Bryan Rieger

Canva has their big Canva Create 2025 event in a few weeks (April 10th). This is the same event where last year Ash joined the High School Musical cast to announce their very buggy Affinity 2.5 release, so it's quite likely we'll have some new features (and more bugs) dropped on us during the upcoming event.
The past year since the acquisition has been a big disappointment. We've only seen two relatively minor releases (2.5.x and 2.6.x) and both have been riddled with issues (hence the multiple x point releases).  While I'm hopeful we'll see some big improvements and announcements this year, I'm also realistic enough to know that after 10+ years of working with the Affinity Suite it'll likely be more of the "same old, same old".
Big announcement, lots of promises, half-baked features, and an ever-growing list of unresolved issues.

Canva has their big Canva Create 2025 event in a few weeks (April 10th). This is the same event where last year Ash joined the High School Musical cast to announce their very buggy Affinity 2.5 release, so it's quite likely we'll have some new features (and more bugs) dropped on us during the upcoming event.
The past year since the acquisition has been a big disappointment. We've only seen two relatively minor releases (2.5.x and 2.6.x) and both have been riddled with issues (hence the multiple x point releases).  While I'm hopeful we'll see some big improvements and announcements this year, I'm also realistic enough to know that after 10+ years of working with the Affinity Suite it'll likely be more of the "same old, same old".
Big announcement, lots of promises, half-baked features, and an ever-growing list of unresolved issues.

Canva has their big Canva Create 2025 event in a few weeks (April 10th). This is the same event where last year Ash joined the High School Musical cast to announce their very buggy Affinity 2.5 release, so it's quite likely we'll have some new features (and more bugs) dropped on us during the upcoming event.
The past year since the acquisition has been a big disappointment. We've only seen two relatively minor releases (2.5.x and 2.6.x) and both have been riddled with issues (hence the multiple x point releases).  While I'm hopeful we'll see some big improvements and announcements this year, I'm also realistic enough to know that after 10+ years of working with the Affinity Suite it'll likely be more of the "same old, same old".
Big announcement, lots of promises, half-baked features, and an ever-growing list of unresolved issues.

Canva has their big Canva Create 2025 event in a few weeks (April 10th). This is the same event where last year Ash joined the High School Musical cast to announce their very buggy Affinity 2.5 release, so it's quite likely we'll have some new features (and more bugs) dropped on us during the upcoming event.
The past year since the acquisition has been a big disappointment. We've only seen two relatively minor releases (2.5.x and 2.6.x) and both have been riddled with issues (hence the multiple x point releases).  While I'm hopeful we'll see some big improvements and announcements this year, I'm also realistic enough to know that after 10+ years of working with the Affinity Suite it'll likely be more of the "same old, same old".
Big announcement, lots of promises, half-baked features, and an ever-growing list of unresolved issues.

There's tons of room for improvement when importing and updating .docx files in Publisher (and InDesign), but I'm not convinced that migrating to markdown is automagically going to fix everything. Links to images, hyperlinks, etc may not always be interpreted as desired (or required) depending on your specific workflow. Where are images sourced from? Are they local, absolute or remote references? Is markdown exported from Google docs (or similar) sufficient, or should it be written by hand and maintained in a git repo that can be integrated directly into your publishing pipeline; complete with pull and push support. What flavour of markdown should be used?
Keep in mind that the vast majority of folks in publishing still (for better or worse) rely on Word as the primary writing, editing and exchange tool in their workflow. While forcing them to move to markdown might in theory be a fantastic idea, what you're more likely to do is push them into other software that works the way they want to work.
That said, if you want to use a markdown based workflow there are tons of tools available (many free and open) that (when combined) can provide excellent workflows from markdown to published PDF, ePub, and HTML.
Markdown import in the Affinity apps would be a wonderful and welcome addition, but it should not replace support for the Word .docx format.
FWIW I currently use Vellum (macOS only) for reflowable ePub (and print-ready PDF) which is fantastic, along with Sigil when I need to dig into the inner workings of an ePub. For fixed layout Pages is nice, but I tend to use InDesign (along with Sigil) as it gives me a little more control. If Serif/Canva do add ePub export I sincerely hope a) it's not a buggy, convoluted mess and b) it's significantly better than other available options. Many folks have waited a very long time for ePub support in the Affinity suite, and by now many of them would have found other ways of achieving their goals.
The cost of switching is not negligible.

