MarshallHarrison

My name is Jim and I have one deaf ear, thus the name 1earJim. I am a 77 year old consulting environmental/civil engineer with about over 50 year experience and I have had the opportunity to work all over the US and in several overseas assignments.
I have MS, which has confined me to a wheelchair and the discovery of Affinity Photo and Designer has been a godsend. Learning Photoshop and Illustrator has been a long held dream that has never made it to the top of my to do list. Adobe's cost and subscription business model has keep this dream out of reach . Affinity Photo, which I have had for about two months, has rekindled this dream.  Fortunately, I have my old HP 420 workstation with its three monitors that is left over from my consulting engineering firm. I am actively working on developing these new flower images and have complete nearly 50 images with Affinity Photo. 
My new hobby now is to take flower photos with my iPhone from my wheelchair and use Affinity Photo to turn these images in interesting pictures and a possible future video. This new hobby has given me a new lease on life, a reason to learn something new and to getup in the morning. This community has already help me solve one problem. I hope to gain enough knowledge to be able to help others as this community has helped me.

Josie and the Endless Pussycats 

Well it's pretty much the same as the in-app help, namely a HTML based help system for webbrowsers. So it consists of a bunch of directory structured files instead. This is good for using it as forum related references to specific topics etc. - For printing purposes a single contents PDF file would be of course more handy, but hey Affinity want's to sell it books too here.
However you can fetch a copy of the online help for offline references via appropriate tools (like wget) for example:
You can then further process/convert the local copy into some for you suitable PDF or eBook format.
 

Super responsive. Most excellently useful. For some reason I find it preferable to the in-app help. Along with the workbook it's the dreamteam.
Thanks, James & co.

Affinity Online Help
Hello all, we're happy to be able to offer you an online version of the in-app help!
Access Designer, Photo & Publisher Help here: https://affinity.help
Here are some of the additional features we're able to implement as a result of having proper browser support:
Dynamic language switching: The help will determine your language and (if it's available) serve you a localised copy of the help. If you prefer to read in another language, however, you'll find a combo box at the bottom left which will enable you to change languages—and stay on the page you're currently reading. Print: Sounds simple, but with full browser support we can now implement printing of the topic pages. The print icon in the bottom left will give you a nicely formatted printout of the current topic. Share: Clicking the clipboard icon will copy the current topic's URL to your clipboard, which means you can easily point other people towards topics that may help them. Responsive: The help was responsive anyway, including off-canvas menu functionality so you could collapse the window and still read a topic, but this is taken further in this version of the help. The help is formatted nicely and usable even on a 4" iPhone SE screen. Search: we've implemented our own bespoke search for the online help which is fast and accurate. Access it via the tab system along the top left. Favourites: you can add topics to your favourites list to easily access them during future browser sessions. Simply click the + (plus) icon next to the "Favourites" tab to add the current topic.  
With this online version you'll be able to print out topics and view them on your tablets/phones, which are two of the most common requests when it comes to help feedback.
As always, if you have any feedback or find any issues with this online version, please let us know! Hope you find it useful.

I'm learning both and the digital mistakes are easier to correct than the analog. Its a daunting task but it gives me something to do n my retirement and its fun.
I am really enjoying learning graphic design and digital art.

Yes, Here's to us old guys having fun with this stuff!!!!

Welcome Sam. I understand the enthusiasm. After 30+ years as a software and web developer I was burnt out. I still can't get any enthusiasm about writing code. But graphics design along with the new tools and the Affinity Suite have me excited again. Or maybe it was just the year of retirement...Either way, I'm having fun again.
Here's to us old guys having fun with this stuff!!!!!

Hi My name is Rob I've been using Serif products for the last 10 years I currently use Pageplus X9, Drawplus X8 and Photoplus X8.  I am tempted by the Affinity range but have a few questions before hand.

Hello there. My name is Florian.
I'm a programmer trying to make something else than just code and looks like Designer caught my attention and snared me into making stuff and maybe work on honing some art skills?
I was shown Designer by a friend and to be honest, the artboard (and the ease of access to someone who has very old and basic Illustrator skills) was the seller feature and now I'm trying to take a better bite at the tool to get myself doing some drawings/mockups. Actually, drawing stuff is pretty fun, who knew?
Have a nice day!

The beauty about customisable keys is you fit it to how you want it to be but basic functions are Undo, Redo, Hand, Brush, Brush size + Brush size -, Pen, Erase (unless you can use the other end of the stylus as an eraser) Zoom in and out.

Just a little suggestion for betas... It would be nice if all betas from now could have a Beta sign in their icon as there was for the early betas of publisher... it helps easily recognizing them in the dock... 

