Stephen_H

Just bear in mind that Designer is a drawing/illustration/design application. Powerful text & paragraph tools should be expected from the Publisher app which is set to be released later this year.

I think it's an awesome feature. I'd hate to lose it, so a lock button would be the best solution.

I have a document with a few layers in it which I want to "batch export" using your "multiple slice based on layers" function. I select a layer and click "create slice". A slice is automatically created, but it's bigger than my canvas area because the layer's image runs off the canvas. Is there a way to limit this function to be restricted to the canvas's size? (without having to manually draw a slice which I find a difficult to get exact since it doesn't seem to snap to the canvas edge) This is an awesome function that's really speeds up the exporting & re-exporting process so I want to get past this issue. (I don't think it's a bug, I just need to tick a box somewhere to limit this command)

Also curious. The current extensions are abnormally long and non-standard.

Interesting how many photographers have been attracted to AD & AP, despite them seeming to be aimed more at the print/design market. Has anyone tried Darktable as a DAM? (http://www.darktable.org) I saw it mentioned in another discussion. Whoever recommended it spoke very highly of it, and it's opensource...

Not being a programmer, I'd like to see scripting like Adobe's "Actions". Some kind of record, stop, play/apply to another file/collection of files. Perhaps this is an extension of the batch processing roadmap? Perhaps scripting could be part of a unique "Extended" version – if you don't need it, it's worthless, and if you do need it, it's priceless and worth triple the price as Seneca said. Better yet, maybe scripting and batch processing could be a stand-alone application that leverages both AD & AP's features – a bit like Adobe's Media Encoder or a 3D render farm application. This way, it won't bloat the existing software and we won't feel abused because we've been pushed into an unnecessarily expensive version of AD or AP.

When matching a colour selected from a colour swatch book, the odds are that I want simple, rounded off numbers like 50% cyan, rather than its lesser-spotted cousin, 52% cyan. Could you introduce some way to snap to increments of 5% when dragging a slider? Perhaps holding the shift key while dragging? (this is a personal issue I have with Illustrator… the sliders always seem to hop from 49% to 51% as if it's intentionally trying to avoid the common 50%. I seem to end up having to type 50% after a few frustrating attempts) I don't have this exact problem with AD or AP's sliders, but snapping would be a great option in my life.

lol… posting an off-site feature wish list on the feature wish list forum. :ph34r: :D Thank you for lightening my evening. You're awesome!

Yes, the export persona only focusses on web files like JPEG & PNG etc. It would be nice to be able to export a layered PSD file, a flat TIFF file, an RGB JPEG, an SVG file, a compressed PDF and an uncompressed EPS all in one go. When I deliver a logo, I provide it in a multitude of file formats to the client. It would save me a bit of time. Perhaps an "Export Copy" command could allow for check boxes next to all possible file formats and export them into a folder (a bit like packaging an InDesign file). It certainly would be a unique feature in the design application arena. Perhaps this could be built into a batch processing feature which I know is listed on the feature roadmap. Though I hardly think this is an essential feature. There are way more pressing issues that need to be added/addressed to create a 100% complete application. Let's save this one for a future upgrade when Affinity is searching for time-saving features to justify an upgrade purchase.

CMD+Alt also brings up the colour picker. Oh joy...

:blink: :blink: :blink: :blink: :blink: Yakk! You're an absolute life saver with that tip. Thank you!!!!!! BTW, when you hold CMD+Alt left click you get the colour picker (as I just discovered as a slightly miss-read your post). I mention it because there's a large discussion regarding shortcuts for that tool so that was a happy accident. 2 birds with one stone. Thanks again.

Wowoah! Hold your horses everyone… I've just stumbled across a colour picker keyboard short cut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sort of) With my circle object tool selected, I held down my Alt key and clicked and dragged. I was expecting a circle to draw outwards from the center, but instead my cursor became the colour picker loupe. It didn't really help all that much because I still had to go over to that silly little "picker colour apply" icon to do anything with the selected colour, and if I try do the same thing with my general select tool, I just end up duplicating the object I click on, but it does give me hope. I suspect the developers have this functionality in place already – they're just struggling to figure out the logistics of how to apply its usage, consistently, with any tool selected. Perhaps instead of asking for this feature, we need to recommend a solution that doesn't interfere with another tool? I've seen 2 recommendations in this thread that I can see working... 1 - Click and hold for 2 seconds suggested by the OP. (might be a bit slow, but it's an original concept that eliminates the need for any keyboard shortcuts at all. Follow it up with a tap of the ESC key and we carry on.) 2 - Use the i key. (here i must add my 2 cents – it should be a colour picker for only as long as the i key is held down and immediately return to the previous tool the moment the i key is released so we don't have to learn 20 other keyboard shortcuts to return to your previous tool. This would also be super quick to do) Hmm, I'm starting to think it's less about the colour picker, but rather the real problem is lying in the added step required to apply the selected colour. Adding a short cut key (or whatever) is a small feature addition, but the extra step is a whole workflow issue driven by the developers' views on using colour – something that we, the user base, seems to dislike. If this extra step is here to stay, then is there any way we can get a tutorial on colour use that explains the thinking behind colour workflows? Perhaps if we could change our thinking to this workflow, we could buy in and work with it instead of fighting against something that currently seems unintuitive.

