Graphite Addict

@Ron P. I have encountered it several times when using the Space Bar specifically now, I just checked and double checked looking directly at my finger placement on the Space Bar which was dead centre nowhere near the Alt Key. I now really don't know if this is a bug or I need to replace the damn keyboard. I shall assume it's my Keyboard for now, and if I can test it with a different one I will revisit this post and update it. As for an option to disable Alt drag to colour pick, that option would not affect default use and it's an option I could use right now as it's wasted an hour of my work time looking for answers, writing this report and fixing colours.

Thank you for your reply Ron. I'm on Win 10 PC, AD 2.4 here too. I have just this moment discovered it's me accidentally catching the Alt Key, which samples a colour when dragging the mouse. Something which is easily done by accident on this particular keyboard. I should like to disable that particular short-cut, if it is possible, but now that I know why it is happening I might be able to avoid it.

Yes. Professional work is paid work. The tool is seldom as important as the skill of the artisan using it.

I want the Space Bar to invoke the Move Tool and to never invoke the Colour Picker, how to I disable the Colour Picker from appearing when I am using Space Bar to move? I have tried to search the settings and keybinds but Colour Picker is set to the key "i" for India and I am unable to find other setting related to this. Problem: I am experiencing an annoying bug or feature (I am not sure which) where when I use the Space Bar to use the Move Tool it sometimes brings up the Colour Picker instead. This is unpredictable, seemingly random, and totally disrupts my workflow, sometimes inadvertently causing me to change colours. As you might imagine, this can cause major problems on a complex design if the mistake is not caught. EDIT - FIXED: Error was caused by Alt key mousedrag, which is an alternate Colour Picker shortcut that I was accidentally catching on this particular keyboard.

I'm certain this new feature will be useful to someone but now my PNG exports from Designer have muddy, subdued colours! What was the previous default PNG setting prior to 2.4 please? *Edit: Primaries: BT.709 and Transfer Function: BT.709 appear to give me the same colours as I see on screen before export. I am unsure if this was the previous default as I have no idea what either of these settings are and the Affinity Designer Help files do not explain it in a way that someone who didn't already know the answer could decipher* Finding information about the new PNGs online is a circular loop that mostly bring me back here. If the new PNG format is that obscure, having it be the new default was a poor choice.

Another great and useful video, Trent. Cheers. After watching your video and applying the settings in Designer, I too noticed the lack of an "Add Preset" Button. Designer also lacks the option to display an Adjustments window/panel. Strange omissions. I've saved the preset in Photo. The somewhat tedious workaround for the missing Add Preset in Adjustment Layers for Designer, is... File > Edit in Photo > apply the saved B & W Adjustment (30 Red, 90 Yellow, 60 Green, 70 Cyan, 10 Blue, 40 Magenta), then File > Edit in Designer. Or copy and paste across. (adding this as a note for myself as much as anything, but it might help others).

+1 I need blend. I got my only other must have with V2 - vector warp/distort. It is currently a rather flakey beta build quality but I trust the issues with it are a top priority for fixing, just as Serif have fixed newly added features in the past. For some Blend tasks a combination of Power Duplicate and Vector Warp can work as a workaround, I welcome that. However a proper Blend is still required.

As the title suggests, Gradient Fills do not move as expected when the group is warped. In the example - left the original, right a perspective warped copy where the gradients appear locked to their original, pre-warped position.

I believe there are some issues with warp groups at this time, check the bugs section. It's being looked into. I am very happy to have the new Warp feature but they've not quite nailed it on the first attempt. I need to play with it some more to figure out where it could be improved (apart from the strange out of bounds distortion bug that already being tracked).

I like the new look, I liked the old look too. They're both good in my book. Not really having a problem with the change, although I respect the views of those who are if it's causing them problems.

While that might be useful to some, that isn't even remotely close to what we're asking for which is Full control of the installation path. The tool is beholden to the user, not the other way around.

I know the question wasn't directed at me, but no, no, no and again no. And even if the answer were yes, only the last one on the list relates to Windows users - who generally view the Microsoft store with not-unwarranted, even entirely deserved contempt. From the end user perspective taking a thing away, such as user control of installation, that was previously available is a bad move. I appreciate there were factors to why Serif chose the path they did; I'm guessing not having to manage different versions of the same program and all that comes with that is a bonus. The Affinity products are good products, but I feel many Windows users and the some of the competent tech reporters will view UWP only as a strong negative and extremely unprofessional. It's an immediate no-sale for some. Had I known that UWP was the only Windows installer I certainly wouldn't have bothered upgrading immediately if at all. I would not expect Serif to release a proper installer version immediately, but it is something you need to consider with some urgency and if you do make the decision to make one then announce that you are doing it.

