AgentSimon

This works. It is a working solution, but its far from ideal. As others have said, hiding layers this way obscures which layers are visible and not in the Layers panel. I much prefer to show / hide the layers via the built-in show / hide function which updates the dot next to the layer to represent what state each layer is in, and preserves what opacity you have each layer set to.
The devs are so close now. They have a 'Hide layer' shortcut, and separately a 'Show layer' shortcut setting, but why are they not the same shortcut as a toggle? It should be the same shortcut setting - so you press it and it toggles the state between hide and show. That's how it is in PS and its far better that way. Reduces the amount of shortcuts you need to remember, and is easier to toggle quickly.
Please combine 'Hide' and 'Show' into a single toggling 'Hide/Show' layer shortcut. Please.
 

+1 yes, please.

This works. It is a working solution, but its far from ideal. As others have said, hiding layers this way obscures which layers are visible and not in the Layers panel. I much prefer to show / hide the layers via the built-in show / hide function which updates the dot next to the layer to represent what state each layer is in, and preserves what opacity you have each layer set to.
The devs are so close now. They have a 'Hide layer' shortcut, and separately a 'Show layer' shortcut setting, but why are they not the same shortcut as a toggle? It should be the same shortcut setting - so you press it and it toggles the state between hide and show. That's how it is in PS and its far better that way. Reduces the amount of shortcuts you need to remember, and is easier to toggle quickly.
Please combine 'Hide' and 'Show' into a single toggling 'Hide/Show' layer shortcut. Please.
 

On Mac, it's possible to "hack" the app resources and replace the checkerboard PNGs. (Yep, been there done that.)
However, only proceed if you know what you are doing. You have been warned.
forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/177152-transparent-background-both-designer-photo-and-publisher-v2/&do=findComment&comment=1019756
 

Add a setting to Preferences -> User Interface that allows you to set a darker checkerboard background for transparency. How you do it is up to you. It can be a slider or a menu of preset choices. I have attached an image of how photoshop does it (in an old version).
When it is white, it's hard to work with art that is white. I am aware of workarounds like adding a fill layer. I do not want a workaround.

I support this request.

Hello Affinity Photo development team,
I'm a newbie to your program, but have worked as a digital illustrator for several years.
Affinity Photo is a really nice program - a nice alternative to Photoshop.
It could be a great program for digital illustrators and painters... But it is missing a critical option for higher speed efficiency: a fast color picker option by pressing "Ctrl" or "Alt"
This is present in Photoshop, Corel Painter, Krita, OpenCanvas, PaintStorm Studio, etc. 
It is very important to painters to be able to access the color picker quickly. When you hold down "Ctrl" or "Alt" and click on the color - it color picks it. Then when you let go of the "Ctrl" or "Alt" key, it goes back to the tool you were using before. When you have to switch between brush and color picker, this wastes twice the amount of time. An extra second or fraction of a second may not seem like a lot - but it adds up. A painting that would take 2 hours, takes 4 hours. A piece that would take 1 day, takes 2 days. 1 week turns into 2 weeks, etc. 
This would be a great addition to Affinity Photo - for all artists.
One last idea... Is allowing the user to "fix" the color wheel triangle in a fixed position - instead of having it rotate all around pointing at the chosen color. Why? Because having lightness point up, darkness point down, and saturation point right - is far easier for the brain to process than having the triangle flip all around the wheel... it makes picking specific shades across different colors inconsistent.. harder to match the same saturation position on different colors... because it has changed position. It's easier for the brain to map out the color triangle when it's fixed in one position. White up - black down - and saturation to the right.. Would be far easier to remember for artists - who need consistency, and speed in color picking.
Thank you immensely for viewing and considering these ideas!!

Hi,
 
such a basic tool....
Yes, please add this

Hey there,
 
I’d like to see this option as well!  :)
 
Greetings
Dennis

Is it possible to have a selected area and crop to selected pixels?

One more bump from me. Please add "Hide Object".

another bump for this post.

Bumping this post, since its really something that make a difference.

It's more of a work-a-round as there isn't an option in the keyboard shortcut preferences to assign a shortcut key to toggle layer visibility on/off at the moment.  If some of your layers have opacities that aren't 100%, then obviously this work-a-round won't help and you'll need to resort back to using the check boxes in those cases.