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Hi All,
We're happy to make the second build of the 2.1 beta available today - 2.1.0.1709. This should now be available for you on auto update.
Here's some of the main changes in this build:
Guides
Had a lot of great feedback on guides - thank you. In this build we have:
Added Alt-Click to delete a guide Made Alt-Shift while dragging snap to delta. We had already made holding shift snap to ruler units from page origin. What this new option gives is if you have a guide placed at, say, 35.3mm from the page origin and you want to move it 10mm - you can now drag while holding Alt-Shift to snap to that difference. Of course this also works if you have alt or cmd dragged a duplicate of the guide If guides are currently set to not visible, then dragging out a new guide from ruler (or moving an existing guide from indicator on ruler) will automatically turn guide visibility on in all OSs Crop Tool
Enter as well as return now commits a crop Escape now resets the crop Brush Panel
Generally tightened panel up somewhat so less vertical space was being used. Brush names if you have chosen to show them are now justified to left Light UI should now hopefully look correct Modifying a brush using drag shortcuts (e.g. ctrl+alt+click drag left and right) keeps brush selection in panel (and shown as modified as appropriate). Raster mesh and perspective live filters in pixel persona
Now added correctly in Windows version so the live versions of these filters are available Have now added to pixel persona in the iPad version of Designer. You will have two new options under the + button in Layers panel where you can choose to add either of these live filter layers. Vector flood fill
New icon has been added for tool to distinguish between the raster flood fill tool in Affinity Photo When you are in tool you can now drag and drop swatches directly from the swatches panel into any area the fill tool recognises from your selection If you are in "In Between" mode the additional shapes / fills which are created are automatically added to your selection so if you subsequently change the fill of them again additional shapes are not created. Bitmap fills are now supported. This means you can pick a bitmap fill swatch from swatches to use as your fill colour (or drag and drop a bitmap fill swatch into the appropriate area). Few notes on this: Currently if the bitmap fill has transparency this will be added as an additional fill (in appearance panel), so can be added as a texture over an existing colour fill. It's a cool feature, but we probably need to add a modifier / option in context toolbar about whether you want that to do that vs. replace the fill altogether.  You will notice in the context toolbar some new options for min, max and stretch to fit. These options are only relevant for bitmap and gradient fills and determines how the gradient or bitmap are scaled within the new fill being created.  A nice thing to try is when you are in fill tool you can drag from assets into your active colour on the toolbar to automatically create a bitmap fill to use - as shown in the video below.   Texture Fills.mov  
Blend mode shortcuts
Erase bend mode now available to configure on macOS and iPad Ordering of blend mode list and default keys should now be consistent between operating systems Close All
Apply to all check box now been added to macOS dialog if you have currently open unsaved / modified documents.
Various bug fixes
Of course there are also various bug fixes - you can find the list of these on the second post in the fix list thread.
Thanks again for all your help.
Ash
 

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad (requires keyboard)
Keyboard shortcuts have now been added to change the blend mode of the current layer(s), or paint brush tool.
Holding Shift with + or - will go to the next or previous blend mode in the list. Additionally, you can use any of the shortcuts in the attached table to change immediately to a specific blend mode. These can also be customised (as well as assigning shortcuts to other blend modes where a default shortcut hasn't been given) within preferences.

This will change the blend mode of the currently selected layer(s) (in all apps, all platforms including iPad with keyboard attached), unless you are using the Paint Brush Tool (Pixel or Photo persona) in which case the shortcuts will change the blend mode of the current brush.

Please leave any feedback or notes of unexpected behaviour for this new functionality in this thread.

I had no idea that this basic feature was missing.
It's been requested numerous times over the years. Having just changed computers, I'm torn between installing a very old copy of Illustrator or Inkscape...
While I appreciate the recently-updated suite, I sure wish Affinity would nail these basics, many of which have been around elsewhere for a very long time.

