kyptanuy

This is a nice option. Affinity Designer should make te move to more online. Not every document made in Affinity Puplisher is ment for printing. Not in my case. Would be a great feature. Thanks for mention this. Add this to the wishes!

Is it possible to implement a power duplicate button on the iPad . In the second video you can see that there is a power duplicate button for the 3d fx on top of the screen . So this must be possible for a quick object duplicate . Would be a really timesaver 

IMG_9542.MOV IMG_9547.MOV

Hi everyone, 
I make a calendar every year for my large extended family with all the birthdays and anniversaries printed on their respective dates. I started this custom several years ago, and at that time used Microsoft Publisher 2007 to whip up a calendar template for the year, and then added text boxes with all the holidays and special dates. Needless to say, that was not a very efficient way of doing things... Every year I had to manually move every single text box to the new calendar and make sure they all were more or less lined up and evenly spaced. This year I suddenly realized that I had Affinity Publisher at my disposal! So I went searching about these forums to find out a better, more automated way to publish calendars. A few posts, such as this one on calendar automation, and this one on data merges gave me some guidance in the right direction, and eventually I figured out a way to make a calendar in AfPub using the power of data merge to do the heavy lifting of inputting the dates and the power of text styles to make it all look right. Needless to say, this will save me a lot of time in the future! 
I'm attaching an AfPub template and a sample .csv file. Anyone is welcome to use/customize these if they would like. I'm sure there are more efficient ways of doing things that I might have missed, so I'd appreciate any constructive feedback you might have to offer! Enjoy! 
If you have questions about how (or why) I did something the way I did, feel free to ask! Downloading the samples and running the data merge correctly should give you results that look like this: 

Other resources that were useful:
Ubuntu Font: https://design.ubuntu.com/font/ Affinity Publisher Data Merge Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU98GmaQsFQ Deep Dive Data Merge in Affinity Publisher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wav8wuucZUY 2022-afpub-calendar.csv 2022-afpub-calendar-template.afpub

Sorry,  @walt.farrellI could have sworn there was an option to choose the DPI, but I was wrong. I was probably messing with other software that does offer that option. I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. In any case, it would be nice to be able to have the option to choose dpi/poi when exporting. 
Thank you very much for your attention and help..
 Thank you too @rvst @Old Bruce

There's been a longstanding request in the Publisher v1 forum to add GREP into Text styles. I was excited to see the announcement about v2 but saddened to see this didn't make it in. Since the feature isn't there (yet? ) and since those v1 forums are being archived, I'm bringing the request into this new forum to keep it alive.
For a specific kind of technical document I work with, there are dozens of types of replacements that need to happen on the text in new docs, within one text style. Having the GREP expressions in the style definition makes all of these replacements happen in one click of applying a style, rather than a laborious effort to do them individually.
I understand that this isn't a mainstream feature, but it's so, so helpful to those that need it. Since the engine is already in the software, it seems like it shouldn't be a huge deal to be able to attach GREP search/replace expressions into a text style. I could be wrong, of course, as I'm not a developer. But I (and many others) would very much appreciate this coming in a new update.
 

Hi @jemmalee,
My sincerest apologies for the delayed response here, we are extremely busy following our 1.9 update and working from home is unfortunately extending our response window to be longer than normal, many thanks for your continued patience and understanding here.
Unfortunately as far as I'm aware it's not possible to create or use custom export settings through the Export Persona on the iPad currently, my apologies.
This is something we hope to add in the future to iOS

I want to export numerous slices with bleed and crop marks through export persona but I can’t work out how to create a custom preset with these settings! 
 
I know how to do a custom export through the regular way but it becomes a very long process when exporting 20+ files! 
 
Does anyone know how to do this? 
 
 

. . . that graphic was designed with Affinity and shows how my car looked like back in the 70ties 😎

Currently working on this beast of a piece. 
 
Prelim sketch for reference (all characters yet to be added), and video showing detail.



IMG_4367.MOV

Hi @Aammppaa, it has not been implemented yet. There is a way to achieve what you want by using compounds, the attached was just some artistic text and a rounded rectangle that had no fill. I created the compound by selecting both layers then clicked Intersect while holding the opt/alt key. Select the compound layer and add your outlines in the Appearance Panel, the text remains editable.
There are a few problems in the release version with the booleans, letters A, L & M are affected but it depends on your font. I am using the latest Mac beta 1.8.2.1and it is working well. I believe that it has also been fixed in the latest Windows beta.

Thanks @Murfee this is the best workaround I've seen for now.

