jmac

"Proprietary software is not ethical." Really!?!?!?! How??? Because someone earns a living from it. Because they don't do all the work and then give it away to you for free?

I don't understand this on several levels. I don't understand your explanation MEB, on a technical level, as to why this occurs but more importantly I don't understand why it should occur at all. I don't mean to compare Designer to Illustrator but this doesn't happen with Illustrator. What is the difference in Designer that causes this? Why should vector objects need antialiasing? In an object produced by a mathematical equation, why isn't the edge of the shape, the edge of the shape? I realize that computer screens are pixel based. Are these lines an on screen anomaly? An annoyance that won't print? To clutter up a document with additional shapes to hide these unwanted lines doesn't seem like a very practical solution to me. Is this something that will be improved in the future?

It seems to me that there is a separate, and possibly larger issue here. The fact that this is apparently a small company, with a dedicated but limited staff, working very hard to get two high quality products to market. They have had to push the Affinity Publisher beta release. It seems very counter productive to do a survey on the present demand for a product you may not even be able to start planning for maybe 2 years. Not to mention committing now, to a Linux version, and then having to listen to people complain about how long it is taking to release it. Nothing kills a company faster than taking on more they they can handle. It's easy from the outside to say "What about this feature? Why haven't you added the ability to do such and such? It's been a year a still nothing! This shouldn't be that hard!". We don't know the difficulties the developers face. The issues they are trying to resolve and those unforeseen they will have to handle. Nothing is impossible for those who don't have to do it. Not long ago neither of these apps existed and they are being expected to live up to programs that have been enhanced and redefined for 20 years. And now they should also take on Windows and Linux versions because clearly they don't have a well thought out business plan and are just making decisions on the fly. Come on. Cut them some slack.

I have to say this mind set seems oddly rigid and unsupported by the nature of the 2 applications. While they each do have "features that the other doesn't have" they clearly share many, many others, some of which you would not expect. Like being able to "create a feature in one app and then edit it in the other." This does not set them apart from each other. It sets them apart from Adobe. This feature compatibility between the two apps and the pixel persona in Designer specifically, is much more advantageous to designers who often work with photos and vectors than it is to photographers who I image rarely need the design capabilities of a vector app. There is clearly a need, even if only now and then, by photographers, and I would imagine digital painters as well, to make attractive text within their images. This is a feature that makes sense to include in Affinity Photo. If you not going to allow text on a path because "Photo and Designer are different apps" then why include text in Photo at all? I really don't understand the logic here and forcing photographers to buy (even at a very reasonable cost) an additional application to access this one feature doesn't seem reasonable.

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

CartoonMike...While I understand and in part agree with your reasoning that recreating work you did in one program is a good way to learn the workings of another, for JohnG and dariobros, or many other companies with a big library of work, spending time and resources to redo what they have already done is probably not an option they would want to consider. The strangle hold of Adobe on the use of proprietary file formats they created is going to be a difficult bridge for any new company to cross. I'm not sure what the answer is but it may require quite a bit of time for those file formats to die out as they are slowly replaced by newer ones. If Affinity is able to establish it's own PDF format that might go a long way toward making things better. Not sure if that is possible.

I have to say this mind set seems oddly rigid and unsupported by the nature of the 2 applications. While they each do have "features that the other doesn't have" they clearly share many, many others, some of which you would not expect. Like being able to "create a feature in one app and then edit it in the other." This does not set them apart from each other. It sets them apart from Adobe. This feature compatibility between the two apps and the pixel persona in Designer specifically, is much more advantageous to designers who often work with photos and vectors than it is to photographers who I image rarely need the design capabilities of a vector app. There is clearly a need, even if only now and then, by photographers, and I would imagine digital painters as well, to make attractive text within their images. This is a feature that makes sense to include in Affinity Photo. If you not going to allow text on a path because "Photo and Designer are different apps" then why include text in Photo at all? I really don't understand the logic here and forcing photographers to buy (even at a very reasonable cost) an additional application to access this one feature doesn't seem reasonable.

