GeGr

Actually, it's the opposite. The Mac has always been document-centric, so much that the tools of the inactive documents disappeared when in the background. And the desktop was not crowded by app frames, but by free-floating documents. Windows framed the documents in the app, that was hierarchically dominant over the documents. And it is what is happening with Affinity V2, where you can't focus on the documents, because they are hostage of the app frame.
Paolo
 

With a single application on the screen, there was no way to talk about document- or application-centric. Obviously, this distinction came later. When developing the application-switching system, Apple could have gone for an application frame or not. Windows 95 chose the app frame, IBM OS/2, if I remember correctly, didn't, and went for a solution similar to the one also developed by Apple.
Apple could have been gone even further with the OpenDoc project, where the app was split into the component tools (and this is something that we can find in the Affinity apps, with their Studio Link).
The application frame doesn't allow any transparency of the app, and this would have gone against the idea of a virtual desktop, where you document is not confined inside a tool. On your real desk, the tools are acting on the document, and you can have more documents open at the same time .
For people like me who have to work at the same time on several parallel documents, the application frame is a really, really bad thing. I hope it's just a matter of time before it is removed again.
Paolo
 
 

completely agree on this as a macos user.
the seperated mode is a completely basic macos function, immanent to the possible workflow in macos - and as such, programms that are sold for macos, that are lacking this feature, are somehow incomplete regarding the os support.
so please make the seperated mode possible again. thank you

completely agree on this as a macos user.
the seperated mode is a completely basic macos function, immanent to the possible workflow in macos - and as such, programms that are sold for macos, that are lacking this feature, are somehow incomplete regarding the os support.
so please make the seperated mode possible again. thank you

completely agree on this as a macos user.
the seperated mode is a completely basic macos function, immanent to the possible workflow in macos - and as such, programms that are sold for macos, that are lacking this feature, are somehow incomplete regarding the os support.
so please make the seperated mode possible again. thank you

We are pleased to announce an update for the macOS release of Affinity Photo 2, version 2.0.3
The changes in Affinity Photo 2 for macOS 2.0.3 (those made since the last release Affinity Photo 2 for macOS 2.0.0) are as follows:
Fixes & Improvements:  (since the last release 2.0.0)
New Document: Custom Document Preset order is not retained between app sessions Lens Correction in Develop Persona has no effect on non-Raw files when a Lens Profile is applied Fixed spurious future version error under certain circumstances Some functions in layers context menu should not be available for non-child items. Update for HEIF importer Colour Panel now remembers user preference for CMYK documents Export Panel UI fixes Pen tool tweaks and fixes Saving to External Drive gives "Failed to Save" error on macOS Ventura Gradients on text strokes don't render unless the fill also has a gradient Fixed hang that could occur composing vertical centre aligned text OpenType handling does not respect lookup flags such as IgnoreMarks Resource Manager updates Fixed Curves adjustment settings panel 'Colour Space' picker being blank when colour space is RGBU Fixed various issues involving handling of placed document files Placed documents with bleed can fail to render the bleed correctly Many and various Layers Panel updates and fixes Searching in the Library panel crashes the app if you have more than just the default category  Ensure global colour edits update live Fixed straighten in the develop persona Fixed exclusion blend mode in 16bit RGB Fixed adjustment parameters undo Fixed sync before / after in develop Fixed image place recording in macros Fixed outline layer effect RAW loading speed improvements Assorted assets panel fixes Assorted other fixes Help & localisation improvements. Licensing and Registration improvements and new help links  
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in application menu, Affinity Photo > About).
If you’ve purchased from the Mac App Store— updates are done automatically next time you run your software after it is available in the Mac App Store. If this does not happen for you, open the Mac App Store app and go to the Updates page and then Store > Reload page or press CMD+R. This should hopefully force the update to show. Apple sometimes phase roll outs around the world which can mean it may take up to 72 hours for your update to be available.
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer to download and install any available update, or in the application main menu there is an option Check for Updates. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Photo for macOS) can be downloaded from this link (that installer is NOT for Mac app store purchases, which update through the Mac App Store).