I have recently been trying to implement embedded documents into my workflow inside Affinity just like I used to when I used Photoshop regularly as a way to improve performance of my projects. Although I have managed to figure out a workaround to add an embedded layer into my documents so I can start using them to optimise my document performance, I am now starting to notice some big problems with this workflow that prevent it from being viable. Here are the main problems:
1) Any edit done to the embedded layer will automatically update to the main document. This might not sound too bad at first, but with the document sizes I am currently working at, this is a massive headache because it makes it so that the switching quickly between documents is really, really slow. On multiple occassions I have had Affinity freeze for several seconds because the main document has to update every time I switch from the embedded layers. Sometimes it even permanently freezes the entire software and I lose ALL progress I have done inside that document with nothing saved (you can't even save inside the embedded document, which makes this problem even worse).  
2) You can't save inside of the embedded document, as mentioned previously. To me this is a problem, since the current live editing of the embedded layer preview is very, very taxing for my PC and I would vastly prefer it if the main document only updated itself when you saved your progress inside the embedded layer. This would make working with tons of embedded documents a lot more feasible and make sure that performance is consistent across the board.
3) Closing the main document while the embedded document is open freezes Affinity. Been trying it multiple times and I keep getting very consistent results here.
4) Performance is overall quite unstable when I edit an embedded layer for longer sessions. For instance, when I paint I often get random lag spikes and freezes, which is most likely caused by the live editing in the main document. Even with just one layer in the embedded documents the performance can nosedive in an instant, even when you aren't doing anything special.
Here's a video of some of the problems I mentioned.

Desktop 2021.02.13 - 02.24.34.03.mp4 This feature really needs the option to disable the live editing of the main document and allow you to save your progress inside of your embedded document which then updates the main document with the changes. Until this happens the feature simply creates more performance problems than it is actually supposed to solve.

Today, let’s have fun with Gradient Maps…
Gradient Maps are a great way to color grade photos, since they map dark, light, and midtone values according to a pre-defined gradient. This can easily define a “look” for photos that might otherwise be hard to accomplish.
Although I am not a user of Photoshop, our “arch rival” has a wonderful group of gradient maps called “Photographic Toning” that are specifically designed to color grade photos. Although you have to drill down through a few panels and dialog boxes to find them (and you sort of have to know they’re there in the first place) they are a truly nice addition. Also, they are easily obtained by anyone.
But, as they say, there’s the rub. Affinity Photo cannot import Photoshop gradient maps. Affinity Photo can store pre-defined gradients in the Swatches studio, but for some unknown reason the stored gradients are not available from the Gradient Map studio panel. Gradient Maps can be stored as presets, and can be chosen from the Adjustments panel, but I don’t believe they can be easily exported from one computer and brought into a different one.
So… after a long couple of days of transcription, I have created a set of Macros that apply each of the 38 Photographic Toning gradient maps. Since macros are easy to store, and to share, I am making them available for anyone who wants them.
There are actually 2 sets of Macros included - each as an easy-to-import Category from the Library panel. The first group of Macros is called “Photographic Toning Gradients” and these are named according to the gradient map they apply. Each macro creates a Gradient Map layer, applies the appropriate color values, and names the layer according to the gradient map it applied. The second set of macros is called “Photographic Toning Gradients - reduced.” This category also applies the gradient maps in a similar fashion, but then reduces the opacity of the layer to 30%. This reduces the effect of the Gradient Map, and produces a much subtler effect.
Here is an image that shows the full-strength versions of all 38 gradient maps.

And here is a photo to which I’ve applied a full-strength gradient map, and also a reduced-strength gradient map.

These macro categories are included in the ZIP file attached to this post, along with a Letter sized JPG that includes samples of the gradient maps. Also included in the ZIP file is another macro category that includes one more macro. It’s called “Obama Hope Poster” and, as you might have guessed, it turns any photo into an Obama Hope-style poster. Just because…
Please enjoy them!
Photographic Toning Gradient Maps.zip

Hi @kyptanuy
Apologies you're having a bit of trouble.
I've emailed you directly regarding this issue so that we can investigate further.
Thanks for your time,
Adam B

Older request, but I also +1 this. Where it would be very useful is in reducing noise targeted to specific colour channels with both a NR filter and Guassian Blur filter.
I figured it would work just switching to the different channels under master but it doesn't. Say for example I want to affect the red channel only with a blur, and the shadows at that. I create a guassian blur, turn on the red channel preview so I am ONLY seeing red, when I switch to green and blue in the blend range and remove the guassian blur from those channels, it clearly still affects the red and it's as if I never added the adjustment in the first place. Not at all how one would expect the blend range tool to work when working in only one channel: If you choose Red in the blend range, Red should be unaffected by adjusting the blue and green channels.
There is a workaround but it takes a lot of time and effort to do: create greyscale representations of each colour channel, apply NR and blur to each one individually and then rebuild the colour, but blend range is SO CLOSE to doing this in one easy step.
 

