BBG3

Apps: All
Platforms: iPad
All iPad versions now has the preference available to keep selection after delete. This option determines whether after deleting an object the next object in your layer stack is automatically selected or not. This option was already available in the desktop versions.

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad
Holding onto any tool shortcut will now just put you in that tool temporarily until you release the shortcut key - at which point you will return to your previous tool. So for example when you are using the pen tool you could hold V to change to move tool to move your curve, and then on release be immediately back in pen tool. Another useful example would be when in Brush Tool, you could hold E to put you in Eraser and release to toggle back to Brush.

Apps: Publisher and Designer
Platforms: All
In the layers panel if you alt-click add new layer when you have a selection, all items in that selection are moved to the new layer created. In other words this behaves similar to grouping, but rather than creating a group it puts your selection into a new layer.
Additionally for desktop versions you will find a new option in the right click menu for "Move Selection to New Layer" which achieves the same thing.
 


This makes it far easier to organise your work into layers, without having to create an empty layer first and drag the items you want into it.

Hi @BBG3,
Thanks for sending over your file,
In this specific example prior to opening the file in Designer, I opened it in illustrator and found that it consisted of two artboards, 'Artboard 61' which when edited in the Artboard panel was 13046x8800.96px:

and a secondary artboard '01' which was 2205x1240.

Since the .AI file is saved out with PDF compatibility these artboards are interpreted in the PDF data stream as pages, since we're opening the file in Designer, PDF pages are converted to artboards. When i've imported the .AI file into Designer at the default 72DPI and then checked the artboard dimensions after converting my document unit of measurement to pixels, these then match up with the dimensions shown in Illustrator:
Page 1 = 'Artboard 61':

Page 2 = '01':

It's important that the .AI file is imported into Designer at 72DPI to maintain the same pixel values that were shown in Illustrator, if you leave the PDF import options on 'Estimate' it may import at a different DPI value skewing the pixel resolution, like in Hangman's example above.
 

Hi @BBG3,
This sounds like a document resolution conversion, e.g., while 730pt = 72px @72dpi, 730pt = 3041px @300dpi.
Do all your Illustrator files use the same resolution or do they use differing resolutions?

Is it possible to add an option to set it to open directly using px and 72dpi? This would be very convenient since I have a ton of .AI documents that'll be converting to .afdesign...

If it doesn't: Then you need to remove everything in the slice name input field and it should go back to the artboard name and continue to update based on the artboard name or Item Name if the slice was created from an item, Drawn slices will default to "slice[number]"

Here on Mac OS 11.7 when I rename my Artboards, in the Designer Persona's Layers panel, the names are updated in the Export Persona. I guess you are using the Slices panel in the Export Persona to rename the Slice, doing so will not rename the Artboard.

You can make your selection of which Artboards you want using the Slices panel in the Export Persona.

The Export Slices button at the bottom of that panel is "Export Selected", and will include only the slices that are marked as visible in that dialog.
If you rename them in the Designer Persona, they should rename automatically in the Export Persona. And they do, for me.

Thanks @walt.farrell, @Ezbaze, and @Old Bruce.
I've just tested renaming my artboards in different ways and it works very well, without any problems ❤️. I don't know why that was an issue yesterday. It made me delete all the artboards from Export Persona that I renamed and create slices again. This issue has happened several times 🤔.
I will post the problem here if that happens again.
 
Love you guys. ❤️❤️❤️ 

Hi, I am an advertising graphic designer with 25 years of experience. I have been using the Affinity Suite for 3 years (starting with Photo and Designer and then adding Publisher as soon as it was in beta). In Italy, I have created a course dedicated to Affinity Publisher and numerous Live sessions to help other users understand the differences between Adobe and Affinity workflows. I have helped some graphic studios to make the transition. Unfortunately, I have repeatedly highlighted the significant technical limitations present in both the V1 and V2 Suites, which, from my point of view as a Senior professional, are extremely frustrating and cause significant workflow time losses for graphic agencies. This text will be a bit longer, unfortunately, but I hope effective and understandable.
These are essentially the points you will find below, primarily related to Affinity Publisher:

    •    PDF export is not currently reliable. Depending on the values entered, there is a risk of obtaining terrible unintended effects without realizing it. This includes text rasterizations (which automatically transform a Black K-100 into a Rich Black in part of a text), knockout black instead of overprints, and unwanted effects when certain types of FX are applied at the layer. Not to mention what happens if I work with a text with an FX shadow on a Pantone color (the Pantone becomes a CMYK where the shadow is present, instead of remaining a Pantone and accepting the shadow in overprint).