We are pleased to announce an update for the macOS release of Affinity Publisher 2, version 2.0.3
The changes in Affinity Publisher 2 for macOS 2.0.3 (those made since the last release Affinity Publisher 2 for macOS 2.0.0) are as follows:
Fixes & Improvements:  (since the last release 2.0.0)
New Document: Custom Document Preset order is not retained between app sessions afpackage fails to find Resources on Open Fixed spurious future version error under certain circumstances Improvements with PDF Import and Layers Fixes for RTF import - font name discrepancies, fields in footnotes Update for HEIF importer DWG Import scaling improvements Saving to External Drive gives "Failed to Save" error on macOS Ventura Fix for export of Books with Bleed Preview exported PDF fails on book exports Opening and closing chapters in a book can leave the files locked / read only Crash opening a bunch of chapters from a book simultaneously Colour Panel now remembers user preference for CMYK documents Export Panel UI fixes Fix for Booklet printing model Fixed some tool drawing issues relating to selections across spreads etc Pen tool tweaks and fixes Fixed hang that could occur composing vertical centre aligned text OpenType handling does not respect lookup flags such as IgnoreMarks Hit box of scaled text could be incorrect Gradients on text strokes don't render unless the fill also has a gradient Fixes for line breaking in some odd cases with punctuation Merge runs of tabs using leaders Resource Manager updates Fixed various issues involving handling of placed document files Placed documents with bleed can fail to render the bleed correctly Place Images panel remains open on document close Fixed Help menu links Light UI Improvements Fix for disappearing rulers Many and various Layers Panel updates and fixes Auto flow place: Added an option to auto-flow place to replace the content of already populated picture frames More attributes are retained when replacing images in frames Swatches panel shows different colour to that of the Text Frames Fill flyout set to same swatches Editing Fields Panel can cause app to crash on Ventura Pages Panel, double clicking does not zoom page to view Ensure global colour edits update live Select Same Name should only select objects with user supplied names New clearer icons for stroke properties (cap, join, align) Hidden/Empty columns/rows are ignored when importing xlsx files into Data Merge, causes fields to get out of sync Help & localisation improvements. Licensing and Registration improvements and new help links  
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in application menu, Affinity Publisher > About).
If you’ve purchased from the Mac App Store— updates are done automatically next time you run your software after it is available in the Mac App Store. If this does not happen for you, open the Mac App Store app and go to the Updates page and then Store > Reload page or press CMD+R. This should hopefully force the update to show. Apple sometimes phase roll outs around the world which can mean it may take up to 72 hours for your update to be available.
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer to download and install any available update, or in the application main menu there is an option Check for Updates. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Publisher for macOS) can be downloaded from this link (that installer is NOT for Mac app store purchases, which update through the Mac App Store).

can you use FCP with two screens? yes.
can you tear off panels and move them from screen to screen? yes.
can you use both of those functionalities also with logic pro x? yes.

can you use two screens with any of affinity v2 apps? no.
end of conversation.
limiting users in a professional graphic creative/production environment to a single screen is a deeply regressive decision.

with large screens being cheaper and cheaper, most professional users are accustomed to multiple screen setups, plus ipads for macos/ios environment.

as you try to paint it - this is not a windows vs. macos rant. this is a basic app/os functionality.
what is next? affinity v3 will not have a node selection tool? or layers?

also, whatever you prefer is not relevant.
from the beginning of GUI, macos has this functionality. if a developer introduces a different functionality in his software, it is his obligation to offer both options to users and let them decide which one they will use.

There will be customer betas here on these forums very soon. Be as critical as you like and we would appreciate your credentials improving the software.

No global layers.
No multi-page spreads.
No scripting.
No typeface sets.
No informal spreads (so pages can be reorganised for side-to-side comparison).
Apparently there is footnote and endnote support. Anyone upgrading can tell me how that works. 
Ratio of 1 in 6 is not very good progress, IMHO. Publisher is way behind the other products in the suite and needs some TLC.

That is a fair assumption 2.0 is not the end of the 2 development cycle

Some foundries are now releasing only a variable font.
Which makes a lot of sense.
The current advanced font development process now uses a multiple master approach, so the sources created are inherently variable.
When the masters sources are done, push-a-button to export the variable font.
Producing the static fonts involves additional steps, and compromises.
Depending on the axes, the number of static fonts can quickly get unwieldy.
Most people just think about weight and width.
Using the OpenType "standard" ten weights from 100 to 1000, and the nine widths from ultra-condensed to ultra-expanded, and italics you get - 10 weights x 9 widths x 2 (regular+italic) = 180 fonts.
Then lets add an optical size axis.
What increment do you use for the optical size static fonts?
Merriweather has an optical size axis of 6pt to 144pt.
They only export statics at 6pt, 12pt, 60pt, and 144pt.
Even with their limited weights and widths, that ends up being 120 static fonts.
Playfair Display is being upgraded to include an optical size axis of 5pt to 1200pt.
It also includes a weight axis, a width axis, and italics.
Depending on increments used you could have hundreds of static fonts.
Science Gothic (a Bank Gothic revival) has four axes: weight, width, optical size, and contrast.
They had some discussions about how they could end up with thousands of static fonts (or variable instances) depending on the increments used.
That is with just four axes.
Roboto Flex has 13 axes.
If you used an increment of just 10 for each axis, that would be 10¹³ static fonts.
Additionally…
What is the proper increment for the Mutation (MUTA) axis in static fonts?
Or for the Gravity (GRVT) axis, or the Horizontal Rotation (HROT) axis, etc., etc.?
So far I have documented 59 different variable axes.
And many of those variable axes simply do not fit in a simple incremental pattern.
All of these pre-determined static fonts may not be "just right."
Variable fonts enable the designer to get exactly what they want, or require.
 

