Export Persona help

[Phil_rose]

Can anyone point me to some high end tutorials on the Export persona and how to use it? It is clearly very powerful but it's making my head hurt trying to figure it out!

 

Thanks!

 

Phil

[v_kyr]

That's what the Affinity topic related videos are for, take a look there after "export...":

• Affinity Designer
• Affinity Photo

[Phil_rose]

Thanks but I have, of course, watched those and they don't go into as much detail or as advanced as I need.

Phil

[v_kyr]

• tutorial affinity export persona
• tutorials export persona site:forum.affinity.serif.com
• site:forum.affinity.serif.com tutorial "export persona" 2016...2018
• define advanced?

[Phil_rose]

I can give examples of what I mean but I don't think defining it would help much. What I would like to be able to do is output as both a full size JPG and PSD at the same time to different locations. I don't know if that is possible but the attached screenshot shows areas of the Slices panel that SEEM to suggest it might be. I wonder what the Batch Builder is all about? Things like that. The advanced side of the Export persona. 

[v_kyr]

Yes you can output a JPG and a PSD file in one run into different directories/folders there from the export persona. Just customize for your selected slices for both output types (JPG and PSD) the settings for the output path, for example ...

1. JPG  ->    "test/output/(slicename)"
2. PSD ->    "another/folder/(slicename)"

The batch builder is usefull to generate an additionally JSON text file which you can (re)use in Apple's Xcode development IDE for defining the usage of assets (icons etc.) there. - See the:

• Xcode Asset Catalog Contents format

[Phil_rose]

Thanks for this. I'll have to do some testing since it seems pretty confusing. Let me try to see if I can work it out. I'm not quite sure what you mean by your location information above. Might it read something like this? C:\Users\phil_\Dropbox\The Really Temporary Folder? Actually, when I do what is in the attached screenshot it still asks me where I want to put the file when I hit Export Slices. I'm clearly doing something completely wrong but I really don't understand what it might be. Can you help me fumble my way through this?

[v_kyr]

I'm under OSX so I used relative Unix paths, if you are under Windows you have to try the Windows path style instead. - Further since pressing the exporting button will popup a "directory/file save" dialog and that one defaults to the last used directory on my system, I used relative paths in my above example.

Don't know if it does the same on Windows (defaulting to some dir with a save panel popup), but if it does there too then you can also type in paths relative to that in the popup panel selected directory, so something like:

• subdir\another subdir (slicename)

... or try full absolute paths ...

• C:\Temp\subdir (slicename)

... I assume that all paths are anyway quoted by the Affinity software here if spaces are used in pathnames. So the following self-quoting might not be needed for pathnames with spaces ...

• "C:\Temp\this path includes some spaces" (slicename)

 

[Phil_rose]

Sadly you've totally lost me as this is beyond my understanding. I wonder if anyone else can explain it in the Windows context or even show screenshots?

Thanks a lot for your help and sorry I'm not really technically minded enough to understand what you mean. 

[Alfred]

You need to include a backslash after 'The Really Temporary Folder', otherwise you'll end up trying to save your file to somewhere like

C:\Users\phil_\Dropbox\The Really Temporary Foldermyfile.psd

instead of

C:\Users\phil_\Dropbox\The Really Temporary Folder\myfile.psd

 

[walt.farrell]

Actually, you don't need to supply the path name at all if you're willing to have all the exported files in the same directory. You'll get a standard Windows Save dialog, where you can navigate to the folder where you want to save the files.

[Alfred]

22 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Actually, you don't need to supply the path name at all if you're willing to have all the exported files in the same directory.

 

That's true, but Phil said:

On 15/02/2018 at 10:17 PM, Phil_rose said:

What I would like to be able to do is output as both a full size JPG and PSD at the same time to different locations.

 

[walt.farrell]

Good point, Alfred.

In my possible defense, I considered that xyz.jpg and xyz.psd are in a way different locations, as the original image is exported in two places.

And if Phil is having difficulty figuring out how to direct the output to two different directories in one Export operation, he can at least get them into one directory easily, and move them as a separate step. Thus it solves the basic problem, though I'll concede it does not help with the education aspect.

[v_kyr]

Guys you have to learn to use a console too and how to navigate to certain directory locations with that (good old cd - change directory), if you only use GUIs, you'll eventually become dumbfounded one day.

[Phil_rose]

Yeah, I was really hoping to be able to output to two directories at once as I can in ACDSee. I just remembered I have a Lynda.com trial month right now. Should see if they have anything on this. I'm assuming no one here knows how to help me? Is that right?

[Alfred]

25 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

you have to learn to use a console too

 

Phil can console himself with that thought!

 

(Sorry!!)

[Phil_rose]

Just now, Alfred said:

 

Phil can console himself with that thought!

 

(Sorry!!)

I have a Playstation 4. Will that help?

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, Phil_rose said:

I'm assuming no one here knows how to help me? Is that right?

 

That all depends on what further help you need, Phil.

 

[Phil_rose]

8 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

That all depends on what further help you need, Phil.

 

I think I'm still on the same question of how to use this interface!

[v_kyr]

10 minutes ago, Phil_rose said:

I have a Playstation 4. Will that help?

Well if it has a OS console mode why not. - However, if you open a DOS shell it allows you to navigate and tab complete paths etc., so it shows and completes for you valid and available paths here. You can then mark (select) and copy those over and reuse them in certain tools where you need those paths as text representations.

[walt.farrell]

8 minutes ago, Phil_rose said:

Yeah, I was really hoping to be able to output to two directories at once as I can in ACDSee. I just remembered I have a Lynda.com trial month right now. Should see if they have anything on this. I'm assuming no one here knows how to help me? Is that right?

I'm unsure if your problem is:

1. Figuring out how to export in two formats with one operation; or
2. Figuring out how to specify the path name.

I think from your screenshots that you've figured out (1). For (2), as someone said above, I think all you need to do is put a \ at the end of the name you have there now, though I would also suggest that you avoid spaces in your directory names.
And I would ignore the Batch Builder; I don't think you need the JSON stuff.

[Phil_rose]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm unsure if your problem is:

1. Figuring out how to export in two formats with one operation; or
2. Figuring out how to specify the path name.

I think from your screenshots that you've figured out (1). For (2), as someone said above, I think all you need to do is put a \ at the end of the name you have there now, though I would also suggest that you avoid spaces in your directory names.
And I would ignore the Batch Builder; I don't think you need the JSON stuff.

I'm sorry, yes, the latter. The two formats I have got down. It's exporting to two locations that I can't work out on my PC.

[v_kyr]

9 minutes ago, Phil_rose said:

I think I'm still on the same question of how to use this interface!

If you just use the (Slice name) variable and then the popup save panel, can you navigate to that location and does it correctly save a file there?

If you just use the (Slice name) variable and then the popup save panel, can you navigate to that location and does it correctly save a file there?

[Phil_rose]

3 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Well if it has a OS console mode why not. - However, if you open a DOS shell it allows you to navigate and tab complete paths etc., so it shows and completes for you valid and available paths here. You can then mark (select) and copy those over and reuse them in certain tools where you need those paths as text representations.

Unfortunately I'm a photographer rather than a programmer and this is just gobbledegook to me.Ah well.

[Phil_rose]

1 minute ago, v_kyr said:

 

It does indeed. I drag the slice name over, close that dialog then hit Export Slices.