k24anson

Please forgive if I'm jumping any guns here, but I'd like to share my thoughts with you.
I'm sick of the Adobe subscription model; I've jumped ship back to Quark, and wish to use Designer instead of Illustrator. However...
1) I suspect I'm not alone in using Autotrace nearly daily. This omission in Designer is a serious brake on my adopting it wholeheartedly. I've tried separate programmes, and they range from awful to ludicrously expensive.
2) When you are churning out production graphics daily, having simple commands for Select>Same Fill, and Select>Same Stroke etc. are massive timesavers. Not having these means I spend extra time clicking and grouping to get the same result.
It's obvious from your latest book (superb, by the way) that you are looking at some pretty clever stuff, and Designer does it well.
However, we daily Joes need the basics to be there, fast, and reliable.
I'd appreciate your comments. (Not trying to be contentious, honestly!)
Keep up the good work.
N

(Ooops, just spotted typo...!)

#1. I believe InkScape has a Mac installer (dmg). What I don't know is whether the Mac version uses Potrace for a tracer. While not quite as intuitive, it can give quite good results. Other than that, Vector Magic is about the best one can get. They have a perpetual, desktop version for both OS platforms. while not inexpensive, it works very well. One can also still get CS6, but with the changes in the Mac OS from time to time, that may not be a viable option.
 
#2. Oh, how I miss the select in AI in other vector applications. One of the simplest means (compared to CorelDraw's method) to accomplish what should be a simple task. This won't prevent me from using other vector design applications, but it sure would speed things up.
 
As to DesignMeister's comment re workflow--this issue along with certain missing elements (like seeing bleed; sure-thing, no-brainer PDFs; slicing objects; text frame linking & text wrap; etc.) are enough to keep me from using AD as a primary design tool.
 
It's difficult to keep reminding myself that the Affinity products are young yet seeing how I have used Windows serif applications for a number of years. I trust the "missing" things will be added in the future. I am not so certain about the work-flow area improving.

Status: Release Candidate
Purpose: Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
 
Download: 1.5 RC1
 
We are pleased to announce that Affinity Photo 1.5 has transitioned into the "Release Candidate" phase. This late stage of the beta process is used to shake out any final bugs with the new features added to 1.5. Please find a brief list of the new features below:
 
