JDW

Can we please do away with the annoying YouTube video that clutters up this entire thread? I also don't see how this benefits Mac users. It seems to be a roundabout "solution" via Windows printer driver?

A lot of talk in this thread, but I do NOT see an EASY SOLUTION that seems to work well for everyone. "File > Print Booklet..." in InDesign works perfectly and has since the days when that feature was but a mere plugin. Indeed, without that feature I would say InDesign is useless. As such, I would not use Affinity Publisher without a dedicated, easy-to-use feature that is similar to Print Booklet. I hope Serif is reading this thread. I've not see a single post by them in this thread, so perhaps they don't care? Seriously, a missing Print Booklet feature is a showstopper in my booklet. Thanks.

I just downloaded 1.7.0.145 and tested. No improvement to the lag issue. It happens on most tools, including the Artistic Text Tool . Select that tool, then click and drag on your page. You see a letter A being drawn with a blue outline and black fill. The fill lags behind the blue outline as you drag to make it bigger and smaller. I'm not suggesting this is a showstopper bug, but it looks very tacky and tarnishes the feel of your otherwise excellent app. If you cannot fix this, then I suggest you add a preference setting to turn off object fill or content display (i.e., "draw outline only"), which is what InDesign does. I'm not saying InDesign is better. I am just saying that the lag may bother some people so you should try to fix it and if you can't then allow us to disable the root cause of the problem (realtime display of the fill/content). Thanks.

It's very noticeable. If it wasn't, I would never have mentioned it. No need to just take my word for it. I created a screencast for you here (unlisted on YouTube):

Understood. Thanks.

You're right. The Move tool solves the problem. Even so, I'd love to see the CMD key enable easier text box selection for click-and-drag while the text tool is still selected. That would be easier than having to slick on the very edge of the box.

Affinity Photo can open Photoshop PSD files, but Affinity Designer cannot open Illustrator AI files that do not have PDF content. So I wonder if they really could open raw InDesign formats. Where there's a will there's always a way. But is there a will? We shall see!

I can confirm Affinity Publisher does NOT import InDesign files now. It would be quite amazing and a big juicy worm in that sea of Adobe-worshipping fish if Publisher could accomplish that feat! The only thing I see that Publisher can do though is import PDFs (single or multi-page).

Using the Vector Crop Tool is nice, but it would be nicer if I could invoke that cropping functionality by way of a mere key press. For example, let's say I have the Move Tool (black arrow) selected and there is an Ellipse object on the page. If you click-and-drag that Ellipse you move it around on the page. And if you press Option and click-and-drag, you get a copy, as expected. But I also see that you get a copy when pressing the Command key too, which is uncommon. I would suggest you use the Command key to instead invoke Vector Crop. You need not use Command to copy an object since Option already serves that purpose. Thanks.

In Affinity Designer, I can easily move a text box simply by clicking once, holding down my mouse and dragging. Not so with Affinity Publisher. When I try that, it merely puts the cursor inside to edit text! Yes, I am aware I can move text objects in Publisher by clicking precisely on the box edge, but that's not easy sometimes. If you deliberately put that selection behavior in Publisher for a good reason, then regardless of that reason I would suggest you allow me to press-and-hold the Command key so I can click-and-drag text boxes with ease (without putting the cursor inside the text box for editing). This applies to Table Text as well. Thanks.

I just downloaded Publisher and am testing it on my late 2015 5K iMac (top end model with all the BTO bells and whistles). When I click any of the blue tools (Rectangle, Ellipse, Rounded Rectangle, or Triangle) and then proceed to click and draw to sketch the object on the page, the gray fill of the object being draw lags behind my arrow cursor while it is being drawn. For example, as I draw out to the right to expand its size, there's a white gap between the gray fill and the object edges at right. And as I draw left and inward to shrink its size, the gray fill overflows the right edges of the object. If you sketch the object very, very slowly, there are no issues with the gray fill of your object being drawn. But if you sketch your object quickly (which is normal speed for me), you will see the problem with the fill very clearly. Is this by design or a bug? Not a big issue perhaps, but I mention it since the app is still in Beta.

Sure you “can.” It’s all a matter of will. Besides, you already broke your own rule by telling us about linked files in the first place because it is still an unreleased feature!!! Just because other companies refuse to divulge details about upcoming features doesn’t mean you have to. I assure you that the world will not suddenly end because you talked in more detail about “linked files“ in more detail with in this forum. I doubt that even 100 people would even see it in this thread anyway. Providing extra tidbits of information to loyal fans of your software always works out to be a good thing, not a bad thing. But simply saying that linked files are a “forthcoming feature“ really isn’t a useful tidbit in that it something we already know.

Thank you for the guidance. Problem solved! (And thanks to toltec below too.)

I guess I need to read the documentation when I have more time because I don't understand what you mean. For truly, when I have the Preferences dialog open and the Shortcuts showing, the only way to access "Miscellaneous" is to click the popup in the upper left and choose Miscellaneous, which presents me with 6 buttons that say "Reset Fills, Reset Brushes, etc." Again, I need to read the documentation because I don't follow. Specifically, there is no "Set Fill in Black and White." Here is all I see:

Thank you for the help, but I require a little more. How exactly do we ADD new keyboard shortcuts? I have Affinity Photo open and that Preferences page open, but I see no easy way to add new ones. You'd think there'd be an "Add" or "+" button somewhere! It's probably so obviously I cannot see it, but the fact is, I cannot see it! Thanks.

