Patrick B

Actually wonder if this should in fact be a transform panel thing and that if you have "transform objects separately" checked and type in an absolute value into the transform panel (e.g H=100px) then all the objects in your selection should adopt that height rather than it working proportionally based on the key object size?
Also we'll get round to adding a "Size to Same" function at some point!

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
All Affinity apps now allow you to both create and place password protected PDFs.
Create
In the advanced export options for PDF files you will see two new options:
1. Require password to open. If you set a password here that means anyone who tries to open that PDF will be prompted to give this password before they can open it.
2. Permissions password. Here you can further protect the PDF with options for restricting printing, modification, editing and copying with a secondary password.
You will also see the type of encryption being used for the file in question. This is based on the PDF compatibility being used in Export. PDF 1.6 & 1.7 both use AES-128, PDF 2.0 uses AES-256. Password protection is not available with PDF 1.4, 1.5 or PDF/X file compatibility.

Passwords can be saved with the document preset, so for example you could have a preset of “Company Internal PDF” which both specifies the export settings, DPI, etc. you want for that type of document, but also the password settings.
Place
Previously you could not place password protected PDFs in Affinity. Now you can - when you attempt to place the PDF you will get a prompt asking you for the password for the document you are attempting to place.
 

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
You can now choose whether you want the background of the Asset Panel to be light, dark, checkerboard or automatic based on your current Light/Dark UI setting. This behaves in the same way as changing the background colour used for layer thumbnails.
This is primarily to be able to switch the background to achieve greater contrast for the particular assets you are looking at.
You can change the background colour from the burger menu at the top of the assets panel.
          
 

 
 

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
 
We have now added a spiral tool which is available from the shape tools flyout. This is something we have had many requests for, but also varying requests as to the type of result wanted. For that reason we have tried to make this as flexible as possible, both offering different types of spiral and variables to adjust.
When you create a spiral you will see from the context toolbar the different options available. Here are some examples of what you can create with the tool:
Spiral Type: Linear

Spiral Type: Decaying

Spiral Type: Semi-Circular
This type replicates the way many people have been creating a spiral in Affinity - effectively by joining decreasing semi circular arcs together.  With this type we also offer a counter Semi-circular option which returns the spiral back on itself:

Spiral Type: Fibonacci

Spiral Type: Plotted

 
 

I think they do care. But marketing works on those who don't know about the bugs.
The irony is that the bugs tend to hurt the most dedicated users. The ones doing the most advanced work. For example, not many here use Artboards. I use exclusively artboards, so most don't encounter the unbelievable number of bugs that are unique to artboards. Almost all of the live filters are broken on artboards. I've been meaning to write something up about it, but haven't had the time and my motivations are low as so far no bugs I've ever opened have been fixed as of yet.

I find it hard to believe that most people, professional or not, don’t care how “buggy” the software is that they use, as long as endless new features are being constantly added! This was one of the problems with the old Plus/legacy Serif software, endless new “bells and whistles” being added in order to have new selling points, while long standing, often serious, bugs just dragged on from release to release. In the end they scrapped the whole range and developed Affinity instead. I really would not like to see Affinity going the same way: the software getting so buggy that it becomes almost unusable, while endless, new features (often with their own new bugs!) are added in the hope of a few more sales!

I think this view significantly diminishes the value and importance of bugfixes. Bugfixing in effect is like having new features as it often means you can now do something you could not before. You can market and promote these as improvements just as well and should.
Based on the activity of the "Serif Info Bot" recently, seems there has been a lot of bug fixes. This is great! I hope there are many more.
I dream of the day I will finally see "Serif Info Bot" comment on one of my submissions :-)

While I do eagerly anticipate new features, I am finding that with each release the Affinity apps are becoming less stable, and generally more buggy. Software will always have bugs, but there comes a point where the number of bugs that impact users on a day-to-day basis becomes so great that continuing to use the tools becomes a liability for many—irregardless of cost. I keep seeing reports of corrupted files and lost work, which has really eroded my confidence in the apps. In 25+ years of using Adobe software I can count the number of times I have actually lost work on one hand (YMMV). With Affinity, it's happened half a dozen times to me in the past six months (the iPad apps are especially bad for it). What's more is that many of the bugs are difficult to reproduce consistently so you don't report them right away, but then the bugs that are reported often don't get fixed for years (if ever).
I do wish Serif would communicate to users some of the challenges they are having, and how they are actively looking to rectify them. I'd much rather have the next few releases be dedicated to fixing many of the long-standing issues than pushing out new buggy features on top of all of the existing bugs, and partially-implemented features. 
Technical debt adds up fast.
As for the beta releases. Testing from users should not replace a rigorous, in-house testing process—something that currently feels lacking within Serif. I stopped running the beta releases long ago as there is still no ability to back-save document versions (I often double-click files to open them, and something will always get opened/saved in the beta), and many of the reported issues were never addressed. Endlessly logging issues with developers that are never resolved isn't progress.
I had always hoped that v2 would have been the chance for Serif to build a modern, stable foundation on which to take the Affinity apps in amazing new directions. Instead, from my perspective, it feels as if things have gone backwards. The UI/UX in v2 is just awful compared to v1 (especially on iPad), and the day-to-day issues and constant workarounds are becoming increasingly frustrating.

