Quarian

Incidentally, since Resolve Lite 11, Nuke's non-commercial offerings and--after NAB2015--BlackMagic Design's Fusion 7 for the Mac are all available, I'm honestly wondering if Apple's not planning to do to Motion what they did to Aperture. Either that or fold Motion into FCP as an internal component. They might just be waiting to work out H.265 for editing...and, yeah, you'd need a Mac Pro--or a fully-pimped out MBP or iMac--to run H.265 for editing, provided you wanted to do that.

@ChrisP Don't bother. I've been baiting them for awhile now to do a motion graphics software. That dog won't hunt. STILL think it'd be a nice idea, though...

@ rui_mac Freehand IS still sweet. No offense to Designer but Freehand is being used here as a supplement to AD. Running the windows version of MX on the last stable edition of Wine (1.6.2) on 10.7.5. As I've mentioned before, I run a workflow wherein--for some projects--cross-platform capacity is needed. By running FHMX, I can work with DrawPlus (great job on X8, btw) and AD and use FHMX as the intermediary between systems for doing page layout. Scribus is also used but, for reasons of personal comfort, FHMX is the tool of choice over 60% of the time. Wish there had been more books written about FHMX in English at the time.

@ postmadesign You know, until you stated it, I hadn't even considered that Typography will probably be it's own persona (in Publisher) given that personas are the very paradigm upon which Affinity's software operates. VERY interesting thought, indeed. @ Achim63 Basic typographic features are necessary for most applications, but how often--for example--would you encounter needing copyfitting tools in a photography program? Still, the user model that you and postmadesign present would be, in fact, intriguing. A modular suite wherein you have the option of purchasing only the personas you want? hmmmm.... Or outright buy the kitchen sink...don't know how it would work as a business model but it's nice to think about.

Achim63, I think you may have missed the point. While it is true that Serif/Affinity is VERY responsive to the needs of their user base--moreso, I dare say than MOST of their competitors--this is still a business. Also, while I can appreciate either not wanting to pay for separate software packages (Canvas immediately comes to mind) or wanting an all-in-one solution, there is merit to the separation of disciplines into different packages. My point being that Designer's paradigm appears to be (devs step in here if I'm wrong) Illustration; to this end, Affinity started with a vector package and put in the bitmap persona because so many users--myself included--have started a piece in Illustrator and taken it into Photoshop to finish it to get all the special effects into it that Illustrator didn't have. Also, they added a drawing/sketching mode to the software. And--to put the cherry on top--as any Fireworks and/or Sketch user will tell you, it's best to work in vector with your web graphics and export to larger sizes. Designer is mainly there for Illustration. The featureset that comprises Photo is one that would be attractive to a photographer without completely alienating the illustration crowd that creates their pieces by using existing photos and/or digital imagery as a base. As a photographer myself, believe me when I tell you that you wouldn't want to put the Develop persona in a software like Designer. This is also why, I think, that the Liquefy ("Liquify"?) persona is included in photo. The devs said a while back that the featureset in Photo was going to concentrate on a photographer's workflow to include retouching and color correction. Just as the userbase has requested features in Designer that are being held for Publisher with good reason. Your Illustration software should NOT completely cross over to where it's a layout software (think about the differences between the open source software packages Scribus and Inkscape). The multipage layout feature, comprehensive text editing and formatting, and pre-press capabilities SHOULD be in Publisher. In other words: Designer = illustration specialists Photo = photographers and 3D conceptualists Publisher = Layout and production artists Also, in closing, I ask you to look at the following point: If Adobe hadn't moved forward with their subscription plan, how much would it have cost for each corresponding software to Affinity's offerings? As it is--with the subscription plan--each one alone would average about $20.00/month which comes to $240/year USD. Affinity is charging $50.00, period, per package. Granted, I don't know how much they are charging in Europe, but I would hope that the pricing at least puts Affinity within reach of a fair amount of users. As I said at the beginning, it is a business.

r10k, I would agree about using Fusion except that Fusion requires a powerful video card and I was able to get Affinity Designer working on a 2007 Macbook with 64MB of VRAM on an old Intel 950 IGP and an old 2006 MacBook Pro with 128MB of VRAM. The "free" part works; it's just that part of the user base Serif is targeting is not ALWAYS going to necessarily have that type of Mac that you would need to run Fusion. Natron works via the CPU and, therefore, is closer for use on older hardware. You get an "A" for effort, though...