I've recently tried to simulate low colour bitdepth in AP using posterize and layer blend ranges.
 
( see this post https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/40899-using-posterize-to-simulate-low-bit-depths-in-ap/ )
 
But I realised I couldn't filter out whole colour channels using the blend option graphs.
 
So the feature that would solve this (and be useful for other things) is the addition of channel filtering check boxes to the blend options panel.
 

 
Then you could selectively turn off channels without effecting other.
 
Thanks
 
Passive :)

I can confirm the sluggishness of 1.10.4 on a windows machine compared to 1.9.2. My machine runs with Windows 10, 32 Gig of RAM, an SSD and an Intel Core i7 notebook processor. I have updated the operating system and the graphics driver for the Intel UHD 620 chip to the latest one (according to the Intel driver and support assistant).
The sluggishness is most prominent when exporting Images with live filter layers, especially clarity to jpg. 1.10.4 would sit there for close to a minute befor the file is written, whereas 1.9.2. takes a few seconds to process the file. If there are no live filter layers, 1.10.4 is fast.
I downgraded to 1.9.2, 1.10.4 is simply a pain in the neck when exporting.

From the first hand from AMD I know they know about this, and working on it but no ETA yet.

Hi AlexanderMac,

This is something that is logged with development to be fixed. In the meantime you could try using a Compound Boolean and then convert to Curves afterwards to see if that helps the situation.

Hi there!
DISCLAIMER: First of all, this is not another "bring the Mesh Warp / Distort Tool right now!" Topic. I'm not asking the Team to give us an estimated time of arival... None of that. It's something different, hinted in the Title.
INTRODUCTION & INTENTIONS
The purpose of this Topic is to share my thoughts and considerations, specially with @MattP, the talent behind this and some other great Features, to keep in mind when developing this. Why? The reasons are simple:
Some of us are more than impatient to have this Feature available. It's been on the Roadmap for so long... Many need this and they are all in into Designer and lefting [Design Application] behind. There are high hopes and so much anticipation. And it's in the Dev Team plans. That's all good, but... is the gap between the Dev Team idea and the users need really been closed, even narrowed? When realeased, will it be what a lot of people are expecting? That's the key point that might turn things ugly here in the Forums.
So, I want to open a relaxed discussion to talk about needs, capabilities and workflow. I will do so by diving the kins of distortions I know in 3:
TYPE ONE
Miscellanous Specific Forms Distortions:
Topic 1: Arc Warp. @TonyB confirmed it will be doable as some other transformations. Said feature works like this for texts (but also for shapes), in Illustrator 2019 and on other Apps like PSE 10:

The other transformations available are this ones. Available on both Apps but they don't work exactly in the same way:

 
Now, the thing about these transformations (and the other Types) are these ones: Control and configuration. They are done through a set of parameters, not through a Mesh like the one in Affinity Photo. so, it's not just that it's doable, but that it's repeatable and done with a degree of presicion. And of course, it has to be editable and resetable, or as it's called nowadays: live. For example, trying to do it through a Mesh is not that great (the red one is done by hand after a lot of struggle, and it's no good):

That's the Arc Warp but imagine this for all kind of options known to man.
TYPE TWO
The next thing is about Perspective, whis is another popular requested feature.
Topic 2. This is really clear as what it has to do. Not just of one object, but for an entire Group, to do a pseudo 3D thing. On this one, DrawPlus does a good job and offers interesting options, like the slider on the Top part, and it gives the sens of working with a 3D object.

The one in Illustrator does its part, but once you transform an object, you can't have the original back, so it's a destructive effect (making this a live feature would be awesome).

If the angles of "rotation" can be in the form of parameters and mouse control, would make it cover all scenarios.
TYPE THREE
The last kind of Distortion people ask for in the forums is the Free Transform.
Topic 3. This is the one that sounds more like the one currently present for bitmaps in Photo or the Envelop Tool in DrawPlus. Personally, this is the least I am interested in, but it has its uses and would make this feature as robust as it can be.

