François R

No copyright. IDML is an XML based exchange format. Anyone can make an exporter. Someone in Serif and Quark thinks you shouldn't have the opportunity, or that it's not worth the investment, or even worse, hasn't considered your needs as customers. Or as you have tried with several features, you will get it in 8 years or more.

It is simply unbelievable that Serif Software has not worked on a fix for this problem in v1 and v2. Read what you yourself write! Even with OneDrive folders "present"! I wonder how many customers could be affected by this bug? And yet nothing happens from your side, NOTHING! We obviously experienced this error - the export persona is practically unusable. Prospects of Serif Software fixing the bug or grasping its seriousness: minimal. Affinity is unsuitable for professional or serious use. It is incomprehensible.

Serif wrecked the layers panel in more ways than I ever thought possible. How would one navigate through page after page of the mess of a mosaic there? It might have been good idea in extremely simple example for an audience of people who are not graphic artists, but damnit it's impossible to use as soon as you make something complex. I've never seen such a bad idea for navigation and content management in software before. How does it end up in the release version of a program in 2023? Now I've given the wrecked layers panel I v2 several chances - ironically during the phasing out of Affinity in our software portfolio - but the concept is useless, blocking and disruptive. Simply.

Thanks @Dan C 🙂

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

Hi @Dan C Thank you for your thorough feedback, the delay I fully understand. Unfortunately, I can't use the raster preview of the vector for anything, as I can't really see if Affinity's output in particular the smallest details is converted correctly or appropriately to the output format. Preview is also for checking the output; now it's just a preview of what I export, not suitable for a quick inspection of the output and how it ends up technically when objects are baked etc etc to SVG or PDF. Let's call it algorithm conversion preview. Zooming in just reveals pixels. There you have to open and review the output file separately. Not great, not terrible.

Saving to Dropbox and iCloud is also an issue and that is where the issue just explodes. The year is 2023 and cloud services are the to go solution for many and a standard. Serif Software made the catastrophic error to build the Affinity suite upon a totally flawed file architecture and archaic naive OS integration. And more. Serif don't even think they should acknowledge this risk and their own huge mistake in that the UI, when it can, warns customers not to store on such devices, drives or services. The customer must discover the problem and bear the data loss. THIS makes Affinity programs totally unsuitable for serious use - and I simply cannot take Serif Software seriously for the same reason. They act like a software company in the 1990s, and I'm convinced the company hasn't changed culture or key people since then. The software bears this stamp too - it is, after all, modernised copies of software from .... They mostly resemble programs from 1990-2000 with sprinkles of 2000-2010. And then a few contemporary features. It's as if the programs were designed for the needs of the time - and as if Serif has still forgotten the Internet and digital distribution. But then the company was proud when they were "ahead of the curve" and installed the Windows versions of their programs in a new, ill-conceived Microsoft format, yet another unrealistic move from the Nottingham bunker that has yet to be remedied. I just summed up, quietly, that there is an incredible distance from Serif Software's products, to a professional standard for software and to being mature enough to be used in a serious setup. So it's not that surprising that we've chosen not to save on some licenses, but to skip the suffering and facepalms, and invest in serious, up-to-date software. We also realised that it was absurd to shield employees from modern software and technologies and digital distribution options when part of our job is to train and qualify all employees. Affinity is "The tool of the risk-taking capital-poor hobbyist" - stop this nonsense about it being the choice of professionals, Serif.

Rarely? 😄There are plenty of reports about Affinity smashing its own files on this forum, and these are only the instances published here in this forum. How many other documents Affinity crashes, we don't know. And then you even get "file type not supported" error when Affinity no longer knows its own child. Affinity programs are simply not suitable for serious use. Now you know, @annapreston 😞

Weekend after working week among educated, nuanced and creative people. Look into this forum for a few minutes, shake my head, and am on my way out again. I simply can't take it seriously. And they eat daily at a different restaurant in the future, so you forum veterans should read Patrick's post one more time. This forum has the ideal regular members whose Serif's purpose for it is to scare away new and serious customers. When it again leans on victim blaming, it's nice to know we made the absolute right choice in terminating Affinity and Serif Software in any workflow these months. I do have the impression that someone in Serif is listening, but I don't see that the talent or capacity to deliver is there. A thorough analysis of functionality, usability and algorithms and comparison of results with other products even in a similar price range testifies to a company that has not moved like other companies in the last decades. And does not understand their shortcomings. So invest only when and if the products have one day caught up. As you can observe here there are shortcomings, fanboys and far out unrealistic marketing. But the products have to stand the test of reality. What creates value for us is delivering excellent quality to customers, customers we physically meet and look in the eye (and want to sell to again, thank you), after a process where the tools helped us towards the goal, didn't stand in the way and didn't crash. Not to sit and write thousands of posts on this forum, and not to report in trivial bugs that should have been caught early in a large internal testing process. That's why Affinity is 100% out in all workflows - even for assistants and student workers. It's out.

