Oatmeal

2.4 didn't change or fix this  and am still using the .template workaround.

Thanks. that is a better workaround
 

You can simplify that by making .aftemplate files of the sizes/orientations you need, and adding the folder in as a Template folder.

such a waste of time if you work with different aspect ration presets.
the only workaround I can think of is to create a folder, fill it with blank *.afphoto files at the resolutions and orientations you want. Then make a copy of the one you want before opening it to start your work.  What they've built now is simply incompetent.

I see this was not addressed in v2.2
This is... aggravating.

Thanks. Hopefully, it is addressed. It's gone past annoying that I must flip that stupid toggle every time I want to create a new document from a preset that isn't in the same portrait or landscape aspect ratio as the previous image I created.

Thanks. Hopefully, it is addressed. It's gone past annoying that I must flip that stupid toggle every time I want to create a new document from a preset that isn't in the same portrait or landscape aspect ratio as the previous image I created.

sigh... not included in the 2.1 update.  Does no one switch between landscape and portrait images enough to complain about this?  Is there a feature or setting I've not discovered that fixes this?

sigh... not included in the 2.1 update.  Does no one switch between landscape and portrait images enough to complain about this?  Is there a feature or setting I've not discovered that fixes this?

Hopefully this has been seen and will be address because this is really annoying for my workflow. 

+1 and may I add this: the preview is unsuable. Please see short movie:

ADExport.mp4    

The file type selection is very easy to miss. The v1 design, while large, was simple to use when switching export files types. 

The file type selection is very easy to miss. The v1 design, while large, was simple to use when switching export files types. 

The file type selection is very easy to miss. The v1 design, while large, was simple to use when switching export files types. 

They can create a second preset and label it differently.
The  button can stay, but default the the preset orientation to what was originally created when selecting presets or revisiting the form. 
I have a preset for a landscape image and one for a portrait image. The way it is now I have to click that orientation button in addition to the preset every time I switch between them. Even if I've closed the program.
Defeats the purpose of a preset. 

They can create a second preset and label it differently.
The  button can stay, but default the the preset orientation to what was originally created when selecting presets or revisiting the form. 
I have a preset for a landscape image and one for a portrait image. The way it is now I have to click that orientation button in addition to the preset every time I switch between them. Even if I've closed the program.
Defeats the purpose of a preset. 

Solved it with this solution:
 

I was able to get this working on windows. I'm not certain, but think the culprit was a failed windows update. I'm using windows 11, but while poking around affinity config files, I noticed a property for the .net version. I remembered that I had a repeated failed windows update for .net. I had to delete the update cache and run them again. After they completed, the file saving went back to normal for all affinity programs.

To check if this is your issue, open the start menu, type "check for updates", and hit enter. if you have a failed update either there on for "Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8..." you may be in the same boat.

Here are the possible steps to getting repeated failed updates working. https://windows101tricks.com/windows-11-update-failed/

I'm having this issue for the entire affinity suite on windows. I suspect an update either of affinity software or windows is responsible. I have not seen this at all until recently.

I'm having this issue now.  Possibly caused by a windows update?
I create a new designer file but get the error when I try to save it.  A file is kinda created but it is actually corrupted (or not completely created) and cannot be opened.
 
I can open previously created files, change them and save them.  So I'm just copying old files, renaming them, opening them, deleting all layers and resizing as needed to get around this issue.
 
Windows 11, Affinity Designer. all latest editions.

UPDATE: After days of clicking frantically away, I am now able to save the native .afphoto and .afdesign files without the "Save failed because access to the file was lost" error.
 
Steps done in Designer:
- Open a new document (I put some shapes into the document)
- Save as .aftemplate file (I saved to the Desktop and the file was created and written no problem)
- Closed the application
- reopened the .aftemplate file I created in Designer
- save as .afdesign
The error did not reoccur and the native .afdesign file was created and written. Now the error is not showing up on any new document that I create and save for both Designer and Photo.
I am no expert so I can not explain why this works or if it is a permanent solution but it worked for me. Hope this helps and I hope the devs can shed some more light on this.

The general cause of color banding is not enough available color variations for smooth, undetectable transitions from one to the next. Typically, this is caused by too low a bit depth, which can be corrected by changing the document's color format from 8 bit to 16 bit. However, this will greatly increase the size of the file & may not always be necessary or desirable. As explained here, working in a wide gamut color space spreads out the steps between colors in different ways depending on rendering intent, so just changing rendering intent may produce acceptable results without resorting to 16 bit color, but this will depend on the range of colors actually present in the document.

In File > Document Setup > Color tab, what does it show for Color Format? If RGB/8, does changing to RGB/16 make any difference?

Going through the trial and some suggestions based on the previous image editing software I used.
1. Make tabs on tab bar smaller.  Currently one image takes up entire tab bar and it is divided evenly as more are added
2. add right-click context menu when clicking on a tab to add "Close All", "Close All But This", "Close Images To The Right", "Close Images To The Right" and "New Image"
3. When closing multiple images, allow the user to close all without saving
4. Default an image to 100% if it is smaller than the current workspace, otherwise zoom to fit.  Make this a user-selectable preference in settings.  So default zoom to 1:1 and Zoom to fit, or Zoom to fit
5. Why is export a two step process, any way to make it one step that we can assign a shortcut key too?  Same with the image resize dialog.  want to just type the dimensions and press enter.  currently have to press enter a second time to make the change.
6. To assist migrating users, have keyboard shortcut profiles to match their old software?  So if a user is coming from Photoshop, Corel PaintShop Pro or elsewhere, make it so users can easily taylor shortcuts to their muscle memory.
 
 
Still looking to find a few things like if there's a way to crop the image to selection and is there a way to paste from clipboard onto the same layer versus creating a new layer.

Hi Oatmeal,
It looks like we're having an issue with Internet Explorer and print previews within Edge.
Leave this with us and we'll get it fixed. Thanks for letting us know; it's much appreciated.
Best Regards,
Adam 🙂