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JDW

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Everything posted by JDW

  1. @Ron P. Rather than waste so much effort getting argumentative with me, I think we would all be best served if you pitch that idea directly to Serif. But to answer your question, I would be able and willing to pay a fair value for Affinity software products if and only if they promise not to move to a subscription model. That’s the key for most people. Subscriptions make sense until you run out of money. That’s why I subscriptions are stupid in the long haul for consumers. And that my friend is precisely why Affinity products even have sales value and is why so many want to ditch Adobe.
  2. Mark, as you can see, this thread hasn't been updated since my last post in 2017. Serif has zero interest in making improvements that pertain to what this thread is about. As such, I shutter to think at just how long you may need to wait for a bug fix! Please try to email Serif directly, and then report back here to let us know if they actually respond. Thanks.
  3. I'm happy to hear it, because that is precisely what I have been trying to do, working here in Japan for a Japanese company. But despite my speaking in native English, my words in this forum are still largely ignored. No action by Serif on this or most of my other feature requests. It's very disappointing. It wouldn't be if I had only yesterday or last week made the request, but many things I have mentioned were years ago. 5 YEARS since the start of this thread! There's no excuse for not having implemented improvements to crop marks in that time. None whatsoever.
  4. Exactly what I have been saying, yet I am largely ignored by Serif. (I've lived continuously here in Japan for more than 25 years.)
  5. It's not a matter of "users thinking their favorite improvements are the most important ones." It's a matter of TIME combined with other people who chime in and agree that would be a major improvement too. I am of the strong opinion that time should slowly but surely bump up feature requests in terms of importance, such that they too ultimately get implemented. A 5 year wait is too long, especially since we are still waiting. I have yet to engage Serif in a conversation here in the forums about my feature requests. And yet, I engage the developers of other software products in their forums all the time. For example, Blocs is a web design app that I use, and I engage the developer, Norm, every few days. And since Serif is not the size of Adobe, it cannot be said "Serif is too big to care on that level." Prior to that, I used SoftPress Freeway, and I engaged the developers constantly, including the very engineers who wrote the program code. I also am on beta lists of various apps, which takes feedback to a whole different level. So it's not just me, some random guy on the internet, who posts a feature request last week and then gets upset it isn't yet implemented. I am a realist, but at the same time, I am aware that Serif really doesn't put a lot of effort into implementing significantly meaningful feature improvements that would have persuasive impact on Adobe app users. Rather than make excuses for the way things are, I'd like to see a more proactive approach on the part of Serif to engage people about features in the forum and start implementing old feature requests that have a lot of user support. Only that is going to make a difference in the mind of many users. Simply telling us about "the way things are" isn't reassuring at all.
  6. I reject that defense of the status quo insofar as my original post on the topic was July 2015. It is now almost April 2020. They've had plenty of time, and the fact they don't glean good ideas from us in the forum is a serious fault, not something worthy of defending. Some of the best software companies actually listen to their users and prove that by participating in forums. Serif merely has shown they actually don't listen to anyone other than their own inner circle of engineers and marketing managers. No wonder so many still stupidly pay for that Adobe subscription. Affinity apps still aren't appealing enough for those users to make the move over. It's terribly unfortunate, and I am not going to hide that sentiment, even if it ruffles some feathers here. The truth needs to be said in hopes that feathers at Serif will finally get ruffled enough that they'll start to see the importance of listening to our opinions and acting on them.