This was largely true up until a few weeks ago. In Canada today more and more folks care, and are actively making choices NOT to buy American products (for obvious reasons). This is also happening in Mexico, and no doubt other countries around the world. It might not yet be practical to replace every American product or service with an equivalent from another country, but as more and more consumers and businesses actively choose non-American alternatives it provides new opportunities for people, corporations and governments outside of the US to reshape their economies and relationships.
Anyway, this has absolutely nothing to do with the original subject of this thread. I won't post again on the subject, but felt it was worth sharing a Canadian perspective in the current context.

This was largely true up until a few weeks ago. In Canada today more and more folks care, and are actively making choices NOT to buy American products (for obvious reasons). This is also happening in Mexico, and no doubt other countries around the world. It might not yet be practical to replace every American product or service with an equivalent from another country, but as more and more consumers and businesses actively choose non-American alternatives it provides new opportunities for people, corporations and governments outside of the US to reshape their economies and relationships.
Anyway, this has absolutely nothing to do with the original subject of this thread. I won't post again on the subject, but felt it was worth sharing a Canadian perspective in the current context.

This was largely true up until a few weeks ago. In Canada today more and more folks care, and are actively making choices NOT to buy American products (for obvious reasons). This is also happening in Mexico, and no doubt other countries around the world. It might not yet be practical to replace every American product or service with an equivalent from another country, but as more and more consumers and businesses actively choose non-American alternatives it provides new opportunities for people, corporations and governments outside of the US to reshape their economies and relationships.
Anyway, this has absolutely nothing to do with the original subject of this thread. I won't post again on the subject, but felt it was worth sharing a Canadian perspective in the current context.

Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose.
There's many similar usability requests going back over a decade with no response from Serif other than they've logged it with developers.

Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose.
There's many similar usability requests going back over a decade with no response from Serif other than they've logged it with developers.

Contour, that's a tool I didn't understand. Thank you very much, @Bryan Rieger.
The stroke tool is an adjustable but non-destructive wrapping around a line. The contour tool modifies or creates a new vector shape, enlarged or reduced as required.

You could use a contour (see below, file attached). In this case the contour is 13px, same as the stroke (which I removed for clarity). Using the contour tool you can still edit the original shape with the contour applied, as well as adjust contour settings, corner/mitre, etc. Once you're happy with the shape just expand it to curves.

stroke.afdesign

Seriously??!!!
When Adobe released their first version of InDesign it wasn't ready to challenge the market leader QuarkXpress yet. This was August 31st, 1999.
Only 7 months later InDesign 1.5 was released, and it turned heads in the industry. Only 16 months later InDesign 2 caused the industry to turn their backs on QuarkXpress.
16 months. That's all it took a dedicated team to create a professional DTP tool to dethrone the king. It wasn't buggy. It was ready for production. It introduced new and innovative features that made QXP look decidedly old in the teeth.
Now, requirements have grown and are more complex. Still, Affinity Publisher was released almost 5(!) years ago: June 19th 2019.
In 5 years and 5 months time the InDesign team released InDesign CS2, which is arguably still more production ready in a number of areas compared to the current version of Affinity Publisher.
One person. ONE PERSON created an Illustrator alternative in less than 5 years time that easily surpasses Affinity Designer. (VectorStyler)
...and here we are sweet talking Affinity in that it is still supposedly in its "wayfinding phase"????!!!!
If, after more than TEN YEARS OF WAYFINDING since the initial release of Affinity Designer back in Oct 2014 they are still lost, I am seriously starting to wonder whether they actually brought someone to draw a map.
What. The. Heck.
 

