Fixx

I would think free transform/warp/envelope tool would help here. It is also not available but it has been asked quite insistently.

I see this feature request going back as far as 2018 and even 2015.  I've also seen a number of "workarounds" in the forum and online with varying degrees of complexity and effectiveness. 
Curves is an important tool in my own Photoshop workflow because it allows me to run it on lots of photos quickly (think about reviewing 200 - 400 soccer photos taken over a single afternoon and evening -- with the resulting major changes in the lighting balance/characteristics).
Even if I end up using some different tools, Curves helps me establish the limits (and potential) of individual images -- literally in a matter of seconds.
Maybe this is protected IP owned by Adobe, but if there was a single reason that I still keep my last license for PhotoShop (CS6), this is it.  It's also the reason I really don't use Affinity Photo yet.

I'd add a +1 to the need for vector/pattern fill for me but honestly, I'm going back to Adobe. I design for print, creating items that will be scaled by the client. Lack of vector capability kills Designer stone-dead for my work. Bitmap images are totally inadequate; having to pay more than Designer itself for an add-on doesn't cut it: put the basic functionality in the software and charge us more for something that actually works.

I spent *two hours* today searching for instructions to create vector fills because I could not believe something marketed as design software (as opposed to web design software) would not have this feature.  
The Designer forum is full of requests for vector fill and other fundamental functionalities; every time I find a fundamental feature^1 is missing (the ability to designate layers as non-printing at the time they're created; the ability to lock layers to prevent search and other functions operating on those layers; the ability to create greyscale artwork that does not have 'rich black' creeping into it somewhere) I find other people reported the lack, often years ago, and have been begging you to add it ever since.
yeah, I'm a bit annoyed. I've invested several weeks in Designer. Each time I found an issue I began by thinking it was my bad, that I should RTFM. And almost every time I RTFM or ask for help I find the feature has been broken or missing for years. 


^1: This leaves aside other less significant issues: why is there no 'find/change font' for those of us producing artwork that contains text? Why does the eyedropper not correctly copy *all* the attributes of one item to another? etc. 

Cleanest way to get reflowable epub is to copy text to Word and save from there to some epub editor like Jutoh, Sigil, Pages, Vellum or Kindle Create. You can sure convert from PDF to epub but there will be so much to fix I doubt it is worth it. 
For fixed layout epub PDF may be ok starting point but I have no experience for that.

Hybrid would really be preferred method.

I would not do professional work with 8 GB RAM, even if it were M1.

Text>Capitalization is by nature a quick fix tool, usually to make a few sentences of caps text to lowercase. I usually copypaste text to Mail or Word to change capitalization and having to use Publisher roundtrip to do to same does not help any. So this handy tool should be available in Designer too direct. The menu position is identical to Publisher and there is plenty a room for it in submenu.

In Publisher it is OK but not so in Designer.

Here are the two artboards as separate files...
I do appreciate the monetary offer. That was very kind of you. While I didn't know that even an offer from an OP was against rules, I would have chosen to not accept.
What I typically say on a forum when I have freely helped out--even when significant time and effort has been involved--is that if remuneration eases the soul, please consider making a small donation to your local food bank or shelter.
It's a pleasure to help.
best regards, Scotter.
 
splinter_ghost2-01.ai splinter_ghost2-02.ai

I bought heavily into Ryzen and have a Ryzen PC, Ryzen Laptop and a Ryzen Server. But I am also a long time Mac User and love Apple Silicon and have M1 powered iPad Pro, Mac Mini and the MacBook Air.
The M1 MacBook Air is the best laptop I have ever owned. Just the base configuration, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD, and it has one less GPU core, got it for $800. A definite steal at that price point and it is amazing how it punches above its weight. No fan, stays cool even when I stress it, battery life is insane.
I think one thing people need to reassess is specs and what is truly needed. I have 32 GB in my Ryzen PC, 3200 DDR4 RAM but the memory bandwidth and speeds are really pokey compared to my MacBook Air. This unified memory that Apple is pushing, there may be some truth that 8 GB may be equivalent to 16 GB in Windows, that 16 GB might be closer to 32 GB in Windows. The M1, is using 128 bit memory bandwidth and 4200 DDR4X RAM? It appears that they want to take the memory bandwidth and ram specs of Graphics cards and bring it to the whole system, not just the GPU. These new Apple Silicon chips may have 256 Bit memory bandwidth, or 320, 384? And may be using DDR5 RAM? DDR6 RAM? Or something similar? That Unified Memory is accessed by all components, big fat pipes for everyone, GPU, CPU, Neural Engine, etc.
I get real excited by Apple and their chips because they, to me, are really being innovative and pushing boundaries. As much as I like tinkering and building systems, I also sometimes just want something that is fast and is pain free with no maintenance.
 

I produce a lot of artwork to be printed greyscale. No colour, none, never. 
I go to 'File' ->'Document Setup' and select 'Grey/8' or 'Grey/16' and still Designer seems to default to rich black. I have to manually check and correct the black/grey as I work.

