Stephen LoPiano

This is my first image using brushes digitally painting in Affinity Photo 2. Portrait of a Chinese Economist Keyu Jin, froze an image of her appearing on an internet found video program called "The Agenda". This would be my attempt to use that reference for this image. The second image here "Welcome to Vector Country" was a simple thing testing Affinity Designer.

I'm having a similar if not same problem. I seriously doubt I will ever buy this software in future releases. The brushes in Photo and Designer do not run properly, they lag behind your applying pen pressure on a tablet. I have quite a few different digital painting programs on the same computer that run fine including: MyPaint, GIMP, Corel Painter, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Photo Impact 13, Photo Filtre, Art Rage, Corel Photo Paint, Sketchbook, Clip Studio Paint Pro, Fire Alpaca, Medibang, Krita, Paintstorm Studio, PaintStar, Windows Paint (3D) and Project DogWaffle (free version). Affinity Designer and Photo are the only programs that I have this problem with. You have to paint brush strokes very slowly for them to keep up with your applying strokes, if you go at normal speed of applying brush strokes you'll loose control of where you are and not see where the strokes are going. Also notice that changing over menu selections is also very slow compared to any other programs. This problem was not so bad in Version 1 of Designer which I purchased through the Microsoft store and recall a trial version of Photo 1. I purchased the complete suite of all 3 programs for version 2 and none work well enough to take seriously as a program you might accomplish some objective with. I personally like the vector drawing features of Designer that are excellent as an alternative to Corel Draw or Inkscape which I also use. I was completely focused on the vector drawing features of Designer when I decided to try and buy the entire Suite Version 2. These products definitely need improvement.

I did not purchase an Affinity Photo V1 only trial yet did purchase Designer and Publisher V1. Less than a month ago I purchased a V2 suite that includes all three upgraded versions of Photo, Designer, and Publisher. When using any brushes for digital painting in version 2 of Photo or Designer the brushes lag behind using a Wacom Intuous tablet. Also noticed that switching between tool menu options is very slow in responding and changing over. Did not have this same pattern of a problem with Designer V1 or the trial version of Photo V1. Using Windows 10 Home Version, Intel I7 Sixth Generation CPU, 32gb RAM, RX6600 Radeon AMD graphics card with Adrenalin Edition 22.5.1 graphics card driver, and Gigabytes motherboard and bios. I find it hard to believe that this machine is no longer compatible with Affinity upgrades due to obsolescence, by today's standards this machine is old with CPU yet still powerful with memory and graphics card. Do not understand why this slow motion type of reaction is occurring when Version 1 worked fine. Any suggestions on how to improve performance?

I understand times have changed and many people no longer are interested in program installation the way things were done in the past. I personally went through some very hard times after buying some software and a very good computer some 15 years ago. Had to drop my internet service since my budget was reduced to only necessary spending, basically food, clothing and shelter. It was a saving grace during those times to have the ability to run software on my computer off-line without any internet dependency. Back then there were programs I used to work with artwork that would often get corrupted and required re-installation of the program to get it running properly again. With copies of programs saved to hard drives or programs purchased through retail stores that came with the software purchase I was able to run everything efficiently off-line without internet dependency. You always need some strategy of backing up software to prepare for some unexpected circumstance. What if the world were to suddenly sink into another 1930's great depression era and many people found themselves unable to continue paying to keep their internet service? It would be a tragedy to have a computer at home that runs very well yet no way of keeping your software usable due to problems requiring re-installation. Instead of dependency on the internet, alternative options are the best strategy for back up. If Affinity products were available in stores and they needed to charge an additional $25 to $50 dollars to cover their expenses, the software would still definitely be worth the extra expense to have this alternative option.

