Bit Dissapointed

In general, the export dialog came off the assembly line incredibly poorly for v2.0, so if anything, it could use a thorough redesign. The preview section of this dialog is extraordinarily challenged in terms of code and user interface.

Just came here to pitch in... And yes would be greatly appreciated to have an on/off.

Im giving you my use case:
Im working on designer, doing an expo front and back cards of people with irl measures. So 180cm x 90cm more or less. Dont @ me its a requirement from the photographer of the expo. Im doing 30 of them. I have to save and convert and export from .psd, to tiff doing my own layout in designer.

I have a M2 with 24gb of ram. The export preview just stalls the machine (I do full high res renders(3D) in it, its a beast of a machine), i have to wait so i can change my settings (cus i want tiff not png).

So for ones working in printing format this isnt really a niche thing, its why people buy the software. Ok most of people arguing do digital work, but some of us also do irl work and why we have the software.
So a simple toggle (cus i also use this feature in my web work) would suffice because right now its more than a paper cut, it hinders productivity.

As far as I know, that is not possible.
Just out of curiosity: why do you want to hide the export preview?
Perhaps the export via the Export Persona is an alternative for you.

Yes, that was what I was getting at in my first response, but I didn't want to give the forum a lecture on excellence and aesthetics in algorithms if you could do with less. Thank you for your detailed response, I completely agree with you.
Smart Mode is the layman's aid for tracing, but it is certainly not the tool for aesthetes or professionals. I prefer to draw curves myself, as I am trained now, and thus also know that the fewer nodes, the better. Actually, creating perfect aesthetic curves quickly and effortlessly is not straightforward, and that is precisely what the curvature tool assists with.
Smart Mode is for one specific need, I hope Serif does not think it also covers the other(s).
Smart Nodes in Affinity Designer: The use of Smart Nodes tends to create curves that are smooth and require less tweaking, which can be particularly useful for designers who prefer a more streamlined workflow. The automatic adjustments of curves can lead to a more efficient design process but might sometimes offer less control for intricate curve manipulation. Affinity Designer uses an algorithm for its Smart Nodes, which are designed to simplify the process of creating and editing curves. When you manipulate a Smart Node, the software automatically adjusts the adjoining curves to maintain a smooth and natural transition. The algorithm prioritizes ease of use and efficiency, aiming to reduce the need for manual adjustments of Bezier handles.
Curvature Tool in Illustrator: With the Curvature Tool, the aesthetic outcome is often characterized by very smooth and flowing lines. This tool is particularly adept at creating organic shapes and smooth transitions in paths. The Curvature Tool provides a balance between simplicity and control, allowing for the creation of complex curves with fewer adjustments. Adobe Illustrator's Curvature Tool algorithm is centered around intuitively creating and adjusting curves with minimal control points. It automatically generates and adjusts Bezier curves as you add points to a path, focusing on creating smooth, flowing curves that naturally progress through each point. The tool is designed to predict and implement the most aesthetically pleasing curve through the points you define, reducing the complexity of traditional Bezier curve manipulation.

And indeed fixed in build 2240!

And indeed fixed in build 2240!

The three line icon (aka Hamburger menu) on the Swatches palette will help you out for a lot of things. First choose the Document Palette, then set the colour in the Colours Palette, and then make a new Global Colour.
There are other options available from the Hamburger menu. I like to set the apperance of the Swatches panel to view as a list so I can see the names of the colours.

And that is why no one has ever proposed, requested, and I hope will not introduce mandatory tagging.

Potential customers are one reason why you have pre-sales / general forums as opposed to (or in addition to) support forums. There's no way to perfectly divvy it up to a great depth, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect even a complete newcomer to think about what they're asking. That's kind of implicit in most things computer and if one is at the level of content creation using relatively sophisticated software, it's reasonable to expect IMO.
Again, it's not the end of the world either way.

I switched to Affinity from Adobe and one of the features you don't have which drives me nuts (& I see from all the posts on the internet that I'm not the only one) is the ability to automatically set the grid to divide the image by percentages rather than having to do complicated calculations to work out where the centre of the image is to align things like text boxes. In Adobe I can set the grid to automatically divide the image grid to 50% or 25% or 30% or whatever I need to find particular points on the image for easy alignment. When are you going to fix this and add that capability? Please - I need this in almost everything I design! Thanks.

I'm running a 2018 A12 Bionic iPad pro (currently holding out for the M3 since it's getting close to the 18 month refresh).

I'm not worried about an extra gig or so on the app package, I'm way more concerned with huge amounts of old cache data collecting somewhere where it cant be deleted, mostly because my older iPad only has 64gb of storage, 22gb of junk files pretty much fills all of my remaining space. 
I'm not a programmer, but my hypothesis is (because i run an older ipad that is struggling to keep up with more modern software) that the app is hard closing/force crashing in the background to conserve memory when apps are switched, since AFD uses alot of memory. I think this is happening because if i don't exit my current doc to auto save it before app switching, if AFD closes in the BG and i have an open doc, the changes since last auto save will be lost. I'm guessing that cache files aren't being auto cleared as they would if the app closed down properly. This is probably more of an Apple/User-should-upgrade-old-crappy-hardware problem, but it's still concerning since alot of people are still rocking slightly older hardware. Obviously i have no clue what I'm talking about because I'm not a programmer, but the hypothesis sounds good to me anyway. 
 