    •    Color management is terrible. If I assign Fogra39 to a file and then I have to print it at a printing company that uses a different color profile when I load the new color profile, all the colors in the file will have to be reassigned because they will completely lose their real composition (the K100 black will become a rich black again and so on, as if the entire color flow passes through RGB and then returns to CMYK).    

    •    There is no internal control system in the Suite that allows the user to understand in advance when these problems occur. Nor is there a tool to understand it after creating the PDF. An Export Persona is necessary for Affinity Publisher that gives the possibility to see exactly what happens in Color Separation when a certain combination of values is chosen from the PDF export menu.

    •    Swatches management is too slow. On the palette, I have to build my Global Colors, otherwise, I won't be able to modify them intelligently later on. But what happens when I copy an object from one document and bring it to another document? Its color palette is not added to the existing palette (each color has to be manually added one by one), and this creates a considerable loss of time.

    •    Why is there no way to transform a Global Color to which I have given the Spot value into a normal four-color process? It doesn't make sense. Often, in the workflow, the same color is changed several times, from Spot to Non-Spot, and only in the end is it decided what to do based on the printing. Here you cannot. The color must be remade and reassigned to each object.

    •    Why is there no way to replace one color with another? A "replace color" function would be excellent. As well as a function that asks me if I want to replace it with another color when I delete a Global Color from the palette. 

These are the most important and limiting things for me. Although one could list a whole series of minor bugs that have existed for years and have not been resolved.

After accepting that none of this was done in V2, my idea is that I am not part of Affinity's true target audience. I am a professional with extensive experience. I worked with Quark before, and then with Adobe for decades. Why should someone like me switch to an "economic" system like the Affinity Suite? My answer is that I appreciated the great effort made by Affinity to invent a new workflow that is non-destructive by default, more modern, and suitable for the hardware available today. I was bored of using Adobe.
However, after this first step, made years ago, it seems to me that there has been a change of direction. Not surprisingly, most of the Affinity users I talk to are students, enthusiasts, or even mid-level freelancers, but not high-level professionals. This makes sense. It would be a bit absurd to go to war against one of the largest software houses on the planet, we would come out of it with broken bones. Yet I still hope. I hope I am wrong and believe that Affinity can make it.
I have 3 copies purchased of V2 in the drawer. I don't use them because I don't need them, and my workflow now works well on V1, while on V2 I immediately ran into bugs that weren't present in V1. It also happened in Adobe, I'm not scandalized.

But the question to Affinity is: do you plan to address the points mentioned above? Are you aware of them? Do you have any ideas on how to remedy them? Or is it not in your plans?

The answer to these questions would certainly help thousands of professionals like me understand how to orient themselves.
Thank you and sorry for the length.
Sincerely, Beniamino (PS: translated from Italian with ChatGPT)

@KalThank you for your input. I also went to read the post you mentioned... it's a shame when people misunderstand the meaning of words. Often they don't read carefully and run the risk of not understanding. The concepts you expressed are very clear and absolutely agreeable. And it's also interesting how Affinity uses the term "professional"... I hadn't checked their homepage before writing. You're absolutely right, they are the ones creating the misunderstanding in the first place.
In any case, yes, I have learned to work around all the obstacles I have encountered on my path (I define myself as a "professional" without hesitation), since in my studio, we work for companies of a certain importance and produce all kinds of graphic creations. It's frustrating to waste time working around bugs and unresolved situations. But, as you also say, the price factor makes the difference. I also don't accept Adobe's policy first. Before being a money problem, it was a concept problem: if I pay for the software every month just to be able to open my files, it will be difficult for the software company to have the drive to continue to innovate and update its product. And in fact, Affinity has made great strides compared to where Adobe. There are features in Affinity that I've been waiting for for 20 years on CC. And now, even Adobe seems to have understood that perhaps it's necessary to start programming new things, not just buying other programs and rebranding them with their own name. See you soon and thanks!