Got a new laptop and attempted Affinity only for a while... had to re-install CC within a day, I think. ☹️
It's sadly impossible to switch completely to Affinity at the moment. To many bugs and too many basic things missing.
Muscle memory and shortcuts didn't even have time to become an issue for me! 😂
(See my post history for the specifics, and am just about to post a new thing as well, when I find the appropriate thread...)

Hi there,
is there any option to create /change a smoothing paths from countless nodes?
i have a big puzzle put together to one object and thousands of nodes. I would like to reduce them.
Convert: "smooth" does not work, may be because it's an "union object"
 
 

It is now 2023. I really could use a "simplify curve" tool. Reducing vertices without manual labour is sometimes useful.
 
Can we please have a tool to reduce data and smooth?

This [overprint colors issue] is a huge, glaring omission.
And one that I didn't realize existed. (Clearly, I haven't been using Affinity software for commercial printing.) For reference, I have been involved in print design for many years and have designed everything from newspaper ads to books with enormous print runs on offset, web and digital. I have traveled across the country on multi-day press checks.
My affinity for Affinity is, in part, due to my loathing for Adobe and their rental model. I imagine this is true for many of the folks here. I have happily supported and promoted Affinity/Serif for offering a "viable alternative" to Adobe. But I may have to rethink this as this alone makes the software non-viable for anyone involved in print. Having to create multiple versions of the same color to have it overprint is ludicrous makes for a completely unworkable workflow. Overprinting should always be available to set on the object level. Always. Period.
Serif/Affinity Team...
Please take this seriously. We are all rooting for you to be David in a Goliath industry. If you don't get these absolute basics right, you will never have the commercial success that you, and us, want you to have.

🥱Been posted and addressed over and over.
Clearly, you should just buy (sorry, rent) the Adobe suite.
They aren't greedy and you'll save a ton of money.

As someone who would like/is attempting to use AP2 for digital painting, this feature is a must. It blows my mind it hasn't been added, there's posts from 2017 complaining about this. I've seen a few other posts from forums for some workarounds, but its still just not the same...
Workaround (if curious)->
Set Accumulation Jitter to Pressure and 40-50%
Set Flow Jitter to Pressure and 100%
Set Luminosity Jitter to Pressure and 4-10%
 
I would also like to be able to see the text names of my brushes without having to hover my mouse to see what the brush name is. 
 
Thanks,

Yes, I'm well aware that you're supposed to stick to one topic threat once it has been brought up. On the other hand ... The 7 year old problem still persists in the highly praised V2. New version - new topic.

How ignorant can one be. As I continuosly keep saying: Serif gives a shit on most important workflow and essential usabillity. They have no focus on people seriously working with their products on a professional base. If I'd just be an occasional user I'd probably not care about such a topic. And of course users needs are different. Even professionally working on a single project for weeks this kind of workflow would not matter. But as a photographer who's dealing with hundrets of files daily for different customers efficiency in workflow for me is significant time (money). I brought this problem also up for the export dialog that still is a nightmare if you need to export multiple files in a row. I wish I'd see even the slightes movement on serif side ...

Thanks for your feedback, sorry for your experience, and yes your voice has been heard.

I just resubscribed to creative cloud, I thought I could finish the project I'm working on with publisher but it's just impossible, too many bugs, too many inconsistencies, too many freezes and crashes, it drives me crazy. I'd rather start from scratch than continue with this software. I just hope there will be improvements in the future, maybe I'll give it a chance again, but for now, it's not a "professional" (as advertised) tool, definitely not.
I would be willing to trade features for stability. It could be the best software ever made if it is not stable it is useless.
SERIF : FIX YOUR SOFTWARE, STABILITY/RELIABILITY SHOULD BE THE #1 PRIORITY
And publisher is anything but stable. Its like an alpha.
I had a lot of hope and I thought it was great to finally have a real alternative to adobe. But I've been fooled by hype, reviews, forums and marketing.
Yes V2 universal licence is cheap, but even for free I don't want to work with.
I could easily pays like 500€ for stable suite, it would still be a fair price for a suite of professional tools
I think affinity has a positioning marketing problem, they want to target both amateurs and pros, we end up with the worst of both worlds.
now I'm going to spend the whole night redoing all my work in order not to be late Yes, I'm a bit angry. and I needed to vent my frustration.

