Matthias

Is there a function to morph lines into each other? In FreeHand, make two or more lines, hit the "mixing" tool and get something like this:
 

The blend tool in Illustrator, or a similar tool which is in just about all other vector design apps, is still missing in Designer. I find it one of my most used tools in illustrator, being able to create a set of intermediate objects that change properties of the first object to the properties of the second. This can be a morph of the shape of an object in specified steps or any other properties like colour graduating from first to last. I was hoping to see this feature in v2

Count me in 👍

As much as I love Designer/Photo/Publisher I think there are a few minor UI issues where user actions don’t meet expectations. I already mentioned some of them, for example:
– Why not reveal the file path by alt-clicking on the document  title (standard macOS behavior)?
– Why not recognize the state of the alt key once dragging has started (standard Finder behavior)?
 
But my suggestion today is: I think the color handling in the color palette (or Studio) can improve with small refinements like:
– Add a command to delete all unused colors in the document/user color lists.
– Add a command to change all used colors to global.
– Make multiple color swatches selectable (and changeable, e.g. to global or for deleting) with alt-click (standard macOS behavior).
 
Cheers
Matthias

I know a number of people have asked for an arc tool over the years, but so far it hasn't appeared in Affinity Designer. It's an essential tool for drawing geometric patterns, e.g. Islamic geometric patterns, along with gothic tracery, arches, etc. Here is a video to show the functionality of the arc tool.
Functionality:
Snap the centre of the arc to any point on a line or curve, the end of a line, or intersection of lines/curves Snap the circumference to a line, the end of a line, or intersection of lines/curves by selecting the end point of an arc, extend the arc snap tangent to curves using the arc tool, draw a complete circle ==== VIDEO OVERVIEW BELOW >>>>
arc-tool-hb.mp4

As it stands now, the select features are a nice addition, but are frustratingly all encompassing. They really should let you limit its scope as far down as to a group.
While I can see the benefits to having it select things across your entire project, it certainly shouldn't be the default and only option.

Thanks for the new image placement options.

Thanks for the new image placement options.

Thanks for the new image placement options.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
 
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is significantly different from the 1.8.x version available for purchase - we strongly recommend that you do not use this beta for real work as data could be lost and the files you save are not guaranteed to open in previous / future versions of Affinity Designer.
Thanks again for your continued support!
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes this time
- Fix for Select Same and Select Object when they encounter text objects
- Enable image placement options in Designer (you can now choose Linked or Embedded) and also Resource Manager (from the View menu)
- Added option for Designer to be able to show/hide overflow text - particularly useful for text on a path
- Application icon updated to fit the 'Big Sur' visual style, also document icons updated. Misc other Big Sur fixes.
- Fix for terrible rendering problems - particularly affected cropped items with layer effects applied
- Added ability to rotate canvas if you have a scroll wheel mouse (or two-finger vertical drag on your touchpad) if you hold down Command. This will rotate around the mouse cursor location. Holding down Shift in addition to Command while scrolling will rotate around the centre of the view.
Changes Since 1.9.0
- Contour tool.
- Select Same / Select Object functionality. I'm happy to consider requests for extra options, so if you have a favourite, just say...
- Improved performance with large documents. I will aim to improve this further over time.
- Added a new “Divide” blend mode.
- Allowed snapping to the bounds of the pixel selection.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
 
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the first build of Affinity Designer 1.9.0 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is significantly different from the 1.8.4 version available for purchase - we strongly recommend that you do not use this beta for real work as data could be lost and the files you save are not guaranteed to open in previous / future versions of Affinity Designer.
Thanks again for your continued support!
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes Since 1.9.0
- Contour tool.
- Select Same / Select Object functionality. I'm happy to consider requests for extra options, so if you have a favourite, just say...
- Improved performance with large documents. I will aim to improve this further over time.
- Added a new “Divide” blend mode.
- Allowed snapping to the bounds of the pixel selection.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread

Can be a great timesaver when you open documents from someone else or from CAD applications. Change any attribute a thousand times at once with only a few clicks.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Affinity Designer Beta 1.8.4.4 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.8.3 version currently available in the store to all customers (though it installs parallel to the release). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes Since 1.8.4.3
- Fix for undesirable shapes being created when dragging the start/end nodes of a shape on top of each other to close the shape. (hi @abn5x!!!)
- macOS Big Sur operation and visual style improvements.
- Improved margin and bleed presets for documents.
 
