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Link instead of embedding image


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Valid point.  But that logic ignores two more critical points:

 

1.  Many of us have grown accustomed to that 2014 feature and now rely on its presence.

2.  Most of us don't want to wait 24 years for this feature to debut.

 

Another point of consideration is the "Ask and ye shall receive" effect.  If we don't ask, and remain persistent in asking, we probably won't receive.  Sometimes, if you ask enough, someone will give you what you want just to shut you up.  Serif, please shut me up!  :-)

I disagree with point 1, just because some feature exists in a software, and people have grown accustomed to it, does not mean it must, or even should, exist in all similar software. You need to justify it's necessity, otherwise I can claim that people have grown accustomed to the 3D rendering and workspace of Photoshop and that it should be included in Affinity. Obviously the 3D workspace in Photoshop is terrible, slow and not a logical function of a photo editing software, ergo should not be included.

 

Can the same be said about linked files? Is it a superfluous function without real use or meaning in a photo editing software? Absolutely not! I've mentioned my very fair use case, packaging and print mockups, and there are entire sections in stock website filled with thousands of such files, proving that linked and embedded files are a very frequently used and an absolutely needed function. There are many other use cases where this function is fundamental. We don't need prior art from Photoshop, or any other software, to justify features, we need real world usage to do so, and linked files have such justification in spades.

 

As such I do agree with you in point 2, I strongly believe this feature should be included as soon as possible, not in 24 years. I also think we should make ourselves heard and keep asking for it, because "Ask and ye shall receive"  :)

 

I sincerely hope not.  I would assume most Adobe suite users tend to use either Photoshop or Illustrator (or both) over InDesign.  Many content creators use Illustrator over InDesign, even for multi-page publications.  Regardless, the fact remains that even though InDesign exists, the "linked files" feature exists in Illustrator.  No matter what Serif's plans are for Publisher, they still need to add the "linked files" feature to Affinity Designer.

Affinity Publisher has been delayed yet again to 2018, or even further, waiting for it to code linked files would be disappointing. Again, what other softwares do is of little relevance, what's important is that linked files is a very useful and needed function and should be included as soon as possible.

 

Thanks!

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Affinity Publisher has been delayed yet again to 2018, or even further, waiting for it to code linked files would be disappointing. 

 

Development of the Affinity apps really does transcend you and me alone.  And in terms of sheer numbers (of users), it transcends Serif as well.  One ideal that logically comes out from all this is that Serif should be democratic about feature expansion and start tallying user VOTES for features with the aim of giving priority.  It should also be asked how many people even want Publisher, and if that desire for Publisher transcends their desire for important feature additions in the apps we already have (Photo and Designer).

 

It's only fair and reasonable and exceedingly sensible to go about it that way.  Otherwise, Serif is just "shooting in the dark" as to what THEY THINK we really want.  Steve Jobs did that and was very successful, but how many Steve Jobs are in the world or at Serif?  To not tally votes and not give priority to features based on user feedback would be the same as if our elected officials were no longer elected and they just remained in office doing things they THOUGHT we the people would want.  And although Serif is not a democracy or government, voting on feature additions probably would still be a good idea.  And rather than just do it in this forum, hoping that 100% of folks who have purchased Serif apps will come and vote, they should direct-email all of us to garner our opinions.  That way, many more of us would actually vote.

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If this should be a replacement for Photoshop, it must also contain it's more advanced features. If you try to make textures without file linking / auto updating, it is just a real pain.

Lacking those advanced features (I could add very limited support for patterns for example), Affinity Photo is just advanced painting program for me, which is dissapointing because it is presented like a very advanced image editor :(

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  • 6 months later...

We all still need this feature...       another must have      as well as a faster additive selection of masks , wen working in the layer manager...

 

Our Architectural company produces Floorplans for example that in the devellopementprocess often change..  

So the CAD programm writes out on a regular basis the changes and overwrites the old elements we then used in Photoshop..

 

And in Photoshop the document used   "embedded" smart objects..      so you only had to print your Cad elements out and your Photoshop Floorplan updated instant ...

 

We neeeeeeed     lined embedded Files....      Please please..... pleasee... 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 8/24/2017 at 2:38 AM, Tom Schülke said:

We all still need this feature...

May not want to hold your breath while waiting.

Look at the feature road map . . . it's not even on the horizon.