I know, I was referring to ADesigner holding content but not displaying it on the pasteboard – not ID or QXP. (Those are the apps that have made me so reliant on using a pasteboard that I don't know how to work without it, Though QXP was a pain because we became reliant on a pasteboard extension to make it large enough to use, which if you didn't have the extension, you couldn't open the document – terrible for sharing documents)

I vote for keeping them as separate, focussed apps. I believe that if one app did everything, it would become a consumer product. A designer is a bit of a vague term and covers so many disciplines, but professionals are largely specialists in their fields. If you imagine ADesigner as being aimed at illustrators and creative conceptualisers, and APublisher being aimed at layout, DTP , then you understand why ADesigner doesn't have drop caps, master pages and paragraph styles, and why APublisher probably won't have the artistic brushes and warp mesh tools – they're just not used by the same disciplines. I'm a bit bummed by the current poor PDF exporting of ADesigner, but I realise that it's aimed at exporting images to be placed on websites and in brochures – not actually exporting complete websites and brochures. I'm quite certain that APublisher is going to have awesome PDF export abilities because that's the tool to create print-ready documents that will need soft proofing, bleed & cropmarks, custom compression and so on. Sure you can make a simple z-fold flyer in Illustrator because it supports multiple pages, but have you ever tried making a 16 page brochure in it? It's possible, but it will drive you absolutely insane, guaranteed! Adobe has lost it's "tool for the job" focus and has left us with over engineered "Jack of All Trades" that have us all so desperate for new alternatives like Affinity's products. Let's not drive Affinity in the same direction as Adobe – it will only hurt us when we [again] find ourselves looking for fresh new products in 10 years time.

I hope it isn't Ilimited to just batch processing RAW files. I'd love batch processing of other features like creating a contact-sheet, adding a watermark, repeating an action/filter/style to multiple documents... Corel's Painter has an absolutely awesome feature in the "batch processing" category. You can save ALL the work done in a single document as a script and play it back on another document. The primary reason for this is to do an illustration in a low resolution document, and then automatically "redo" it at a higher resolution. Just sit back and watch your 50MB painting re-create itself, identically, just now as a 500MB file which would previously take forever for the brush strokes to draw themselves. Inspired! Maybe batch processing will be loosely linked to scripting? It could kill two birds with one stone if well implemented.

I think until Publisher arrives, this discussion is moot. I think we're wanting Designer to have all the bells and whistles. One of the most appealing feature about Affinity's applications is that they are all dedicated applications – not overlapping Frankensteins that Adobe apps have become (one feature is taken from one app, added to another and called an upgrade) If we need to make a multipage PDF, then we should be working in Publisher because that's no longer an illustration or a logo design, but rather a multi-page document/publication. What happens when you want to import a Designer file into a Publisher document? (eg: a logo) It should just come straight in and be managed through a links palette, but if you have multiple pages, then you have to choose which page has the logo you want to import. Delete a page ifrom that Designer file and what happens to the link to page 3 (now page 2) of that Designer document? Nah, keep it focussed, efficient and powerful. Consider the suite of 3 applications rather than the feature list of just one and a better workflow will be realised. As long as Publisher can support different page sizes in one document, then this multipage debate will be irrelevant (so it allows for designing a business card, letterhead and PowerPoint template within one document so we can cut-n-paste elements between pages and modify swatches across designs, not just limited to booklet-type multipage document) :D

+1 for Pattern Overlay. (not sure what a shading contour profile is, but sounds like nice icing)

Lightroom has an awesome preview as its brush curser. Instead of just a circle indicating the outer edge of the brush, it displays an outer AND inner edge. The inner circle shows where the brush is at its densest. This means that a brush with quite a hard edge will have a large inner circle, and a brush with a soft edge will have a small inner circle. (though both will have the same outer circle because they will have the same brush size/diameter) This would allow for instant understanding of what brush edge my tool has without looking up the hardness slider and doing some maths in my head. If you could add some form of keyboard + click-n-drag feature to dynamically scale a brush on the page, then you could extend it by adding Alt to the mix and allow for click-n-drag changing of the edge as well. Cool.