Postmadesign, I'm waiting impatiently for Affinity Publisher. As I have stated before in this forum, for Affinity Publisher to be taken seriously as a Publishing tool in 2015 and going forward, IMHO, it must accomplish four of the following seven tasks: 1. It must output solid PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3 and PDF/X-4 compliant files for high-end printing. 2. It must be possible to introduce PMS colors (among other palettes) into it's workflow. 3. It must be able to export some form of interactive PDF (if not, see #4 and #6) 4. It must be able to export ePUB 3 inclusive of the fixed layout properties. 5. It must get to the point that printers will accept ".afpublisher" files if variable data printing calls for it. 6. It must export .ibooks. (This last would make it INDISPENSABLE on the Mac) with the ability to import HTML widgets and Collada files. (Okay, now I'm just reaching...) 7. It must import .IDML files just as Designer imports .AI and .PSD files

Using inkscape and importing the trace back into Designer. It works! By the way, Potrace is the open source tracing engine that is included in Inkscape. Glad to see someone made a Mac-native version.

Incidentally, I just put up a post not long ago where alternatives to After Effects were mentioned from a Mac-friendly and cost-effective standpoint. Ronnie McBride recently did a tutorial on using Designer with Motion. Following in his footsteps, I posted one about moving your assets from AD to Blender (and, yeah, unfortunately...that is me). Currently, I'm trying to shakedown two pieces of open source 'ware that definitely show some promise. One is Natron (if you're looking for the open source version of After Effects, this IS it...ironically, it has the same interface as Nuke) and the other is called ShotCut. ShotCut is a very capable editor/player with a deceptively simple interface. It doesn't do any compositing, but is very nice companion for Blender and Natron. I've been able to export files from both Designer and Photo and use them in motion graphics experiments in Natron with no problem. Hope this helps.

I didn't know where else to put this topic so I figured "Feature Requests" was as good a place as any. I just recently answered a question helping a user move his AD assets to After Effects and felt the overdue need to post this statement: Just remember one thing....Affinity Designer is NOT Illustrator and Affinity Photo is NOT Photoshop. All of the functionality that Adobe put in most of their products was simply to make the user buy more than one of it's products. "Release to Layers" was put there so that they could sell Flash and AE to Illustrator users (and the inverse is also true). "Smart Objects" was created to increase sales of Photoshop and Illustrator for InDesign and GoLive users (not to mention that Adobe was in bed with whomever owned Maya at the time; there were video tutorials at the time that have long since vanished about using Maya with Photoshop and smart objects to dynamically adjust content in InDesign and GoLive). The point is that there are certain features that Adobe popularized in their products that are NOT ever likely to be included in Designer and Photo because they are ADOBE features. Smart Objects: STOP asking the devs if "Smart Objects" will ever be included in Affinity Designer or Photo. While I do understand the question (like many of you, I also have a ton of work previously done in AI and/or PS that may/may not have utilized Smart Objects), it's time to realize that Adobe left us behind and we chose to move on with Affinity. Designer most likely (unless the devs are working on something I don't know about) will never have "Smart Objects." That being said, it DOES have Embedded Document Editing for artwork created in Designer. Release to Layers: This was a feature that Adobe hijacked from Macromedia Freehand when they acquired Macromedia over 10 years ago. It was originally created to move animation-ready artwork from Freehand to Flash. Adobe used it to move artwork from Illustrator to Flash and After Effects. Affinity--from what has been stated on this forum--is not looking to create animation/motion graphics software (although, personally, I think this is a mistake...but have to respect their position. NOT video editing--motion graphics). Therefore, those of you who can, I suggest looking into Motion, HitFilm, or--an open source newcomer with an interface similar to Nuke--Natron (http://natron.inria.fr). Ronnie McBride has already put up a tutorial on moving assets to Motion from AD. I can testify that the same technique he used--AD to PNG ("Selected without background")--works just as well on HitFilm and Natron. I have used both. You may have to now animate the assets yourselves, but they work. In the old days BEFORE Release to Layers/Smart Objects, the user base would have had to come up with workarounds. I am, unfortunately, old enough to remember when Path Text was not part of Illustrator. How did one make it happen? They studied their tools and came up with new ways how to use them. Adobe has spoiled everyone and, in doing so, made it harder for some designers and users to detach themselves from Adobe's teet. The artists will find workarounds...everyone else may just be an "adobe user." The ONLY way I understand the situation if you HAVE to continue using the Adobe product is if--truthfully--there is no (reasonably priced) equivalent/alternative, then you're stuck. Thank You For Your Time.

