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1 hour ago, Clatyon King said:

I'm not sure if it's me, or if it's Affinity Photo... When I open a Photoshop file that contains text layers, they open as pixel layers, so the text is not editable.

Is this normal behavior, or am I doing something wrong?

You can change this setting in Preferences

psd.jpg.3a3cc3e02e8e7e22b9c5ba43c6cd28ef.jpg

 

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This preference item is superfluous (but has the wrong default setting checked). It's save to say that 99,9% of users want to always keep their text as text at import time.

If the user really has the need to rasterize text, it can be done with one click at any time later (but one will very likely again keep a backup layer of editable text inside the file). So one still had all options left, when text always came in as text.

This preference item does not serve a good purpose. It does not save time or make things easier. It / its wrongly chosen default value is only a source of frustration and support requests like this one. Everyone would profit if it got removed.

 

 

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51 minutes ago, hifred said:

This preference item is superfluous (but has the wrong default setting checked). It's save to say that 99,9% of users want to always keep their text as text at import time.

If the preference item really were superfluous, there couldn’t be a ‘wrong’ default setting! ;)

As for the assumption that most users want to keep imported text as editable text, I don’t think it’s at all safe to say that. The rationale behind importing text as bitmap by default is that it will look correct even if the user doesn’t have the correct fonts installed, and there will be no problem as long as you don’t need to edit it; if you do need to edit the text you’ll find out soon enough that it hasn’t been imported in an editable form, but if it were imported as text by default you might not notice the font substitutions.

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1 hour ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:
1 hour ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

If the preference item really were superfluous, there couldn’t be a ‘wrong’ default setting! ;)

I can't follow this line of argumentation. A preference is superflous when one could serve all scenarios without that setting. That is the case.
If retaining the appearance by all means is the goal Serif could always insert a rasterized text version of that composition in the imported file
(as other programs do*). No need for a preference box then.

What's a far more realistic setting is that those who choose the psd format to import want to have an editable file, else they could opt for any static file format.
In a file which has text rasterized to the background subject, all retained adjustment-layers are pretty much rendered usess, as any changes on them will affect the complete composition – including the text.

*psd w. max compatibily checked in Photoshop


 

 

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On 9/22/2018 at 3:18 AM, hifred said:

In a file which has text rasterized to the background subject...

If you mean rasterizing all the text the background layer (or any other single layer), that is not how disabling the 'import as text' preference works in Affinity. Individual text objects are imported to their own individual pixel layers, which can be moved, resized, etc. without affecting anything else in the document.

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It's worth pointing out that importing text as text doesn't always work anyway! (It seems to depend on the version of Photoshop used.)

Alfred makes a very good point. Importing text as a pixel layer keeps the image exactly the same as the original (which is what I normally want). If you want to "edit" the text, you can just delete that layer and add a new text layer. If there's so much text that re-doing it is a problem, then perhaps using a PSD file wasn't the best choice in the first place - Photoshop (and AP come to that) isn't intended as a text editor.

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On 9/22/2018 at 8:33 AM, αℓƒяє∂ said:

If the preference item really were superfluous, there couldn’t be a ‘wrong’ default setting! ;)

 

On 9/22/2018 at 9:18 AM, hifred said:

I can't follow this line of argumentation.

My point was simply that a default setting is a choice which has been made for you but can be changed. If the item is superfluous, there is no meaningful choice to be made and therefore nothing to change.

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3 minutes ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

My point was simply that a default setting is a choice which has been made for you but can be changed.

It has to be changed only once if a user does not like the default. It takes maybe 10-15 seconds to do that. All things considered surely that is too insignificant an amount of time to justify this much drama?

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Well, I can't discover the drama here. My point is that when I choose .psd I want maximum file integrity.
Having the default set to bitmap sure is the source of unnecessary questions + frustration, such as expressed by the thread opener.

While you guys seem to share the same opinion I'm still convinced that Affinity could handle this whole thing smarter.
Importer checks whether font is available – if not, it should create a bitmap version of the text and a text layer with a replacement font.

