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what are the different file formats for affinity designer for ipad and their purpose


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Hello all,

As I migrate from traditional mediums into the digital field of visual art, I have no knowledge as to what the function and/or purpose of each file type that can be created within Affinity Designer provides. Likewise, I do not know what the export file types are, and their functions and/or purpose as an end result. I tend to save the end result as a png file through the share option in the save dialogue.

My main concern is commercial design, and graphics. Basically, I am more likely than not, sketch or draw by hand in order to vectorize it as an end result for whatever it is I am going to work on.

How to achieve that, I do not know and would like to learn. I searched for this exact type of tutorial and will continue to but, if anyone can help me out along this path, I would appreciate it. I'm basically a traveler asking for directions to my destination, and I'm a bit lost here.

Thank you in advance.

-Last Grasp

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Hi LastGrasp,

PNG: It's a losses format that also supports transparency

JPEG: Common image format but isn't losses so can degrade after x amount of openings

GIF: Another losses image format

TIFF: Another lossless image format

EXR:  Common file format used by 3D rendering apps and other image editors

HDR: High Dynamic Range, mainly used for HDR images

PSD: The common file format used by Photoshop

PDF: Common file format for sending to professional printers

EPS: Designed mainly for print work

SVG: Scalable Vector Graphic, used mainly for print or web design work.

That's just a very brief rundown of the formats.  As for which you should use and when, it really depends on the end goal.  Anything you are going to get printed, speak to the print shop and find out what format they prefer.  For vector work, i'd always suggest sticking to a vector format, like SVG/PDF/EPS.

Hope that's been of some help :) 

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TGA - a vintage lossless format with optional transparency.

Produces larger (less compressed) files than PNG.

Its main advantage is that it is an extremely simple format technically (I know, I've written code to support it, decades ago), making it easy for game programmers and others (e.g. raytracing, animation hobbyists) to write their own handling code, something that was particularly important in the early days of game design and graphics, as there were no (or very few) standard libraries available for image handling.

Still used in some legacy, open source, and home-made code for its simplicity, and often supported as "another lossless format with transparency" in commercial software that supports a very long list of image formats.

From the graphics user point of view (as opposed to the programmer), usually no real advantage over PNG in modern software.

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