Link preferred not honored

[coolieranx]

Hi! Using 227 on Mojave, and I created a new letter size document, choosing “link preferred.” Started putting images into it (all afphoto), and when I saved, the file was 1.6 gigs!

Went to document setup, and somehow it reverted to embed preferred. Switched back to linked, re-added the images, but the document still won’t honor linked, leaving my file at 1.6 gig. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a known bug?

Thanks so much!

[fde101]

Currently, Affinity Publisher caches at least one copy of even linked items, same as when they are embedded.  The item is linked in that Publisher will detect when it is changed and offer to update it in the document, but the file size is still large.  This is not a bug, but many of us would argue that it is probably a design flaw.

This has been discussed at length on various other threads of the forum.

To identify whether items were embedded or linked, you can check Resource Manager.  The Placement column should indicate either Linked or Embedded.  You can also change the status of existing items from there, but it has no significant effect on the file size of the document.

[coolieranx]

Ahhh. Thank you for explaining that! I agree that it’s a design flaw. A linked file should just remain linked, and at most, only a small low res preview should be embedded into the native file. What’s the point of linking if it doesn’t reduce file size? It’s basically just doubling up the size of a project for no good reason. 

[fde101]

9 hours ago, coolieranx said:

What’s the point of linking if it doesn’t reduce file size?

It allows the images to be updated in the document automatically if they change on the outside (semi-automatically by default, or completely so by checking a box in preferences).  That much at least is working.