I see there are two variations to this feature:
One with the handles, as seen on the previous pictures. One with "sharp" cornes, without the handles (it's almost like a Perspective Distortion, but I present it like a different one because with a perspective you should be able to maintain the aspect ratio, with this one you can go beyond that). In Illustrator, the Free Distort Effect does this in the "sharp corner" fashion, turning it to semi-curves in some extreme distortions:

As with the previous ones, the ability to reset and edit the effect on already distorted objects, would be gold.
SUMMARY
As I said, when talking about Distortions / Warping, most people have one or more of the three I showed. So, I leave some key points:
Having all of the three types listed above in Designer is the best thing that can happen in this regard to Serif and us the Users. Also, having the ability to reset, edit and have parameters in some of the cases, would provide absolute control (and enjoyment). If the Dev Team implements this one after the other and not all in the initial release, even if it's not desirable, is still a good path. Limiting to one or two of the Three Types "by design" would hurt the product. Very important: I'm not saying "copy this and copy that", I'm just showing examples of the possible use cases for a Tool like this; however it's implemented, as long as it's logical and feels natural, offering all of the capabilities presented, would be perfect. So, citing Matt himself:
I want our products to be good in their own right: It’s not good enough to be better than ‘x’ or ‘y’, you should just be really good and that be the end of the sentence
I expect from you what you have set as your own goal: the best possible Affinity Designer.
Finally, I invite anyone who wants to contribute by bringing examples or something they want for this Feature that I missed.
Best regards!

Hello Affinity team,

In Affinity Designer, I lack the ability to non-destructively deform and warp objects and texts, as I know it from other vector programs. Illustrator has the shape grid and warp option. With the shape grid, all objects and texts can be individually deformed or distorted. With the warping option there are several pre-made shapes to which the objects and texts adapt. With both tools, the objects and texts remain editable so that they can be changed later.
These two functions are very helpful for me when it comes to creative design.

Affinity Photo has the shape grid, but it's unfortunately destructive, so I won't be able to adjust the grid at a later time because it will resolve, which is very annoying. Here, too, I wish for the non-destructive editing option.
In Photoshop, I do this by converting the layer to a Smart Object beforehand. Then almost all types of filters and edits can be called up again and adjusted again.

It would be nice if these functions were available in Affinity Designer to be able to individually deform graphics and texts and adapt them to other objects.

Is there a way to manipulate text as the picture attached in Affinity Designer?

Thanks everybody for clarifying this ...
Just a little suggestion to serif from my side: Since the transformation panel supports absolut and percentage values it would be no hassle to make a difference between entering absolut values for width and hight (300mm original value, duplicate, 290mm new value and CMD/CTRL J each time reduces by these 10mm difference) or relative values (300mm original value, duplicate, "w=w*0,95" "h=h*0,95" or "0.95%" and CMD/CTRL J reduces by a relative value). Even better would be the option to change the radius as a separate parameter to the transform panel ...  instead of each time changing width and hight.

Just my 2 cents ...

The "old model" is clinging to absurd prices for mediocre 2D graphics software as if the "desktop publishing revolution" of the mid-80s is still in bloom. It isn't rocket science anymore. That's another example of Serif's innovation with the Affinity line.
JET

But Mac only. So—to appropriate the claim cited by every forum visitor angrily demanding a specific timeline for any given specific pet feature—"it is of no use to me."
Just as one could do with most any other vector-based program to which one is habituated. For example, those who are really convinced Adobe Illustrator's is the envelope distortion to beat all envelope distortions, can export their paths to Illustrator, warp them, copy them back to Affinity. One could do the same with Canvas, Draw, Inkscape…anything with a reasonable exchange format path for Bezier curves. All as a workaround, of course, until Affinity has its own (hopefully better, more elegant, more innovative) warp feature.
Why bother? Because enduring occasional workarounds gives you the advantage of developing proficiency in other and newer programs, thereby reducing your mission-critical dependency upon a specific software brand and the trauma of making a cold turkey "switch" when the time comes. That's how one avoids—or at least minimizes—falling victim to every machination of a single vendor.
No, that is not practical for every feature and function. One cannot, for example, work around Affinity's infernal overdone bounding-box fixation, because that is something you must deal with the whole time you are working in the program. But more "standalone" functions like distortion effects or (gag me) auto-tracing are quite amenable to a little back-and-forth between separate programs.
Example: Remember the days when a separate utility program called Type Styler was the de facto "standard" for any kind of text warping, before the Big Four had such features?
JET