You'll likely have line-end arrowheads and 'pages' in before the useful, relevant (i.e., required for actual, daily, high-volume production) stuff comes along.

Will be happy if proven wrong, though.

---

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  • 1 month later...

+1 this feature. When harddrive space is low, having a folder of 1gb JPGs being copied/embedded into a 1gb+ afdesign file is not ideal.

 

Being able to select individual images to switch between embedded/linked could be nice too.

 

There will admittedly be architecture and UX complexities (when file is externally updated, might need user to instigate refreshing image link, like InDesign), but just the base feature with a right-mouse "reload link..." could be nice enough.

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imo it's almost there .   I mean "Replace document"  button.  Should  be  a kind of macro that would reload same named documents into embedded layers.   

 

  I am very annoyed by Photoshop  linked layers.  They sounded great but proved to be almost useless since you have to save them each time you need to edit something. It takes ages in Photoshop.  Another super annoying Photoshop thing is inability to for smart objects to keep same size once you replace content for more or less pixels.   Thanks Afinity it keeps one (X) dimension intact at least while I would prefer both actually

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  • 11 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, appuser99 said:

I was looking for linked files in Designer, just now, that I updated one of my image files and wondered how I can reload that in Designer.

If you select the Move tool, and click on the image in Designer, you should find a button on the Context toolbar that says "Replace Image".

If you're on Windows, and Designer 1.6.5.123 or later, then at the bottom of the file selection dialog, just above the input box for the file name, you'll see an option to either Link or Embed the replacement.

(The 1.7 beta of Designer provides an option in Document Settings that specifies whether placed images should be linked or embedded by default.)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/2/2018 at 5:25 PM, walt.farrell said:

If you select the Move tool, and click on the image in Designer, you should find a button on the Context toolbar that says "Replace Image".

If you're on Windows, and Designer 1.6.5.123 or later, then at the bottom of the file selection dialog, just above the input box for the file name, you'll see an option to either Link or Embed the replacement.

(The 1.7 beta of Designer provides an option in Document Settings that specifies whether placed images should be linked or embedded by default.)

Strange, its not available on the Mac version of Beta 1.7 Are u sure it's AD and not APub your looking at?.

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15 minutes ago, ronnyb said:

Strange, its not available on the Mac version of Beta 1.7 Are u sure it's AD and not APub your looking at?.

APh or AD only supports its internal link embedding changes, and internal updates are not updated when external files are changed (Adobe Ps supports external change responses in smart link objects)

The more restricted you put on the program, the closer you program is to idiot.

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8 hours ago, ronnyb said:

Strange, its not available on the Mac version of Beta 1.7 Are u sure it's AD and not APub your looking at?.

Yes, I'm sure. I believe, though, that subsequent to that post the Affinity team confirmed that Designer and Photo do not support linking, and those buttons are not supposed to be present in the UI for either 1.6 or 1.7. Linking is only a Publisher function.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • 5 months later...
On 12/21/2018 at 2:49 PM, walt.farrell said:

Yes, I'm sure. I believe, though, that subsequent to that post the Affinity team confirmed that Designer and Photo do not support linking, and those buttons are not supposed to be present in the UI for either 1.6 or 1.7. Linking is only a Publisher function.

For what it's worth I can confirm that the the button is there and it works, Mac, AD 1.7.0. All instances of linked images update automatically when you next open the document.
However I don't see a preference setting to make linking the default.

Edited by Martin-S
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1 hour ago, JDW said:

There is a button in Affinity Designer 1.7 now for LINKING external graphics?  If so, please post a screenshot with it circled in red.

There's a radio button in the Replace Image dialog (on Windows) that offers the choice of linking or embedding the replacement image. But it shouldn't be there. For me, it's much easier to see in the light UI.

image.png.4941d7da46c35e7efeb89fd74365fd44.png

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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14 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

There's a radio button in the Replace Image dialog (on Windows) that offers the choice of linking or embedding the replacement image. But it shouldn't be there. For me, it's much easier to see in the light UI.

image.png.4941d7da46c35e7efeb89fd74365fd44.png

Why do you think it shouldn't be there? Is it because they aren't there in the import image dialog?

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1 hour ago, Phil_rose said:

Why do you think it shouldn't be there? Is it because they aren't there in the import image dialog?

Because Serif staff have said it shouldn't be there.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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