chessboard

That's right. Therefore this sticker sheet was the very first project I really used the Affintiy Suite for. Aside the two points I mentioned in the first comment, it all worked quite well, so far. For other projects I still stick to Photoshop and Illustrator, not least because I have to share data with the art directors and editors at the publishing house. But that's a different problem. Oh, yes! There're some things in Photoshop and Illustrator that are missing some inner logic, that seem (or indeed are) kind of flanged on and that make me also grumble about. The more it would be an advantage if Serif brushes up it's UI-Design and reduce the need for workarounds and make some of the functionallity more visible in the GUI.

😉 I knew, this point would come up. But it's not Affinty Photo's core functions for image editing or Designer's core functions for vector editing, I meant. For me there's no logic behind establishing links and showing linked layers in the layer palette solely in Photo, while this is feature that at least Designer could also use. It's not a function, that makes exclusively sense in a photo editor. So, at least there could be the little chain icon in Designer and Publisher, to show that some layers are linked. Of course sharing one file format is a big advantage of Affintiy's concept. I never denied this. All I say is, that the UI isn't ready yet and you often need more clicks than necessary to check or adjust things. "Is this layer hidden in print?" -> Leave Publisher, go to Designer, go to Export Persona, scroll layer panel and check layer. Then back to Publisher again. Isn't it comprehensible that a small icon, or even better a button, in the layer palette in ALL apps would directly show what's going on? As I said, this may be no problem when done only a few times. When it has to be done over and over again, it's just annoying. Of course your job is fun. Mine too, otherwise I won't do it as a freelance illustrator for about 24 years now. You can even call it "profession", if that sounds better for you. The point is, that you don't have always time to "take the adventure" and explore your tools. Sometimes you just want to use them straightforward and not upside down. Exploring a software is fun, when you have time. It's a nuisance, when you have a deadline to meet. I have no problem with new software. I had no problem to learn blender or ZBrush, whereby both are criticized for having a terrible GUI. But I can see the inner logic in both programs. In the Affinty suite it's not all logical. Some features are accessible in all apps, while they don't make too much sense (multi-page in Photo or Designer, for example. That's not their task.), while other features like linked layers are just accessible in one app, though they make great sense in the other both. You can't deny that it's common in a publishing program to use layers only for layout and not to include them in print, which is why you set them to "non-printing". Nothing really special. But you have to switch to the photo editor or the vector editor to adjust the layer visibility for printing. Not really logical. BTW: I do know Ulano Film 😉. I used it for a semester project due to the absence of a color printer to colour parts of my design.

Not mine. I refered to @loukash, who called it this way in an other thread, where he managed to bring the link panels up in Publisher and Designer. I have no time to look for such things. I want the functions to be clearly visible where they are needed. Using software is no hobby of mine, it's my job. Maybe a way in some cases. But why not in Publisher directly? Workarounds, as much as they are appreciated, are no answer to missing functions. You see the problem? In the end I need three open apps to handle one document, just because some functions are accessible in only one of them, though all apps support them. All apps can handle linked layers, and only Photo let you link layers. All apps can export into other formats, but only two can exclude layers from export. This switching between apps may be no problem, when it's done once or twice. But when you need to switch 40, 60 or 80 times to access some funcions (which come together fast, when you have to deal with 20 and more stickers), it becomes really annoying. Well, that's really interesting. Since when can Designer handle multi-page documents and how do I make a mulit-page document in Designer? Another hidden feature, that obviously only shows up in special cases. Same as the link panels, that are obviously there in all apps, but you can't show them up in Publisher or Designer via the usual ways. I'm sorry to say so, but the UI-Design of the Affinity apps really needs some brushing up. Now enough for that.

Would be possible, if I was working in Designer solely. But for the reason to switch quickly between Publisher, Designer und Photo (which is essential because only Photo offers linked layers, while only Designer offers a Contour Tool and Publisher is needed for other reasons), I was working in Publisher. And there's no export persona in Publisher nor in the personas for Designer or Photo. And Designer reads only the first page of a Publisher file, so no way either. As for many other functions it would be much easier to have just the option to exclude layers from export and printing. Especially for a software for print design, what publisher is, this is rather a core functionality. No need for workarounds, just the direct way, would be nice. It's not too helpful to allways have to go through the backyard first and then crawl through the basement window, just to get into the house. The great advantage for my sticker project was, that I could handle the outlines, the bleed mask, the placing and the illustration in one software. But even when it was the best workflow for this kind of project so far, it was a lot of switching between the personas. It is not really comprehensible, why Designer and Publisher are missing the link panel (no I didn't get it to be shown, even while looking for easter eggs 😉) and why there's no export persona in Publisher. BTW: Linking the fill parameters in Photo works only for one colour fills. Gradients are not linked. And linking line style parameters links only one outline, even when the other object has mutiple outlines. Why? You're right here. My fault. I was too hasty and read the menu just until "customize toolbar" first. So I take back the criticism on this point.