All cases covered.

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Just now, hifred said:

Well, I can't discover the drama here.

The drama is (a) that if you do not like the default, it takes only a few seconds to change it once & for all for all your work & (b) you do not seem to understand that not everyone agrees with you that this is an unnecessary preference (for the reasons already mentioned).

13 minutes ago, hifred said:

My point is that when I choose .psd I want maximum file integrity.

If by "maximum file integrity" you mean an exact match to the PSD text, including preserving all text attributes, you won't necessarily get that even if you enable the 'import as text' option. As the developers have explained more than once in these forums, Adobe does not make the complete specifications of how text attributes are encoded in Photoshop documents available to other companies, so there is always some uncertainty involved about how it should be imported as editable text, not just with the Affinity apps but also with other non-Adobe products.

If instead you mean maximum fidelity to the appearance of the text, that is exactly what the default preference does, because it is the only way to guarantee  that, unless Adobe publicly releases the complete text spec (which it seems very unlikely it will ever do, for what should be obvious reasons).

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4 hours ago, hifred said:

I suggested what should happen if Affinity isn't able to display the text in the style and font it was saved in the psd file.

1. There is much more to accurately importing PSD text objects as editable text than just identifying the font(s) or text style attributes used in them. To get an idea of how extremely complex & varied this file format can be, refer to Adobe's Photoshop File Format Specifications. Searching that document on the word "text" should make it clear how difficult just interpreting all the supported text object attributes can be, much less how to import them with 100% fidelity to the original. (You might also want to consider the disclaimer at the beginning of that document regarding its accuracy & changeability.)

2. You are still ignoring that users other than yourself do not necessarily want the text objects imported as editable text, regardless of what text attributes the file contains or what fonts are resident on their systems. This is one of the reasons why the preference exists.

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1) Sounds mighty impressive, but doesn't add anything new to the discussion. We have all understood that text appearance can't always get retained when importing a proprietary file format.

2) Seems like an odd corner case, merely made to up keep up this discussion - talking about drama. How hard would it to turn off one or a few text layers here and then?

What you resist to understand is that the user always loses something important with the current implementation. Either text appearance or editable text.

You will not convince me that needlessly lossy makes more sense for a file format which will predominantly get used in file exchange contexts with Adobe users :o)

 Let's move on.

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1 hour ago, hifred said:

What you resist to understand is that the user always loses something important with the current implementation. Either text appearance or editable text.

I understand that without full & complete specifications for how text is encoded in the PSD file format (which among other things varies depends on the version of Photoshop used), there is no way the current or any other implementation can guarantee the same appearance on import as in the PSD document, other than by importing it as bitmap image objects.

I also understand that without those full & complete specifications, there is no way for the current or any other implementation to guarantee there will not be losses if imported as editable text.

I further understand this is why there is a preference to choose between the two available options, & that there is no good reason to eliminate it.

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48 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I understand that without full & complete specifications for how text is encoded in the PSD file format (which among other things varies depends on the version of Photoshop used), there is no way the current or any other implementation can guarantee the same appearance on import as in the PSD document, other than by importing it as bitmap image objects.
I also understand that without those full & complete specifications, there is no way for the current or any other implementation to guarantee there will not be losses if imported as editable text.

I don't deny any of this. 
Hence I prefer the best solution to the problem:

  • Serving a bitmap version of the formatted text which retains the appearance
  • and a text version, which retains the text, so it doesn't need to get rewritten from scratch

I don't want to continue this fruitless discussion,  have a nice day.

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1 minute ago, hifred said:

Hence I prefer the best solution to the problem: Serving a bitmap version of the formatted text which retains the appearance and  a text version, which retains the text, so it doesn't need to get rewritten.

This is far from the best solution because (a) there is no way to guarantee that the editable text version will retain all the text attributes of the PSD file, & (b) there is no good reason to complicate things for users by including both.

The best solution is the one Affinity has implemented: allow users to choose which one they want to use. Different users prefer different things, which is why user preferences exist.

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