"Proprietary software is not ethical." Really!?!?!?! How??? Because someone earns a living from it. Because they don't do all the work and then give it away to you for free?

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

It seems to me that there is a separate, and possibly larger issue here. The fact that this is apparently a small company, with a dedicated but limited staff, working very hard to get two high quality products to market. They have had to push the Affinity Publisher beta release. It seems very counter productive to do a survey on the present demand for a product you may not even be able to start planning for maybe 2 years. Not to mention committing now, to a Linux version, and then having to listen to people complain about how long it is taking to release it. Nothing kills a company faster than taking on more they they can handle. It's easy from the outside to say "What about this feature? Why haven't you added the ability to do such and such? It's been a year a still nothing! This shouldn't be that hard!". We don't know the difficulties the developers face. The issues they are trying to resolve and those unforeseen they will have to handle. Nothing is impossible for those who don't have to do it. Not long ago neither of these apps existed and they are being expected to live up to programs that have been enhanced and redefined for 20 years. And now they should also take on Windows and Linux versions because clearly they don't have a well thought out business plan and are just making decisions on the fly. Come on. Cut them some slack.

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

Hello daniellin, 
 
You can import photoshop brush .abr files in both Affinity products and then set the brush properties in Designer or Photo to try and get similar results to your .tpl in photoshop. I know it would be very convenient to be able to import .tpl files to Affinity, and I'm no expert, so I don't know if it is even possible, but I would be surprised if it was.

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

??
 
A spunky, relatively tiny competitor methodically and carefully building fresh-from-the-ground-up elegant, powerful, and affordable alternatives to a set of decades-entrenched applications "shows no enthusiasm" just because they're not done yet?!
 
JET

As someone who paints actual paintings I have to say that there is no software in existence that can make a photograph into a painting. There are a number of programs that can, to a greater or lesser degree, make a photograph look like a painting. Paintings require someone with a brush, digital or traditional, to actually paint them...I know what you meant with your question CircularWebs so please forgive the rant. Just a pet peave of mine.

As someone who paints actual paintings I have to say that there is no software in existence that can make a photograph into a painting. There are a number of programs that can, to a greater or lesser degree, make a photograph look like a painting. Paintings require someone with a brush, digital or traditional, to actually paint them...I know what you meant with your question CircularWebs so please forgive the rant. Just a pet peave of mine.

As someone who paints actual paintings I have to say that there is no software in existence that can make a photograph into a painting. There are a number of programs that can, to a greater or lesser degree, make a photograph look like a painting. Paintings require someone with a brush, digital or traditional, to actually paint them...I know what you meant with your question CircularWebs so please forgive the rant. Just a pet peave of mine.

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

First I will say that I am very happy to see this software and impressed with what I have seen so far...with one exception. The lack of a complete user manual. I don't understand the idea among developers that their job begins and ends with the software and users will fumble and stumble and guess their way to a working knowledge of the program. Video tutorials are great and helpful. So is knowing I have a reference, provided by the developer, that explains what every tool, panel, and menu option is and what it does, as though the person reading it has never worked with this software before. This is especially true for a new software that hasn't been around long enough for authors to fill the void with How To books. From what I can see the information available under Affinity Photo Help is bare bones at best and some of the bones are missing. I spent a lot of time learning Illustrator and enough of Photoshop to do what I need and I am disgusted with Adobe's switch to subscription based software availability. So the discovery of Affinity Design and Photo is very exciting to me. Stumbling through video's and searching YouTube and Google for additional information to understand how to use your products...that is not so exciting.

I really hope it is more than "likely" the ability to align text vertically and horizontally will be added to Designer. It's a graphic design software. Full control over text alignment is essential to graphic design. Please do not let this be one of the "features" that distinguish Publisher from Designer.

Simon, There are seven pages of posts about this book, most of them from people who have ordered the book, myself included, and all of whom, I believe, have received their copy without any problems. In fact I have never ordered anything online and received it as quickly as I did this book.
Really remarkable.