Laura Ess

I have bad eyesight. I've had two cataract surgeries and and a repaired detached retina. I generally use LARGE monitors when using graphics editors with a high contrast UI. Affinity apps are really good for me because I can make nodes really large, change guide colours easily, et cetera. One area that falls down on that is the local help file. Initially when when it pops up the text is readable, but I have to focus hard at times. I normally get around this by pressing CTRL+ a few times and it's a lot clearer. The problem is though that every new time I open the Help window it reverts to a default size.

I'm suggesting an extra preference where the user can set the font size in the help document.  I don't know it this would be based on points or say, a multiple of the standard size, but it would make reading the help a lot easier and less frustrating.

Image below: default help size at left, help font size after a few CTRL+.
 
 

I have bad eyesight. I've had two cataract surgeries and and a repaired detached retina. I generally use LARGE monitors when using graphics editors with a high contrast UI. Affinity apps are really good for me because I can make nodes really large, change guide colours easily, et cetera. One area that falls down on that is the local help file. Initially when when it pops up the text is readable, but I have to focus hard at times. I normally get around this by pressing CTRL+ a few times and it's a lot clearer. The problem is though that every new time I open the Help window it reverts to a default size.

I'm suggesting an extra preference where the user can set the font size in the help document.  I don't know it this would be based on points or say, a multiple of the standard size, but it would make reading the help a lot easier and less frustrating.

Image below: default help size at left, help font size after a few CTRL+.
 
 

I have bad eyesight. I've had two cataract surgeries and and a repaired detached retina. I generally use LARGE monitors when using graphics editors with a high contrast UI. Affinity apps are really good for me because I can make nodes really large, change guide colours easily, et cetera. One area that falls down on that is the local help file. Initially when when it pops up the text is readable, but I have to focus hard at times. I normally get around this by pressing CTRL+ a few times and it's a lot clearer. The problem is though that every new time I open the Help window it reverts to a default size.

I'm suggesting an extra preference where the user can set the font size in the help document.  I don't know it this would be based on points or say, a multiple of the standard size, but it would make reading the help a lot easier and less frustrating.

Image below: default help size at left, help font size after a few CTRL+.
 
 

I have bad eyesight. I've had two cataract surgeries and and a repaired detached retina. I generally use LARGE monitors when using graphics editors with a high contrast UI. Affinity apps are really good for me because I can make nodes really large, change guide colours easily, et cetera. One area that falls down on that is the local help file. Initially when when it pops up the text is readable, but I have to focus hard at times. I normally get around this by pressing CTRL+ a few times and it's a lot clearer. The problem is though that every new time I open the Help window it reverts to a default size.

I'm suggesting an extra preference where the user can set the font size in the help document.  I don't know it this would be based on points or say, a multiple of the standard size, but it would make reading the help a lot easier and less frustrating.

Image below: default help size at left, help font size after a few CTRL+.
 
 

I also reported this. It's a Windows only bug that doesn't happen on Mac. Carl123's suggestion of using Find in Layers Panel (I've set it to ctrl+F because other softwares I use have that keybind) is a solid workaround. It at least makes this issue bearable, but it really needs to get a priority fix. Complex layer management is crucial.

Couldn't find this suggestion on a search, so here's my suggestion.
Anyway the minor annoyance I have is this. I work on different projects in Designer, and often need to break that and go do other things. So what happens is I save the document I'm working on before closing the app, but not close the document. That way when I come back and open Designer the document opens with it.  Now when I close the app the selection in the layer panel is usually on the last object I was working on (Design 01), but when I open Design again, all layers are collapsed and the selection is on the Artboard (Design 02). If I expand the Artboard Designer will have selected the upper group where the last focus was, but not the last object I had selected (Design 03).
Now I have a lot of groups and subgroups because I find it easy to show/hide various parts of the document (I have about 36 figures and items in the example below). It would be really helpful when the document was reloaded that the same object was selected and the groups/layers/objects expanded to show that. I'm not sure if Photo and Publisher do this as well, but I would think that the ability have this as well might be helpful.

Couldn't find this suggestion on a search, so here's my suggestion.
Anyway the minor annoyance I have is this. I work on different projects in Designer, and often need to break that and go do other things. So what happens is I save the document I'm working on before closing the app, but not close the document. That way when I come back and open Designer the document opens with it.  Now when I close the app the selection in the layer panel is usually on the last object I was working on (Design 01), but when I open Design again, all layers are collapsed and the selection is on the Artboard (Design 02). If I expand the Artboard Designer will have selected the upper group where the last focus was, but not the last object I had selected (Design 03).
Now I have a lot of groups and subgroups because I find it easy to show/hide various parts of the document (I have about 36 figures and items in the example below). It would be really helpful when the document was reloaded that the same object was selected and the groups/layers/objects expanded to show that. I'm not sure if Photo and Publisher do this as well, but I would think that the ability have this as well might be helpful.

