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Affinity Publisher - Opening and Editing images from within Publisher to edit


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While in publisher, I would like to edit an image colour contrast etc in Photo. Can you open an image from within Publisher similar to ID where you double or right click on the image and you get the option to 'Edit with' and a list appears for you to click on the chosen app?

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I believe that the plan is you would switch to the Photo persona (one of the icons in the upper left corner of the UI) to open the tools to manipulate the image. For that to work, you need to have the 1.7 versions of Photo installed.  If you also have Designer, you can use the Designer persona to use its tools within Publisher.

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This feature is build-in (prepared), but actually not enabled in the betas. - The final release version should offer and enable this interoperation feature then.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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49 minutes ago, sammyd said:

While in publisher, I would like to edit an image colour contrast etc in Photo. Can you open an image from within Publisher similar to ID where you double or right click on the image and you get the option to 'Edit with' and a list appears for you to click on the chosen app?

Some possibilities, today:

  1. You can do some edits directly in Publisher, today. In the Layers panel you can select a layer, and then click the Adjustments icon at the bottom of the panel. Or the fx icon. Changes that you make will be done only in your Publisher document.
     
  2. If what you want to do can't be handled by that, then you can use File > Edit in Photo and the document will close in Publisher and reopen in Affinity Photo positioned to that page. You can do your edit, use File > Save to save the file, and then manually reopen it in Publisher. Again, these changes are just in your Publisher document.
     
  3. If you have a Linked image file (JPG, TIFF, PNG) in your Publisher document, and you select it with the Move Tool, there is an Edit Image button on the Context Toolbar. Clicking that will open just that image in a new tab in Publisher, where you can edit it using the tools available in Publisher. These changes will update the original linked document when you Save them.

In the future, as already mentioned, the Photo Persona will be available. Though we do not know for sure what it allows, I envision it as providing most of the functions of the Photo Persona in Affinity Photo.

-- 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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7 hours ago, v_kyr said:

This feature is build-in (prepared), but actually not enabled in the betas. - The final release version should offer and enable this interoperation feature then.

Thanks for that catch, I meant to mention that it would only work with the production versions of the three apps and missed doing that.

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  • 7 months later...

I'm quite confused by this. I understand personas provide a workspace of the other apps to allow for editing. But I have a linked Designer document placed in my Publisher file (not embedded). When I use the Designer persona to make edits to it, the original, native file is not updated. Thus, this Designer document which is placed in multiple Publisher files does not update.

 

What am I missing?

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I don't really know, (I've never tried it myself) but maybe you have to save the file before it updates?

Acer XC-895 : Core i5-10400 Hexa-core 2.90 GHz :  32GB RAM : Intel UHD Graphics 630 : Windows 10 Home
Affinity Publisher 2 : Affinity Photo 2 : Affinity Designer 2 : (latest release versions) on desktop and iPad

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12 minutes ago, Clayton King said:

I'm quite confused by this. I understand personas provide a workspace of the other apps to allow for editing. But I have a linked Designer document placed in my Publisher file (not embedded). When I use the Designer persona to make edits to it, the original, native file is not updated. Thus, this Designer document which is placed in multiple Publisher files does not update.

 

What am I missing?

Assuming you're on 1.7 (rather than the 1.8 beta) you're not missing anything.

In 1.7 linked document files (as opposed to linked image files) are an odd hybrid of linked and embedded. They are linked in the sense that Publisher will detect when the original file is modified, and offer to update the copy in your Publisher document, or update it automatically if you have that Preference enabled. But they are embedded in the sense that a full copy is kept in the Publisher document, and if you use the Edit Document function and make changes to it, the change are only saved locally, not to the original file.

That changes in 1.8, where linked document files are truly linked (just as linked image files are in 1.7) and changes made via Edit Document must be saved back to the original or to another file.

-- 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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Interesting.... another thing I noticed is that when (in Publisher) choosing File Edit to open a Designer file, it actually opens the Publisher file (i.e., that page) rather than the Designer document on the page. 

For example, I have a Publisher layout that is landscape, and have a Designer image in the upper right corner of the Publisher layout. File Edit in Designer opens the entire spread.

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16 minutes ago, Clayton King said:

File Edit in Designer opens the entire spread.

Right. Because you're opening the file in Designer. (That's why it's in the File menu :) )

-- 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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46 minutes ago, Clayton King said:

File Edit in Designer opens the entire spread.

 

28 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Right. Because you're opening the file in Designer.

 

Yes, and after doing so, you should be able to double-click the embedded document's entry in the Layers panel to open it in a separate tab for independent editing, if you would prefer to work on it without the context of the surrounding document.  After doing so, close that tab and switch back to the original tab to transfer the file back to Publisher.

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I thought the idea was to open the SELECTED file in the NATIVE application. This workflow seems nonsensical to me, but I'm sure works for someone in other circumstances.

For me, it's become easier to simply have both applications running, save the Designer file and respond to the Resource Manager message in Publisher. A bit of extra work, but much less confusing for me, at least.

 

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50 minutes ago, Clayton King said:

I thought the idea was to open the SELECTED file in the NATIVE application. This workflow seems nonsensical to me, but I'm sure works for someone in other circumstances.

No, it opens the current active file (whatever is in the active workspace tab) in the specified application.

For the workflow you're envisioning, either:

  1. Simply Open the linked document using Designer (or Photo, or ...).
    or
  2. With the linked document selected and the Move Tool active, click the Edit Document button. That will open that document in its own tab i Publisher. Then you can use the Photo or Designer Persona in Publisher to do your editing, and Save the file when you're done. Or you can use File > Edit in Designer (or Photo), which will close the Publisher tab and transfer that document to Designer/Photo. Then when you Save it there, Publisher will either prompt you to update or perform the update automatically.

-- 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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18 hours ago, Clayton King said:

the NATIVE application

Because the same file format is used by all three applications, any of them could be considered to be the "native" application for any of the Affinity documents.  A different file extension is used for the files on disk in order to re-open the files in the applications they were saved in but the files can open natively in the other two apps as well, with no conversion.

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40 minutes ago, Clayton King said:

That's helpful to understand. I guess then, the question becomes how I can edit a Designer document (only the Designer document) from within a Publisher file. I don't want to save (or export) the entire Publisher document - just the linked Designer file on a layout.

Assuming it's a Linked .afdesign, rather than an Embedded one, and you're using Publisher 1.7, you cannot do it from Publisher if you want to change the original file. Your only choice is to Open the Designer application and Open the .afdesign document manually there.

In 1.8 (currently in beta) you can:

  1. Select the Move Tool.
  2. Select the .afdesign document on the page (or in the Layers panel).
  3. Click Edit Document on the Context Toolbar, which will give you a new document tab in Publisher.
  4. Switch to the Designer Persona, and when you're done use File > Save to update the original file. Then close the tab.
    or
    Use File > Edit in Designer if your editing needs Designer's Pixel or Export Personas. The new document tab will close in Publisher, and open in Designer. Then do your editing in Designer, then Save the document. Go back to Publisher.
  5. Publisher will either prompt you to update the Linked document which was saved externally, or will update it automatically if you have your Preferences set for that.

 

-- 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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