1. Okay, you're on the right track with doing the CMYK to RGB conversion right off the bat. An easier way to go--if you don't need the artwork for print as well--might be to create for RGB up front. 2a. According to this chart: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/kb/supported-file-formats-effects-cs4.html you should be able import .eps files. If that turns out to be "only Illustrator-exported eps files" and Adobe didn't say it, try this: - Export a pdf from AD that contains ONLY vectors, no drop shadows, patterns, gradients or any effects that are likely to be rasterized in the conversion to PDF. - Import that PDF into After Effects. The vector data should be interpreted in AE and open up like an AI file. There is a possibility of color change, so keep an eye out for that. - According to that link I posted earlier, the "continuous rasterization" should activate automatically for that image. Continuous rasterization is an AE feature that allows for the continuous anti-aliasing of vector files imported into AE so that you keep smooth edges while animating. 2b. IF exporting a PDF out of AD fails to work importing into AE, do what I do when working in Motion, HitFilm or Natron--export from AD as PNG files (drop background; export only selected object and export at 200% or larger if you anticipate changing the size of your image in the process of animation). 3. "Release to Layers" is a feature that Adobe hijacked from Freehand (orignally used in tandem with Flash) when they bought Macromedia back in 2005 and put it in Illustrator for use in After Effects. Other than Freehand and Illustrator, I'm not aware of another software that has that capability. A workaround might be to do what had to be done in the old days before Illustrator had it, which was to export each layer individually. 4. Consider working in Motion ($50 on the Mac App Store) or Natron (Free; open-source; downloadable from http://natron.inria.fr) which has an interface similar to Nuke but is still in its infancy. It's only been out of beta for about 4-5 months but has a LOT of potential.

Make it three... Until AP is ready (honestly, I sometimes wonder what else you need to do), I'm using PL32, too. I got onto PL32 literally two weeks before you guys dropped the beta of AP and the only reason I would want to stay on it is because I use both Macs and PCs and there is no AP for Windows. There are a lot of times that I have to go back and forth on both systems to get work done and I'm trying to kick Adobe in their big, red "A"; that said, on my Macs at least, PL32 has largely gone unused these days in favor of Photo.

Here's a tutorial on how to export vectors from AD and import them into Blender 3D. It assumes that the viewer has some knowledge of Blender, so the narrator sticks to the topic at hand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHSmNrfhcJ4 There are several tutorials across the web teaching the basics of Blender. As a matter of fact, someone started a site over the weekend for that very purpose... http://www.blenderhub.com

Thank you for clarfying that. I, among others, was worried that Affinity might become a brand of another entity after everyone notices how successful it is becoming. Like the poster up above, I'd figured Adobe and Corel (at minimum) would be throwing offers your way...which is not to say that they aren't (Adobe to kill it; Corel to add it). The developers on the Affinity project have shown many of us an honesty and responsiveness that doesn't seem to exist in much larger entities that they have earned our loyalty. Keep creating software with such integrity...and we will keep supporting you.

In reference to my earlier post, here are two links that may help if you decide to use Scribus. This is the basics of bringing a csv file into Scribus as a table (please ignore all the python code unless, of course, you are a programmer): http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Create_tables_out_of_csv_data This will help you create styles for formatting the table: http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Help:Manual_Styles Hope this helps.

Despite what may be stated on the internet, ALL properties of the current PSD specification are NOT available to programmers without making an arrangement for licensing from Adobe. (This is apparent in the fact that the current open version of the PDF specification in never inclusive of whatever is in the current version of Acrobat Pro.) This CAN result in Flattened PSD files upon import to (or export from) certain software packages without the implementation of backwards compatibility. Only the most basic of Photoshop features has been implemented in the open version of the spec to insure compatibility with versions such as 3.0 to around CS2. If you read the PSD specification, a LOT of it is code that was implemented between Photoshop 3.0 and CS1 (8.0). People using the GIMP have complained about it's export interpretation of PSD files for years. Technically--by spec--they might be PSD files but the way they're written upon export may be the problem. "You may get there, but the path you take may change who you are by the time you arrive." Just an observation...

May I suggest the open source layout and design application Scribus for your task? Affinity Designer and Scribus use the same color management system and Scribus will have most of the typographic features that Publisher will have once it comes out of alpha. It's the vehicle I'm currently using in conjunction with AD. Hope this helps.

Retrograde...thanks, hope you'll get some use out of it. Never use only one tool for everything...If you have access to different tools that each do one or two things well (ESPECIALLY if they happen to be open source), use them all together. "How many times do I have to tell ye...the right tool for the right job!" - Montgomery Scott

HumanByDesign, I'm working on a project wherein I'm trying to use ONLY non-Adobe software in the creation of a visual. In order to achieve the vector tracing from a picture file, I used Inkscape. Inkscape has a VERY powerful and oft-overlooked tracing engine built into it (it's an open source engine called "Potrace," I believe) and is my go to whenever a trace is needed. I find it to be easier to manipulate than the tracer built into Illustrator and yields a superior product. Up until a couple of days ago, I was uncertain that the output from Potrace would reliably open in Designer. Happy to report that the PDFs and the SVG files opened well (use the latest AD beta...as of this writing, 2/16/15). Hope this helps.