Changes Since 1.8.3
- Fix for incorrect rendering of grids in OpenGL past certain zoom levels.
- Fix for poor functioning of 'Force Touch' trackpads in pressure-sensitive tools.
- Speculative fix for occasional lockups in Pencil Tool.
- Added option in preferences to re-enable the old behaviour for deleting objects (we used to previously favour empty selections).
- Added ability to show folders as icons in the layers panel.
- Added option to always show folders as “small” in the layers panel.
- Improved dragging behaviour in the layers panel (make it easier to drag child items around within their container without affecting parenting).
- PDF import performance improvements.
- Document save performance improvements.
- Text performance improvements.
- Assorted small bug fixes.
- Fix for 'Expand Strokes' failing to consider 'velocity' as a width controller.
- Fix for focus issues when tabbing between text entry fields in the Colour panel with Text objects selected.
- Fix for operation of Command+Right-Click on an object to show the tree hierarchy of the selected node.
- Allow certain documents created on Windows to open correctly (if the document contained a saved reference to exporting as Windows GDI formats).
- Help improvements.
- Localisation improvements.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Affinity Designer Beta 1.8.4.2 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.8.3 version currently available in the store to all customers (though it installs parallel to the release). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes Since 1.8.3
- Fix for incorrect rendering of grids in OpenGL past certain zoom levels.
- Fix for poor functioning of 'Force Touch' trackpads in pressure-sensitive tools.
- Speculative fix for occasional lockups in Pencil Tool.
- Added option in preferences to re-enable the old behaviour for deleting objects (we used to previously favour empty selections).
- Added ability to show folders as icons in the layers panel.
- Added option to always show folders as “small” in the layers panel.
- Improved dragging behaviour in the layers panel (make it easier to drag child items around within their container without affecting parenting).
- PDF import performance improvements.
- Document save performance improvements.
- Text performance improvements.
- Assorted small bug fixes.
- Help improvements.
- Localisation improvements.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not Available
---
Hi,
We are pleased to announce that Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.8.4.663 is now available as a download from the link above.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.8.3 version recently released to all customers (though it installs parallel to the release). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
---
Improvements and Fixes
General
Fixed recent regression when saving Linked Image placeholders which was causing large document files
Recoloured K-only images with transparency lose their transparency
(Win) Can now import .afassets file via drag drop 
Text
Avoid generating infinite filler text when leading is zero
Further improvements for ideographic line breaks, mainly for quote-marks
Allow OpenType kerning between glyphs with different settings (if they are the same font and size)
Fixed 'Indent To Here' not working if lines are broken by drop cap or wrap shape
Fixes for line-breaker around Fixed Spaces
Import / Export
IDML Import - Text frame corners are now scaled correctly
IDML Import - Fixed instances where text wrap path could fail to import, or be scaled incorrectly
IDML Import - Generic OpenType features not being imported from IDML file
IDML Import - Effects settings not scaled correctly on master page items
IDML Import - En-Space in numbered list imported as a 0
IDML Import - Elements could be positioned incorrectly in some instances
IDML Import - Question mark in file path breaks link during the import
IDML Import - Initial Words not scaling correctly
IDML Import - Placed EPS files are slightly clipped
PDF Import - Better handling of restricted files
PDF Export - Fixed issues exporting to PDF/X-4 with content with embedded profiles 
PDF Export - Export could fail for glyph ids that happen to match surrogate pair values
Index
Index Find - match words with following punctuation
Partial loss of parent topics when adding pages from file
Further fixes, made since the release of 1.8.3, are listed in earlier 1.8.4 betas
---
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Publisher update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Publisher customers, please follow this thread

Can be a great timesaver when you open documents from someone else or from CAD applications. Change any attribute a thousand times at once with only a few clicks.