I bought Affinity Designer mainly because it was the closest non-Adobe app to come to Fireworks. I have over a thousand webcomic pages (all in Fireworks) that one day I'd like to export! Now if only I can recreate these brushes!

 

Well I am absolutely and totally amazed at the collection on this page.  Many thanks to Stuart for doing this!

Comic Book Toolkit
It is really about building a comic Toolkit rather than Template in Publisher. Just wanted to see how feasible it is... Used images from Inktober and Untamed as they are a mix of vector and raster images + can create pages  | panels in AD and just place!
Still some work to do yet but it is getting there! Still a lot of assets to add

The test template (below) was built in Publisher but a lot of the layouts could also be constructed in Designer. 
Mask Overlay Assets (Orange)

Layout pages


Panel and Tier inserts

Have a look here I am sure you will find something you can use.
The outline brush is interesting:
There is also a working (WIP) brush set for alcohol brushes which can create this kind off effect. It has not been updated to V2 yet but it will still import!
Calligraphy: Project Brush 19: Inker Affinity 2.0 and 1.0
Textures :Dots | Splatter and Stipple : Project Brush 28 Ink Stipple Or Project Brush 03: Big T
Fur: An older set but still functional
 

OK, it's nice to have the DEVELOP Persona, but exiting it should be easier and less confusing than it is.
If you make a minor (or major) change in this, and then select another persona directly, the dialog box shown below pops up. Now clearly what it's trying to do is get the user to press either the DEVELOP or CANCEL button in the top left corner. However, why not just have those options - DEVELOP or CANCEL - in the dialog box itself? Then it's not a matter of double handling, the user commits or cancels and goes directly to the other persona.

I can finally place child layers correctly instead of Designer/Photo thinking I wanted to make them into a mask. So much easier to toggle lock and visibility on layers. The Style picker and copier!

I can finally place child layers correctly instead of Designer/Photo thinking I wanted to make them into a mask. So much easier to toggle lock and visibility on layers. The Style picker and copier!

Absolutely. My original graphics editor was JASC PaintShop Pro and that had scripting (Python) ages ago.  Despite my disliking GIMP, apart from being free it also has Script-Fu. And while Photo has the ability to use .8bf plugins, the actual usability is hit and miss. 3rd Parties (so far as I know) don't design plugins for Affinity. An API and proper scripting language (Python would be cool) would allow the users to extend these apps in directions that are in popular demand.  The scripting's necessary because extensions are more than just making a filter - you could add extra import and export options, dialog boxes, et al. Adobe for all its faults has these and had them 10 years ago.
Adding both an API and proper scripting would go a long way to getting some users back.

Absolutely. My original graphics editor was JASC PaintShop Pro and that had scripting (Python) ages ago.  Despite my disliking GIMP, apart from being free it also has Script-Fu. And while Photo has the ability to use .8bf plugins, the actual usability is hit and miss. 3rd Parties (so far as I know) don't design plugins for Affinity. An API and proper scripting language (Python would be cool) would allow the users to extend these apps in directions that are in popular demand.  The scripting's necessary because extensions are more than just making a filter - you could add extra import and export options, dialog boxes, et al. Adobe for all its faults has these and had them 10 years ago.
Adding both an API and proper scripting would go a long way to getting some users back.

I installed Inkscape when I couldn't get a perspective warp in Designer. It worked, but now Designer has that feature. Anyway, I've tried the autotracer in Inkscape and am impressed with it. You can do multiple types of tracing and cover them over to Designer as SVG.  I was never impressed with the Adobe autotrace. Some years ago I had to mass convert some work I'd done in Clip Studio Paint to vector format and that function (and Illustrator) was a nighmare! Never going back to Adobe, even if the utility's free, cause Inkscape is as well.
I made a suggestion last year that they could bundle an autotrace (and general scanning utility) with a materials/image manager. Probably come to naught.

You seem to miss the point, as an important tool in illustration (and time saving) Serif should have already inluded it, it's not like people are asking for something impossible and a function people seem to want, "nice to have" as you say even for you.

A few weeks ago I noticed that Affinity Designer 1 supports CPAL/COLR-fonts on Mac on newer versions of OS X, it still doesn't support SVG color fonts though, and I have to use Pixelmator for that. Since I can't see Serif releasing information about their color font support, I would wager that the support comes automatically from the Cocoa SDK and OS X UI libraries rather than something they've done themselves.

