Bryan Rieger

I think being able to set the tolerance of auto-close feature would be helpful so folks can tune it to their liking, or set it to ‘maximum’ where it would always auto-close regardless of the distance.

I told them exactly that when I cancelled my Adobe subscription last month. Will they care if one person does it? Not a chance. Will they care if thousands of people do it? Probably not right away, but it might cause them to begin to reconsider their use of it long-term if the trend continues.

I'm the developer of Typeface app — a font manager for macOS
The app listens for font requests using macOS APIs. Static font requests and variable named instances come through, but when an axis is changed there is no request.

Yeah, it was originally created in 2.4. Using the static font. Disabling the static font and then enabling the variable font seems to have caused this problem.
I can see folks who have used static versions of fonts in the past wanting to migrate documents to variable versions if possible.

I’ve attached a short video showing some of the things you can do.
Look at the Status Bar while you are using the tool (and the Help) for more information.
2024-04-26 13-56-30.mp4

Yes, but it's not flagging it as an incorrect font regardless. Also, as folks move their existing documents from static fonts to variable fonts, no doubt this 'user error in configuration' will come into consideration.

I tested the Roboto flex and Noto sans. Works well, even with effects on the text frame. I guess (in contrast to the 2023 Roboto Condensed) the Roboto Flex and Noto fonts ar far better constructed with only a few uncritical or no overlaps:

 
Noto and Robot Flex don't show artifacts when layer effects are applied, Roboto Condensed still does:

 
By the way: a little reset button/icon in the variable font drop down panel mightbe a nice timesaver after messing all parameters up 🙂

 
Like fonts.google.com

 
 

Excellent addition, first impression is it works smoothly.
Just noticed one thing which is at odds with your GIF Ash – the numerical value for each axes doesn't update in live time when you adjust the slider, it only updates when you close and reopen the variable font panel:

Variable font slider not updating in live time.mp4    

Hi @Affinityconfusesme, @Alfred, @Bobby Henderson, @Bryan Rieger, @kenmcd, @MikeTO, @ronnyb
As you can see I have split these posts about the forthcoming Variable Fonts support made in this thread off into the Beta Members area. The original post by Ash will be repurposed to discuss the implementation of Variable Font support, and the talk here about other implementations (and OT discussion on Colour Fonts) would have got in the way of discussing the actual implementation and any bugs found.
The new build 2.5.0.2415 including this feature will be made available soon, and can discussed here
 

Mischief was really neat, but unfortunately it was bought and killed by Foundry. FWIW Concepts is very similar, alive and well, and available for many platforms. 
Edit: actually, I just checked and their ability to zoom stops at 1600%. The Affinity apps can zoom in MUCH more.

It requires you to enable 'Transform Objects Separately' in the top control bar (see below).
If '=' is only ever available/permitted when 'Transform Objects Separately' is enabled, then maybe it would make sense to enable it automatically if somebody types '=' into a field for that transformation only. Adding a little 'toast' animation or some sort of indication that 'Transform Objects Separately' has been applied would be helpful not only to provide feedback, but to aid in further understanding of how the feature is intended to work.

Got it. Thank you Bryan for clarifying this. Agree with your usability suggestions, wouldn't have found out by myself

It requires you to enable 'Transform Objects Separately' in the top control bar (see below).
If '=' is only ever available/permitted when 'Transform Objects Separately' is enabled, then maybe it would make sense to enable it automatically if somebody types '=' into a field for that transformation only. Adding a little 'toast' animation or some sort of indication that 'Transform Objects Separately' has been applied would be helpful not only to provide feedback, but to aid in further understanding of how the feature is intended to work.

So, the pencil tool improvements are great, and after a few hours of using them I'm finding that they enable me to stay in the flow while longer drawing as I'm not having to constantly shift to the node edit tool to clean up extra nodes and reshape curves. However, the one thing that keeps pulling me out of flow now is sharp corners, as there is no way to specify one while using the pencil tool, so once again, I have to grab the node edit tool in order to make those changes.
I was hoping that if while drawing I slowed and stopped for a second at a corner it would take that as an intent to create a sharp corner/change of direction, from which I could then continue drawing. Adobe Illustrator on the iPad uses a similar technique when using the pencil tool where when you slow and stop for a moment it displays a small pulse animation at the location of the corner to provide feedback that it has created a corner node, from which you can then continue drawing. The other thing that Illustrator on iPad does that's insanely helpful is they provide a small contextual toolbar while drawing that enables you to quickly move between the pencil and the node tool and modify nodes and curves as you go (as well as access common features). It's a great feature, but unfortunately the rest of Illustrator on the iPad is a dog's breakfast.

