Affinity Designer PSD Export

[wordsberry]

Hi guys, 

 

 

I'm ready to sell some of my illustrations on microstock sites and I was wondering how good the PSD export option is? I haven't renewed my CC and I don't want to pay a monthly fee just to test it out so would love other people's opinion on this matter + some feedback as to how to approach my file sharing with stock sites + potential clients who might want more than just a PNG, JPG file...  which export files should be in my priority list? 

[JFisher]

Hi wordsberry,

 

For the most part I wouldn't expect you to have any trouble when exporting JPEG/PNG and other formats. You should have no problems with PSD's also but it is worth mentioning that we do not currently support Smart Objects and all text is rasterised when exported. 

Hopefully other users will share their experiences too. :)
 

[wordsberry]

Hi wordsberry,

 

For the most part I wouldn't expect you to have any trouble when exporting JPEG/PNG and other formats. You should have no problems with PSD's also but it is worth mentioning that we do not currently support Smart Objects and all text is rasterised when exported. 

 

Hopefully other users will share their experiences too. :)

 

 

Unfortunately it doesn't. I just learned that you need EPS 10 file format submissions for microstock websites. This feature is not available for Affinity Designer? Is there a way around this issue or do I have to buy Adobe Illustrator... 

[MEB]

Hi wordsberry,

The EPS files generated by Adobe Illustrator include an embedded Ai file which is what Illustrator uses when it loads the file so it can keep everything editable. Since the Ai format is proprietary we have no way to do the same in Affinity Designer. Even when we export the EPS entirely as vectors, Illustrator still rasterizes certain objects/attributes on import (we are trying to improve this), so currently i'm afraid we are not able to generate an illustrator compatible EPS file as requested by microstock sites.

[wordsberry]

Hi wordsberry,

The EPS files generated by Adobe Illustrator include an embedded Ai file which is what Illustrator uses when it loads the file so it can keep everything editable. Since the Ai format is proprietary we have no way to do the same in Affinity Designer. Even when we export the EPS entirely as vectors, Illustrator still rasterizes certain objects/attributes on import (we are trying to improve this), so currently i'm afraid we are not able to generate an illustrator compatible EPS file as requested by microstock sites.

 

Hi, I have decided to also purchase Illustrator for a year, just to create enough content for both creative market and microstock websites with EPS 10 and AI formats. I don't like AI's UI as much as AD, and I was wondering if I could just create my files in AD then export as PDF (or SVG) and open it up, clean up the layers and then export it as EPS 10 and AI for commercial sales? Is this the appropriate way? If not, what are your recommendations??

[kemie]

I'm about to do just that. I saved my affinity images as pdf, opened in .ai (sucked to lose all the layer organization) and converted to eps/ai. I'll let you know how it goes!

[MEB]

Hi wordsberry,

Sorry for missing you last post/question :(

Yes, saving as PDF or SVG and opening/preparing (check if gradients, transparency, blend modes have translated correctly in particular) the file in Illustrator for export as EPS/Ai is the best (only?) way to go about this.

 

Hi kemie,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Would be nice to know if you have found problems with the process. Thanks. 

[John Rostron]

It is still possible to buy Illustrator CS for a reasonable price on eBay, and some of these are actually genuine. Would one of these suit your purpose?

[elijohn23]

Hello @MEB

Has the export to PSD feature been updated since? More specifically are texts exported as text and not as raster images?

Thanks,

Eli

[MEB]

Hi elijohn23,
No, not yet, sorry. It's a complicated task and the teams are quite busy with the next 1.7 update (Photo and Designer) and Publisher.

[Axel TT]

Hi @MEB,

I need to export my work to PSD and send it to a printing company. Unfortunately, the canvas size is too big (6000x2440mm, 300DPI) and failed. Should I resize it to a  smaller canvas size? According to the printing company, they will open the PSD file in Photoshop and print it. What is the proper way/settings for export, please?

Thanks,

Axel

[Alfred]

17 minutes ago, Axel TT said:

I need to export my work to PSD and send it to a printing company. Unfortunately, the canvas size is too big (6000x2440mm, 300DPI) and failed.

You shouldn’t need 300 DPI for a canvas as big as that. Try changing the DPI/PPI value to 150.

 

[Axel TT]

58 minutes ago, Alfred said:

You shouldn’t need 300 DPI for a canvas as big as that. Try changing the DPI/PPI value to 150.

 

I've tried to change it to 150DPI. Still no luck, got this error message "Warning! The PSD format supports images with a maximum dimension of 30,000 pixels.  Your document is too large to export". 

Thanks.

[Alfred]

Reduce the DPI/PPI to 100. The long side will be less than 24,000 pixels and the printed output will look fine from as little as a metre away.

[Axel TT]

35 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Reduce the DPI/PPI to 100. The long side will be less than 24,000 pixels and the printed output will look fine from as little as a metre away.

It works, finally. Thank you so much. 

Just one last question, is it true that Photoshop will rasterise or decrease the quality of all the vector lines/shapes?

[Alfred]

32 minutes ago, Axel TT said:

It works, finally. Thank you so much. 

You’re very welcome! Thanks for the update.

33 minutes ago, Axel TT said:

Just one last question, is it true that Photoshop will rasterise or decrease the quality of all the vector lines/shapes?

I’m afraid I’ve no idea.

[Axel TT]

17 minutes ago, Alfred said:

You’re very welcome! Thanks for the update.

I’m afraid I’ve no idea.

Hopefully it will work well with Photoshop. The 300DPI is requested by the printing company. 

Thanks very much for your help again.

[MikeW]

3 minutes ago, Axel TT said:

Hopefully it will work well with Photoshop. The 300DPI is requested by the printing company. 

Thanks very much for your help again.

The printing company is smoking crack if they expect 300dpi. If the design is output at 100% size, they are going to print at a maximum of 150 dpi. And, using the Photoshop format, only the .psb format can contain a file that large at 300dpi. And it would need to be printed direct to their RIP which take a lot of time to process. That, printing direct using the .psb format, is doable with the right equipment, but I doubt they would actually do it as the RIP will do a great job with a smaller dpi (i.e., fewer pixels) anyway.

These days, PDFs are generally used at a scale such as 50% of print size. In the case of say a desired output of 150dpi at full scale, one would then use a document of 300dpi, which once the pdf is doubled in size to 100% would make the images/bitmap effects to be 150dpi.

[Axel TT]

11 minutes ago, MikeW said:

The printing company is smoking crack if they expect 300dpi. If the design is output at 100% size, they are going to print at a maximum of 150 dpi. And, using the Photoshop format, only the .psb format can contain a file that large at 300dpi. And it would need to be printed direct to their RIP which take a lot of time to process. That, printing direct using the .psb format, is doable with the right equipment, but I doubt they would actually do it as the RIP will do a great job with a smaller dpi (i.e., fewer pixels) anyway.

These days, PDFs are generally used at a scale such as 50% of print size. In the case of say a desired output of 150dpi at full scale, one would then use a document of 300dpi, which once the pdf is doubled in size to 100% would make the images/bitmap effects to be 150dpi.

Thanks very much for the info.