The 'Contour Tool' in Designer feels like a minimum viable product. Yes, it creates a contour in a nice, interactive manner but that's about it. If you want more than one contour, duplicate the object and make another contour. Want multiple contours that interact with each other (ie; layered, punch, overlap, etc) you're on your own.
When compared to Illustrator's Offset path function, let alone Astute Graphics Stylism plugin the Designer 'Contour Tool' feels very, basic.

Some of us have seen the evolution (including ingestion of 3rd party technology) of other companies' graphics suites, such as CorelDRAW and PhotoPaint (current relabeled Corel Graphics Suite).  I first used CorelDRAW 3.  Not 13, not X3, not 23.  Three.  In comparison to the current CGS it was a kludgy, ugly, inconvenient, limited and annoying piece of software.  The CorelDRAW 5 release was a tremendous step forward.  Over the years, it has evolved to the point where I don't even bother looking at new releases more than every 4 or 5 years, because it's stable, reasonably comprehensive and I don't care for UI tweaks just to accomodate the latest trend (flat buttons, dark mode, disappearing scrollbars, no thank you).
A user of CorelDRAW 3 would be justified in bitching about missing features, counter-intuitive UI design, awkward controls, and bugs.  But if they predicted that CD would never be usable, and no professional would ever consider it in the future, they would be quite incorrect.  Despite Corel's persistent corporate mismanagement, they manage to maintain some perfectly usable software.  They brought in technology from Xara, which added a lot of functionality (and, I believe, considerable numeric stability).  There are aspects of CorelDRAW I consider superior to the industry reference (and 800lb gorilla) Illustrator.  They also completely abandoned Corel (formerly Ventura, formerly GEM) Publisher, which is what drew me to the Affinity suite in the first place.  Some good decisions, some bad decisions.
Everybody has their own list of "must have" features.  Release 1 of the Affinity Suite didn't have some of the things on my list.  That did not make it useless, because not every job requires every tool.  But it did mean I had to fall back on other SW to do some of my work.  Release 2 has filled in some of those missing pieces, but some of them are still quite rocky and I'd hope for continued improvement.  There are still things missing, but I can do more of my work in the Affinity suite, and I expect this progress to continue.
Meliora spero, it's not for you to decide that Affinity is dead.  That's a decision for the marketplace.  And it's not going to be decided by Affinity release 2 any more than the life or death of CGS was decided by CorelDRAW release 3.  Furthermore, you are not accomplishing anything by repetitious venting about how you think Affinity is dead.  You've made your opinion crystal clear. While my "must have" list is undoubtedly different from your, the Affinity suite is missing some essential features.  Unless your principle is "misery loves company" and your object is to make everyone else miserable, consider your point well made and drop it.

On macOS I typically just use Apple’s Preview for PDFs, but I also keep a copy of PDF Viewer installed as it’s a great alternative and also works great on iOS and iPadOS. 

Many UI elements allow to enter numeric values for size, position, radius etc.
most of them allow simple math.
Unfortunately the UI is totally broken if you try to edit a number, e.g. changing only last digit.
if you use the (only available option in screen keyboard) of backspace key, strange things happen.
Assume you have value 200 in UI. Press backspace once, 20 is shown. Now enter 3.
expected:  23 is shown
Observed: 3 is shown, deleting the remaining digits.
this makes absolutely no sense and makes it 100% impossible to change only parts of the numbers.
Either delete the whole number with all digits when using backspace, or let users just add another digit and keep the remaining numbers.

ScreenRecording_03-05-2025 13-07-31_1.mov

Yes, sorry, its a work in progress and that's just accidental exposure.