We... 7.286. Not every person invested in all apps and the absurd switch app to do this and that.

You can also convert text to curves.

Regards, Vectorstyler

Hi @bobdobbs Unfortunately, Affinity Designer is severely limited as a vector tool, and we're even in the process of retiring it completely. Precisely before April 2023, when we'll put all Affinity software in the grave here along with other programs that disappointed in one way or another. But as @sfriedberg says, it is not easy to find algorithms in other programs that do what you want as 100% vector as you want it. Many programs have algorithms that are designed to really twist strokes and curves and shapes, and it looks like the application scenarios are best suited to the advertising industry. I've had a lot of trouble using them for restrained effects. I myself need subtle effects smoothly over curves, or conversely soft wave-like effects that go over long distances, giving my work a more organic look. I avoid in many types of my illustrations and works that they appear with perfect mathematical curves or lines, because my clients notice it and they comment on it! The brain is used to looking at natural curves and deviations, and anything vector that looks unnatural e.g. straight or perfectly circular the brain notices as unnatural. If you want something to appear natural, then it needs to be manipulated to not look perfect. For me, this is an unsustainably large task to perform manually with the node tool. The best bet for a feature-rich vector distortion program is the excellent Vectorstyler, which has many features that can be configured in extremely many ways, and you can even save these configurations as REAL styles or presets. But not too many either. The year is 2023, software and hardware can easily, easily handle it, it's exactly the number of nodes needed, and it's peanuts by the way compared to the complexity of posters and full page works I do. Vectorstyler is the program I have used that has given me the best options for such things, but even this program has not really hit the sweet spot. It is the noise wave distortion I have tried to customize: https://www.vectorstyler.com/documentation/shapeeffects/distortion/ Vectorstyler (trial available) is worth checking out (and the company is very open to feature/improvement requests), but probably not a direct solution for you either. But just to say you're using the wrong program if you're looking to work seriously in vector and are after output in vector.

Smart in a 1990s kind of way, maybe, but ... no, not really. Affinity Publisher, "setting new standards", even though Affinity does not do so at all, e.g. by supporting tables over multiple pages, can via this primitive workaround in no way create accessible PDFs for digital distribution, which is a natural legal requirement in the EU, and which is a hell of a gentlemanly way to create digital documents in a civilized world. Legal requirement or not. Expect it to be required in other parts of the world. But that's probably not so relevant either, since serious players have not invested in Affinity Publisher at all at this point, since Publisher can't create accessible PDFs at all! It would have been a clever and well timed move, now Serif Software designed all Affinity programs and architecture from scratch not many years ago, but no. You get the 1990's in the 2020's! And swear by it! Interesting. You are messing around with ancient practices to create outdated PDFs with an outdated program. I think it's fine for making printed menus for pizzerias, but otherwise... good luck with your stone-hammer, Publisher. You end up seriously behind the curve in the world and digital industries, and if your frame of reference is old versions of Adobe that are also naturally outdated since they are retired and from another time, then you are effectively living in isolation from moving forward in an industry that is constantly evolving. Unless you're making pizza menus, of course.

Affinity lost the ability to save the file while working on it. Had saved the file minutes before. Always save in an iCloud folder. Tried saving the file in a non-cloud-folder instead after the error to save my work and still no luck. Affinity only saved a zero-byte file. Had to close Designer and restart it to work on the file again. It is the lingering issues with this "cannot write to file" issues that can apparently pop up out of nowhere and the ditto lingering DISASTROUS file corruption issues that makes me mad. Serif simply have to figure out how to solve the issue. Not being able to work in cloud folders without taking the risk of losing data because of Serifs implementation is pure madness. I have to work like the current year is 2023 - every other application and app I have work fine with cloud folders and network drives. I wouldn't save gigantic files on a network drive, but it has to work with cloud synced folders. It is not a nice to scenario. It is a business requirement that is perfectly normal in 2023. Outside the walls of Serif Software.