Hi Andy, Figured I'd re-post just to report that the ".raw" files from my Panasonic Lumix FZ30 and FZ50 are successfully opening in the updated beta. ".arw" files from the Sony Alpha A300 and ".mrw" files from my Minolta Maxxum 5D are working as well. Again, thank you. Can't wait to see what else you guys have got up your sleeves.

Honestly, Andy, I can't pretend to speak for the rest of the people who are now Affinity users...but, for one, find the above statement refreshing in that you and Serif have enough integrity to make the aforementioned statement and apologize. I've been around long enough to remember the '90's and how a certain Adobe rival in layout and publishing used to respond to their user base with boldly unapologetic chants of "just buy the next version" when questioned for workarounds and/or troubleshooting techniques. The big red "A" got into it with Apple when they released CS5/5.5 and it crashed on Lion and Mountain Lion. They ultimately offered fixes but nobody actually apologized. Redmond gets away with it all of the time. I'd put up my input about the raw files from my cameras to help you guys build a better product, not to browbeat you. It's. A. BETA. Last time I looked, that is the purpose of beta testing. To paraphrase Henry Cabot Henhouse III, we knew the job was dangerous when we took it. We're just grateful that you guys came out with Designer and Photo (excuse me, a little drool spilled out of the corner of my mouth in anticipation of Publisher) when we needed you to...right after the big red "A" abandoned us and decided to put a gun to our heads in the name of corporate greed. Wow. You apologized. The mere fact of your willingness to apologize makes me realize one thing...as long as you guys are making the software, I'll be buying/supporting/using it and urging as many others to take a look at your offerings as much as possible. There would be only one thing we would ask in return. Never sell to anyone who will not maintain the integrity you have shown us today. And ESPECIALLY NOT to them. And if you have to ask who "they" are, I've mentioned them at least three times in this posting. "Keep doing it to it." My cameras and I are right here waiting with $50.00. Tim Cook should be proud. Right now, the Affinity brand is one of the only things keeping me from going completely over to the dark side. Thank YOU wholeheartedly for your time and immense effort. Now, where'd I leave that 2006 MacBook Pro...

OK. If you can get it open in a browser, you can print pages to PDF on any Mac. Acrobat Pro used to have the ability to do a web capture of an entire site and save it as multipage PDF as well...haven't tried it in years. Just my $0.02.

For the moment at least, I can attest that raw files from the following cameras don't open in Affinity Photo: .ARW files from my Sony Alpha A300 .MRW files from a Minolta Maxxum (Dynax) 5D .RAW files from Panasonic Lumix FZ30 and FZ50 cameras Not worried...just waiting for everything to catch up. It is understood that this is a beta. We waited for the advancements to be made in Designer, we can wait for this. I'm under the assumption that a lot of and/or some Canon and Nikon Raw files are opening simply because they are the cameras said to be favored by most professional photographers. Therefore allowing for the most common factors for testing purposes.

@ronniemcbride I am using Hitfilm 3 currently. It was a bit buggy, but FXHome came out wih their second update and it straightened a whole lot of things out. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that since their original release--with which there were problems running HitFilm 3 on Macs (you can go to HitFilm's forum for more on this)--I'd taken to running HitFilm 3 on my PC and running HitFilm 2 Ultimate on my Macs. Having said that, I haven't tried running Update #2 on the Mac, but--judging from the forum feedback--it appears to be encouraging. Having said ALL that, HitFilm in and of itself is a joy to work with. I don't find the interface as intimidating as After Effects and I would say that the only sacrifice is that HitFilm doesn't have expressions (mathematical programmability). The particle system is great; so is the ability to load 3D models...as long as you understand the limitations.

Just my $0.02...if you want to know the ABSOLUTE, rock-bottom Mac you can run Affinity on, I've got a 2006 Macbook Pro (MA609LL) with 4GB (3GB actual) of RAM and an ATI X1600 128MB VRAM that been maxed out to 10.7.5 (Lion was the last OS these Macs would handle) running Affinity Designer fine. AND Although I recently gave this one away, I did get Affinity Designer running on a 2007 Macbook (MB061LL/B) 4GB (3GB) of RAM with an Intel x3100 Integrated Graphics Processor (one of the ones that pulls up to 144MB of its VRAM from main memory). Again, maxed the OS to Lion (10.7.5) and Designer was running great. It WAS a bit slow on certain tasks, but it ran great.