Matt, as you can see, I posted that question back in July 2015 and no one gave me the courtesy of a reply. I am enthusiastic about the Affinity apps, which is why I bought both of them. But I must say I don't use them very much because of unanswered questions and unimplemented features that I deem important. I even bought both of their books! I would be overjoyed if things could change though, not only for my own personal benefit, but for the benefit of every Affinity app user worldwide. Don't let this hold you back from asking questions in this forum though. Serif needs a pounding (a cordial and intelligent pounding, of course) to get the ball rolling in the right direction. If they want to capture more customers from Adobe the solution really is simple. All they have to do is start answering questions from Adobe users and implementing their feature requests. And I'm of the strong opinion that it shouldn't take 3 or more years to do that. Best wishes!

Serif, are you listening? Should it take 3 years? (Answer: of course not.) So please take 3 hours to code it in for us. Surely that is all it would take an experienced programmer.

Mike, as per your own catch phrase, I shall "train" you... When someone speaks positively about a feature like I did, the probability they actually use that feature is quite high! :-) It doesn't matter if Illustrator's PDF format is "not the best." When you've used that feature for years without a single hiccup why do something else that unnecessarily complicates the workflow? As stated in my previous post, saving to an Illustrator file, then generating a PDF, then when changes are needed... edit the Illustrator file, save it, generate the PDF again -- it's all rather tedious and ridiculous, especially when you have hundreds of PDFs on a local server merely being used by people in an office to print. That's why I think Affinity Designer would benefit by adding that feature, UNLESS AD's Export Preset "PDF (for export)" is provided for that purpose (about which you did not comment). And that is precisely why I have not yet submitted a Feature Request because I am awaiting a reply from someone knowledgeable at Serif who knows the answer to that exact question. Thanks.

It should be obvious by reading my query that I do use that feature, and I will continue use it regardless of whether other people use it or not. How do I use it? I create a large number of PDF files and place them on a local server for employees to merely double-click and print (people who have no design ability at all). I then can edit them as the need arises. No need to keep the original Illustrator file in that case. Keeping the original Illustrator file, editing it, saving it, and then creating another PDF is a ridiculous amount of extra work that is totally unnecessary and completely eliminated by that excellent feature. That's why it exists and that is why I use it. No doubt I am not alone. And in this usage case, it does not matter at all if the resulting PDF file size becomes a bit bigger as a result.

Why is it that Affinity Designer does not have the same setting as Illustrator when exporting a PDF? Or is that what AD's Export Preset "PDF (for export)" accomplishes?

For now it's easier to use Illustrator because Serif still doesn't give us that most basic of all functionality. In illustrator it's a laughably easy two-step process: 1. Select the box tool and then click once on the page so a dialog box appears that allows you to set the exact width and height you want. 2. Go to the appropriate menu and simply place your crop marks. There's a preference setting that lets you choose if you want Japanese crop marks or not. It's that easy. It should be that easy in Affinity Designer. Here's yet another way to do it in Illustrator: https://youtu.be/9-R8NT5nNtM

The only reason I can see that Serif is NOT yet catering to users of Adobe apps as much as they should be (in terms of filling much needed feature requests that would enable the bulk of Adobe users to finally make the switch) is that Serif is juggling too many balls at once. They apparently are trying to kick out the equivalent of InDesign (a publishing app), and as we saw at WWDC, they've clearly spent a lot of time on iOS apps too. I think it's great they are trying to be a complete replacement for Adobe, and even exceeded Adobe in terms of being the first company to come out with a really decent iOS app -- seriously, Affinity Photo on iPad is shockingly good and doesn't foolishly dummy down the feature set like just about every other iOS app out there does. But at the same time, there are still many Adobe users on the fence waiting. Once Serif has committed itself to kicking out the feature requests of Adobe users in this forum, they will surely see a tsunami wave of switchers, happy to rid themselves of that hated Adobe subscription model once and for all. With that said, today's news said this... "Adobe Systems Inc (ADBE.O) reported a profit that topped market expectations for the ninth straight quarter on strong subscriber growth..." I simply cannot believe that growth includes "happy customers." I think it includes people who feel "there's no better option right now." Serif needs to continue to work hard on making its software "the better option." And for some people, it is right now.

Thanks, MEB. You answered my question perfectly!

I watched the Apple WWDC keynote and found AP for iPad amazing. Nothing else on iOS compares! While watching your video tutorials today, I paid close attention to object removal. Please jump to 1:57 in the following tutorial video: Notice how the woman is nicely removed but the left-corner edge of that L-shaped gutter has vanished and looks very wrong. In Photoshop there is a Clone Stamp Tool that helps one to manually fix things like that (restoring content beneath a removed object). Is there an equivalent Clone Stamp Tool in Affinity Photo for iPad? INPAINTING is very easy to use and is a good tool in many situations but not all. In the specific case of removing that woman, a clone stamp tool used by hand would make the removal nearly undetectable and allow you to retain the content shown between her arms. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm happy to oblige.