Soft proof & Separation

[dkaiser]

Dear Affinty-Team

How can I perform a soft proof on my calibrated monitor? About all pages in the document?

With the current softproof function, this only applies to the current page. Not suitable for the control of several pages. Please insert the soft proof as a menu item that will help us to check all pages.

Additionally, please also integrate the CMYK or spot color separation as a preview. As in Affinity Photo, we can hide the channels (eye icon), such as black, and check them before exporting to PDF/X for the print shop or large printing.

These two functions help us a lot in the team. It helps to produce not wrong print data. Please do not wait for it.

Thanks

[A_B_C]

As a workaround you could create an empty master page, put your Soft Proof Adjustment there, and apply the master page to your document pages without replacing existing masters. Then you would have to reorganise the layers stack of your layout pages to make the adjustment effective (the respective master page entry must be on top of the stack). Yes, it’s a bit cumbersome. 

[walt.farrell]

That's what I was in the process of suggesting, too, @A_B_C.

I have a vague memory of someone explaining a trick to move the Master Layer to the top of the stack on all pages with one operation. But I can't figure it out again, and maybe it's a false memory.

In any case, reorganizing the layer stack is simple (except you need to do it on each page, or at least each page you need to soft-proof): On the document page, select the Master Page layer, and Layer > Arrange > Move to Front (default shortcut: Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) + Shift + ]

[dkaiser]

This is a feedback thread. No support thread... 

Anyway... The proposed workaround is not optimal. If you, like me, I create more designs and documents on a day. A button or a menu entry with a shortcut to turn on / off would be a huge help.
I had already communicated this to the developer many months ago in Affinity Photo, then in Designer. Now also in Publisher. Hope this problem gets the attention of the developers.

Nevertheless, thank you both for the ideas  thumbs up 

 

EDIT: My Workaround  is export to PDF/X and soft proof in Acrobat Pro. But, whenever I have corrected something, the PDF has to be re-exported. It is not optimal, but it works fine with several pages.

[A_B_C]

Yes, I agree. The suggested workaround is far from optimal. It really doesn’t work for larger projects. 

[dkaiser]

Sorry for my push...

But 1.7.3 has been released this monday. This feature described here probably had no place in this release. Where can I see that this has been forwarded to the dev team?

At the moment I am hesitating to give the publisher the purchase recommendation. On the one hand because of this important function, on the other hand how it communicates. For private use, the software is great, as you like to take a small missing features in purchase. But for daily use, publisher needs a lot of time to replace adobe or others.

The basis for private or temporary designers is now given. I think the pros must now be emphasized in the development. Please put a focus on the monitor proof function and implement it decently.

Thanks a lot and i hope you can do this as soon as possible.

Greetings

PS: Minimum 10 and later manny more purchase licenses you can have, is profile proof over all sites available. I think not bad for one company with the option of more.

[walt.farrell]

12 minutes ago, dkaiser said:

But 1.7.3 has been released this monday. This feature described here probably had no place in this release. Where can I see that this has been forwarded to the dev team?

You cannot see that.

Serif have told us that the developers look at the Feedback forum and use the topics there in their planning, but that planning process is secret, with no comment usually by Serif on the topics in the Feedback forum and usually no definite statement about what they are planning for future releases.

[dkaiser]

Thank you walt.farrell

This is not 100% correct: in each beta you can see what the devteam has been done and where the final is going. For example here:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/103867-affinity-publisher-customer-beta-180523/

And yes, a roadmap would be helpful. We at the company will otherwise renew the Adobe Subscription for one year in the next two months.

However, we would like to give Affinity a chance and would rather spend the money here and not to Adobe.

From our point of view, the softprood function is the last one where is needed for our work. So push again 

[ReinhardJ]

Hello, there is a cool solution for CMYK separation-preview: You go to Photo-Persona, then go to channels and select the appropriate channels. When you go back to the Publisher-Persona, the selection is kept.

[dkaiser]

Thanks Reinhard

This works really well and is great for the black channel to check whether only black is used. Thanks for this nice tip.
I would like this channel tab to be available globally across all three Affinity products.

And finaly, the integration of the softproof function ;)

[dkaiser]

Sorry for the push. It's a hint to the developers.

[thadeusz]

Haha, I think you have to push more often.

I'm a bit sad, that there is no reaction or roadmap from serif on some of the more important issues for professionals. Some issues are around for years now. And you are right with needed softproof/separation functions. I also had enough trouble with this, especially using spot colors. I stopped recommending Affinity for now, but I'm sticking with it and shout out from time to time. It just takes more time, I guess..

So, let's push together!

[dkaiser]

Thank you 

[thadeusz]

You're welcome...

[thadeusz]

Happy new year, non-existing separation preview!

[Jowday]

On 3/6/2020 at 5:50 PM, dkaiser said:

Thanks Reinhard

This works really well and is great for the black channel to check whether only black is used. Thanks for this nice tip.
I would like this channel tab to be available globally across all three Affinity products.

And finaly, the integration of the softproof function

Indeed.

[thadeusz]

Yes, for CMYK this seams to be a good way to check overprinting. But just to make clear - there is no such workaround for spot colors. I'm using them quite a lot in my projects, so that's clearly missing.
Last year I switched completely to Publisher (still need Acrobat for output check), but it has been hard most of the time. Once you are there, it's kind of ok, but it could be more fun, missing a lot details in the app. Still, I hope it will improve over time, but for my taste it's just too much missing, too badly implemented and improving really slow..

[dkaiser]

Thanks for helping to push this feature. We still miss it too. The more people ask for it, the sooner it will hopefully be implemented through Affinity.

thanks

[thomaso]

On 9/4/2019 at 11:28 PM, walt.farrell said:

I have a vague memory of someone explaining a trick to move the Master Layer to the top of the stack on all pages with one operation. But I can't figure it out again, and maybe it's a false memory.

In any case, reorganizing the layer stack is simple (except you need to do it on each page, or at least each page you need to soft-proof): On the document page, select the Master Page layer, and Layer > Arrange > Move to Front (default shortcut: Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) + Shift + ]

Since this thread got nudged anyway:

To move a master layer to front on all pages / in an entire document with 1 click:
Right-click the master layer on any document page > choose "Edit Linked" > continue, as mentioned already, with Layer > Arrange > Move to Front.

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