We have released a beta build to try and address a number of critical issues found in 2.6.0/2.6.1
We think a few of these fixes require some time to test them with our affected customers but we would like to release 2.6.2 to customers very soon, but it may require a number of weeks of testing.
Here are the release notes for the 2.6.2 beta
If you are suffering from any of the 21 issues mentioned in that 2.6.2.3178 beta post, then please (sign up for and) install the latest beta build. If you have reported a bug and it is not yet fixed, please do not report it again. Nor can we correspond in this thread on when other bugs will be fixed (or why they are not yet fixed).
This beta is open to ALL Version 2 customers 

The issue "Painting into a grouped Pixel Layer on an Artboard will fail to redraw new strokes" (REF: AF-489) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.2.3187). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

@Lamoen FYI Cartoon Saloon makes extensive use of Moho. There’s even a number of blurbs from Cartoon Saloon directly on the Moho site (scroll down on the home page).
Good luck with whatever you choose!

What type of animation are you looking to create?
For 2D character animation I'd recommend Moho, or Spine (that latter specifically if you're creating animations for games). Both of these allow you to import a .psd file (exported from the Affinity apps) into your projects. Both of these use bone rigs to create puppet animations. There's also an app called Rive that's worth looking into if you're creating UI/app animations - you can import svg, png, etc exported from the Affinity apps.
If you're using an iPad and looking for a more traditional, hand-draw approach combined with limited motion graphics techniques Procreate Dreams is a decent option, and you can import various assets that you create from the Affinity apps (again, as png, jpg, etc).
For motion graphics After Effects is the industry standard workhorse, but Cavalry (there is a free version available) is a good option for folks looking to remain outside of the Adobe ecosystem. Cavalry can import a variety of file formats (.psd, .pdf, etc) but also .svg files exported from the Affinity apps. If you're on macOS and want something simpler I'd suggest having a look at both Keyshape (svg) and Hype (html, can import jpg, png, svg, etc) which are simple, yet quite capable little apps.
If you're looking to create 3D animation Blender is a great option.

What type of animation are you looking to create?
For 2D character animation I'd recommend Moho, or Spine (that latter specifically if you're creating animations for games). Both of these allow you to import a .psd file (exported from the Affinity apps) into your projects. Both of these use bone rigs to create puppet animations. There's also an app called Rive that's worth looking into if you're creating UI/app animations - you can import svg, png, etc exported from the Affinity apps.
If you're using an iPad and looking for a more traditional, hand-draw approach combined with limited motion graphics techniques Procreate Dreams is a decent option, and you can import various assets that you create from the Affinity apps (again, as png, jpg, etc).
For motion graphics After Effects is the industry standard workhorse, but Cavalry (there is a free version available) is a good option for folks looking to remain outside of the Adobe ecosystem. Cavalry can import a variety of file formats (.psd, .pdf, etc) but also .svg files exported from the Affinity apps. If you're on macOS and want something simpler I'd suggest having a look at both Keyshape (svg) and Hype (html, can import jpg, png, svg, etc) which are simple, yet quite capable little apps.
If you're looking to create 3D animation Blender is a great option.

As @Bryan Rieger pointed out, there are a variety of options out there and a big piece of this answer will depend heavily on the style of animation you are trying to create, where you plan to deploy it (video, web, UI feature, etc.), and how you want to work with it.
Other programs you might look at are Apple's Motion (video work) if you are on a Mac, or as a second option for hand-drawn cell-based animation on an iPad, there is also Callipeg, which has been around longer than Procreate Dreams.
For more cartoon-like 2D rigged animations there is also the free open-source Synfig Studio which may be applicable in some cases (and that one is cross-platform).
 
Note that this has been discussed before in many other threads, so searching the feature request forum for "animation" will net you many past discussions on this, and other recommendations were likely offered in those past threads as well.

I fully agree that there are too many bugs in Affinity software, and there are too many long standing ones that never seem to get fixed. But, if you look at many of the "bug" reports in this forum, they are actually things that people don't understand, or don't know how to do, things that are different to other software or just something that someone doesn't happen to like! There's certainly nothing wrong with asking for new features, or for changes to be made, but that is not the same as actual bugs, which prevent software working as it is supposed to, or cause crashes and loss of work. 
It's really much more helpful if people report bugs that they are experiencing, along with details of exactly what they are and what appears to be triggering them, rather than simply making endless vague comments about "too many bugs" and denigrating Affinity and Serif generally!