I'm posting in a separate thread per direction from moderator.

ISSUES:
I have been trying to be patient as I know programming isn't an easy task but I am really starting to have the same feeling as the OP (finding something different to use).  It has been a nightmare using 2.0 version of affinity.  What use to take me a few minutes in version 1.0 is now taking me hours.  The program freezes, is very slow and when you try to add an asset it takes forever to add just 1 thing.  To create a new sub category takes a long time before the subcategory appears.  Then if you try to rename it its take even more minutes.  That is just dealing with svg type graphics I create in designer and store as assets in both designer and publisher to use later.  Try to swap to a different asset categories and you will wait 3+ minutes or it freezes.  Happens in Publisher and Designer.  I have lost count of how many times I have had to go to task manager and END the program.

I recently created my first document in Publishers.  It was a 252 page document and I used the master page feature for the firsst time.  It was supposed to be simple.  It was, it crashed, froze and has been nothing but a headache. 
I could go back to 1.0 but have created a lot in version 2.0 so reverting would mean recreating everything again.  Talk about more hours to redo things.  I have tried all the suggestions of check/unchecking open gl option in settings.  Didn't help.
I was so hoping by now the kinks would have been figured out.  I am using the following equipment in case it could be helpful to developers;

- ASUS ROG Gaming Laptop
- Intel Core i7-8750H
-  GeForce GTX 1050 Ti-1080p NVDIA Compatible
- CPU: 2.20GHZ 2208 Mhz
- 6 Core(s)
-Memory 32 GB
- 1 TB Hard Drive
- Windows 11 10.02261 Build 22621

This is a screen shot of the performance tabs of my affinity publisher V2 & V1:


NOTE:  Late this morning 01/17/2023: I started recreating files I created in V2 back into V1 of affinity.  V1 of affinity was fast, didn't lag or crash.  I was able to add assets in without issue, delete them, ,etc.  There was no lag.   Just sharing that the issue definitely with V2 of affinity.

I'm fairly new to Affinity Designer. Like most people, I come from the Adobe world. Soon after starting with AD I started to miss the free transform tool found in the competitor's software. I found an old thread in which for over five years people were demanding a free transform tool to be included in Designer. Then with the introduction of v2, those demands seemed to have been answered, in form of the Warp Group feature.

The Warp Group is a really cool and powerful feature which, on the surface, seems to do the task of the free transform tool. I did notice some unexpected behaviour with it though.
The warp tool curves straight lines when it shouldn't. The image below best illustrates my issue with the tool. In the example I'm warping a simple triangle (with straight sides and sharp nodes) with the Quad Warp tool. I'm expecting the warp tool to keep the sides of the triangle straight. Instead it curves them. To me, this is not the expected behaviour, nor is it how the free transform in other software work and I think it should be fixed.


 
With the Perspective Warp the effect isn't as strong, but it can still be seen (image below).



For comparison, the image below shows the free transform behaviour in both Photoshop and Illustrator. So I ask: why should Affinity Designer's Warp behaviour be any different? So far I've really enjoyed exploring AD and its features, but little discrepancies like this in the tools are quite frustrating to me.

Hello,
 
I am very new to Affinity products. As I have used Photoshop my entire life and I recently switched to Affinity and I am loving all the great features.
 
This is a small feature but very useful while saving photos for web. There should be an option to enable or enabled default to automatically replace space with - (dash) in the file name while exporting images for web like photoshop does.
 
 
Thank You

If you roll back to PagePlus 3.0 you can have your wish fulfilled. In addition to the - and + buttons, the % value is clickable and can be set manually.

