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All my downloads are saving as Affinity files


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By downloading do you mean "from the internet" or do you mean when you save the file?

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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Unless it's changing the file name extension (e.g. from .png to .afphoto) it sounds like Windows is set up to open .png files by using Affinity Photo, which will also change the Icon to be the Affinity logo (which can be a little confusing). 

If you're on Windows 10, right click any old .png file that you've downloaded and then select "open with" ... "choose another app." Then select Windows' "Photos" or another app, and check "always open these files with this app."

 

The fact that you're saying the file becomes unusable, however, is concerning. Does the above fix it, or did the file name extension literally changed and the file become unusable? You may need to, in Windows File Explorer, go to "View" -> "☑ File Name Extensions" 

 

Also, just as a side note (which is likely impertinent to your question) "Save As" in Affinity Photo, unlike Photoshop, will only let you save the program's custom file type, in this case .afphoto. You need to use "Export" to export as, for instance, a .png or .jpeg etc. You probably already realized this, though. 

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I think you might have your terminology a bit wrong, which is confusing issues.

Download means literally, download from the internet. Such as a picture you found in a website, you would download it to your local computer.

Upload is the opposite, you would upload from your local computer to a (typically) internet storage service, like iCloud or Google drive. You don't upload a file to a computer program, you load it.

Sorry if you already knew most of that.

You don't say which Affinity program you are using?

However, if you load a file such as an SVG file into either Affinity program, if you Save it, it will be an Affinity file (what type exactly depends on if it is Designer or Photo) and only Affinity software can read it.

If you load an SVG file into Affinity you must Export it. Go File > Export and choose SVG. Then it should load into any program that support SVG.

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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I am using Affinity designer.  This is my process...I download and svg from the internet (a purchased file off Etsy).  I open the program I want to use it in (which is cricut design space) and I try to upload that file.  Which is what I have to do in that program.  It then tells me that the file is not a supported file type.  It should have just downloaded it as an svg when I purchased it, but instead it changes the extension to an affinity file extension.  I don't think I have my terminology wrong?

 

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Is the file extension actually changing to an .afphoto or something like that, or is it remaining the same, such as .svg? It seriously sounds like Windows is set up so that Affinity Designer is the default program for SVG files. Here's an example; I just set my default program for SVG's to be affinity photo. This was the result: 

image.png.320d062f8c98718b900cb17583f2e17d.png

Notice, however, that it's still an SVG. The icon means nothing.

It's not abnormal behavior whatsoever for all of your SVG files to take on the Affinity Designer logo; it's to be expected. You chose that when you installed Affinity Designer. No worries though; that's just Windows telling you that it's going to use Affinity Designer to open your file; it has nothing to do with the file type changing from .svg to .afdesign. The file is most likely completely unchanged and unaffected by Affinity Designer.

Check the file extension and tell us what it is. Is it still SVG or did it change? Try opening the SVG in another software; see if the SVG is corrupt.

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10 hours ago, Daisyyy said:

The program I use for my vinyl cutter.  I use cricut design space which required an svg. Regardless, I am not sure why when I download an svg file from the internet that it changes it to an affinity file.

 

I actually meant where, not what, but I guess it must be on your PC.

I would use the term 'load' not 'upload' because it is local.

Out of curiosity, what happens if you double click on the file. It should load it into Affinity so it would be interesting to see if Affinity loads it OK or says it is unsupported or something else.

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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You don't mention which Operating System you are using?

When you look at the file do you have the name and the extension showing i.e. filename.svg the .svg is important, if it still says .svg then what is probably happening is as Hunisepai has mentioned, you have .svg's associated with Affinity Designer so the file will either show the Affinity Designer logo or it will show a preview of the file if set. double clicking  will open the file in the associated app.

If the extension is .svg it might be a corrupt download so try opening it in another app, if it opens in another app the chances are that it isn't corrupt but it may be configured differently to what Design Space is expecting.

You can have two SVG's that can look the same visually but actually have different code, the code is a set of coordinates to tell whichever app opens it, how to draw the shape.You can actually open an svg file up in a text editor to view the code. Each app writes this code in a manner they think is best but as with most things you can achieve the same thing in a variety of ways and so it is with svg code.

