Manual Packages

Packages

A package is one <name>.platemaker.zip holding a whole workspace — pages, lettering, templates and fonts — so it opens on another machine or for another person with nothing to fix.

It is a different thing from moving or syncing the workspace folder itself (see Workspaces), which also keeps working: a package is for handing off a copy, not for where you keep working day to day.

When you need one

• Sending a chapter to someone else to review, letter or render.
• Moving work to a second computer in one step, without a synced drive.
• Archiving a chapter exactly as it was, self-contained.

If you only need to move your own working folder — to another disk, into a zip for backup, onto a different computer you also use — you do not need a package: see Moving, zipping or renaming the workspace folder.

Export package…

File → Export package…. Choose where to save the .zip — it defaults to beside your workspace's folder, not inside it, since the folder is what the package is made from.

The package contains:

The workspace file	with every path rewritten to the package, so it needs no fixing up
Your pages	under inputs, each keeping its file name (a second file of the same name gets a suffix)
Overlays	every balloon, picture and piece of text, plus the picture behind a lettered picture
Templates	every canvas profile's generated template
Fonts	the workspace's own [[fonts

Never included: your rendered output. A package carries everything needed to reproduce it exactly, and nothing that is already reproducible.

If a page is missing on your machine, or a font cannot be found as a file, you are told before anything is written and can still choose Export anyway — a missing page travels as a placeholder you can fix with Replace file… after the package is opened; a font that could not be packed means that bubble's words are not re-editable on the other end (they still render exactly as they look here).

Open package…

File → Open package…. Pick a .zip, then choose where to unpack it — Platemaker always creates a new folder named after the package; it refuses a location where that folder already exists, so you never overwrite anything by accident.

Once unpacked, it opens exactly like any other workspace: the same lock, the same fonts activated, the same missing-font healing and folder cleanup. Afterwards you may see:

• a note if the package came from a different Platemaker (or libplatemaker) version — informational only; a render may differ very slightly, nothing is blocked;
• a note if the package was exported without some fonts or pictures, meaning some lettering renders correctly but is not fully re-editable;
• an offer to install any fonts the package brought that are not on your computer yet — opens straight into Tools → Fonts….

The original .zip is never modified or deleted.

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See also: Workspaces · Menu reference · File statuses