 

Now my main point is emerging. We're back where we started and where the forum started. Are we nitpicking? Affinity apparently has 2 million users, and "I think" is something that neither I nor anyone else here can present as anything other than our own preference.
This is simply why I say there is a need for a specialist who, on behalf of 2 million users, is working on methods and an interface that solves as many problems as possible and enables as many people as possible to work enjoyably and efficiently. Has professionalism, has the overview and keeps the applications on track. The most important phrase I've heard in the labour market is "have respect for the professionalism of others". 
2 million users. That's 4 million fewer users than my own colleagues - and I - have to satisfy. It's just a matter of having the right people to do it. Not that we sit here and state our very, very few preferences. It's an unscientific, inadequate and unreliable knowledge base.
Best regards

All of those settings combined cannot possibly amount to that much junk data though. 

I don't install brushes, I don't use styles, and I don't have any imported asset files. I design for iStock/Adobe Stock etc. The files are required to be vector only, no effects, basically the equivalent of EPS-8.0 from 2003. So my files are 99% vector with the only raster based elements I use being temporary background files to trace vectors from. My history states are set to 128, and i never turned them up. My workflow is what you would call "extremely light". 
So as a test... I saved all 4 of my currently open docs to the icloud files app with the "save history turned on".  Then uninstalled and reinstalled Affinity Designer. Re-opened all 4 docs and checked that all 128 states of history were intact on all 4 files, which they were.

So basically, a couple settings aside, I am now back to the EXACT state of my previous workflow, all histories intact, and all data I need currently open and in the live docs. My 25 or so installed fonts were even still there. 
This is my new "documents and data" size:

 
So i basically had 22.9GB of data that was completely unnecessary hoarded in the background. Some of that may have been previously held histories for  projects I've opened and closed in the past, but why would that be building up in the background if it's inaccessible and un-restorable? 

Photoshop has a nice function for this, which basically empties it's entire cache folder of anything that's not currently in use, if Designer is not clearing out data as it should, then a function would be great for dorks like me who can't justify shelling our for new equipment, haha. 

Affinity on the innovation front! I love this little smart things you come up with like this. In my opinion that's the true USP of this suite. You guys are actual software developers other that salesmen like other big-A companies.
 
Thanks!

I'm not a mindless fan of small helper texts around objects in programs either, because it becomes distracting when it's overdone. On the other hand, I do like them as exception assistance.
Everything must be in balance with everything, and here programs that over-communicate with graphic feedback / colours are just as bad as minimalist programs that communicate nothing. You simply can't remember it all when it's just lines and colors, and certainly not when it's just subtle hints. And if everything becomes a mess of symbolism, then text can have its right. However, we are not that far in Affinity, even though the status bar is often filled up to the right margin.
Therefore, the most important thing here is that Affinity does not introduce small unique hints in Designer in scenarios like this, but finds a fundamental method to clarify B over A across functionalities in the Affinity programs, so that one can roughly figure out which genre of feedback one is seeing in Designer or Publisher just through recognition.
So, it's about very basic feedback and user interface principles that one must think of from the start and continuously across the programs. In the end, habit and recognition are the strongest factors in us, which make us function together with tools.
That's exactly why products need a UX responsible specialist - not a developer - for all these concepts, who owns the user interface and, among other things, keeps track of these concepts, and ensures they are followed to the letter in the continuous development work across desktop and tablet versions.

The PDF itself looks fine. 
It seems like the issue might be related to the print settings, even though it's set to "Actual Size." Several factors could cause the printout to be smaller than expected. Here are some possible causes and solutions:
Printer's Default Settings: Some printers have their own default settings that might adjust the print size. Check your printer's own settings to ensure there isn't a scaling feature activated.
Paper Size and Margins: Ensure that the paper size in the print dialog matches the size you are working with in Affinity Publisher, and that the margins are correctly set. If there's a mismatch, the printer might attempt to adjust the content, changing its dimensions.
Scaling in PDF Viewer: Some PDF viewers and printers have a setting that automatically fits or scales content to the paper. Ensure these settings are disabled in both your PDF viewer and the print dialog.
Try Printing from a Different Program: Open and print the PDF file from a different program (like Adobe Reader or another PDF viewer) to see if the issue persists. This can help identify if the problem is related to the specific program you are using to view and print the PDF.

The gradient overlay has an angle wheel to precisely control the tilt angle, but I don't see a way to exactly measure the same with the gradient tool. Am I missing something? 
Thanks. 

