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Make your UI, brushes, and more from APhoto and ADesigner synchronize with the Photo and Designer Personas


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First off, congratulations on launching Publisher! Having all the features from Photo and Designer Personas inside Publisher are such a fantastic achievement and I couldn't be happier. That said, since the whole thing has been revealed now, I would like to make a request that would be a massive benefit for us who want to migrate over to Publisher to do a lot of the heavy work in our projects.

In the future, I want to be able to make Publisher synchronize with Photo and Designer so that your entire workflow gets carried over to the software. Stuff like:

  • Keybinds from the original Personas.
     
  • Brushes.
     
  • Swatches.
     
  • Macros.
     
  • Assets.
     
  • UI panel layout from the Studio.
     

Basically, everything that these two Personas have. Also would be nice if any changes saved in Publisher carried over back to Photo and Designer, to ensure consistency every time you open up each program. This would help tremendously when migrating from Designer and Photo into Publisher. Maybe we might see this for version 2.0, since I guess this could be a big undertaking. ^_^

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I agree it would at least be helpful to have a "Sync Now" button, even if you have to point it at the other application. So far we have not found a way for this to work satisfactorily across all platforms. Publisher can be bought from a number of places (mac app store; Affinity store; Windows store) as can the 2 other applications. It was too difficult (and a bit dangerous) to share these options across the range, though it would have had some obvious advantages. So yes they currently have an independent set of these options and you will need to export from one application to import into the other till a better way exists.

Also thanks for the congrats.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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Yes, Patrick please send along our congrats to the team.  I actually watched the keynotes speech twice.

Did I miss something?  Is there any way to get Photo  Brushes into Publisher, even if we have to install again?

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2 hours ago, Guyon said:

Is there any way to get Photo  Brushes into Publisher, even if we have to install again?

Official method:

  1. On the Brushes panel in Photo, select a brush category, then on the hamburger menu use "Export Brushes..." and then specify a location to save the .afbrushes file. Repeat for each brush category you want to transfer.
  2. On the Brushes panel in the Photo Persona in Publisher, on the hamburger menu, use "Import Brushes..." and import one of your exported brush files. Repeat as needed.

 

-- 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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13 hours ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

In the future, I want to be able to make Publisher synchronize with Photo and Designer so that your entire workflow gets carried over to the software. Stuff like: ...

Because of missing my rights to 'like' and 'thanks' 'today' :/... (to much positivity I guess :)):

I agree with you and this list. Also things like the chosen tools (and the order they are in and how many columns to toolspanel has) and file export-presets, per persona/interface would be nice to have shared between the 'real' program and its persona/interface inside Publisher.

Quote

I agree it would at leats be helpful to have a "Sync Now" button, even if you have to point it at the other application. 

@Patrick Connor Nice to read you guys are already thinking about how to make it possible!

 

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I just was about to start a respective thread on my own. But basically everything I wanted to say is already here.

The new Studio functionality is a feature that will blow other software out of their water and I love it!

Only that changing the personas in Publisher is not really changing into those programs. But to guarantee a consistent workflow, things like colors, brushes and keyboard shortcuts *must* be synchronized to the "real" applications of Designer and Photo.

I was playing around a lot with publisher today and was very surprised that my custom keyboard shortcuts did not work in Designer and Photo personas. Also I had made a custom brush that was not there either. Yes, I did import the brush and it worked, but consistent workflow this is not (yet). 

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5 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Official method:

  1. On the Brushes panel in Photo, select a brush category, then on the hamburger menu use "Export Brushes..." and then specify a location to save the .afbrushes file. Repeat for each brush category you want to transfer.
  2. On the Brushes panel in the Photo Persona in Publisher, on the hamburger menu, use "Import Brushes..." and import one of your exported brush files. Repeat as needed.

 

So we just double install.  Thanks

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4 hours ago, Guyon said:

So we just double install.  Thanks

Yes. Though once I'm back on a computer that has some different brushes applied I will probably try a shortcut. On Windows all the settings are stored in %appdata%\Affinity\photo\1.0\user and the raster brushes are in raster_brushed.propcol so I will probably just copy the file across and see what happens :)

It should work, but if you try it make a backup first.

(This assumes, by the way, that one purchased from Serif, not Microsoft. For purchases from Microsoft or Apple I can't help.)