Oh, that does help, but it's not overly intuitive as there's no indication in the appearance panel that the stroke has a width profile associated with it. Perhaps adding another attribute such as 'Profile' (see mockup below) could help to indicate that the stroke has additional width/profile data associated with it?

Addendum: I added a few more thoughts on the overall stroke width 'Profile' UX in another post.

The new smoothing algorithm is fantastic! It's such a pleasure to use now, and with almost (I'm just being very fussy) no clean up required. The new implementation of the auto-close settings is really intuitive. Well done. I'll report back any issues I find with it, but just wanted to acknowledge what an improvement this is.
Addendum: Okay, now I know this is going to sound whiny, but is there anyway to reduce or turn off the smoothing? It's now very difficult to draw a rough, hand-drawn line. I do LOVE the new smoothing algorithm, but there are times where I want my lines to look a little rougher.

I seem to remember having to pay for 2.0 and being told it was a big upgrade for me and that Affinity was "setting new standards". If the differences here were between 1.2 vs 1.7, etc, I would almost certainly agree, they don't live on the same scale. However arbitrary it can seem, version numbers do give at least some indication to us as to how the developer interprets the current state of their own product. It would be very understandable for 1.x to be missing some very basic functionality. 2.x, we would expect their ducks to be in a row so to speak where at least 1.x's functionality is concerned, but here many of 1.x flaws and bugs made it into 2. Am I really supposed to believe the key bugs will ever be addressed when we have iterated through 2.x updates with no signs that even problems from 1.x will ever be addressed adequately? However if "version numbers mean nothing" then there is nothing left to discuss, frankly.

The contour from the line width tool isn't automatically carried over to additional strokes that have been applied to a line/curve, making it difficult to create an outline that matches the existing line contour. It is possible to select the another stroke and set line widths for it (which is very nice), but being able to apply the existing line width settings applied to additional strokes would also be helpful.
Above: Current line widths are not applied to additional strokes.
 

Above: An additional stroke with separate width settings applied to the same curve (very nice).

I just had a thought. It would be nice if there was a Clear/Reset Profile button in the top toolbar settings for the Line Width Tool to be able to completely remove all the points from a curve in a fast and easy way. Double clicking all of them or using the Curves panel are a few more extra steps. Also, it would allow you to create a keyboard shortcut for the operator when the tool is active.

I think being able to set the tolerance of auto-close feature would be helpful so folks can tune it to their liking, or set it to ‘maximum’ where it would always auto-close regardless of the distance.

I just wanted to say thank you for adding the ability to move width profile points along the curve. It's the little things that make such a difference. It's especially welcomed while working on an iPad with an Apple Pencil.

CleanShot 2024-04-19 at 13.43.24.mp4  

I just wanted to say thank you for adding the ability to move width profile points along the curve. It's the little things that make such a difference. It's especially welcomed while working on an iPad with an Apple Pencil.

CleanShot 2024-04-19 at 13.43.24.mp4  

I noticed some weirdness with the auto-close feature when zoomed in (see video below). It gets harder to not only see the 'close loop', but to also trigger the auto-close feature the more you zoom in. This is especially noticeable on the iPad, to the point where I didn't think auto-close was working at all. I routinely work at zoom levels of 400% or higher, and this appears to be the point where the auto-close feature begins to get wonky.

CleanShot 2024-04-19 at 16.17.54.mp4    

So, the pencil tool improvements are great, and after a few hours of using them I'm finding that they enable me to stay in the flow while longer drawing as I'm not having to constantly shift to the node edit tool to clean up extra nodes and reshape curves. However, the one thing that keeps pulling me out of flow now is sharp corners, as there is no way to specify one while using the pencil tool, so once again, I have to grab the node edit tool in order to make those changes.
I was hoping that if while drawing I slowed and stopped for a second at a corner it would take that as an intent to create a sharp corner/change of direction, from which I could then continue drawing. Adobe Illustrator on the iPad uses a similar technique when using the pencil tool where when you slow and stop for a moment it displays a small pulse animation at the location of the corner to provide feedback that it has created a corner node, from which you can then continue drawing. The other thing that Illustrator on iPad does that's insanely helpful is they provide a small contextual toolbar while drawing that enables you to quickly move between the pencil and the node tool and modify nodes and curves as you go (as well as access common features). It's a great feature, but unfortunately the rest of Illustrator on the iPad is a dog's breakfast.

I think being able to set the tolerance of auto-close feature would be helpful so folks can tune it to their liking, or set it to ‘maximum’ where it would always auto-close regardless of the distance.