  7. But one thing you overlook is the power of the consumer. Apple is a success today only because the consumer has chosen to direct their money toward Apple. At those times when consumers withdrew their funding, products died. The G4 Cube was an amazing machine and I own two of them, yet it failed in the market. And that failure was not tied to bad engineering choices. It really wasn't when you consider that we Mac users buy Macs for different reasons than PC users buy Windows PCs. It all boiled down to what VALUE the consumer perceived in the product. I believe those Mac-loving consumers were wrong, just as you believe folks such as myself are wrong when we advise Serif a certain way and get the cold shoulder. I believe the G4 Cube is a wonderful machine that was greatly misunderstood. But what ultimately will work or fail in the market is not something completely controlled by Apple or by Serif. That success largely depends on what ALL buyers of Apple products or Serif software decides as a group. In some ways, you are like me back in the day loving the G4 Cube when most other people didn't. Now that's not to say I don't like Affinity apps. I do. But I am pointing out that they are considered to be still lacking key functionality in the minds of some users such as myself, and despite our having tried to point out those lacking areas in the forum through THE YEARS, our efforts to inform Serif appears to have been ignored. You call it a deliberate action on the part of Serif to make a "better choice." But Steve Jobs no doubt thought the design and price point of the G4 Cube was "the better choice" too. The G4 Cube is but one example of many. Apple has not had perfect success with every product as you well know. But they were are still are a much bigger and more diverse company than Serif, so their mistakes did not take down the entire company. If Serif's direction, however noble and righteous you may argue it is, is ultimately not embraced by paying customers, it will then have been done in vain. Even if the consumer is technically wrong, catering to their wants and needs still makes good business sense. It's a fine and delicate balance, but you must create your roadmap with consumer wants in mind. Companies that forget the importance of that across their entire product line never have long term success. And I say all of this wanting Serif to have long term success. Indeed, if I was utterly apathetic toward Affinity apps or even hate them, I would not make all the time I have made to write all these words in this forum, nor would I waste my time with feature requests through the years. I want the apps to become better, even if that deviates a bit from Serif's current plan. Even if some contend "it's not best to make the path easier for Adobe users because there is a better way," I still feel it is right because that potentially brings more paying customers into the fold. The lifeblood of any company is not a noble and righteous goal but filthy lucre. It's a cold, hard reality.
  8. I mean no disrespect whatsoever, but that is the old, tired excuse I've heard over the last few years. We are not talking in terms of "weeks" or "months" but YEARS. I am understanding when months go by and nothing substantial changes, but "years" is an altogether different matter. I appreciate the contributions you've made to this forum, R C-R. Indeed, I have more respect for you than Serif for your tireless efforts in helping others. Even when you could not find a solution for someone, you worked hard to help them find it, as you tried recently with me. With 14k+ posts to your name, you have not only become a very helpful contributor to this forum, for which Serif should be grateful, but you are also very much an apologist for the way things are. I don't say that to slight you, but I mention it only to say that you are a very upbeat and optimistic person. It's only natural someone like yourself would argue for the positives of the Affinity suite as it stands right now. You appear to see the good in all things. I'm afraid I do not. Even so, Serif could restore joy in my soul, should they wish to make a greater effort. You're right. Serif has done "a few things" to make the apps better. And no doubt their work on Affinity Publisher prevented them from making Designer and Photo better. They also have the iOS platform to deal with. I understand that. But those were choices they made. And on some level I think they are important things, especially if one is setting out to replace Adobe apps. You need a full suit of apps to do that. But rather than make further excuses for the status quo, I seek to set a higher standard. I want them to press forward even harder than they have been with Designer and Photo. There are so many great feature requests that have yet to be implemented. If they set their mind to it, they could implement a lot of those improvements which would further drive Adobe users to Serif software. That's good for Serif and great for us as end users. I want Serif to see long term success. And the best way to ensure that is to not only make existing users happy but continue to surprise and thrill them, all the while bringing in new users who stare in awe from the Adobe camp, wondering what all the fuss is about. I want even veteran Adobe app lovers to gasp in disbelief when they use the Affinity suite, crying: "OMG! This is so much better than I thought!" But right now, many Adobe users are still a tad disappointed, not because Affinity apps merely do things a different way, but because they feel some key functionality is missing. Again, that's where those creaky old feature requests come in. They have cob webs on them now they are so old, still waiting for some engineer to take the baton and run until that code is finally implemented. If the top guy at Serif said, "Team, we're going to do this," it would get done. Set a lofty goal. Then do everything possible to blow past that goal. Where there's a will, there's always a way.
  9. That pales in comparison to what Steve Jobs would tell them. I am an old softy in comparison. But they really do need a Steve Jobsian style tongue lashing. NO EXCUSES! I refuse to sympathize with engineers I've never met. I can only judge them by what they deliver and what they don't. Lastly, I absolutely POSITIVELY refuse to "bear in mind how LONG THIS TAKES." This has taken YEARS and still nothing. The more people tell me to be patience, the more upset I become. I've you want to calm me and the rest of the disgruntled users down, you need to start sympathizing with us rather than the engineers you too have never met. And if those engineers wish to defend themselves, the forum is here, waiting for them.
