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Files are not linked, but seem to always be embedded


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In Document Setup, Image Placement Policy is set to "Prefer Linked". However, files seem to not be linked, but always embedded.

For instance, when I place a photograph in the default Affinity Photo format (afphoto), Publisher increase the file size, and it increases drastically when I place other photographs into the document. As an example, the first photo placed is 196 MB, and the Publisher file size is 197 MB. Adding a second photo, the size of the Publisher document goes to 403 MB. I have done a publication with 36 pages and the size of the file was up to 10 GB. Therefore, in these conditions it is impossible to use the program to compose large documents. 

Am I doing something wrong here?

Thanks,

Marcel

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Until a very recent beta, all "linked" images were effectively embedded anyway. So my immediate thought is to check the version you are using. The newest version is beta 371 which just came out, but this is from the 337 beta:

Quote

A Note about Linked Images

Backing data and hi-res previews are now discarded for linked images when the containing document is saved, resulting in a drop in Publication file size. Please note that unfortunately this will not apply for linked images in existing documents, they will have to be replaced in order to see an effect. When a document with linked images is opened you may now momentarily see a low-res preview before the full image is loaded and 'pops in'. This is expected behaviour.

If you download 371 and still have the problem (taking into consideration what you need to do for existing files as described above), I'm sure the developers will want to hear back from you with more details or a shared document.

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Version 371 does exactly the same thing. If I create a one page document, and place a ".afphoto" file which is 196 MB, the Publisher file will be 197 MB. The link function does not work. I should see only a preview of the file, not the full version. 

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Linking doesn't work currently with the Affinity file format - hopefully this will change in the future.

Try the same thing with a TIF / PNG / JPG etc and linking will work as you expect.

 

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On 5/31/2019 at 7:32 PM, garrettm30 said:

this will not apply for linked images in existing documents, they will have to be replaced in order to see an effect

Found this thread informative as I had the same query as MarcelJ - my test document contains several hundred photos and was over 1GB, even though Resource Manager listed the images as linked.

Replacing all the photos sounded daunting so I tried renaming and moving the folder containing the original TIFFs and JPGs to see if this would force an update to the links. On opening my document I was prompted to located just three or four of the images and Publisher seemed to find the others by itself.  What was really astonishing (and initially a little worrying) was that the file size shrank from 1.2GB to 2.8MB...!!!

G.

 

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  • Staff

Just to confirm certain filetypes when linked won't be decreasing the file size as you might expect (PDFs, affinity files), what you are seeing is currently expected behaviour but we are aware it isn't ideal and are looking into it.

Serif Europe Ltd. - www.serif.com

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Hello Jon,

It is of course not ideal! Files in Affinity Photo are big when they contain a lot of layers, which is the case in the project I am working on. The original file should be linked and only a good preview should be shown in Publishing. That way we can build large documents in keeping the file size manageable. Before Publishing came out, I was using inDesign (I've canceled my subscription when Publishing came out in beta) in which I've created a large size photo book with 130 photographs in Photoshop format at 300 DPI. All files were linked, and the inDesign file was kept small and easy to work with. I'm hoping to be able to find the same function in Publishing, which by the way I have already pre-ordered.

Keep up the good work.

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2 hours ago, MarcelJ said:

That way we can build large documents in keeping the file size manageable.

You can, of course, consider exporting .tif copies of your images, which will link rather than embedding. That would give you a workaround until Serif resolves this issue.

(You might even be able to export a .tif file with "Save Affinity Layers" checked, which will preserve most of the Affinity information for later editing, but should still link. I've experimented with what that option saves, but haven't actually checked to be sure they link properly, yet.)

-- Walt
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2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

You can, of course, consider exporting .tif copies of your images, which will link rather than embedding.

To add to this, you could do the export from the Export persona and using the continuous export feature so that when you make changes to the document in Photo the exported files are updated automatically and then get pulled into Publisher.  That exporting happens in near-real-time so if you have Publisher set to automatically update when the linked files are changed those changes should be reflected in Publisher almost as you work in Photo.

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Thanks Fde101. To do the export from the Export Persona with the ''Continuous'' export feature on is a very interesting idea, which might work very well. However, I gave it a try in exporting a photo in TIF 16-Bit, and the Continuous feature is greyed out, and I need to understand why (?). If I get it to work, that might be ''the'' solution for linking and getting updates when changes are made in AffPhoto.

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8 minutes ago, MarcelJ said:

I gave it a try in exporting a photo in TIF 16-Bit, and the Continuous feature is greyed out

You need to export it manually from the export persona once first for that to become enabled.

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1) Opened a AffPhoto, did export it once in TIFF using the Export Persona; 2) Closed the AffPhoto; 3) Reopened the AffPhoto, and made a change; 5) Opened the Export Persona to verify if the "Continuous" feature will be active, and it is still greyed out. I might be missing something, but don't know what (?).  

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