Wow, so knowledgeable customers are kept down and in the dark at the lowest common denominator thanks to fumbling beginners installing all sorts of fonts and LUTs and brushes and what not. The goal as a software provider should be to solve the problem, not create a variation of it.
Make thumbnail preview default Let an algorithm disable LUT thumbnails if it seems there are many LUTs installed. Then show a warning and explanation - let the customer decide if it should be enabled Make it a setting also in preferences This approach is one I've seen in several programs. Sanctions only when there's a reason, and even then, choice.
It's too unserious to completely remove it from the product, only to possibly reinstate it later, or perhaps not, while the customer has no idea what's happening or when something might happen.

I very rarely ask for anything, but this issue is a long time itch which I cannot scratch.
Would Serif consider adding a preference to re-enable LUT thumbnail previews in the adjustment panel?
Because I really miss them. I often use LUTs as a quick and effective way of finally unifying photos for websites, but that has become so needlessly awkward since the thumbnails were removed quite some time ago (late version 1, I think?). As a consequence, I trimmed the list to an absolute minimum and renamed some, but it is hardly ideal.
If there was a performance problem, then I can empathise with that (although my old Intel Macs never struggled with the previews – they run Affinity pretty well).
But please provide the option to enable the previews for those of us who use LUTs.
Apologies if this has been requested before, but I searched and found nothing here.

In that case, my fix would have been to discourage those people from importing such a crazy and unnecessary quantity of LUTs.

The feature in macOS that allows you to see the path to an open document by right-clicking on the tab was introduced with OS X Mavericks (version 10.9), released in October 2013.
It would be exceedingly meaningful if Affinity supported this, and at the very least, if Affinity displayed the full path in the mouse-over text. Using 'Reveal in Finder' is cumbersome for a quick clarification and is intended for other use scenarios.

The algorithm has a lot of room for improvement. The attached image shows how AD behaves when using the two mentioned methods of deleting a node. I deleted the bottom node near the circle:

You may dispense with the arrogance and online know-it-all attitude, which is predictable, tedious, and disconnected from my reality.
I have had professional developers quality-check and evaluate the changes before they were incorporated into the product, and the output was indeed satisfactory. I simply couldn't deliver the messy output from Affinity. My instructions are not developer instructions, but rather the purpose of the current SVG, so I get SVGs from Affinity that I can hand over to developers, who won't need to spend costly consulting time cleaning it up. Moreover, it's only on rare occasions that SVGs come from the client, but we do provide some illustrations.
The same professional supplier, with handpicked developers and talent scouts at universities, is actively integrating AI in development, optimization, and testing, and I'm talking about a supplier with billion-dollar revenue, so their considerations are far from Mickey Mouse level.
They're streamlining, I'm streamlining. It's clear to me that you can't fathom such a daily routine, workplace, and working conditions. Consequently, you can't even imagine what the standard, daily life, and job market will look like in 5 and 10 years.

I have 14 years of experience alone working on projects where it has been a standing and absolute requirement that absolutely nothing is sent on to development or production or similar without being designed and approved by user experience designers. Before that, usability specialists were also involved, but now they are embedded in every project I'm involved in or interact with. This makes our product easy to use and results in very few returns. That alone is a lot of money and time saved.
I work with them, have lunch with them, evaluate with them, drink beer with them, discuss with them, witness their user tests, see their tools, methods and work processes. I stay close to them because I remember when they weren't there and the end products could not match the quality and usability we get today. Shivers. One thing I've noticed about them is that they are the most instinctively good listeners among my many colleagues and the least likely to isolate themselves in front of a screen under stress. Their task is to understand. Not to claim or assume.
And in addition to everything I've had to repeat in this forum too many times, they work just as methodically as the developers they work closely with. And I can reveal that all developers I've worked with have loved working with UXers because it gives them very clear recipes and architecture to work from, documentation, principles, style guides, consistency, order, processes, professionalism, and the product becomes easily maintainable just like with good coding principles. Everyone wins! And most importantly of all, these developers - and especially their leaders - say that through these specialists they gain knowledge about the customers' requirements for the product, knowledge about how it is used, in general a lot of knowledge they would otherwise not have. I would never hire anyone without that attitude. The company hasn't either. They do not want to be associated with poor quality and recruit directly to ensure that all employees understand that the company thrives on understanding.
The first beta of layer states gives me so many indications of what Serif lacks and what they're not doing in their work, that I can hardly believe it. Had it been a proof of concept, I would have been more at ease, but no.
Then you might ask yourself whether customers would object to the fact that the product developed according to the methods we work from is easier to use, more consistent, more accessible, contains fewer contrast errors and puzzles, and is intuitive to work with. Of course they don't.
The path to professionalism goes through professionalism.

Designer 2.4.0 (2222), macOS

The low contrast ratio plus the unfathomably small size of these three small icons makes them inaccessible, i.e. not visible enough for the elderly or people with visual impairments. They must appear to be dot-sized on high-resolution screens. The Select icon is particularly small.
It is also unhelpful and wrong that icons/buttons that can be used are so grey that they appear as functions that cannot currently be used because Serif wants them to appear white when clicked. See here from Photoshop how the default is for usable and non-usable functions:

When you hover these buttons in Photoshop they are highligthed with a darker background instead:
 
I assume that the varying and incorrect font sizes and the problems with parts of the letters being cut off at the bottom are on the Serif to do list.