Vladimir Krstic

It's not a deal-breaker, though I would love to see Designer's interface modernized and streamlined. There are a lot of inputs and buttons available at more than one place, which is a bad UX design(usually). Since those in the main toolbar can be removed or added by the user's preference it makes them better designed, and one to go with.

One is excessive, no?

Hey Sean, Hm, how I didn't saw it until now. 😅 Saw people complaining that alignment isn't working when single object is selected, I haven't experienced that. Still, can't wrap my head around why do we need Alignment buttons on two places? One for single, and one for multiple objects selected? 🧐

Is this a feature or a bug? 🤔 Me no like it whatsoever. While at Tool's control panel I would suggest it to be a panel on its own. Also I'd say that UI/UX is a bit dated, both visually and functionally. I'd love to see a simpler approach, out of a box, a la Sketch, XD Design, Amadine but highly modular. Designer 1.8.3.

I won't comment further.

It's not perfect, or simply you don't like it but it does. Yes, for designers and artists would be perfect. Thing is Serif is making software for the designers. What's a real computer user? What real computer user wants? Once it was CLI. What's a real work? Once it was filling in spreadsheets. Speaking of software development, iPad will get better file management, all the CLIs, IDEs, code editors, etc. It won't be this iPad OS we have right now that will replace mac OS. But one that can be both, as user prefers.

Of course, UI should adapt to the device... or to user's preference since iPad can use both experiences right now. Very soon we will have 27" iPad. macOS will either meet iPad OS halfway or will die out. So if apps want to stay relevant on both platforms will have to have adaptable UX. Right now maybe it's a lot easier for Serif to keep doing things the old way? Developers could tell more? But they will have to provide adaptable UX at some point. I'd say that making a cut sooner is better than later.

So, we have Metal API available on macOS for a few years(Affinity is already using it). With Catalina we got Catalyst, which makes it relatively easy to port iPad apps to macOS and develop them from the same code base. What I've heard it's not as easy as Apple claims(it never is), but I bet it will get better, very soon. Now, we got a full mouse, trackpad, and keyboard support for iPads. A mouse needs a bit of improvement, but trackpad and keyboard are working almost flawlessly. Most importantly, Designer and Photo work pretty decently if we keep in mind that support has been released just recently. Lastly, per various reliable sources, Apple is pushing hard to switch low and mid-range Macs to ARM chips, and it looks like that the first device might even come by the end of this year. With all the above said I think that it's more than evident that Serif should cut "old" mac apps development and focus solely on iPad versions; of course, they will be mac versions as well. Serif will be able with the same resources to deliver new features faster and keep quality higher than it can do now. That will result in more users undoubtedly, which will result in more money. And more money will again allow Serif to expand the team and improve products even faster. It's a win-win situation in my eyes, and I wouldn't wait a day more to make a transition. No point in delivering a single feature update to the "old" Mac apps, it will be just wasted resources. Put current Mac apps in maintenance mode and start porting iPad apps to Mac. What do you guys think?

@wtrmlnjuc Right. I'm just saying that working with vectors with a pencil, on a small screen, possibly can never be that good. Would love Affinity to prove me wrong. What definitely is not good is to modify controls with finger gestures, we need strong keyboard support for that.

@wtrmlnjuc Procreate is using raster graphics so it's kinda natural to draw with a pencil. With vectors you usually want to see pointer presented on a screen and that doesn't work well with a pencil, at least not on small screens.

It works, but the experience is far from stellar. Mouse functionality on the OS level is not that great, the trackpad is much better, but I don't like trackpads for the graphics work. Two things should be Affinity's priority. Alter the pointers. A default one is not suitable for precise drawing. Bring a powerful key-bindings editor. Every panel should have a keyboard shortcut since we are limited to 13" screen, and it's painful to open and close all those panels with a pointer.

With iOS 13.4 that is coming out on 23rd of March iPads will get full mouse and trackpad support. How is Designer looking with keyboard support and can we expect mouse and trackpad support soon?

@Gabe Everything is where it should be now.

@SvS @Jhonatan S Silva Download it again from the site. It's fixed now, won't offer you to update to (1.8.5).

Now keep getting prompt to update from 1.8.2 to 1.8.2(1.8.5). @hwarter yeah, just go with download from the site.

@Meris Should be fixed now, try to update the app regular way. If not download from the site 1.8.2 and copy it in Applications folder.

Oh, okay, that's one way to fix it?

1.8.2 is up on the site for download. Remove old and download new, should work.

@hwarter Yup, same here.

@drippy cat Same issue here.

Looks like 1.8.1 is recognized like 1.8.3 and it won't allow "downgrade" to ...8.2. It's Affinity Store version, macOS 10.15.3.

@Jowday Yeah, I'm starting to worry about Designer's future after this update. In a full year, they brought bug fixes update that is actually more buggy. Looks like developing a Publisher was too much for Serif? I would gladly pay $100 a year(a la Sketch) for the Designer if that would fix all the bugs, and bring some of the most wanted features it lacks compared to the Illustrator.

Thank you, MEB. 😀

For me, boolean operations are almost unusable, things break so often. Files attached. Designer 1.8.1 on macOS 10.15.3. Add Function Fail.afdesign

Toolbar customization reverted to defaults after the update to 1.8 or 1.8.1(not sure when it occurred) Tools and panels looking good, nothing touched. We really need workspace settings to be able to export.