Coming to an Adobe Subscription Near You

[ringocat22]

Will Affinity open Adobe Illustrator files? I'm considering ditching my Adobe subscription at home (especially with these price increases) but I'm wondering if I need to resave all of my files first.

Designer will open pdf files, but not ai files. I always hated Illustrator, and do all of my vector work in Flexi. I export everything into a pdf and open in affinity when I need to. From the Affinity forums: "The Affinity applications cannot read the native .ai data, so instead they read a PDF file that is embedded in the .ai file by Illustrator."

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Designer will open pdf files, but not ai files. I always hated Illustrator, and do all of my vector work in Flexi. I export everything into a pdf and open in affinity when I need to. From the Affinity forums: "The Affinity applications cannot read the native .ai data, so instead they read a PDF file that is embedded in the .ai file by Illustrator."

This is what I think most 3rd party do is read from the embedded PDF (while Adobe is behind that format, it is essentially an open spec now (I think since late aughts)). If it still holds true from the last time that I used an Adobe Product (CS6), the default is to embed that compatibility in there, odds are good as most people don't stray from the defaults. Which is what I think Adobe is hoping for by already having people on the premium tier, but that is just me speculating.

 

[Bobby H]

Affinity Designer can be hit or miss at opening PDF files saved by Illustrator. It all depends on what kinds of effects were baked into the artwork. The current version (2.6.3) of Affinity Designer does a better job at it than the version 1 builds. It still doesn't cover everything though.

Illustrator does default to saving .AI files with PDF data included, but that can be easily unchecked in Preferences to save on file sizes. If an .AI file doesn't have PDF data included Affinity Designer will just import a blank document.

Another problem: variable fonts. If the .AI file has any live text objects using variable fonts they'll cause a missing fonts dialog box to be displayed when importing the PDF data into Affinity Designer, even if those variable fonts are installed in the computer. Variable fonts still aren't supported in PDF files. The user at least has the opportunity to import the text as live objects rather than converted to outlines. But the correct numerical variable instances have to be re-applied to the text objects after the file is opened. The missing fonts dialog box only displays text-based styles in a drop down menu rather than numerical sliders. I suppose they could fix that with an update.

I'd rather import a PDF that was generated by Adobe Illustrator than PDF files exported by other applications (including Adobe InDesign). PDF files can be a really horrible mess when imported. Thank God for the Vector First Aid plugin. Illustrator-generated PDF files tend to be much more edit-friendly. If an Illustrator file has artwork properly organized across different named layers Affinity Designer will preserve the layer structure when importing the PDF data in the Illustrator file.

 

[GAC05]

The B61 has been updated to the B61-13 with lots of new features for 2025.
I wonder if we'll pay by monthly subscription or all at once for an unlimited license.

What is B61-13? US unveils new nuclear gravity bomb ahead of schedule

The weapon "will provide the President with additional nuclear options against certain harder and large-area military targets", the DOE said.

www.newsweek.com

 

[WildWestDesigns]

The B61 has been updated to the B61-13 with lots of new features for 2025.
I wonder if we'll pay by monthly subscription or all at once for an unlimited license.

What is B61-13? US unveils new nuclear gravity bomb ahead of schedule

The weapon "will provide the President with additional nuclear options against certain harder and large-area military targets", the DOE said.

www.newsweek.com

That would probably fall under what happens with medical and other hardware where right to repair is out the window, so they get you with the repair bill or make you buy a new one.