I work on a laptop screen and the Navigator panel, whether in Affinity or Adobe, takes up too much space so it's the first thing I closed when configuring my panels. With Adobe the Magnification level can be seen and changed through the control in the Status bar. With Affinity, the magnification level can be seen through the Toolbar's Status control but edited only through the Navigator panel.
Please make Magnification level editable through the Status bar so that those of us who can't keep the Navigator panel have a way to change the level numerically. It could also be done with the Toolbar but it doesn't have any text fields so it likely isn't the right spot for it.
Thank you
Affinity - Magnification level can be seen and changed in the Navigator panel

Affinity - Magnification level can be seen in the Toolbar's Status control but not edited

Adobe - Magnification level can be seen and changed in the Status Bar

It's not the shape of the elements. It's the lack of contrast and distinguishability of active and disabled state.

Grapher has it spot on. I bought the V2 to support Serif in their work, but tables and columns support is vital to me too (and a great many people), which is why I have to use InDesign still for much of my work. It is not a case of someone with a special requirement being negative, it is about someone who is old school and cares about good software at a decent price, being a critical friend. The things that are missing are vital components of a modern DTP product. I have been in the IT business since 1980 (yes - we did have computers then. In fact I programmed my first computer when I was at school in 1962!). It just seems such a shame that something that could be the best is falling at the last hurdle. I wish Serif all the good will in the world - if I didn't, do you think I would be wasting my time writing this?

for me its multipage tables. indesign CS6 (2013) which is last non-subscription version is capable to do this flawlessly, and its old as hell.  Try to do catalogues or scientific documents or even larger manuals without this. Its pain in a** . Im asking for this feature with many professionals since release. So still have to have installed CS6 for some work.

To me personally, version 2 is overhyped, esp. publisher and its more like GUI change, and more like version 1.11 than 2.0. That overmarketinged "something big is comming" only damaged the product. Its not big. its few features that have been asked years, and money request. But on the other side, i have no problem pay them again, even every year, for upgrade. Its not a problem. And as i stated few months maybe years ago, also would pay way more to get fully working professional suite without significant bugs (forexample, on PC, there was no acceleration for AMD high end cards, with information, that its bug in AMD drivers, which was ofc nonsense -  as we see version 2 working accelerated without problems, and in meantime, plenty of graphic programms, using same acceleration also without problems). 
Only thing i was really waiting for ages was designer's warp, even 4 corners skew would do the trick. What suprises me is, that its non destructive and very good designed. Thumbs up.
So yea. A bit salty, but did buy version 2 not because of being big, but to support the devs.

There will be customer betas here on these forums very soon. Be as critical as you like and we would appreciate your credentials improving the software.

It would be nice if they would just be so much more aggressive with the betas. Let the technical people in who are willing to be highly critical of their suite but also have expertise to provide useful criticism. If it has to be closed betas to people who actually are properly credentialed to avoid a clown shit show, then so be it.

Carry on using v1 then.

Comparison and criticism is encouraged. Selling hundreds of thousands of copies of our software in a week or 4 leads to a lot of feedback, both positive and negative but nothing I would call orchestrated. They are all personal experience but if a lot of people say the same thing at the same time it may feel coordinated..... But that is not what this thread is about, so let's please keep this thread on track.

Photo got bumped to 2.0.3, and while there's a good chance I've overlooked it, I don't see a "What's New" list outlining fixes, improvements or additions. (What's New in AP 2... in the menu links to a YouTube video from the launch in November...) Assuming that I've just missed it, could someone post a link and/or info?

It would be helpful it was glaringly-obvious what's changed with every update. Microsoft's Visual Studio Code is a great example (just one, I'm sure there are others) of an "in your face" notification of updates: When you launch it for the first time post-update, a new tab opens with a full list of the changes, and links to more information as appropriate. At a minimum, I always skim through this as there is occasionally something new or improved that makes a big change or improvement in the workflow.
The team is obviously working on updates ... very encouraging.