Oh, yes. It's a little bit strange. At first I looked in Publisher, which I am working most time with, and I'm sure there was only "View->customize toolbar" (thus the toolbar at the top of the window). I could only adjust the icons at the top bar. I then switched to the Designer Persona and there was actually "View->customize tools", where I could switch the toolbar at the left to a two row design. Same in the Photo-Persona. Back in Publisher Persona suddenly the tools at the left were also two rows, and the menu was now called "View->customize tools".😶 I would really appreciate if there were not so many easter-eggs hidden in the apps. 😏 Still searching for the link panels in Publisher and Designer Persona. When I link two layers in Photo Persona the link icon (small chains) only appears in the layer palette in the Photo Persona, not in the other two personas. Just checked it in the last Beta of AD for Windows. The chains are also not displayed in the Layers palette.

Yes, you spoke about the easter-egg, but I didn't manage to let the link-panel appear. Will try the current Beta tomorrow. Does it stay when you got it or do you have to use the "happy accidents" each time the apps are startet new? There seem to be some points different between the platforms. I see you have a tool palette with two rows. I can't get it to work like that on Windows

After grumbling so often, I'd also like to offer some praise for Affinty Apps. For a die cut sheet with stickers for kids, I had to create several illustrations, taking into account the die cut outline and an additional bleed of 5mm all around. Working together, the three Affinity apps provided the most flexible workflow here. Using the new links in AP, I connected one path with the die-cutting contour to another path, which in turn was extended outward by 5mm using the contour tool and served as a layer mask for the actual illustration. The illustrations were drawn in separate files for each sticker and importet as linked images. So they could be rotated at will without losing the ability to edit them in the correct orientation in the paint program. I packed everything together into a group and was thus able to distribute the individual stickers wonderfully on the sheet and rotate them as needed. If the shape of the cutting outline had to be adjusted, that was no problem because the mask was linked to the path for the cutting outline. I did all the work in Publisher, because of the ability to switch easily between all three apps inside of Publisher. This all worked really well and provided enough flexibility to quickly adjust the die-cutting contour, inclusive the bleed, and to rearange the stickers on the sheet after some correction requests by the publisher (the client). In comparison to other apps the Affinity apps brought the most advanced workflow in this case. And while I was working in Publisher, I could duplicate the sticker sheed and adjust the visiblity of the die-cutting contour on the second page by selecting same fill and stroke, to export just the pure illustration for printing as TIFF (PSD had some issues). This was an really advanced workflow compared to my older one using a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator. So, a big "Thank you, Serif" at this occassion. In the end I would only wish, that the link panel would be accessible in all three Affintiy apps. This would make things a lot easier. And it would be nice to have the abillity to disable layers from export and printing without making them invisible on screen.

Thanks, @walt.farrell. That's right. But I knew both things, and you must admit that arranging windows by hand is not the optimal way. Windows has always offered the possibility to distribute and split subwindows as desired. The fact that you still have to do this manually in the apps is suboptimal and not up to date. Any office program can do this. When rotating the drawing area, it is quite annoying to always have to put the pen down to rotate the drawing area via mouse or keys. In addition, the display quality is again rather suboptimal compared to many other programs. Everything is so frizzy when rotated, if you understand what I mean. There are also completely different display standards nowadays, especially if you use the graphics card. Look how Photoshop, Photoline or Clip Studio Paint handle this. But @Pšenda is right so far, and I don't want to hitchhike this thread further, when it is regarded this way.

You're welcome. I won't do it anymore.

