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There's no need to do that. All Affinity programs work seamlessly. You can switch between them while working in the same file. All use the same file format. If you are referring to using an external editor (other than Affinity Photo), i think this will be implemented later. Currently Affinity Designer only supports embedded documents.

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I have been told today by a member of the sales team that Affinity Photo will not be released for another 2 or 3 years after the release of Affinity Publisher and the beta version will not be released soon. 

 

Is MEB wrong or the sales staff?

 

bobscc

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  • Staff

Hello bobscc,

Welcome to Affinity Forums.

I said a beta of Affinity Photo should be made available in a few weeks if everything goes well (no last minute bugs found). There's no point in rushing things just to meet a deadline if then the user experience is subpar. 

I never mentioned a timeframe for the 1.0 version (MAS) of Affinity Photo. Only the public beta.

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  • Staff

Hi bobscc :)

 

I don't know which sales staff have been talking to you, but I can say for definite 2 things...

 

- MEB is never wrong

- I'm sat here with a fully working version of Affinity Photo that's not ready for public beta today, but is really not far off at all

 

Affinity Publisher will be the last to be released of our initial trio of applications. We move fast, but we like to make sure the job is done properly so we'll never rush something out the door - it's done when it's done, but that just means you don't end up being disappointed, so can't be a bad thing :)

 

Thanks,

Matt

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  • Staff

What sales staff?  We sell Affinity through the Mac App Store only.   :huh:

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  • 7 months later...

A lot of this thread talks about the MAS rather than the original topic of Linked Files, so this comment of mine will pertain to that.  Linked files are often used in Adobe Illustrator such that we need not EMBED files in the *.ai document.  Unfortunately, Affinity Designer 1.3.2 does not support Linked files, so when you open an *.ai file that has a linked file, that linked file will be EMBEDDED in Affinity Designer.  There are real world advantages to having external graphics though, so I hope AD will add Linked files soon.

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Yes!  Linked files are the one barrier thats keeping me from abandoning PS.  I render in 3D and then link my files to do final color tweaks, cleanups etc.  That way I can keep updating the 3D render and it automatically updates in Affinity photo(someday).   This is a very common workflow for professionals in 3D.

I love Affinity photo so far!  keep up the great work.

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  • 1 year later...

Linked files are often used in Adobe Illustrator such that we need not EMBED files in the *.ai document.  Unfortunately, Affinity Designer 1.3.2 does not support Linked files, so when you open an *.ai file that has a linked file, that linked file will be EMBEDDED in Affinity Designer.  There are real world advantages to having external graphics though, so I hope AD will add Linked files soon.

 

Ditto my July 2015 feature request for Linked Files.  It's now January 2017. There's been ample time to implement this important feature.  Please add it ASAP.  Thanks.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ditto my July 2015 feature request for Linked Files.  It's now January 2017. There's been ample time to implement this important feature.  Please add it ASAP.  Thanks.

I also think linking files into a document would be far better than embedding them and also more logical. It seems like symbols accomplish anything that an embedded document would otherwise be used for.

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We must ponder this logically in light of what people do normally.  If linking to external files was completely unnecessary, why would Adobe support it in Illustrator?  And why do so many people who use Illustrator to generate files use it to link rather than embed.

 

So I hope Serif does not underestimate the need for this.  It's critically important, which means we really need the feature sooner rather than later.  It's just as important as CMYK.

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  • 2 months later...

Even though I've purchased Affinity Photo and Designer, I still don't use the apps full time because they lack features that I have come to rely upon.  Even so, I decided to toy with Designer again today.

 

A big reason to have a Linked Files feature is for use in Illustrator.  

 

Most often when I send files off to print or off to business partners who intend to print the document themselves (either in-house or sending it off to a professional CMYK printer), they ask for Illustrator files.  Sadly, Designer cannot export to Illustrator format, so we must export as a PDF.  But if we export to PDF (print/CMYK) and then open that PDF in Illustrator, everything is grouped together in a way that cannot be easily ungrouped (seems like multiple layers of Clipping Masks are applied because if I choose Object > Clipping Mask > Release multiple times, the objects eventually get released).  Anyway, all graphics are embedded by Affinity Designer, and sometimes there is a need to keep the graphics externally linked to achieve the best print resolution.  Why?  Well, there are times when you sent a file off to someone who has Illustrator and they want to modify the file before printing.  If the graphics are embedded at fixed resolutions, then the resolution embedded would need to be as high as the original graphic so as to allow the Illustrator user to enlarge the graphics without losing much quality.

 

I fully understand you feel Publisher is important and I don't seek to diminish that importance (not that I as a single person ever could anyway), but there are some people in the Adobe camp who thinking highly of InDesign even though there are a surprising number of multi-page (multiple-artboard) designs sent off to the printer in Illustrator format.  Why?  Because Illustrator gives the designer far more control than InDesign does, and no surprise since InDesign is geared more for multi-page booklet type printing than getting into the nitty gritty of design tweaking.

 

So what I am saying is that if Affinity Designer can play better with Adobe Illustrator, that would more quickly wean Illustrator users off Illustrator and onto Designer.  

 

Consider though that if the formats that Designer exports do not play well with Illustrator (and honestly, PDF really doesn't a lot of the time), one would probably prefer to stick with Illustrator.  That's why many people still use MS Word instead of Apple's Pages, even though Pages has some pretty slick features.  When I create something in Pages I can save to Word format, which is great, but then when you open the document in Word, there are problems here and there that need to be fixed.  Let's say my business partners are Windoze users who use Word but I want to use Pages.  We each edit and save, sending the newest document to each other.  Because Pages doesn't export a perfect Word format, the tweaks required to prevent the document from breaking in Word make it unreasonable to continue using Pages.  Time is money, so it is more advantageous to simply use Word than Pages, even though designing something in Pages might be preferred by the designer.  In like manner, I think a lot of Illustrator users would love to see the day when they can leave Illustrator behind.  But that would mean they would still need to export documents that play well with Illustrator because Illustrator is still going to be the Industry Standard app for many years to come.  Even if one argues that "linked files are coming in Publisher," the fact remains that many Designer users may want that feature in Designer too.

 

Best wishes.

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  • 1 year later...
1 hour ago, MEB said:

Linked files will be introduced with Affinity Publisher (Public Beta available this Summer) and then eventually ported back to Designer/Photo.

I know this is really a "wait & see" thing, but is there anything you can tell us now about file compatibility or support for linked files between Designer/Photo & Publisher before this feature is ported back to Designer/Photo?

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
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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I suspected as much, but thanks for the confirmation. 

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
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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