I'm a type designer who works mainly with Glyphs, and about a year ago I upgraded to the full version of Glyphs 2 that supports creating many different types of color fonts. Today I found out that I can use the curved text tool to write text along a curve, if I instead of letters draw repeatable shapes, I can use glyphs to create a "brush-font", and since they're color fonts that means I can create overlapping shapes (by that I mean I can create a white layer instead of just white being the negative space as it used to be with BW-fonts).

Since fonts are normally vector-based, a CPAL/COLR-font will provide a real vector brush that when converted to curves becomes a proper vector outline. The only major downside is that it can only support iterative/repeating brushes as it can't warp the letter to fit the curve or support any form of brush pressure.

I might consider making a brush font and releasing it as part of my font-portfolio, any suggestions for repeating shapes you want released as part of a color font?

Seconding the request... Lack of scripting is a major drawback for now //

First, I'd like to say that I'm excited to try out the new features in Publisher. I am super about the new notes options. That held me back from using Publisher in anything but personal projects because I do a lot of long document publishing. Just a note. I still bought v1 and would have still bought v2 to encourage competition with Adobe, and I realize that Adobe has had many more years to develop their software. However, Serif doesn't have to develop every feature requested by users!!!
I suggest (and I'm not the first) that Serif offer an API to programmers to provide scripts and plug-ins to extend the functionality of Publisher (and obviously the other apps). This would be huge and would also create a new ecosystem around the software and brand loyalty. No company has ALL the resources necessary to address every user's demands and should be expected to. So, what I think Serif should do is open up the software to coders to offer (at a cost to the consumer... or as freeware if they desire) extended functionality. This is not only a huge opportunity for coders, but also for Serif, too.
This is my suggestion and I was hoping v2 would have had this. I haven't found it in the features. So, I reopen the discussion here and urge Affinity to consider this for the near-term.
Yours,
Nico

InkScape features a quite decent bitmap autotracer, and is free.

My reference for wanting a BLOB BRUSH (about the only thing I liked about Illustrator) is my experience with the selection brush in Clip Studio paint when drawing comics. CSP also does vector brushes, but on on vector layers. My routine is to draw the line work using vector brushes and then use a combination of the polyline and selection brush to create an area I'd use for "flats". That would be used to mask colour and tone layers so that they don't leak outside the line work. Now I realise that I could just use plain raster brushes to do the same, but using a Blob Brush (and Blob Eraser)  would make things flow very quickly for me, and match house I use vector brushes. I've no interest in painfully using the least amount of points, but in covering areas quickly. The edges would be hidden under the vectors brushwork above (which has multiple brush strokes, not just curves and shapes) in any case. 
I think though one needs to be clear about just how a Blob Brush would work. At the moment you can can draw vector curves  by any means but combining them by expanding the stroke and then adding them (left and middle images in Example 1) but this is  NOT the same as say, how that other program's Blob Brush would combine (right image in Example 1). When the stroke gets expanded in Designer it connects the ends of the curve, and that may not be what you want.
BLOB BRUSH/ERASER DESCRIPTION
A working Blob Brush/Eraser would most likely be a circle or ellipse (a square would be odd but maybe workable) and would have to have a stroke width greater than 0 (otherwise the stroke is not adding/subtracting anything) . If either the Fill or Stroke of a Blob Brush/Eraser has no colour, that part neither adds or subtracts anything to the result. The width of a stroke would be variable like other vector brushes, so a standard width if a mouse is used, or variable with a tablet. .
If no existing curve is selected, the brush would create a new curve that followed the outline of the stroke, and an eraser would do nothing. If an existing curve is selected, the Blob Brush would add a coloured area, and the outline of a coloured stroke (the colours do not matter) to the selected curve, using the selected curve's stroke and fill colours; the Blob Eraser would erase areas in the selected curve depending on whether the brush had a colour fill or stroke. If the fill/stroke of a Blob Brush creates a curve that is not directly overlapping the selected curve, then it adds an extra curve to that object; If the Blob Eraser subtracts one or more areas that bisects the selected curve, one of two things happen (based on a toggle setting): the original selected curve is divided into two or more separate curves (see middle image in example 2); or one object is maintained, but with two or more curves in it (right image in example 2).  A Blob Brush/Eraser that worked in this fashion would add something new to Designer, one extra way of doing something, requiring many more steps otherwise. 
 
 

Yes, that was the general idea. It would mean that the developers of each app wouldn't need to work on such issues, because Utility would have already converted things into a common format.

If the proposed Affinity Utility was integrated with StudioLink, wouldn't you be able to vector trace the image in Affinity Utility then click on the Designer persona to finish working on it?  Or, if you're in Designer, switch to the Affinity Utility persona to vector trace an image then switch back to Designer to finish?