Simple solution… you'll see that the imported EPS is called an Embedded Document in the layers palette. Double-click on that imported EPS / Embedded document and it will open up into its own working window. (the actual object, not in the layer palette) In the Preferences window of that document, turn on the transparent background. Save and close that window. Your imported EPS now has no background... Ta-daaaa.

Simple solution… you'll see that the imported EPS is called an Embedded Document in the layers palette. Double-click on that imported EPS / Embedded document and it will open up into its own working window. (the actual object, not in the layer palette) In the Preferences window of that document, turn on the transparent background. Save and close that window. Your imported EPS now has no background... Ta-daaaa.

+1 for arrow heads. I have iDraw for the sole feature of its arrowheads & line styles. It has dimension lines with labels – draw a line with with the label style and it automatically adds arrow heads and the length of the line is dynamically as text in the middle. It is incredibly time saving if you need to add measurements to a detailed floorplan or a display stand for an expo. Please have look at iDraw for inspiration when you get around to developing this feature. (I think our biggest frustration regarding the lack of arrowheads is that we have had it in other apps for more than 10 years, so we assume it's now practically an opensource feature with the code being widely available – not a complex new feature requiring massive R&D) Thanks guys.

The interface is definitely smaller on our 27" iMac (non-retina) than on my 21" iMac (also non-retina… sigh). I also find some icons a bit pokey. Most are fine, but the colour swatch palette seems particularly prone to me missing the icons I want to click that has me concentrating VERY hard whenever I select a swatch or eyedropper. It should be effortless, not a speed-hump. Tools and top buttons are perfect, so perhaps its a difference of opinion between your developers? Out of curiosity, I checked icon sizes and this is what I found: Top buttons: 36 x 36 pixels Tools: 26 x 26 pixels Add to swatches icon: 16 x 16 pixels Colour Swatches: 14 x 14 pixels Style Swatches: 44 x 44 pixels Some of these do feel a bit small, and I'm amazed that the colour swatches should be the smallest icons in the whole application, while the style swatches are the largest. Please tell me that in the future, both sizes will be selectable options – that'll be awesome! (even better, add your super zoom slider to all swatch palettes so we can dynamically choose our own preferred sizes. They're square so they won't even pixelate) Keep up the great work guys. You've got a winner here – our comments are only intended to make it waaaaaay better than the current crop of [Adobe] products.

+1 on the artboards. When I design a logo, I usually have alternate versions off the page. A master font version off to the side while I modify a curves version. I'm finding I have to have multiple hidden layers to store these working files and that's not visually inspirational. It's quite strange that I can drag items off the page – I just can't see them anymore. I can select them and bring them back so they're not disappearing entirely, they're just hidden. It's as if the background around the page is actually a frame on the top layer obscuring everything not on the page. Weird.

+1 on this. I too fumbled around with it until I discovered the drag to select thinking (actually, I had to read the manual which we all know that guys don't like asking for directions). Even though I now know how to use it, I still find myself pressing command, space bar or alt keys trying to create a temporary eyedropper tool. I've also found adding a mixed or selected colour to the swatches palette equally un-intuitive. I still can't do it despite having found a pull-down menu called "Add to swatch". Mind, looking at it right now, it seems my swatch palette is completely broken – I don't have any swatches in the pull-down swatch families. (oh wait… I've just restarted AD and I have all my swatches back. Fixed, but clearly not a particularly robust system. I'm running OSX 10.8.5. Could this be the reason?) I suspect the whole colour engine might need a tweak somewhere. I also can't export CMYK EPS files – it automatically converts my EPS files to RGB which is amazing since EPS is the "original print file" we used to use back in the 90's.

I think he means that he wants to export with layers, but is getting a single, flattened image... I have no problem exporting layered PhotoShop files, so my take on it is that there is probably a conflicting layer effect – something that PhotoShop doesn't have or does differently. If you make just one layer visible, select it, right click on it and choose "Merge visible", it will make a flattened copy of that layer with all effect applied. Do this for each of the layers you want to use, delete the original layers and save a copy. That copy will have your layers but no custom effects. That should be "simple" enough for FCP to work with. (I'm not quite clear if you're saying your exported PSD file is actually flat if viewed in PhotoShop, or if it's FCP that is importing it as flattened artwork – a lot of options to address the problem)