publisher comes in is if you need to do long documents like a book, magazine, or ebook. Features to do those tasks should not be in Designer or Photo. It's hard to say how many Design and Photo features should be in Publisher. InDesign has some drawing tools for an example but they are so poor it's hard to imagine that make people use them very often. I think the last time I used the pen tool in InDesign was when I took the tutorial learning how to use the software.

[KipV]

Good to know, though I think multiple pages is planned for Designer.

As I understand it pages is just a Publisher feature. Artboards is already in Designer.

[MikeW]

WOW! I just noticed the auto adjusting of DPI when you resize a raster image! What an incredible feature! So tedious when using InDesign the links panel would tell you the image was the wrong DPI so you would have to open the image in PS, go to the resize dialog, find the right size to get you 300 DPI, save the image, and then update the image in the links panel. Big time saver especially if you have lots of images that need to be adjusted and have to go through that whole process for each image...

 

Kip, I am uncertain which application you are using, or what you are referring to about the "auto adjusting of DPI."

 

Do you mean this type of information?

 

[KipV]

Yes Mike that is what I am talking about. It looks like the DPI keeps getting larger when you make the photo smaller. At first I couldn't figure out how to check the DPI so that I could change it if need but but changing it in an external program doesn't seem necessary if you can just make the photo smaller. When I scaled this particular photo to get to 300 DPI it came out to an acceptable size so it doesn't look like I have to do any more adjusting.

[Bri-Toon]

As I understand it pages is just a Publisher feature. Artboards is already in Designer.

 

I just double checked. Pages is on the roadmap for Designer 1.6.

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/842-affinity-designer-feature-roadmap/

[KipV]

Interesting, perhaps incorporating pages into Designer is one reason they are holding back Publisher. It looks like there is a couple new features under the pro printing section as well such as improvements for bleeds. 

[MikeW]

Yes Mike that is what I am talking about. It looks like the DPI keeps getting larger when you make the photo smaller. At first I couldn't figure out how to check the DPI so that I could change it if need but but changing it in an external program doesn't seem necessary if you can just make the photo smaller. When I scaled this particular photo to get to 300 DPI it came out to an acceptable size so it doesn't look like I have to do any more adjusting.

 

Kip, the DPI field is just informational--it has to do with Effective Resolution. An application that displays effective resolution use the DPI field that is in the image header (when present, it isn't always and then an application makes assumptions based upon the OS' native resolution) to calculate the effective resolution.

 

This information in AD is exactly what is presented in, well, just about every application I use including InDesign. The screen shot below is from QXP with the same image. The original image is 300 ppi (DPI). In both AD and QXP, I resized the image 150%--hence the 200 PPI/DPI.

 

 

In InDesign, it will report exactly the same if I were to place that image and scale it 150%. And the opposite is also true as you note: make the image smaller than 100% and the effective PPI/DPI increases.

 

The image itself is not being resampled, its physical number of pixels are not changing. It is just that the pixels are either being enlarged (the effective PPI/DPI gets smaller) or the pixels are getting smaller (the effective PPI/DPI is getting larger). But the resolution of the file is still the same.

 

Mike

[KipV]

Oh that's too bad. Is there a way to resample the image to 300 DPI after if has been embedded into Designer? I did some photo touch up work on the 72 DPI image so reimporting it would lose my editing work.

[MikeW]

Kip, what does the effective DPI show in AD when the image is selected?

[KipV]

302 DPI

[KipV]

I can't go to "resize document" since it is greyed out. It seems like you would be able to do that. Just select the image and go to resize document.

[MikeW]

Without seeing it, I would say (tentatively) it is just fine the way it is. Depending upon the printing technology the printer is using it either has a great effective resolution or higher than needed.

 

I don't know the source of the original, but I would guess that it didn't have information in the DPI field and the assumption made about DPI was it was 72 dpi. All that matters (all things being equal) is the number of pixels for the space it is placed. It's simple math an application does to calculate the effective PPI/DPI. It's the number of pixels divided by the PPI/DPI.

 

Mike

[ronnyb]

You know DPI and PPI aren't the same, right?  :ph34r:  :lol:

 

Without seeing it, I would say (tentatively) it is just fine the way it is. Depending upon the printing technology the printer is using it either has a great effective resolution or higher than needed.

 

I don't know the source of the original, but I would guess that it didn't have information in the DPI field and the assumption made about DPI was it was 72 dpi. All that matters (all things being equal) is the number of pixels for the space it is placed. It's simple math an application does to calculate the effective PPI/DPI. It's the number of pixels divided by the PPI/DPI.

 

Mike

[KipV]

They said right from the offset that everything had to be 300 DPI. If I have to re-edit the photo isn't not a big deal. It will only take me 10 minutes. The reason I asked if there was a way to change it is because there is another image that took me days to edit and if I had not checked the resolution beforehand this would have been a much bigger problem (that image I know was imported at at 300 DPI.) With InDesign I just click the open in Photoshop button, adjust the image resolution, and then update once I am back in InDesign. Affinity should have something similar it seems.