Affinity Designer Saves Vectors in output file?

[Terry44]

I am a windows 10 user and have other software that allows to work with vectors but the saved file is in bitmap or flattened image format and no longer a vector graphic.  When saving the file to jpg, png etc... is the file a vector image or bitmap?   If you have a vector image in whatever file format and you resize the edges are still crisp but if it is bitmap the edges are blurred.  Just curious how Affinity saves the end file if you are working with vectors.

 

Also if you use the bitmap and vector tools in the same file and save it are the vector aspects still crisp or is the entire image now bitmap?  Distortions when resizing image in say css or in a image viewer etc..

[Terry44]

I mean when you take a smaller image and enlarge it or zoom in there is a clarity and crispness to vector vs blurriness to bitmap graphics.

[Butler To Cats]

JPEG or  PNG are always bitmap by the nature of the formats - these are bitmap formats internally, only containing pixel information (like a mosaic of tiny pixel tiles).

It is impossible to save a .jpg or .png file with vector information contained in it (well, OK, Fireworks played some very non-standard non-documented tricks to include extra private vector information in its custom .png files, but this was never part of the PNG standard and never supported by other software, it would only work when you opened the file in Fireworks).

 

Affinity Designer can save in its own multi-layer .afdesign vector files (to continue working later, or to share with another Affinity Design user), and can export to several vector (or hybrid) formats that are more widely supported, such as PDF, SVG, WMF, and EPS (unless you use effects that are not universally possible in those vector formats - soft shadows, perhaps - which may be either dropped or included as bitmap information in hybrid formats).

 

Of course, Affinity Designer can also export to a range of bitmap formats, such as JPG and PNG, but once you export to those formats then the vector information has to be saved as bitmap information at a specific size and is no longer vector.

[Butler To Cats]

Vector files (such as .afdesign and .svg files) can contain information such as "a pale blue rectangle 3cm wide and 3 cm high is positioned 1cm in from the left edge and 1.5cm in from the left edge and has a red outline 1mm thick; a green circle 3cm wide is positioned ...", which can be resized easily.

 

Bitmap (raster) files can only contain information such as "16 red pixels, 29 blue pixels, 3 yellow pixels, 15 white pixels, ..." and resizing means working out how best to accurately redraw a 500x250 mosaic of pixel tiles with 700x350 tiles, or with 100x50 tiles - the reproduction will never be exact.

At its simplest, take a black and white pixel side by side like 2 tiles - now reproduce that pattern exactly with a row of 3 tiles (hint: most programs draw the middle tile as a medium grey, which looks like blur), or with just 1 tile.

[Terry44]

JPEG or  PNG are always bitmap by the nature of the formats - these are bitmap formats internally, only containing pixel information (like a mosaic of tiny pixel tiles).

It is impossible to save a .jpg or .png file with vector information contained in it (well, OK, Fireworks played some very non-standard non-documented tricks to include extra private vector information in its custom .png files, but this was never part of the PNG standard and never supported by other software, it would only work when you opened the file in Fireworks).

 

Affinity Designer can save in its own multi-layer .afdesign vector files (to continue working later, or to share with another Affinity Design user), and can export to several vector (or hybrid) formats that are more widely supported, such as PDF, SVG, WMF, and EPS (unless you use effects that are not universally possible in those vector formats - soft shadows, perhaps - which may be either dropped or included as bitmap information in hybrid formats).

 

Of course, Affinity Designer can also export to a range of bitmap formats, such as JPG and PNG, but once you export to those formats then the vector information has to be saved as bitmap information at a specific size and is no longer vector.

 

Thank you, I don't know how to mark this as the answer I was looking for but kudos.  I appreciate your response.

 

[Terry44]

Vector files (such as .afdesign and .svg files) can contain information such as "a pale blue rectangle 3cm wide and 3 cm high is positioned 1cm in from the left edge and 1.5cm in from the left edge and has a red outline 1mm thick; a green circle 3cm wide is positioned ...", which can be resized easily.

 

Bitmap (raster) files can only contain information such as "16 red pixels, 29 blue pixels, 3 yellow pixels, 15 white pixels, ..." and resizing means working out how best to accurately redraw a 500x250 mosaic of pixel tiles with 700x350 tiles, or with 100x50 tiles - the reproduction will never be exact.

At its simplest, take a black and white pixel side by side like 2 tiles - now reproduce that pattern exactly with a row of 3 tiles (hint: most programs draw the middle tile as a medium grey, which looks like blur), or with just 1 tile.

 

Thank you for your response.  As Obtusity said in Fireworks, the program I was using, you can save vector in PNG and it is still editable when you open the file. I also have other programs that saves everything in a bitmap file so you can't edit vectors again. I have a program called Clip Paint Studio that is also hi-bred allowing for manipulating bitmap and vector in same file but once saved out the vector part is flat.  I am used to Fireworks I guess but I no longer have Adobe Creative Cloud so I can't open or edit my fireworks png's anymore other than as flat file and FW is long in the tooth anyways compared to Affinity and other programs out now. 

[Butler To Cats]

I have a program called Clip Paint Studio that is also hi-bred allowing for manipulating bitmap and vector in same file but once saved out the vector part is flat. 

 

Clip Studio Paint's own internal format (.lip? sorry, don't have it available just at the moment) does save with vectors intact so you can keep working with them in a later session but yes, it is not designed for exporting vectors for other uses.

 

CSP is clearly designed to give the traditional artist or inker some of the vector advantages without having to cross completely to the design side - you can edit a curve by redrawing it (either shape or pressure), no Boolean functions, Bezier curves are available but more or less hidden.

I appreciate its extensive functionality but it is not a "fun-to-use" program for my specific personal preferences, unlike Affinity Designer which definitely falls within the fun-to-use category for me.