Hi all,
May name is Dan and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.
I am 77 years old and have been in the computer industry as an electrical and software engineer since the beginning of the personal computer age.
It is a pleasure to find a vector AND raster graphic program at an affordable price. I just downloaded Affinity Designer today and look forward to many productive hours.
I use Affinity Designer on an iMac Pro (2017) 8 Core 3.2 GHz Intel Xeon W running macOS Mojave. The system has 64 GB RAM, 4TB SSD, Radeon Pro Vega 56 8 GM Graphics & 27-inch (5120 x 2880) display.
Best Regards,
Dan C.

Hello Matt, my name is Sam, I have been in graphic design and full web development for 19 years.
I am from Tijuana, Mexico, and a happy member of this forum.
I have all the Affinity design programs (Designer, Photo and Publisher), and I could not be more excited about the Affinity toolkit.
In my home office, we are a team of 3, as you can all imagine,  it was a lot of money for the monthly subscription to the company "A", so I bought the Affinity licenses for the 3 of us.
Thanks to Serif, we are a much more productive creative team.
By the way, I am 55 years old and Affinity returned me to the enthusiasm of my way back 30s

Empty/ half full/ half empty: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=wineglass+svg&t=osx&iax=images&ia=images

I couldn't disagree more with this..
You're right that as a graphics designer you don't need instant access to Publishing tools. However, it's very common for people who work with graphics to both have pixel and vector graphics in their art. I know that it's possible to jump between Photo and Designer via the file menu, but this takes time since the document have to close and re-open in the other app.
Since the release of Publisher I open up all my Design/Photo documents in Publisher since that gives me access StudioLink all pixel and vector tools. (When opening in Publisher I of course choose not to convert artboards to spreads, since I want to keep the document as is). After I'm done and want to export my different artboards and slices, I have to jump into Designer or Photo to do this, since the Export Persona is missing in Publisher. I can understand that the ExportPersona is missing in Publisher, since you normally don't work with artboards/slices in here and therefore don't need the option be setup different export-settings per slice/artboard. But since we don't have the ExportPersona in Publisher I really think there's a strong argument to implement StudioLink to Photo and Designer.

Why give publishers better tools for working with mixed pixel/vector graphics than actual graphical artists? I really don't see the logic in this..

Hi Royk -  I've used Adobe Illustrator for over 20 years for basic graphic design layout.  My last Illustrator upgrade was the release of CS6, so I'm not familiar with any of the *new* features of anything past that.  My preferred method for working with Illustrator is a 28" monitor, a keyboard, and a small Wacom tablet.  
I've recently purchased Affinity Designer and would say that it will do everything I've ever done with Illustrator.  I have it on a Surface Pro 6 AND on an iPad Pro.  Not the 12", but the next size down.  In general:
Surface Pro:  you can use keyboard shortcuts!  Of course if you take the keyboard off the Surface Pro, that's gone      If you want, you can hook up the Surface Pro to a larger monitor.  The drawing space is pretty good sized, and you can hide all the tools and just draw.  But then, you either have to call up all the tools again to change colors, or have a keyboard (there's the keyboard again!) shortcut to make a particular tool reappear.  And this is why I've got my Surface Pro hooked up to a larger monitor and a keyboard.  The new Surface Pro 6 pen is really nice to draw with.  It has a nice feel against the glass (I've since purchased a second one for my Surface Pro 3).  
iPad:  the drawing area is quite large because of the icon-based tools.  And there is a *?* at the lower right hand corner of the screen that, when pressed, will display a small description of ALL the tools.  Very handy.  Many of the drawing options rely on hand gestures.  For example, two fingers down and, using the pen, click on something.  That's great if you've got the iPad sitting on something.  If you've got it on your lap and are holding it with one hand, all of a sudden you've got a balancing act going on.  The iPad pen is also really nice to draw with.  It feels good against the surface.  There are differences between the two platforms, and it can be a bit fussy when moving between the two.  Since the 1.7 upgrade, it seems the icons have gotten smaller and darker.  Maybe its just me?
Since I'm retired now and don't have reason to "finish" anything for a client, I don't know what sort of capabilities there are for exporting/printing, etc. a file from Designer.  I do know that the current file system for the iPad would drive me to the madhouse is a short period of time.  I think if you do need to go back and forth between the two that OneDrive would be your best bet.  Easy to access from a Windows machine, and the iPad's very limited filing system.  The newest OS from Apple is supposed to address an improved file system in the future.  We can only hope.
Personally, if I had to run my business solely using an iPad Pro, I'd have to think twice.  It is a powerful little tablet, but I think the screen size would eventually wear on me.  I'm a happy camper with dual 4K monitors, so you may wish to take my comment with a grain of salt    
However, the iPad is a whole lot of fun to draw with; I'm having fun with it.  And it is lightweight.  
And now that I've completely confused the issue, I'll sign off . . . 

1: No. You just get a lesser version of your picture than if you fully process them in Photo first.
2: No.
3: No. Other than the fact that we can open them and it would be more trouble to write code which would prevent that from happening without screwing up other import functions.
Further to number 2 Photo can develop the RAW format, Publisher can just display the image and there can be some work done on it but Photo is much better. 

