Affinity Photo file size problems

[Fernando Ribeiro]

Hello guys

 

I need your help understanding an issue I’m having regarding file size.

 

I’ve noticed that my files are getting very large. I don’t save history with the files and I know that Affinity uses incremental saving, and reduces file size after some time, or so I read.

I’m using version 1.6.7

 

To reduce the file size to it’s minimum, I’m doing this:

• Open the large file
• COPY all the layers
• Go to FILE>NEW FROM CLIPBOARD
• SAVE the new file

 

Size reductions are very significant, ranging from 2% to 91%.

 

Let me give you an extreme example:

• Original file: 72,7 Mb (3 layers)
• Save as: 61,3 Mb (same 3 layers)
• Copy layers to new file: 6,30 Mb (same 3 layers)

 

The problem is that doing this procedure to an hundred files, is very tedious and time consuming, so I’m wondering if I’m missing something, and if anybody else had a similar issue.

Also I would be interested in knowing if anyone has created a macro to reduce file size.

 

Thanks

 

PS: I know that storage space is cheap, but I’m interested in using as less space as possible

[R C-R]

I don't think you are missing anything. The Affinity apps use a proprietary 'native' file format optimized for fast saving & for quickly loading segments of document data on-the-fly (which also reduces the memory footprint needed to open & work on multiple large documents), but the price for that is document files can get quite large before file size reduction occurs.

 

I don't know of any workaround for this -- Affinity Photo macros do not support (among other things) saving documents, so that won't help. What I do is move old Affinity format files to cheap (relatively speaking) large external USB 3 drives as needed.

[carl123]

AP has a batch mode feature and I had thought that simply running the batch process on existing AP files, saving to the same format but a different directory would effectively be the same as doing a "Save as.." on these files to a new directory, thus overcoming the problem with "incremental saving" and thus producing streamlined versions of the files at a much reduced file size.

So I took a random sample of 35 AP files, total file size of 461MB

Ran the batch job and the result was, 35 AP files, total file size of 591MB 

So rather than the decrease I was expecting the total file size increased by 130MB

Comparing individual files, all but the very smallest (under 500K) showed an increase in size and some quite dramatic increases

So I took one example which was initially 2.23MB and ran the batch process again, just on that one file, and it increased to 20MB

Just to be sure I took the same file copied it to a different PC and ran the test again with the same result

The test file I used is attached (not one of mine)

Can anyone explain (or hazard a guess) as to what is going on?

 

yellow2.afphoto

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, carl123 said:

The test file I used is attached (not one of mine)

Can anyone explain (or hazard a guess) as to what is going on?

I don't have a clue why it gets bigger but just opening it normally in Affinity Photo & doing a 'Save As' with a new name without doing any edits also results in a 20+MB file! 

[carl123]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I don't have a clue why it gets bigger but just opening it normally in Affinity Photo & doing a 'Save As' with a new name without doing any edits also results in a 20+MB file! 

I'm not seeing that, if I open the uploaded file and do a "Save as" it is still 2.23MB.

It's only when I try to batch process it, it increases to 20MB

[R C-R]

43 minutes ago, carl123 said:

I'm not seeing that, if I open the uploaded file and do a "Save as" it is still 2.23MB.

It's only when I try to batch process it, it increases to 20MB

Just to be sure, I downloaded a new copy of your yellow2 file, opened it in Affinity Photo, & (without modifying it in any way) did another Save As with the name "yellow2v2.afphoto."

 

Once again, according to Finder I got a "20,613,912 bytes (20.6 MB on disk)" file. I have preferences set to use the "sRGB IEC 61966-2.1" color profile (a.k.a. "ProPhoto") for RGB documents, but I also tried changing that to Adobe RGB (1998), but that also resulted in the 20.6 MB file size using Save As:

Maybe this is a Mac vs. Windows difference?

[v_kyr]

On a Mac (OSX) performing just a "Save as" without altering the opened file in any other way doesn't change it's size for me ...

[dutchshader]

on windows the file is a little smaller after save as.

[R C-R]

So am I the only one getting the same 20+MB file using Save As as @carl123 got using the batch process?

[carl123]

21 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Maybe this is a Mac vs. Windows difference?

Attached is the original JPG file, when I open it and do a "Save as" to AP file format I get a file size of 2.29MB, which is reasonable for Windows

@RC-R

What do you get?

[firstdefence]

I'm iMac and get 2,347,732 bytes (2.4 MB on disk)

[v_kyr]

I'm not RC-R, but I get the following for OSX here ...

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, carl123 said:

@RC-R

What do you get?

For the full sized (3694 x 1826 px) .jpg file I get the same 20.6 MB size:

[firstdefence]

[carl123]

6 minutes ago, R C-R said:

For the full sized (3694 x 1826 px) .jpg file I get the same 20.6 MB size:

Yup, something weird going on here

If I take the JPG file and batch process it to make an AP file it becomes a 20MB file !!!

Something has to be broken somewhere

What size do other users get if they simply batch process the JPG file to create an AP file?

 

[R C-R]

I wonder if I am getting the larger file because of some difference in my color or other preferences? Anybody else using these settings?

I also have General preferences set to save thumbnails with documents, but I can't see how that could possibly inflate the file size that much!

[Fernando Ribeiro]

There is this post that I keep going back to that debates this issues: 

No real solution but some insights on how Affinity works with files.

 

[Fernando Ribeiro]

Regarding the issues with your file. On MAC, Affinity 1.6.7:

 

Your file (yellow2.afphoto) as downloaded: 2 344 751 bytes (2,3 MB)
Your file after SAVE AS: 2 334 729 bytes (2,3 MB)

Your file after BATCH: 20 610 497 bytes (20,6 MB)

Your file after COPY ALL LAYERS / NEW IMAGE FROM CLIPBOARD: 2 333 874 bytes (2,3 MB)

[dutchshader]

did a batch from jpg to afphoto:

[carl123]

@ RC-R

It looks like having this option ticked (see picture below)

"Convert opened files to working space"

causes your specific "Save as..." large file problem

If I enable it I also get a 20MB file

Try disabling it and see what you get

 

I wonder if the batch file process is also doing some sort of "conversion to working space"

 

[Fernando Ribeiro]

I have it disabled and results are on my previous post.

 

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, carl123 said:

It looks like having this option ticked (see picture below)

"Convert opened files to working space"

causes your specific "Save as..." large file problem

If I enable it I also get a 20MB file

Try disabling it and see what you get

Sure enough, with that option disabled, Save As produces a 2.3 MB (2.4 MB on disk) afphoto file. So the mystery is solved ... except for why the size increase is that large.

 

10 minutes ago, carl123 said:

I wonder if the batch file process is also doing some sort of "conversion to working space"

Apparently it does.

[dutchshader]

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Sure enough, with that option disabled, Save As produces a 2.3 MB (2.4 MB on disk) afphoto file. So the mystery is solved ... except for why the size increase is that large.

the batch save as i did was with that option disabled.

[R C-R]

7 minutes ago, dutchshader said:

the batch save as i did was with that option disabled.

I don't think the Convert opened files to working space option applies to anything other than opening files -- batch jobs don't open files.

[dutchshader]

3 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I don't think the Convert opened files to working space option applies to anything other than opening files -- batch jobs don't open files.

Still the file gets 20mb larger, so it looks like the convert opened files to working space does not matter.