zakoops

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

It's great that Affinity can handle large files. The only problem is: I can't. Or rather: I don't want to work with such confusing files because navigating through several hundred pages is quite inconvenient. The book feature was invented precisely to simplify the handling of large amounts of text. And if it's already there, it's not good advice not to use it. I don't understand the point of a function that doesn't work.
(Why shouldn't it work? InDesign can do it too. And without any problems. It simply works exactly as you would expect. And that was the case from the very first moment this function was introduced. If the Affinity people wanted to, the problem could have been solved long ago. I don't understand why they don't want to, or, on the other hand, why they don't rather leave out a function that they apparently consider so superfluous that they implement it sloppily. But that's probably one of the many mysteries of the digital world).
Never mind. I know again: it still doesn't work. In the meantime, I assume that it will never work. That's a shame really. Publisher could be a good thing if the work was done more thoroughly and there weren't so many unfinished projects.

We have been relying on affintiy's products in the publishing house for 3 years and intend to do so in the coming years. We sorely miss an export function to ePub format. The e-Pub format should support the creation of accessible eBooks, as this will be required from 07/2025. 

I am really impressed with Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo. I don't understand why they don't have BitMap Tracing - It has been upgraded so many times with new features but they are still reluctant to add BitMap Tracing. It is so annoying having to export and use Inkscape to do bitmap tracing. I would be happy if you could program an ADDON  in the background to work seamless with INKSCAPE to allow bitmap tracing if they don't want to have their own built into the software. 
Please add BitMap Tracing to your Affinity Products
 
 

I, for one, will be using Affinity Publisher in 2025. My annual subscription to InDesign ends at the end of January and I plan to use Publisher as a replacement. ePub export is absolutely crucial. If Affinity manages to let us tweak css in the export, like InDesign actually does, then it will be perfect. Sigil was a necessary tool even with InDesign to polish the ePub export.
My project is a book of around 400 pages. Yes, reflowable too.
I know I'm taking a big guess here. Fingers crossed.  
 

For comic-books (and other tasks), I regret that 1-bit colorspace is not supported. 
I would like to be able to have pure black images at 1200 ppi and contone images at 300 for example, in the same document. 
The absence of color-separation control tool is also problematic… 
For the rest, I'll continue to use Publisher for creating traditional books, ads and posters. 

Two more use cases I've not considered, not being part of my everyday experience:
- Comic books. I guess Publisher can do them with ease, and the close integration with the other two apps make it the most natural way of publishing these books. As far as I can see, they are still mostly sold in printed form.
- Tabletop roleplaying game instructions. These, too, are distributed in printed form. Apparently, there is a high number of developers, many of them using Affinity.
Paolo
 

A few reasons for electing Publisher that I didn't bother to write:
There is an ongoing editorial work on my book before using Publisher. A print version (pdf) is also in the work. The new Book feature of Publisher is already at hand and usable for pdf export. In all likelihood, it will also be used for ePub export. According to the Affinity and Canva Pledge of March 2024, the ePub export (among other features) “will be released over the coming year as free updates to V2.” Adaptation from print to ePub version will also be required. And lastly, I prefer the UI of Publisher… Hey, I just raise the hand telling you that I use Publisher in 2025. As I wrote, I do know it involves some risk-taking.

The help file of Affinity Photo should provide a guideline explaining the differences between these resample modes (the pros and cons).
 
Furthering the idea proposed by JDW, an interrogation mark should be provided directly in the Resample popup that, when clicked, makes appear an info box explaining these differences and —more importantly— proposes the best mode according to the app maker (Serif).
 
It's indeed peculiar that such basic information is nonexistent in the help file, in the resample popup, or on the web site of Serif!

I’m in Affinity Photo and this problem of persistent visibility of handles around selected objects is actually driving me mad.
 
The space bar trick is not what I want as it gives me the impression of doing yoga with my fingers while doing some other operations.
 
What’s needed here is an OFF/ON switch in the menus with a keyboard shortcut and I just hope that such feature will be included in a next update, real soon, now.