Importing Adobe documents

You can import Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop files into your Affinity app.

Importing of Adobe documents is a one-way process. You cannot overwrite the original file once it has been imported, instead it is possible to save it as an Affinity document. For Photoshop files, you can 'roundtrip' PSD files by exporting your edited file as a PSD file.

When importing Adobe Illustrator files, Affinity uses the embedded PDF in the file rather than the raw Illustrator data.

Files are imported with layers intact and ready for editing. For Adobe documents containing artboards, each artboard is created as its own layer in Affinity.

To import Adobe files:
  1. Do one of the following:
    • From the File menu, click Open.
    • Double-click anywhere in the empty view. (Only available when no other documents are open.) Next, navigate to your file, select it and click Open.
    • Open the file containing folder and drag the Adobe file to an off page area of your workspace.
  2. Select the file you want and click Open.
  3. For Illustrator files, from the PDF Options dialog, you can control page import choice, resolution, colour space, text editability and missing font. See Importing PDF documents.

About Smart Objects

Smart objects reside on layers with similar pixel information as typical layers, however, they may be edited as stand-alone objects which aids non-destructive workflows. Adjustments, filters, transformations and more can be performed on smart objects in Affinity Apps.

When importing Adobe Photoshop files containing smart objects, you can choose to import them and retain their editable functionality. This is instead of them being rasterised on import. When duplicated (or copied), layers containing smart objects retain their editable functionality.

To enable Smart Objects import:
  1. On the top menu, click Affinity Designer 2 to access the app's Settings (or Preferences).
  2. In the General section, enable Import PSD smart objects where possible.
To enable Smart Objects import:
  1. On the top menu, click Edit to access the app's Settings (or Preferences).
  2. In the General section, enable Import PSD smart objects where possible
To edit a Smart Object:
  1. Select the Move Tool, then do one of the following:
    • On the Layers panel, double-click the layer containing the smart object.
    • On the context toolbar, select Edit Document or Replace Document.

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