Don't put unnecessary & indirect time pressure on the dev team, the latest releases again introduced a bunch of new bugs & issues (...not to name old so far still unfixed things, which can also trigger unwanted side effects for new features), which IMO would be more essiential to fix first at all, in order to get overall more stable and well behaving apps. - Also AFAI can see, somehow the software quality assurance has overall deteriorated since the beginning of the version 2 cycle. As many bugs & issues here are only discovered/detected after the major releases and not during the beta test phases. - Looks like we (the community) also have to do a better assistent job in testing the Affinity apps more carefully.
Otherwise, to also express some praise for the Serif Affinity team here, I know how difficult and time-consuming it can be to work on large and complex software projects and then always have to react promptly to new, constant OS substructures and all other influential software changes around. Add to that all the internal administrative work... etc. So keep on rolling, it can only get better and don't let yourself get too much stressed and burn out.

Hi All,
We are pleased to make available the next update to the 2.1 beta (2.1.0.1736). This will be available for you shortly on auto-update. Below are some of the main changes in this update...
WebP and JPEG XL now available in batch export
As has been commonly requested since adding these new formats to V2, we have now made them available as batch format options in Affinity Photo.

New left swipe options on iPad layers panel
You can now access lock/unlock, rename layer and change compound type (if layer in question is a compound) by swiping left on a layer as shown below:
RPReplay_Final1680080397.mov
 
Brush panel improvements
Texture brushes in Designer persona can now be viewed in thumbnail view (i.e. you now have ability to uncheck "Show as list") Alt-Click on raster brushes now changes brush while keeping your current brush width as well as ignoring associated tool. If you just want to ignore associated tool then use shift-alt-click Auto-select
With auto select turned off you can now hold cmd (Mac/iPad) / ctrl (Windows) to temporarily turn it back on to make another selection on document.
Also note: We have encountered some problems with auto select being off with multi-page documents. For that reason it is currently disabled with a multi-page doc, we are hoping to have a fix for this soon.
Vector flood fill tool
When your bucket is loaded with a colour / fill you can now just click on any object to fill it even if it is not selected. In this case this will just fill the whole object - if you want the fill tool to take into account intersecting shapes and curves they all need to be pre-selected as before. While in the tool you can now just click on an asset or stock item to load your bucket with that bitmap texture (i.e. without having to drag drop as before). This is currently only implemented on desktop, but will be added to iPad in too in the next update. There are new controls for whether you want to add as an additional fill or replace the current fill. To be honest there is still some outstanding work which needs to be done with this, so we will talk more about this / what the expected behaviour is in the next update. A new option to "fill to visible boundaries". This means if any of the objects in your selection are obscuring any line segments from other objects, these can now optionally be ignored by the tool. In the example below - without the new option checked there are 12 possible areas you can fill to, but now you can alternatively choose to just show the 6 areas on the right. 
Crop tool
Cmd / ctrl / shift constrain modifiers are now available when in unconstrained mode as promised.
Dashed lines
We now accept zero as the 2nd and 3rd dash value to give different options, particularly when in combination with balanced lines. This example was discussed on the thread - the left option begins with a dot and when balanced dots are in the rectangle corners. The right option begins with a dash, but the 2nd "dash" can now be set to a dot (zero value) to enable dashes in the corners in this case.

Pencil double tap option for quick menu
If menu is already visible a second double tap will now dismiss it.
Rename Layers
You can now double click / tap on an artboard name to rename it!
 
Plus as usual lots of bug fixes as listed in the fix list thread!
To comment / give feedback on any of these changes please go to the relevant thread for that feature which is linked to in each of the headings above.

Thanks,
Ash

Works great - once handles can snap it will be KILLER

I agree that a dedicated Rotate Tool will greatly benefit us illustrators. People who draw with a graphics tablet are kinda being left in the dark there. I've tried the keyboard shortcuts, and mapping rotation to the tablet touch ring, but both options are inferior to a Rotate Tool if you keep one hand on the keyboard while drawing.

I was attempting to replicate a perfect arch using Designer. Adjusting one node at a time, freestyle, is very tedious and time-consuming when such an effect requires a reasonable amount of precision. I need to practice with this manual way 😅… but I expect a computer to do more of the work.