While I can’t speak for that foundry, as a font designer myself, I am not going to waste my time producing every static combination of my fonts possible, when I can place it all in a single font per typeface. You know, if your font contains five variations in each of just five characters, you would have to produce 25 static fonts with corresponding kerning in each (or potentially put all the variants into one extra font with non-standard encoding and no kerning). And if you have more, the number of possible static fonts grows very quickly.
It is not the job of every single font designer or font foundry to produce static versions. It is the job of software like the Affinity Designer, Publish, and Photo to implement (or not if they don’t know how, or don’t care to) the standard.

Version 1.8 of OpenType was released in 2016, it included Variable fonts. The feature is mature and widely used nowadays. 
It would be great to have support for variable fonts. 

Ummm... Are you really telling people they shouldn't be surprised or disappointed?  
I use Designer for many things, so I would obviously not return it- nor would anyone else on this forum most likely.  I love the program and will continue to use it BUT I am disappointed the new version only has import but not export.  I constantly need this function and have to either use Adobe or other workarounds that are time consuming.
If you don't need that feature, then hooray for you.  But don't sit around trying to scold other people who'd like to see that in this program.

completely agree on this as a macos user.
the seperated mode is a completely basic macos function, immanent to the possible workflow in macos - and as such, programms that are sold for macos, that are lacking this feature, are somehow incomplete regarding the os support.
so please make the seperated mode possible again. thank you

Thousands of your users have been asking for DXF Export in Designer for years
..v2 has been released with import only!
..why is this!??? EXPORT functionality is by far the most useful and necessary workflow for 2D & 3D professionals
..I'm dying over here  ..or is this some kind of trick?
 

Indeed. The toxicity around here, especially after the 2.0 release, is increasingly off-putting.
I wish Serif would do what I already suggested years ago. Close these forums. Keep the forums as a community thing only. In their place, For bug reporting and tracking have a UserVoice page, or any of the other alternatives like Nolt or SleekPlan. Something that allows us to easily search and post bugs, but greatly limits all social interaction, and as result limits the toxicity.
And it isn't just for their employee's sake, that have to navigate these forums daily. It's for our own sake too. We have to browse and search these forums in order to find out if a bug has already been reported or solved. That means we also have to read and navigate this toxicity. That's something I'd like to avoid, it's unhealthy, and frankly something that reduces my willingness to post any bug findings.
Do us all a favour Serif, close these forums. have a separate bug reporting system away from forums.

Hi!
I have Photo and Designer v1, and a full set of v2. I"m a professional designer and I have been an Adobe user for about 18-20 years and still am. And in version 1 of your app there was an option to use it as  photoshop or illustrator without the background of the app. Adobe calls it "application frame", you call it "split mode". And in v2, you don't have that. You have "float view," but it doesn't make sense. In "float view" the toolbar constantly wants to jump to the file window, and the file window can be positioned above the "studio" panels, and that's very strange. I really think Designer v1 and its FX add-on aka Photo v1 is the best illustrator/photoshop alternative on the market. But not v2. Give me back the "separated mode" and fix the weird UI behavior.

Best wishes,
Your disappointed user.

I also think image tracing is a much awaited feature to most designers.

It is not optimised to create editable files using as few as possible basic vector shapes.
But it is extremely fast (instant, sub-second results in any case I tried), produces very usable colors, and has some (adjustable) presets for different use cases e.g. like cutting machines, comic style, sketches etc. More a creative tool than an "hard core professional" tool. Still good enough for my creative intensions.
The results look very similar to what e.g. Apple iMovie uses as presets. The app is probably only an UI wrapper to the underlying Apple API.
And this might be the reason that Affinity does not integrate the same function (free on Apple) into Affinity Apps: the API is Apple specific, not portable / available on Windows.

There's also a nice list in the Resources section that I don't think has been mentioned in this thread yet:
 

I couldn't agree more.
It's not just about buying the product. For new users, the 40% discount is a great opportunity. And it's just fine to create a little bit pressure. As a V1 user I don't like the "buy now before it's too late" policy.

Vector Q in macOS (and IOS) is really, really good for AutoTrace!!
It´s very recommendable.
*
... but on the other hand sad, that AutoTrace still is not included in the Affinity Apps ...
&
would be really nice to know, whether this feature is something the Affinity Team is working on!
...
 

I appreciate your explanation I was just clarifying our current position for others, I believe you already understood.
This is very new for Serif. People like you making reasoned arguments will influence us going forward I'm sure.