Basic Shapes.svg This will open in Create Space because I use Create Space and have just tried it.

The code below is actually the svg file above, this is from Affinity Designer and is just one of the ways to write svg code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd">
<svg width="100%" height="100%" viewBox="0 0 1280 800" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:space="preserve" xmlns:serif="http://www.serif.com/" style="fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;stroke-linejoin:round;stroke-miterlimit:1.41421;">
    <g transform="matrix(0.440966,0,0,0.440966,186.645,236.066)">
        <circle cx="482.879" cy="371.762" r="226.775" style="fill:rgb(255,38,0);"/>
    </g>
    <g transform="matrix(1,0,0,1,57.6937,155.013)">
        <rect x="487.201" y="144.987" width="200" height="200" style="fill:rgb(0,119,247);"/>
    </g>
    <g transform="matrix(1,0,0,1,16.5007,155.013)">
        <path d="M868.815,144.987L891.267,214.086L963.921,214.086L905.142,256.791L927.594,325.889L868.815,283.184L810.037,325.889L832.488,256.791L773.71,214.086L846.364,214.086L868.815,144.987Z" style="fill:rgb(254,196,79);"/>
    </g>
</svg>

This is from an app called Sketch, both code draws the same shapes but the code is laid out differently.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<svg width="682px" height="202px" viewBox="0 0 682 202" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
    <!-- Generator: Sketch 49.1 (51147) - http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch -->
    <title>Untitled</title>
    <desc>Created with Sketch.</desc>
    <defs></defs>
    <g id="Page-1" stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd">
        <g id="Basic-Shapes">
            <g id="Group" transform="translate(0.532296, 0.565104)" fill="#FF2600">
                <circle id="Oval" cx="100.045925" cy="100.435298" r="100.000065"></circle>
            </g>
            <g id="Group" transform="translate(245.693700, 0.013000)" fill="#0077F7">
                <rect id="Rectangle-path" x="0.201" y="0.987" width="200" height="200"></rect>
            </g>
            <g id="Group" transform="translate(490.500700, 0.013000)" fill="#FEC44F">
                <polygon id="Shape" points="95.815 0.987 118.267 70.086 190.921 70.086 132.142 112.791 154.594 181.889 95.815 139.184 37.037 181.889 59.488 112.791 0.71 70.086 73.364 70.086"></polygon>
            </g>
        </g>
    </g>
</svg>

 

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

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  • 1 year later...

Again, I'm sure it is the Operating System that is applying the descriptors for the file type, although this descriptor might have been set when installing Designer. You can change this in the OS. You don't say whether you are using Windows or MacOS. Can you see the filename suffix? I know that Windows hides this by default. If you look at the file Properties, this will tell you the file type.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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8 hours ago, Ihavetouseaname said:

I too am having this problem and I've never used the software and now I can't download an image of baby yoga for reference and be able to use it in my program, it keeps saving as  affinity designer files and I just need an easy fix and an explication that a 5 yo can understand.

The files are not being downloaded as Affinity Designer files unless their file names acquire the .afdesign extension, which is extremely unlikely. As explained above, both the Mac & Windows operating systems will try to automatically assign a default application to each type of file (JPEG, SVG, PNG, etc.) from among the applications installed on the system.

That determines which app opens the file if you double-click on it (& optionally which app icon is assigned to it in Finder or Explorer views). However, in no way does that change the format or contents of the file, or prevent any other app that can open that type of file from doing so, for example by dropping the file on that application's icon.

You can also change the default application at any time. The details of how to do this depend on your operating system (as do some of the methods for opening the file with an app other than the default) so if you need help with that, either refer to your operating system's documentation, or tell us which one you use so someone can guide you through the necessary steps. 

EDIT: John beat me to it by seconds. :1_grinning:

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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19 hours ago, Ihavetouseaname said:

I too am having this problem and I've never used the software and now I can't download an image of baby yoga for reference and be able to use it in my program, it keeps saving as  affinity designer files and I just need an easy fix and an explication that a 5 yo can understand.