-- 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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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Yes. Though once I'm back on a computer that has some different brushes applied I will probably try a shortcut. On Windows all the settings are stored in %appdata%\Affinity\photo\1.0\user and the raster brushes are in raster_brushed.propcol so I will probably just copy the file across and see what happens :)

Gave this a very quick try.
I only checked the Brushes in Publisher's Photo-Persona and that seems to work as intended.
However, my shortcuts do still not work.

 

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51 minutes ago, LostInTranslation said:

However, my shortcuts do still not work. 

 

Keyboard shortcuts for Photo (on Windows) are in %appdata%\Affinity\photo\1.0\workspaces\<persona name>\Shortcuts.xml so for the Photo Persona that would be %appdata%\Affinity\photo\1.0\workspaces\photo\Shortcuts.xml

Possibly you can copy that file over, but I would definitely make sure that Publisher is not running, and that you backup its existing file first :)

-- 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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22 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Yes. Though once I'm back on a computer that has some different brushes applied I will probably try a shortcut. On Windows all the settings are stored in %appdata%\Affinity\photo\1.0\user and the raster brushes are in raster_brushed.propcol so I will probably just copy the file across and see what happens :)

It should work, but if you try it make a backup first.

(This assumes, by the way, that one purchased from Serif, not Microsoft. For purchases from Microsoft or Apple I can't help.)

Yes, I am on an official Serif purchase.   How do you use your shortcut so I don't have to reinstall my brushes?

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33 minutes ago, Guyon said:

Yes, I am on an official Serif purchase.   How do you use your shortcut so I don't have to reinstall my brushes?

Find the raster_brushes.propcol file in %appdata%\Affinity\Photo\1.0\user and copy it into %appdata%\Affinity\Publisher\1.0\user and I think that will transfer them over.

I still haven't had access to the right computer to confirm that myself.

-- 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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On 6/19/2019 at 11:28 AM, Patrick Connor said:

I agree it would at least be helpful to have a "Sync Now" button, even if you have to point it at the other application. So far we have not found a way for this to work satisfactorily across all platforms. Publisher can be bought from a number of places (mac app store; Affinity store; Windows store) as can the 2 other applications. It was too difficult (and a bit dangerous) to share these options across the range, though it would have had some obvious advantages. So yes they currently have an independent set of these options and you will need to export from one application to import into the other till a better way exists.

Also thanks for the congrats.

How about if we signed into the programs with our Affinity account and this account kept preferences synced between the programs? Not sure if that would require a significant amount of cloud server space though.

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Just now, Josh Eddie Photography said:

How about if we signed into the programs with our Affinity account and this account kept preferences synced between the programs? Not sure if that would require a significant amount of cloud server space though.

I have wondered whether some sort of "Serif Sync" would be a good solution, which could sync multiple apps across multiple devices. It could be on Serif servers, or it could be a configuration file saved to a service such as Dropbox or iCloud Drive, and the user could point to the location of the settings file for each instance where he wants the sync, and the rest would stay in sync. Maybe someday.

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On 6/20/2019 at 5:42 AM, LostInTranslation said:

The new Studio functionality is a feature that will blow other software out of their water and I love it!

Software like Designer Pro X have all the Bitmap, Vector, and Page Layout (and Web) features built into the same app.  Studio is not blowing away the competition, IMO, even though I do feel it is a great way to reuse tech already in Photo/Designer without reinventing the wheel (or duplicating code).  This just feels OLE, to me (for those old enough to remember what that is) :-P

I got Designer Pro X 15.1 for $25.

I did buy Affinity Photo & Designer for Windows, since I have had them on macOS since launch and I like to keep some level of "App Parity" between the two platforms… However, I am not buying Publisher [yet] because it is still missing too much - compared to Designer Pro X - which I still use for all of my page layout stuff.

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2 minutes ago, Trensharo said:

Software like Designer Pro X have all the Bitmap, Vector, and Page Layout (and Web Export) features built into the same app.  Studio is not blowing away the competition, IMO.

I got Designer Pro X 15.1 for $25.

I did buy Affinity Photo & Designer for Windows, since I had them on macOS since launch and I like to keep some level of "App Parity" between the two platforms… but I am not buying Publisher because it is still missing too much - compared to Designer Pro X - which I still use for all of my page layout tasks.

I am using Xara since 1997, back then called Art Studio / Xara Studio, up to the latest version of Designer X Pro. And I disagree with you.
Designer has good, but very dated vector tools, subpar bitmap editing which is absolutely no match for Photo and none of the page layout tools of Publisher.