Focus Merge Support   Focus merging allows you to generate a detailed composite image from a number of images focused at differing lengths. Use File -> New Focus Merge to get started.   Video tutorials: Focus Merging Focus Merge Retouching Focus Merging Bracketed Images   HDR Merge Support   HDR merging lets you create a deep, unbounded 32-bit image from a number of exposure bracketed source images. Use File -> New HDR Merge to get started.   Video tutorials: HDR: Merging and Tone Mapping HDR: Tone Map Presets HDR: Panoramas HDR: Preprocessing HDR: Advanced Editing HDR: Ghosts Removal   New 32bit RGB Editing Mode   Photo now offers a full compositing / editing environment for 32bit unbounded images.   Video tutorials: HDR: 32-bit Editing   32bit Develop   Photo can now Develop RAW files directly into a 32bit document - so all highlights / shadows are preserved and recoverable at any time.   Video tutorials: 32-bit Raw Development   OCIO (OpenColorIO) Support   Photo now support end-to-end OCIO colour workflows.   Video tutorials: OpenColorIO Setup OpenColorIO Adjustment   Tone Mapping Persona   Full tone mapping Persona for both HDR and LDR images. This is obviously best used with an image merged by HDR merge - although you can use it on any image.   Video tutorials: Regular Tone Mapping   OpenEXR / HDR (Radiance) / 32bit TIFF Import / Export   Photo can now import and export .hdr (Radiance, RGBE) and .exr (OpenEXR) images. It correctly deals with 0-alpha cases (as per the OpenEXR spec) and generally operates in linear space. It support multi-layer EXR files and offers control (through Preferences) over alpha association and premultiplication.   Video tutorials: OpenEXR Multichannel Import/Export OpenEXR Import Options   Macros   Using the View -> Studio -> Macro and View -> Studio -> Library menu items, you can access new panels which will allow you to record actions, save them, then play them back later. You can also store them in a handy gallery.   Video tutorials: Macros Macros: Equations   Batch Processing   Using File -> New Batch job, you can queue up processing on a large number of files. You can resize, convert format and apply any number of macros to each file. The batch processing happens in the background - so you can continue working whilst the jobs are processed.   Video tutorials: Batch Processing   Live Projections   Photo 1.5 contains a new mechanism which allows you to edit an image in different spatial domains - we currently support the “Equirectangular” domain (360 pano - Ricoh Theta, etc.). You can use all tools when editing - and you can convert back once you have edited. This is especially useful for cleaning up stitching artefacts, or artefacts at the zenith / nadir of the image. Use the options in Layer -> Live Projection to get started.   Video tutorials: 360 Live Editing 360 Advanced Editing 360 Retouching 360 Multiple Views Live Perspective Projection    Improved Pixel Tool   The pixel tool is improved in 1.5 - you can hold shift when dragging to constrain the direction of painting (sorry we did not get this working sooner!). You can also select what happens when you hold Alt and drag - erase to transparent, erase to background colour, or erase to whatever the nominated snapshot / history location is (like in the Clone tool).   New “Pixel Art” Document Resizing   Photo now contains an alternative way to resize a document - using well known pixel-art resampling algorithms. If you work with pixel art and want to use this feature, it’s located under the Document menu.   Video tutorials: Pixel Art Resize    New “Accumulation” Brush Dynamics   Many users have asked for “Opacity Jitter”. For us, opacity is a constant thing and will remain constant. However, we have added a new property to brushes - “Accumulation” - which should allow you to get what you need :)   Text Styles   Affinity Photo now has the same Text Styles support as Designer - it’s all shared code so it should work right out of the box :)   New Marquee Modes (Polygonal, Magnetic)   Photo now has 3 modes for the freehand selection tool - Freehand, Polygonal and Magnetic.   Even more RAW cameras supported   Over 70 new RAW cameras are supported.   Improved Metadata Mining   Our detection of RAW / JPEG / etc. metadata has been upgraded and some serious bugs have been fixed.   Massive Improvements to Export Persona   Our Export Persona has seen huge upgrades in this cycle - you now have total control of exactly what resolution sets get exported. You can also use our handy batch export builders to quickly generate content for external consumption - ie. Xcode .assets - even Spline compatible metadata can be generated!   Layered TIFF Interop   Users have constantly asked us to support “Layered TIFF”. Layered TIFF is not a thing. TIFF with embedded data is a thing - and I’m happy to report that we now import embedded PSD / Affinity data and can write TIFF with embedded Affinity data.   Halftone Filter   We have a marvellous new halftone pattern filter in 1.5 - it can approximate monochrome, colour, circular and line halftones.   Video tutorials: Halftone Scanlines Effect   Improved Apply Image Filter   Users can how use the current layer as the source for Apply Image - or drag any layer from the layers tab into the dialog to use that as thr source. We also offer handy equations in the filter to control how channels are transferred - in an arbitrary colour source.   Video tutorials: Apply Image Apply Image: Equations   Improved Select Sampled Colour Filter   You can now select by intensity in the select sampled colour tool.   Equations Filter   A new Equations Distortion filter allows users to create custom spatial filters.   Video tutorials: Equations filter Macros: Equations   Dust & Scratches Filter   Many user have asked us for a “Dust & Scratches” filter - so we have made one. It’s extremely useful for removing sporadic small defects in images. Please let us know if it works for you.   Video tutorials: Dust & Scratches Filter    “Edit in Affinity Photo” Photos extension   This is something which we didn’t think we could do - a Photos extension for Mac OS 10.9 and above which simply allows you to use the full Photo app to edit your images - and stores the changes you have made as a layered document.   New Colour Picker Tool   After literally thousands of requests, we have implemented a dedicated picker tool for colours.   New Clone Sources Panel   We now have a new studio panel which allows you to store up an unlimited number of global sources for the Clone / Healing brush - it even works across multiple documents.   Video tutorials: Clone Sources Clone Sources: Texture Creation   Direct PSD Write-Back   One of the most requested features - direct write-back to PSD. A number of 3rd party DAM applications will happily deal in PSD - but until now, Photo required you to File -> Export for PSD. No longer! You can now just hit File -> Save! You will need to turn this on - in File -> Preferences - please read the warning there carefully!   No Thumbnails Option   This is more a Designer feature, but I promised it some time ago so here it is - you can choose (in Preferences) not to write out a thumbnail with your documents. This has the advantage of making your documents use less space - but obviously you won’t get Finder thumbnails, etc.   Improved Vectorscope   Our old HSL vectorscope is no more - replaced by a vastly more appropriate Rec.709 YUV scope with an improved graticule :)   Improved Photoshop Plugin Support   We have found a significant bug with our plugin code - it has been fixed :) We are now finding the majority of plugins work properly.   Multi-monitor Colour Profile Support   Sorry it took so long to get this fixed - we now can profile different on different monitors.   Adjustment Performance Improvements   Found and fixed a simple issue which made changing adjustment parameters appear to be slow. Fixed.   This update also includes literally hundreds of fixes and small improvements, some of which are listed below:   - User control over two pass rendering on Retina devices. - PSD import / export improvements. - PDF import / export improvements. - Snapping improvements - candidate-free snapping, gaps-and-spans (Alt key in Move Tool), so much more! - Performance and stability improvements for macOS Sierra.   Thanks again for taking the time to use this beta!   Affinity Photo Team   :ph34r:   Download: 1.5 RC1

T'anks. I went to the very beginning of the book, where the first reference to Resource files were mentioned, thunking I missed something.

I fell for this, too! Go back a few pages to the green page at the beginning of the chapter - that is the URL (affin.co/...) that you want, although it doesn't look much when you get there, everything you want for the book is there :)