Is the file extension actually .afdesign, or is it still .svg?

If it's remaining as .svg, nothing has actually changed. Windows just changes the icon to reflect what program you have set up to open that particular file type. 

To view extensions, go into the file explorer,   click on "view" in top bar, and check "file name extensions."

Tell me if the file in question ends with .afdesign, or if it ends in something else.

 

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  • 3 months later...

I too am having this problem, and Daisyyy is correct.....

  1. The SVG file is downloaded from a free software site (Vecteezy) to my PC Windows 10 system (tutorial videos show these images arriving to the folder as SVG files)
  2. When the folder is opened, listed under the "Type" section where it should say SVG, JPEG, etc. it simply says "Affinity Publisher File", with the orange Affinity Publisher logo in the "Name" section. Maybe it's still an SVG file without that extension showing, but trying to "Open Local File" to bring it into a different vector editing tool (Gravit), it says the file is not supported.
  3. Double click on that named file in the folder and it opens Affinity Publisher with the image.
  4. I can then export that page as an SVG file, which is then showing in the folder as a "Chrome HTML document" under the "Name" section
  5. I can then "Open Local File" to bring it into a vector editing tool (Gravit) and it seems to be editable at that point, assuming it's an SVG file without showing that extension in the Name

But really? Too many steps to get from Vecteezy to Gravit (or whatever sites/tools others are using.)

It seems there's a setting added to the system by Affinity Publisher that says all SVG downloads will be saved as "Affinity Publisher File" for easy opening in that program.
The question is how do you find and disable that setting to allow use of other programs and simple filing of these images as SVG files?

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1 hour ago, Nariku said:

The question is how do you find and disable that setting to allow use of other programs and simple filing of these images as SVG files?

As others have asked above, what is the actual file name and extension of your file? To see that you may need to tell File Explorer to show file extensions.

If it is still something.svg then you should easily be able to open it in another application. Either:

  1. Right-click on the file and choose Open With and then select the other application; or
  2. Open the other application, and use its File > Open dialog to open the file.

Windows will always assign a file type, and if there is an application registered to handle that kind of file extension, it will say it is a file of that application type. But that does not change anything but the default application that will open the file. And you can control that, if you want, by picking a different default application to open that kind of file.

But it is only a default, and should not affect other applications that want to open that file. If it does affect other applications, I think they are broken.

-- 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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I'm having the same issue as Daisyyy. I'm new to Affinity and wonder if all SVG files are the same? Are there any special requirements as far as which WIndows would work with? I downloaded some free svgs from LoveSvg and SVGDesigns.com and would really like to work with them. Any help would be appreciated, thank you All.

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Daisyy didn't make it clear what the issue was and never answered when questions were asked.

If you want to edit the SVG you can open it up in any Affinity program. Otherwise, you need to state what exactly is not working right.

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I would suggest that the solution is to set the Cricut software as the default program to open .svg files. If you do that then it will probably be described as a "Cricut file" and show a Cricut icon, as well as opening in the Cricut program when double-clicked.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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  • 1 year later...
6 hours ago, alison w said:

I'm using a  Mac,  I have affinity installed,  when I try and send a file saved as a SVG  via email it is showing as a afpub. file,  can the email recipient still open it if they don't have affinity?

When you say "saved as a SVG" do you mean you exported your file to the SVG format or something else? If an export, what settings did you use? Also, how specifically did you attach the file to your email? Are you sure it was the exported SVG file you attached or an afpub file?

To open an afpub file the recipient must have one of the 3 Affinity apps installed (it does not have to be Affinity Publisher) but as long as you send them a file that has been exported to the SVG format that won't matter.

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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7 hours ago, alison w said:

I'm using a  Mac,  I have affinity installed,  when I try and send a file saved as a SVG  via email it is showing as a afpub. file,  can the email recipient still open it if they don't have affinity?

What is the file extension, my file.svg or my file.afpub? Your friend will need a file with .svg. you will need to export from Publisher as SVG.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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