Yes, I was using Designer Pro for layouting, even multipage catalogues, and it can be done. But Publisher has so much more functionality and possibilities for layouting. And all that for less than 50 bucks, since I was a beta tester.

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5 minutes ago, LostInTranslation said:

I am using Xara since 1997, back then called Art Studio / Xara Studio, up to the latest version of Designer X Pro. And I disagree with you.
Designer has good, but very dated vector tools, subpar bitmap editing which is absolutely no match for Photo and none of the page layout tools of Publisher.

Yes, I was using Designer Pro for layouting, even multipage catalogues, and it can be done. But Publisher has so much more functionality and possibilities for layouting. And all that for less than 50 bucks, since I was a beta tester.

You're free to disagree.

It doesn't matter.  We all use what is good enough for us, and I'm not seeing a point in spending money where I see no benefit.

I'd rather go to Starbucks.

Designer Pro's spartan interface belies its functionality.

I already own Photo and Designer, so the Vector and Bitmap tooling that I need is only that which I need within a page layout solution.  It doesn't have to be as good as Affinity Photo and Designer.  I already own those, for a reason...

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On 6/27/2019 at 3:34 PM, Josh Eddie Photography said:

How about if we signed into the programs with our Affinity account and this account kept preferences synced between the programs? Not sure if that would require a significant amount of cloud server space though.

Please no. I don't want to sync through some 'external' cloud-party. I'm glad Affinity didn't follow that Adobe path. Just a way to copy files, like json, xml or an official Affinity extension to move brushes around to other systems would fit my needs perfectly. Or a sync-button would be fine too.

And that wouldn't be even nececary, at least on the Windows instatllations, because all three Affinity applications already have a generic place to store generic files: the 'Affinity/Common' folder. That way all three programs could reach all generic files already and there's not even a need to copy files over, neither have duplicates files installed on the same system.

 

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@Patrick Connor (or other interested person):

Suggestion: in the Affinity app preferences, how about an option to create a "Sync File", which would allow the user to create a file that the app would retain access to across starts/stops that would contain essentially exported copies of all of these things, and an option to then open the sync file, which would similarly retain access, both options of which would cause the apps to sync to whatever was in those files (obviously from the other apps) whenever the files changed?

Wouldn't that be a way to work around the sandboxing issue, and likely work with both the released and beta apps as well if implemented carefully to support working across versions, while at the same time allowing the user to determine which apps he wants synced?  If it were able to be safely stored at a network or file sync service location (file share, Dropbox, etc.) then that would also allow the user to sync his settings across multiple systems (desktop/laptop or similar).

You could maybe have checkboxes where the file is created or selected that would allow the user to indicate what should be synced (brushes, application palettes, etc.)

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1 hour ago, fde101 said:

Suggestion: in the Affinity app preferences, how about an option to create a "Sync File", which would allow the user to create a file that the app would retain access to across starts/stops that would contain essentially exported copies of all of these things, and an option to then open the sync file, which would similarly retain access, both options of which would cause the apps to sync to whatever was in those files (obviously from the other apps) whenever the files changed?

Wouldn't that be a way to work around the sandboxing issue, and likely work with both the released and beta apps as well if implemented carefully to support working across versions, while at the same time allowing the user to determine which apps he wants synced?  If it were able to be safely stored at a network or file sync service location (file share, Dropbox, etc.) then that would also allow the user to sync his settings across multiple systems (desktop/laptop or similar).

You could maybe have checkboxes where the file is created or selected that would allow the user to indicate what should be synced (brushes, application palettes, etc.)

That's an interesting suggestion.

Another approach would be that the to come DAM takes care of this. We're speaking of syncing all the digital assets within the Affinity suite. I sounds logical to me to use the Affinity DAM to take care of this :)

d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

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3 hours ago, dominik said:

We're speaking of syncing all the digital assets within the Affinity suite. I sounds logical to me to use the Affinity DAM to take care of this

The only problem is that in and of itself it would run into the same restrictions that are preventing this from being done from the other apps, assuming it is distributed in the app stores.  To prevent that, Serif would either need to choose not to distribute the DAM in the app stores, or use a mechanism that could just as easily be used by the other apps - and hook the DAM into it as well, possibly with additional capabilities...

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