If you look at the price of Adobe products, this is extremely reasonable. I prefer to pay for a new version (if I need to) after almost three years of using v1 than being trapped in a milking adobe system, which I can't even afford at the moment (and will never as my income doesn't come from graphic work). For 99 dollars, I get the three apps for my computer and iPad. Make the math of how much this would cost you with adobe at 55$ a month... Who cares if other people get the same discount, it is good for everyone, and I'm happy for them if they discover a fair alternative to Adobe. Those discussions are sterile, and it seems arrogant to think that using an app that you paid 50 dollars or less for many years entitles you to upgrade to a new major version with forthcoming functionality for almost nothing. The equivalent of 2 months of adobe is the price I paid for a new version.
 

These are no longer the latest macOS Affinity V2 customer beta builds (see last post) in this thread:
Affinity Designer 2 Customer Beta build 2.0.3.3 for macOS (NEW) Affinity Photo 2 Customer Beta build 2.0.3.316 for macOS (NEW) Affinity Publisher Customer Beta build 2.0.3.1674 RC for macOS  (NEW) This is a quick patch which fixes some urgent issues and will be a short beta cycle, so we can release this update as soon as possible. The purpose of this beta is to give you an opportunity to try the fixes and report on any possible regressions we may have introduced since the current release 2.0.0. This forums are not for reporting bugs found in the release builds or for telling us what is not yet fixed in this beta. We are also planning a larger update with more fixes and improvements which will beta here in the New Year.
To get downloads for these beta build and see the release notes and please go to the relevant forum and find the pinned post at the top of the forum.
Please follow this thread for forum notifications of new V2 Mac beta builds

Status: Beta
Purpose: Fixes and updates
Requirements: Licensed Affinity Designer 2 (registered to an Affinity ID account)
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
We are pleased to announce that the first Affinity Designer 2 Customer Beta 2.0.3.3 is now available from the link above.
This beta is an update to the 2.0.0 version recently released to all customers and will form the basis of our first patch. We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the release version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
 
- New Document: Custom Document Preset order is not retained between app sessions
- Shape Builder Tool now has an additional option to delete open curves that were inside a newly created area, plus you can now hold Alt to delete areas while still in Add mode - more to come...
- Warp Group editing now supports the Shift modifier to lock node edits to an 8-axis grid. Also can be used with off-curve nodes to maintain their angle while dragging them
- DWG Import scaling improvements
- Current DPI of selected layer does not show in V2
- Using the Select object/ transparency object selects all objects
- New clearer icons for stroke properties (cap, join, align)
- Fixed spurious future version error under certain circumstances
- Update for HEIF importer
- Export Panel UI fixes
- Pen tool tweaks and fixes
- Gradients on text strokes don't render unless the fill also has a gradient
- Fixed hang that could occur composing vertical centre aligned text
- OpenType handling does not respect lookup flags such as IgnoreMarks
- Resource Manager updates
- Fix for disappearing rulers
- Fixed various issues involving handling of placed document files
- Placed documents with bleed can fail to render the bleed correctly
- Many and various Layers Panel updates and fixes
- Ensure global colour edits update live
- Select Same Name should only select objects with user supplied names
- Localisation updates
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this notification thread 

Put vector objects to a spiral or curved path like a text.
Here is example:
 

This is a known issue currently logged with our developers I'll update this thread once I have more info.
Thanks
C

Hi @Patrick B
This has been passed over to the devs for investigation. 

Just change the top left colour and the others will follow.


Interactive Colour Chords AP1.afphoto

Hi @François R, @Bryan Rieger is on a break, @norbinw, everyone,
Thanks for your feedback. These "lines" are not just visual guides, they are also active interface elements that allow you to collapse the level(s) without having to go up to click the expand/collapse arrow in the respective group layer. Consider the case below where i still left the group visible to help with visualization (if the group contains several objects it may not be visible in the Layers panel at all): you can quickly collapse the level/group by clicking the first bar on the left side of the (selected) thumbnail - there's no need to go up to the group layer itself (or scroll up if the group isn't visible) to click the expand/collapse arrow. Hope this makes its purpose clear. I do understand it makes the panel look a bit more busy.

 

The "lines" (actually it's fills separated by faint 1px lines) are contextual: They also mark/highlight the hierarchy of the selected layer. I like them. 
They look much better with the Light UI though.
(Disclosure: I don't like any dark UI in general. It hurts my eyes.)

Yet again a proof that you simply can't please everybody.  
I, for one, like the "mosaic" of lines and boxes. 

Hi EmT,
Here are some screen recordings. I am working with the document "Knife Bug 1.afdesign" that OP posted.
01.mp4 02.mp4

I am using an M1 iMac running macOS 11, and I'm able to replicate the problem on my end. As has been said, the bug seems to only occur when cutting a straight line (holding Shift) across curved paths, seemingly at specific areas. This only happens on curves that were converted from fonts, but not every font and not every glyph has this problem. Hope this gets fixed.