Initial test in v2.2 beta seems to indicate that this is fixed. Oddly, when opening all previous docs in 2.2 beta, it requires updating virtually all the linked resources in RM. 

🙏

Hi @Callum. I've found my problem was lost links. I renamed the name of my artboard which has a special character "//, |".
I think that would be a great idea if you guys restrict the artboard name to not accepting the characters that cause problems.
🙏
 

Thanks a lot, @Paul Mudditt. I've found my problem was lost links. I renamed the name of my artboard which has a special character "//, |".
Thank you so much for your time and effort to solve my problem. ❤️

S0 9mm = 0.305” x 300 = 105 pixels per image if rasterised so sounds like as DM1 mentions something is causing your image to be rasterised automatically, could be a lost link. If your files are not needed to be linked you could simply increase your dpi as shown here so that its impact is not so dramatic. Note many operations will automatically rasterise your image layers if a pixel tool is used depending on how you have the Assistant set up.
RPReplay_Final1687501371.mov

Hi @BBG3,
Your post will now have been logged with the support team so someone from the moderation team will now pick this up and provide a private Dropbox link for you so you can upload your file, though this is now likely to be tomorrow...

Ok, what has Chat GPT got to do with it? May as well ask Burger King to fix the problem!

Apparently an attempt at a humorous remark to get ChatGPT to generate the corresponding program code.
Edit: Perhaps the author of the proposal could generate applications functionally identical to ASuite - it shouldn't be a problem after all 😉

Yes, that feature would be very helpful. I'm currently designing a rollup banner that should look good besides an already existing one. 2up view left/right is the thing I need. I could only get there halfway. I can manually arrange the two windows up to almost the available size. If I make them too large, they want to dock to the full view again.
It shouldn't be too hard to automatically arrange the windows so that they use exactly the available space, and are locked from further movement by the user.
These undocked windows are also completely free top-level windows! They can be moved to the second screen or above the AD UI. That's not something I want in this case. The docked and arranged document windows should still be a part of the main window.
 

One of the things I really miss in Affinity software is the ability to quickly arrange open documents, yes I know you can Float and Dock them, but wouldn't it be nice to have the option to arrange tabbed 2up Vertical or Horizontal, or even 3Up, 4 up etc. What about adding the option to 'Tile' tabbed windows that would be a start!
As it is now I have to float the windows, move them around and resize them to suite, which is tedious! It is like going back in time!
Maybe I have been spoilt by other software that offers this facility; but I think it's time Affinity had this feature, especially since most people now have bigger monitor/displays and can make use of such a useful feature. 
 
 

Hi
currently Designer has not a tool to create and format a table, so we need to manipulate each indivual cell leveraging the styles and symbols capabliities.
I've downloaded the beta of Publisher and I've started using the new Table tool and for my requirements this would be perfect but, at least in the current version, you cannot copy/paste a Table from Publisher to Designer.
I can see here a few options for the future:
the Table tool will be added into Designer as well (best option of course) in the final relase of Publisher you will be ableto copy a Table and paste it on Designer a new Export feature in Publisher will make possible to import a Table on Designer (currently you can use a PDF or SVG but you only get a single graphical  object) Can you provide your view on this specific topic ?
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Gottardo

Yes, that does work...it's a bit touchy to hit the snapping, but does work.
 
For paragraph text, especially if the text sizes are different or different fonts, one needs to ensure that leading values (and space before/after) are set to the same values (discrete values, not Auto).
 
Thanks, R C-R

From what I can tell, Affinity's arrangement options only work on the bounding boxes of both frame & art text objects. However, the snapping feature works on text baselines so it should be possible to use a combination of the two features to get this kind of alignment, although it will require extra steps.