I have found the work around. I am currently in the process of writing out all the sets so that it can be added to the FAQ. Persons with protected folders SHOULD NOT be disabling protection. Instead they should be permitting access to the Affinity apps via the method I shall explain. I will edit this comment and add the information necessary to allow access once I have finished working documenting all the necessary steps. UPDATE: How to allow access to controlled folders This explanation is a work in process and is explicitly detailed for beginners. I am working on a quicker method. I will update when I find the quickest way. The same process works for Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and Affinity Publisher 2 (you will just need to run those and follow the same process but select their folders instead) 1. Run Affinity Designer 2 2. Press Ctrl alt del 3. select Task manager 4. on the Processes tab, click the little arrow left of Affinity Designer 2 to expand the program that is running then click Affinity Designer 2 below the larger bit, right click and select open file location 5. In the folder that opens copy folder address from the text box, left click to highlight, right click to copy it will look something like this C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App Your address may be different. 6. Press the Start menu and type settings, open settings (alternatively click the cogwheel icon for settings) 7. Click Update and Security 8. Click Windows Security, it's on the left column 9. Click Virus & threat protection 10. Scroll down to Virus & threat protection settings and click Manage settings 11. Scroll down to Controlled folder access and click Manage Controlled folder access 12. It will say Ransomware protection, under Controller folder access click Allow an app through controlled folder access 13. A User Access Control warning window pop will ask Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device? You should see a shield icon Windows Security Verified Publisher: Microsoft Windows, click Yes 14. You will see Allow an app through controlled folder access, click the box + Add an allowed app, from the menu that pops down select Browse all apps 15. In the Open window paste the address of the app you copied 5 e.g. C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App and press enter NOTE: your address may be different. 16. Select Designer.exe, it the Blue Designer icon (or just Designer if you don't have file extensions shown) then click Open Affinity Designer should now be able to save to Controlled access folders.

I can also confirm. Same problem.

FIXED Scroll to my second post below, with instructions on how to allow access for each Affinity 2 app I am unable to save files because of Windows security settings. This is because you have created a Windows universal app I presume, which was an indescribably annoying thing to do. It might gain you favour with Microsoft but alienate most experienced Windows using professionals. What unnecessary hoops do I have to jump through to be able to now save a file? Edit: It is possible to save on other locations that are not protected folders so I can save on a different drive for example. Protected folders are ones such as Documents and Pictures. While I am at it, let me be probably not the first and not the last to Please request you do a normal installer app and not this Microsoft store packaged type of installer.

Is it okay to shill for hardware though? I mean I've been shilling for Big Pencil for years.

I fear, Old Bruce, your dalliances with AI and the phrases "my parents when they were in their twenties" and "The Lady Killers" might result in some terrible time paradox. Is your last name Wayne? And what are your feelings on bats?

Yep. Apart from that, setting the Corner Tool in Designer to C because I can click the Contour tool on the rare occasions I need it. I am hoping Designer 2 gets Vector Blend and Vector Free transform (plus all the other things everyone else wants, of course). I don't know what to expect from Photo 2, I found Photo 1 confusing with its lack of silver halide emulsion and waiting two hours for Boots the chemist to mess up a perfectly good photo shoot. I jest, of course.

My prediction is next Wednesday I shall be rebinding mousewheel to zoom, as is tradition.

https://culturehustle.com/products/freetone might help if it ever does become a problem. It is free and I've downloaded it before Pantone try a cease and desist. I'd suggest anyone else do so should they be concerned.

+1 Using both mouse buttons simultaneously for this operation is big no-no & bio-mechanically awkward. Allow us to rebind everything and anything, job done. I'd then have just about every Node Tool operation on a single letter key.

Also saved me a bunch of time after having hunted around trying to find a way to clear all styles to no avail. Cheers. Had the same issue in Affinity Designer. Selecting the text frame, either in the layers panel or by clicking on it with the move tool (black arrow) and using the above method fixed it. Feedback at Serif, if you're reading: maybe add an obvious Clear Style option on the edit menu below Create Style. Like most people, I read menus from the top to the bottom. An enigmatic Defaults option sitting in the edit menu above create style is not a option one would instinctively take. After all, it might reset something I don't want resetting.

👎 Nope. TL;DR: Some useful tools but user unfriendly It's in free beta on Windows (free to Trial on Mac) and here is my experience of it at time of writing on Windows. It is powerful and has some features which Designer is missing but it is also unintuitive to use. It took me a while to even find where the keybinds were hidden (Shift+Alt+Ctrl+K) or from the menu bar at the top (View>Customize>Keyboard Shortcuts). I could not find a way to set mouse binds. It has keybinds set to the Option key in the Windows (this means Alt). The alt keybinds still work. The "Help" redirects to a browser page and some of those "Help" pages direct to dead links. The "Help" pages that go somewhere aren't always all that helpful. Time wasted learning the weirdness of VectorStyler is better spent learning how to use the features Designer has or using the forum search feature for workarounds.

Here is an example of why it would be useful to be able to re-sync or Revert back to the original Symbol in the same place without having to copy over a new one. Use multiple instances of a Symbol to create an organic pattern. e.g. Leaves of a tree or Raindrops on a window or Some crosshatching pattern or whatever Tweak a few by turning off Sync to give the pattern some natural variance. After tweaking several Symbols, you decide one of them would look better as it was before. (you might not even discover this until much later on) That pattern doesn't have suitable objects or a specific thing for the replacement Symbol to Snap to. I am aware you can set branches in the Undo history, but that gets in the way of the work flow and wastes time. You have to plan for accidents before they happen. I plan for accidents with frequent Save As copies throughout the various steps of the process. ProjectFilename001, ProjectFilename002, ProjectFilename003, and so on. Re-sync is a feature I would find useful. I am not certain if the effort involved in setting up the feature is worthwhile over and above more needed features like Blend and Envelope distorts, but I am certain I would use it. I use symbols a lot.

@dominikThis workaround just saved me a lot of time. Thank you very much. While is not a perfect solution for everyone and it's a good enough placeholder for me right now.