Although Affinity Photo has the capability to read and develop raw files as one-offs or for smaller projects, at this time it’s really not the best tool for developing volume projects full of raw images. This may change in the future.
As explained by some of their support team, here is why.
You will be well served for the time being if you investigate raw workflow tools such as RawTherapee or darktable. (darktable is written in all lower caps and as one word even if used as the first word in a sentence.)
To learn more about how to use the Develop persona to develop your raw files, watch this video:
 

Short answer, no.
You can save presets while you work on the first image and then apply those to the subsequent RAW files BUT there is no way to automate any of this. In my opinion this is a major deficiency and I honestly don't know why it can not be implemented. Also once you 'develop' the RAW file you can't export as a batch until you save the file. Then you can batch process them to your hearts content.

Thanks.
I'm on the east coast of the USA. I was thinking that this forum had users all around the world (55 views so far) but I guess it just takes longer to get an answer than I anticipated. 

It will probably take years (at least one or probably even two or maybe three) before we reach 2.0 (if we look at the current development speed). 
For me it’s not that important to reach 2.0 as soon as possible. I do not want them to adopt the insane version numbers of Firefox or Chrome. 
It’s better to take it rather slow, but do it proper instead. 

Ok guys, lets step down a bit here. As I wrote before, I am also looking for ebup export. However, I feel we are loosing it with complaints in this subforum. The beta is out for 2 days. Different people have totally different requests and feel that their favourite features are missing. Lets not forget that building indesign or any of the other tools out there also happened in a long process and not all features were there right from the start. In other words: if it was that easy to s?*t out a fully fledged InDesign competitor, we would have many of such tools already.
However, it would be great to get some kind of idea (roadmap or so) on what you Affinity guys are going to focus in the near future. Integration with the other 2 apps? Import/export of Adobe formats for compatibility? Export function such as html or epub? That could help users a lot to make an informed decision when switching to Publisher is a realistic option in their particular situation.

Not sure where to post this "encouraging word" but I have purchased and have begun using Publisher in earnest this week. My subscription with Adobe runs to August 29, so I determined that after the release of Publisher I would take the plunge. In two words ... very pleased. Not that I am surprised. I used PhotoPlus for years and only gave it up when going to Mac. I have had Designer and Photo for quite a while but Publisher was what I was really waiting for. So now I need to break away from my comfort zone, so I am doing this week's study sheets with Studio  . My typical weekly work is study sheets for lessons I give on Sundays. I am a pastor of a small church in a small town in western Illinois in the U.S. If you are unfamiliar with Illinois, we are located about halfway across the country; we are about 25 miles east of the Mississippi River. I usually have a four-page, two-column, illustrated handout in color each week. I expected Affinity Publisher to be good and it has exceeded my expectations ... but again having used Serif PhotoPlus, I should not be at all surprised. Okay, now back to work as Sunday is coming. If anyone is interested in seeing my work - and I am not presuming you are - but if you are, here is a link. You can find the study sheets uploaded on our blog as PDFs. Here is last week's post: http://blog.faithfellowship.info/?p=5859

Hi there.
I'm Paul, a 58 year old who has spent 40 years working in a profession that's about as far from photography as it's possible to get. I've lived in Essex, UK, since 1999 - though I'm originally from 250 mile, or so, NW of there (Manchester) but have also spent years living in Newcastle upon Tyne and Perth (the Scottish one).
Photography has been my main hobby since I hot my teens and continues to be so. I'm still a very active film photographer - though I also shoot plenty of digital (I see no reason to have to choose one over the other). I'm not remotely tecchie - though I've worked out how to scan negatives and work on them in LRCC. PS is very much an unknown quantity, save for some fairly rudimentary techniques.  I'll probably keep with the Adobe subscription for a couple of months until I've come to terms with Photo a bit.
I recently purchased Publisher as I'm thinking about putting together some "zines" based on some of the subjects I've photographed over the past years. I joined the Beta about a fortnight before the full version went live, so the discount was much appreciated.  I've just downloaded the trial version of Photo.  It looks fairly daunting - being more akin to PS than LRCC - but that's not really a bad thing as I should be able to approach it with no real legacy of having to re-learn Photo from an extensive legacy of using PS.
My main concern is that I'll miss the way in which I've been able to import and file / back up folders in LRCC but, again, I'll be able to build new libraries with, hopefully, a more logical approach than I have at present.
I'm sure I'll ask some very fundamental and (probably) stupid questions as both Publisher and Photo are very new to me.  Please bear with me, as my lack of understanding isn't intentional.  I will check out the excellent YouTube tutorials Affinity has produced to find answers - but I'm not great at understanding the tech-talk and I also find it hard to follow a tiny mouse across a demo screen whilst also listening to the expert explain the what and the how.  I'm a bloke. Multi-tasking is not strong with me....!
Anyway, enough about me for now. I'm really looking forward to using the Affinity products and interacting with the community here. All the best.