Is there a better way to do this?

vector pattern fill would be great.. 
 

Welcome to the Affinity Forums😊.  The licensing information provided by @v_kyr  shows that you can definitely use Photo on both Macs if you meet the terms.  There are at least three separate ways to transfer the Photo app to your Macbook Pro M1.  If you purchased Photo from the MAS then you can download directly by logging in with your Macbook Pro and opening purchased products.  (Don’t know exactly how this works, because I purchase everything from the Serif store.). If you purchased Affinity Photo directly from Serif, then you just log in, provide your account number, and download.  Or you can use Migration Assistant to transfer your files from your old Mac to your new Macbook Pro.  That is what I did, and it worked perfectly.  Hope this may help.

Thanks Fixx, that is something good to know!

You can temporarily disable snap by pressing alt (option)

You can temporarily disable snap by pressing alt (option)

You say your art is photo based. Normal resolution for prosumer or not last gen professional camera is abt 6000 x 4000 pixels. That image can be printed with excellent quality up to ~ 13" x 20" size. You say your target size is 11" x 14". Is this talk about resize really justified?
That said, I have not tested latest ON1 Resize but earlier versions were not anything spectacular – slightly better that AP Lanczos but most of the time no real difference. There is no need to bash Gigapixel for its ability to invent new pixels for low rez photos – when you feed it higher rez material and resample less that twofold resample it creates images more true to original. It is one of the better resamplers out there. That said, OP probably does not need it, as if there is resample even needed, it is so slight that AP lanczos resample can handle it and no one will see the difference.

Yes, this is too hidden.

Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontal (in AD)
Individual letters or selection within text, not as far as I know. I would convert text to curves and select individual path and flip it.

Also trying to get to the bottom of this.
Here's a quick and dirty test showing any PDF placed as passthrough will get rasterized. A passthrough placed Press Ready (1.7) PDF exported as Press Ready (1.7) fails, as does an X/4 PDF exported to X/4. These are linked PDFs, but even when embedded, they fail. Only fix is to interpret. (Actually, I can embed, then edit the embed and outline the text, but that's hardly a feasible workflow.)
Madness I say!
 
 

Fundamentally - users should be able to edit any channel with the same tools and flexibility they enjoy in any standard color layer.
Its not only game artists who need this.
At the end of the day it's just an 'image' and AP is an image editing software, no?

I think @amedeomantica is wanting to export a PDF that is imposed for booklet printing. The only way to do this from Publisher is to do so from the macOS print to PDF feature, in which case the Publisher PDF options are not available.
I use a third-party solution for saving imposed PDFs: Create Booklet 2 (mac only). From Publisher, you would export the PDF as pages using the settings that you want. Then you would open that PDF in Create Booklet 2 to set the imposition as desired. You can then export that PDF ready to go to the printer (I assume you are printing in house like we do: if you are sending to a professional printer, it is likely better to let them impose their way according to their equipment and workflow.)

It should not be necessary to think about pixel alignment or resolution differences (as long as there is resolution enough).
The document should look the same before and after merging. Layered document creates a merged look on screen on the fly anyway and it should be true. If the look changes upon merging it is up to devs to correct behaviour, it should not be up to user to adjust layers.

I think Rocketdrive raises a fair point.
Studios are panels, windows that float above a document and in which changes are applied immediately. Selecting another object will reflect its values in all open panels.
Rocketdrive is pointing out that some Affinity panels aren't studios which is confusing. Text Wrap, Baseline Grid, Resource Manager, and others are panels which can't be docked. There is no difference between these panels and studios, they just happen to have close/minimize controls and a redundant Close button. It's confusing that Text Wrap is not a panel and Pinning is a panel given how related these functions are. And yes, Text Wrap could have been designed in a more compact fashion for a window that can be left open permanently.
Affinity apps also have another type of window of which Picture Frame Properties is an example. This is really just a popup button but it displays an oversize and more complex window that a typical popup button. Picture Frame Properties would be much more useful as a studio or as a non-studio panel because I challenge you to use Publisher on a 13" laptop screen and not have Picture Frame Properties appear on top of the picture, making it difficult to see the effect of your changes. I prefer to work on a small screen but I'm constantly having to shift the document after clicking Picture Frame Properties. Fortunately, I can do that by dragging on the touchpad while the Properties popup is still open.
One last point on the Studio panels - there are different widths even for panels which are on the same side by default. For example, Pages, Index, and Find/Replace are all docked on the left by default in non-separated mode but Pages is much narrower than the other two. Again because I'm on a small screen, I keep the left-side panel as narrow as possible. This means my document view port narrows when I choose Find or Index. I would prefer Find and Index to be as narrow as Pages and they could be, there's no reason they have to be that wide.

The memory warning includes virtual memory. System is jammed because startup disk is full (of Affinity memory leak).