  10. Don't give up so easily. I've been in this forum FOR YEARS and ignored most of that time, yet I stubbornly refuse to give up on Serif. They need a firm kick on the pants, let me tell you. I am one of their biggest fans and biggest critics. The ball is in their court to obliterate all criticism from me and other faithful users. All they need to do is just deliver. They just need to show us they are not only listening but acting on what they hear. We need to see that somebody in their company finally stood up and said to the engineers, "Enough is enough, you idiots! From today, we're going to do something great!" Seriously, they need a Steve Jobsian style tongue lashing from within. I am not an insider so my words have no impact on their company. I can only hope their owner will do the right thing before it's too late. And if the right thing involves a different paid app, so long as it has most of what we've been asking for through the years, I'm fine with it. What I am not fine with is endless waiting in vain. That is just plain stupid. It angers me, actually. Yet, I am still opening to moving forward with them. Yes, you really can be upset with Serif yet support them at the same time. But I can't do it alone. If folks start abandoning Affinity apps, then nothing better will come. So I would encourage you to "fight the good fight" and continue to press forward to speak your might loudly in these forums. Hopefully one day soon, they'll start to listen.
  11. You'll get nothing from Serif. Sometimes the replies in this forum from members with mega-posts to their name can be helpful. But in terms of the feature roadmap, there's little they can do. If Serif would just respond, that's really all we ask. If they came to us and said, we need to charge for an updated version to bring you all you've been requesting, most of us would jump in a heartbeat. But letting the apps languish with minor updates is disheartening to say the least. I came here several years ago in hopes the Affinity suit could unseat Adobe. That isn't going to happen without major feature additions and meaningful updates. And I say all this while still loving my Affinity apps. I just wish Serif could make me love them more.
  12. I assure you, it is not PasteBot. I used CleanMyMac to completely uninstall it and obliterate every last PLIST and hidden file. I then restarted and tested. Same story. When I paste in TextEdit, I only get this: /var/folders/0y/cng7v78s4x15w25qqbkd2yh80000gp/T/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Clipboard.svg
  13. There's a helper app in the Login Items folder that launches PasteBot when I login or reboot, and that is setup only when the "launch at login" checkbox is set in PasteBot preferences. But that helper only launches PasteBot once at login and does not stay in memory, as per Activity Monitor. I can see all the files in CleanMyMac when I try to Uninstall PasteBot. It shows me all files that pertain to PasteBot.
  14. No, PasteBot is a standalone app. Interestingly, all it does is just save everything you copy to the Clipboard. So I could copy text from a web page, then another, then an email, and I could then go to PasteBot and see all three. This is nice because without PasteBot you would overwrite the Clipboard each time. I'm rather surprised only you and I are talking about this. We need others to chime in and share their experiences, especially High Sierra users.
  15. I am located in Japan but my MacOS system UI is set to English. I load PasteBot at startup, but I was sure to quit that app before doing any testing. But even with PasteBot running, the result is the same. And yes, I verified in Activity Monitor that PasteBot was not loaded, so that isn't causing the problem. Seems like it's time for Serif to step in an investigate.
  16. Thank you for the detailed steps, but when I copy your rectangle ("Copy items as SVG" enabled) and then paste in TextEdit, it's just a URL: /var/folders/0y/cng7v78s4x15w25qqbkd2yh80000gp/T/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Clipboard.svg I then went back to AD, and this time I Cut and Pasted within AD, and then I checked the Clipboard in Clipboard Viewer (com.seriflabs.persona.nodes), and it shows: /Users/myusername/Library/Group Containers/6LVTQB9699.com.seriflabs/clipboard/5e300aab And the dyn's in the left sidebar of Clipboard Viewer only show the PLIST code. :-(
  17. I get that too in Clipboard Viewer, but that is only an XML PLIST which contains a path to Clipboard.svg: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <array> <string>/var/folders/0y/cng7v78s4x15w25qqbkd2yh80000gp/T/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Clipboard.svg</string> </array> </plist> Next I will no doubt hear: "just dig down into that path and open the svg and then you have the code." But I honestly don't want to do that with many different SVGs. I want to be able to copy the code of the SVG within Affinity Designer, not copy a PLIST containing a path -- a PLIST that is only accessible via Clipboard Viewer which won't work under Catalina at all.