That's surly true, that Corona has a lot of impact on the devolping pace. But things are much older, AD is now 7 years old. And I don't think that the critics here are directly addressed to the people at Serif in person. But when you are in a business as a company you have to deal with expectations and critics. What makes me somewhat frustrated regarding Affinity (as a product) is, that it had such a good start with fresh ideas and a for a number 1 version really good feature base. I was so lucky to have a realtime gradient tool and realtime changing of colours! Their layer stacking system with masking by the parent layer is the best of all apps I have used so far. And the idea to let the whole suite share one file format is unbeatable, as well as the integration of Photo and Designer into Publisher. This all were signs of a bright future 😉. But somehow they (and here come people and their decisions into play) lost the track in my opinion. Instead of tackling the features most desired by users, an app store is installed and integrated into the apps. Apparently, every software must have its own app store these days (wah!). In my eyes a waste of devellopers manpower, because it wasn't a problem to buy additional accessories via the Affintiy website before. And once you have bought your 3 or 5 brush packages there's no more use for the feature in the apps. They won't generate more money by this integrated app store. But they could have done by a really powerfull paid upgrade! An app store would be a feature of version 5 or later. They bring a contour tool that doesn't offer any possibilities that weren't there before. You can shift the outline of a shape, not more. It's not even a real contour tool, because the original outline is lost, so the shifted one contours nothing anymore. All of that was possible before by using normal outlines and expanding them to shapes, and this even with multipe outlines! You can have multiple documents open in tabs, but you can't arange two designs side by side (at least on Windows). You can rotate your design, but only by keys in defined steps and with what kind of visual quality! They have an export persona, where you can adjust layer visibility for export, but only global and not for each slice. They bring makros, but just crippled ones and only for one app of the suite. They bring linked layers (ingenious!), but only for Photo (at least practically). And so on. Not to speak of missing features. And these are aspects, where I thought: "...err,...but why?🤷‍♂️". By now Afinity offers some good rudimental tools for handcrafting designs. But when I use a computer I would expect the software to automate tasks, so that I don't have to do them by hand over and over again. For me, Affinity looks like a young eagle, that started to fly and "conquer his empire", and now is more a kind of flapping around. And you stand aside a shout: "Fly, bird! Fly!"

I didn't mean to critize your work and your motivation, I hope it didn't sound that way. I see your animatable image of the bird as a really creative solution. Keep on! In the end we all have the same goal - Affintiy becoming a real competitor.

That's all nice and dandy, and I appreceate your skills and creativity to find workarounds. No kidding! But nevertheless that's only practical when you have just a few (say 4 groups max) that get an outline this way. If you have many groups of this kind, it grows into a massive overhead of shapes/objects, groups and at last - work. The need to find an easter-egg aside 😉. And what's about multiple outlines for a group, for example. (All this is no problem in some other "frustrating" apps 😉) It would be much, much easier if the asked for feature would be implemented. Serif must not get away with letting users find workarounds, some of which are impractically elaborate. Otherwise, their software will not improve. And to make it clear another time: I know that this would cost money. My money as a customer. But I will happily pay for a powerful workhorse. What makes me sceptical here is the fact, that many requests for essential features are years old. (Therefore "must not get away".)

If they (will?) do it right, you could choose any language that's capable to comunicate with the respective scripting host of your OS. You can write Apple Scripts in Apple Script or JavaScript, on Windows you can script with VBScript, JavaScript or Python, for example. Photoline for example is scriptable(!) and can be addressed by any scripting engine that the Windows Scripting Host supports. BTW, it's developed by just two guys!

Now, what's your point? Affinity isn't for demanding tasks? Well, then stop crying about "Schmadobe" and "Ill-Frustrator". At least they deliver. In my opinion Affintiy/Serif has just two ways they could go: either go really big and power the software up for high demanding tasks, or stay in the niche as a software for the SoHo-Business. As for now they are just a dog pissing at an dinosaurs (Adobe's) leg. But the hype arround a new kid on the block doesn't hold for ever. The longer it takes for Affinity to get on par with Adobe, the less attention they'll get. And in the end they will end up where their predecessors (DrawPlus etc.) were.

Ok, I now deinstalled Publisher V 1.9.2 and reinstalled V 1.9.1. Now it works again. Seems to be a bug in 1.9.2 for Windows.

You're talking about version 1.9.3.(?) I can't see this version anywhere, not even as beta. I now restored the App-Data (by removing the old and starting with a blank Affinity-Folder in App-Data), but this makes no difference. Same with deinstalling and reinstalling the programs. Still no automatic update of modified files, though the resource manager detects them always.