Affinity Designer is probably one of the best graphic arts software programs available for consumer use, the price is reasonable and the features are excellent. I found only one option for buying and installing this program (along with Publisher) through the Microsoft Store. For on-line purchases I use prepaid debit cards and they only work for purchases made in the U.S.A. Could not use my Vanilla VISA prepaid debit card to purchase Publisher and Designer directly from the Affinity web site located in Europe. The only work around that used to be available was using a debit card balance through Pay Pal, I have used this method in the past to make donations to Blender and Krita. I was unable to purchase through Pay Pal due to a new restriction they have of a necessary portable phone for text messaging. In the past Pay Pal would send you a security verification as many other web sites do yet my attempt to buy that way was rejected recently due to only having a lan line phone and no portable phone to text message back, things have changed. I use only lan line phones, do not have enough use for portable phones and have used lan lines all my life. All this insanity could be avoided if Affinity were available for purchase through local retail stores like Best Buy, Wal Mart or Staples by simply walking into a store and buying the way all software was purchased years ago and still is available for many popular software products. It would be nice to purchase Affinity through a packaged retail product in a store that provides your serial and/or product code key that you could use to activate the program by downloading it from the Affinity web site, an .exe or .zip file. Another better alternative would be from a disc that comes with your retail store purchase that has the .exe file for installation, this would be an advantage for anyone that does not have internet access on their computer. You might even try a premium version that you pay extra for in retail stores that includes the option to choose from additional add on features such as brush packs or future plug ins. Although the Microsoft Store did work for my purchase of Affinity Publisher and Designer, the way installation works through this method is a problem having back ups of the software. You do not get an .exe installation program file after purchase through the Microsoft Store, when the program is installed there is nothing in your Program directory/folder. There is no way to keep a copy of this program using the Microsoft Store, and problems with computers are a serious part of reality using computers and software requiring re-installation of the operating system and programs used. There is the one option of creating an image copy type back up through Windows, yet from past experience this option generally works best when you first install the operating system and make a back up of your image. As time goes by and you add more programs and updates these image back ups become less dependable and often will not work. When that situation occurs you loose any programs that you do not have any back up copies of. Another disadvantage of using this involves a situation where a program becomes corrupted and you only need to re-install one program, having to re-install the entire operating system to get one program back is insanity. Again, if years later you find yourself in a situation where your computer no longer has access to the internet yet you still use it for personal use off-line you cannot access any programs historically purchased through the Microsoft Store. I have used computers for several decades since college days of the 1990s. The way you have always used computers and software over these decades was hold on to back up copies of discs or through external drives copies of all your software and operating systems. It would certainly be the best way to purchase Affinity products if they were available in retail stores here in the U.S.A.

Okay, got it to work, in fact relatively easy to do just different than other vector programs I have used in the present and past. Think I will get to really like this program.

When creating object color filling feature I have figured out how to add one or two colors yet do not see any way to add multiple colors through some method of manual adjustment. Is there any way of doing this? Some programs offer a feature where a color band comes up and you click upon this to add a custom fountain fill and then add an intermediate color between to points. Then further some offer a way to select between options of appearance of color schematic such as conical, linear, radial, square and also a fill's color blend, angle, center point, midpoint, and edge pad.

I have basicallly two questions. First is there anyway to buy Affinity products in the USA using a prepaid debit card, if so which one? I attempted to purchase through your web site two of your programs yet the debit card refused to make payment due to location outside of the USA. Eventually I figured out a way to purchase two of your programs through the Microsoft Store, problem there is could not find any way to order and pay for a couple of brush packs that were on my order through your web site where my debit card was refused. There are many options to buy prepaid debit card gift cards through VISA, Mastercard, etc. Do any of these debit cards provide the ability to make an international payment, specifically with Affinity? My second question is related to using a LInux operating system. Will Affinity Designer and Publisher work on a Linux operating system installed through the WINE application? Some Windows based programs run efficiently using WINE on Linux operating systems like Fedora and Mint. I have a computer with several different operating systems on it, Fedora Design Suite is specifically a custom designed operating system variant of Fedora Workstation that is tailored towards individuals that use a lot of graphic arts software. Would be nice to have the ability to use Affinity on Fedora with the same computer it is installed using Windows. I doubt there is any way you can install Affinity when purchasing this software through the Microsoft store since the way your programs install there is no file/folder directory created in the Windows Program directory. I may be wrong about this, if so, how could I install Affinity on LInux through WINE if purchased through the Microsoft store? On the other hand that might be possible if purchasing direct from Affinity's web site since your procedure for installing programs does provide an activation product code key? This would lead me to believe that using your web site to buy and install does involve the normal procedure of an operating system installing Affinity by creating a directory with all the files within the Programs directory. With that procedure of creating the installation of programs it is possible to use many Windows programs on a Linux operating system such as Fedora or Mint with the exception of many high priced proprietary software, yet many useful lower priced commercial programs will install on Linux. Is there any way of installing Affinity programs through WINE on a Linux operating system such as Ubuntu, Mint, or Fedora?