  18. At the end of the day, that may be the only conclusion (and what a very sad conclusion it is), but to satisfy you I just downloaded Clipboard Viewer from Apple and compiled it within Xcode 10.1 (I had to suppress warnings to make compile work because it's a 32-bit app), and then launched it alongside Affinity Designer 1.7.3. I then opened a new document in Designer, dragged the YouTube icon to the page (from the Font Awesome assets in my left sidebar), and with the icon on the page selected, I clicked the Edit menu and chose "Copy." I then switched to Clipboard Viewer, clicked Reload, and I could then see com.seriflabs.persona.nodes at left, and when I clicked that, Clipboard Viewer showed me only the path as follows ("General Clipboard" selected in popup, content=81 bytes): /Users/myusername/Library/Group Containers/6LVTQB9699.com.seriflabs/clipboard/5e2fb6fb That proves the CODE of the SVG is NOT being copied. (There is a popup menu item named "Drag Clipboard" which shows com.seriflabs.AssetItem at left, but there is no content.) I then switched back to Designer, and unticked "Copy items as SVG" (disabling it), and then I repeated the copy. Clipboard Viewer shows the following: /Users/myusername/Library/Group Containers/6LVTQB9699.com.seriflabs/clipboard/5e2fb86f And there you have it.
  19. I'm running MacOS High Sierra and Affinity Designer 1.7.3 and I can tell you that regardless of that "Copy items as SVG" preference setting, the text/code of the SVG (which is what I want) is NOT copied to the clipboard. And yes, I confirm that in the Finder via Show Clipboard. I cannot paste the code of my copied SVG into TextWangler, TextEdit, Sublime or any other text editor. If I try to paste into an Outlook email, I get the SVG graphic pasted, not the code of the SVG. I want to copy the CODE! To repeat, I want to click an SVG in Affinity Designer on my High Sierra Mac and copy only the CODE of the SVG such that I can paste that code anywhere as raw text so I can edit that text as I see fit. That's not possible now, with or without that preference setting ticked. And just to let everyone know, I am dragging the individual icons from this asset pack to the page in Affinity Designer and then doing the Copy. Please advise.
  20. I disagree when talking about KEY functionality. I am not talking about ALL functionality. I am talking the basics of what your average PS user would deem important. One need not take my opinion alone as gospel on this. Look what others are saying on that subject in this forum. And that's why Serif needs to consider those voices. It's not about making AP a clone of PS. It's about making AF a tad closer to PS such that PS users can more seamlessly transition to AP without ripping out a lot of already thinning hair.
  21. At the end of the day, you cannot tell experienced Photoshop users to "use Affinity Photo very differently" or "you can't do that in AP" because that will only reinforce in their mind that Photoshop is still better. This is why we have people calling for improvements in AP. For people who never used Adobe apps before, none of this really matters. And even for some Adobe users, they don't care -- they are just happy to be free of the hated subscription model. But MOST PEOPLE will care, hence the best approach is to handle text anti-aliasing as Photoshop does. Then AP becomes a more natural and seamless design environment for the Photoshop user. Eliminating barriers to adoption of Affinity apps should be the primary goal here, not changing user behavior.
  22. Thank you for providing a small number of examples, but I’ve been posting in this forum for YEARS and none of my proposed future requests, despite the many follow-up comments of praise and Likes, have been implemented. It’s not a matter of time. It’s a matter of will. I don’t see the will. Hence my comments.
  23. Sadly, they couldn’t care less about what we say. If they had been listening to us, Adobe would now be scrambling to win market share back from Serif! Serif, please be nice to your paying customers and start implementing our intelligently thought out feature requests starting today! Many requests wouldn’t take you years to code. Most would require only a week to code. Just pause your current plans, implement some of our requests and make us all happy in the process, then proceed as planned. It really is that simple.
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