Ah, yes - you're right. Didn't see it there at first. But nevertheless the problem is still there: the files are marked as "modified", but they aren't updated automatically.

I tested now with Photoshop and Illustrator. Both recognize the changed files and update them automatically. Same with Photoline. A while ago this worked in all Affinty Programs, too. But it's some weeks ago I needed this and thus I think it changed after doing the update to 1.9.2.

I just checked it: in the resource manager in Publisher the file is actually marked as "modified". But I have to manually update it. There's no resource manager in AP and AD, where I could check this too, right? The images a renderings from blender and a saved on the same drive as the Affintiy documents, but in a different folder.

Thanks! But this was already activated. And it doesn't change anything if I turn it on or off. I forgot to specify that I use the Windows-Version and the placed images are PNGs (I updated this info above now). Perhaps it's only a problem with this plattform?

Hello, linked images aren't updated automatically anymore here in all three Affintiy Programs in Version 1.9.2 (Windows). I placed an PNG-image in all three apps with "link"-Option activated during import. But there is now no message as before when the image has been changed externally and updated automatically in the Affinity programs and the images aren't reloaded. Is there a new way to turn auto-update of linked images on and off? Thank's for advice.

Yes! And when doing this please overhaul makros in general. All features, tools, menus - in general all steps of a workflow should be recordable, including selection tools. It should be possible to rearrange the order of steps, record new steps inside of a makro after a certain step, delete steps, assign Hotkeys to makros and a coloured button mode would be nice.

Right. And that's why I am not using AD in my daily work, but other softwares that can do the job without workarounds. I don't stick to any software just because of sympathy or even deeper emotions. But I don't think, that "take it or leave it" should be the motto of any software publisher. Making customers leave (or never come "aboard") can't be a company's goal. Too much emotion in this in my opinion. I have never "loved" any software nor felt like a fan. I've been working with Freehand since the mid 90's, but I never saw where it was so much superior to Illustrator. It was more a question of loyalty and aversion (just as with MacOS vs. Windows), not really featurebased. I had no big problems to switch over to Illustrator without really missing things. Unlike today, where I miss too much to switch entirely to AD. Yes, inheritance (of the lock) makes things sometimes a little bit more complicate. But I don't see a need to lock all 99 siblings to work with a special layer in a group. You can still select a locked group on the canvas in Illustrator via the context menu and delock it. Than just isolate the group and you can work with any of its objects without a need to lock the others. Leave the isolation mode afterwards and lock the group again. That can all be done on the canvas and by menus. You even don't need to go into the layer panel. No point for Affinity's concept here. But to close the discussion here, I see that you also see the need for more options to lock a layer in AD. That's all what the "moaners" want to.

Why use workarounds when there could be a direct way? All discussions here are about tools. Tools should lead to working straight ahead, not thinking about solutions to problems caused by the tools. I am not a slave to my tools, I am not whining. I am just criticizing an incomplete workflow or concept here - as a customer. Because I would like to see the Affintiy Suite grow and become better. I work for publishers and have to live with the critics of the art directors. Most times they are right and my work get's better when I hear to their critics. Basically, I have no problem with evolving software. And I understand that there is a concept behind the way layer locking is designed in Affitiy software. But since this concept is obviously not thought through to the end or complete, I would like to see Affinity do some tweaking here. They could provide a second option to fully lock a layer or they could modify the existing one. Doing things differently does not mean doing them better in every case. There are reasons why locking layers is done the way it is in other programs. By the way, Photoshop now has 5 different options for locking a layer, each with its own special purpose. I find this Adobe-hate a bit strange, but this aside. So where's the difference to AD? You can't select a locked object on the canvas in AD either. You have to find it in the layers palette. The problem in AD is the ability to manipulate a locked layer after it has been accidentally selected in the Layers panel, for example because it is part of a group or by selecting a range of layers, for example. Computers are dumb, but they could prevent you from making mistakes.

Sorry, but in my eyes this is too much mumbo-jumbo instead of just making a locked layer fully locked. Why not just respecting the standards users are used to? When I lock a layer, I want it to be protected from any possible manipulation, including accidental deletion. BTW, even if you turn off everything in the Assistant Manager, you can stil paint on a locked but selected pixellayer. Thus this is no protection at all.