No beta available please use the Photo 1.8.2 macOS release build instead
Status: GM Seed
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Submitted
Download ZIP: Download
Auto-update: Available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the final beta of Affinity Photo 1.8.2 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.8.1 version recently released to all customers (though it installs parallel to the release). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes This Build
 
- Fixed artefacts when rasterising groups containing live filters.
- Fixed EXR export problems.
- Import layer effects on PSD smart objects.
- Fixed marquee layer selection including locked objects.
- Fix for PDF export not embedding fonts correctly.
- The [ and ] keys will step the size of the brush by 1px in the pixel tool.
- Fix some artefacts on Navi GPUs.
- Fixed loading low-resolution RAW from Canon 5D Mk II.
- Improve PNG import when files are corrupt but contain enough image data to be useful.
- General performance improvements.
- Fix for crashes when saving documents started using an architectural preset.
- Honour dock settings when double clicking the title bar.
- Help improvements.
 
Changes Since 1.8.1

- Fixed sporadic PDF load crash.
- Fixed refine selection crash.
- Fixed develop persona crash on Mavericks and older.
- Disabled full screen mode for new document panel.
- Fixed some blurry non-retina UI.
- XMP pass through of unknown tags.
- Localisation tweaks.
- Help improvements.
- Further live filter fixes (as reported).
- Boolean operation fixes.
- Halftone crash fix with specific document sizes.
- Added stepper controls to the refine panel.
- Significant quality improvements to live filter rendering.
- Fixed focus merge issues (some images would get ignored).
- Improvements to customisable shortcuts UI.
- Defringe improvements.
- Added ability to preview fonts on black or white background.
- New document panel - terminology and UI tweaks.
- New document panel - saves settings between uses.
- Reinstated double click functionality on zoom, view tools.
- Improved responsiveness when editing large blocks of text.
- Fixed blurred toolbar buttons on non-retina displays.
- Fixed inability to move information page samplers in develop etc.
- Fixed occasional live perspective transform crash.
- Fixed luminosity details stepper in develop persona.
- Fixed mask bugs when resizing documents.
- Fixed inability to enter white balance temperature correctly in develop persona.
 
To be notified about all future macOS beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Photo update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Photo on macOS customers, please follow this thread
 

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Affinity Designer Beta 1.8.2.1 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.8.1 version recently released to all customers (though it installs parallel to the release). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes This Build
- Fix for PDF export issues relating to missing straight line segments.
- Allow PSD smart object import in Designer.
- Further expand stroke and boolean geometry fixes.
- Fix some symbol instability problems..
- Fix for some compound objects not allowing documents to be opened in 1.8.
 
Changes Since 1.8.1
- Fixes for many expand stroke and boolean geometry problems.
- Improvements to customisable shortcuts UI.
- Added ability to preview fonts on black or white background.
- New document panel - terminology and UI tweaks.
- New document panel - saves settings between uses.
- Reinstated double click functionality on zoom, view tools.
- Improved responsiveness when editing large blocks of text.
- Fixed blurred toolbar buttons on non-retina displays.
- Fixed mask bugs when resizing documents.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread
 

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the first beta of Affinity Designer 1.8.2 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.8.1 version recently released to all customers (though it installs parallel to the release). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes This Build
- Fixes for many expand stroke and boolean geometry problems.
- Improvements to customisable shortcuts UI.
- Added ability to preview fonts on black or white background.
- New document panel - terminology and UI tweaks.
- New document panel - saves settings between uses.
- Reinstated double click functionality on zoom, view tools.
- Improved responsiveness when editing large blocks of text.
- Fixed blurred toolbar buttons on non-retina displays.
- Fixed mask bugs when resizing documents.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread
 

Can be a great timesaver when you open documents from someone else or from CAD applications. Change any attribute a thousand times at once with only a few clicks.

<EDITED> Please note, Affinity Designer 1.8.2 for Mac is now live so this thread is locked </EDITED>
We are pleased to announce a major update for the MacOS release of Affinity Designer, to version 1.8.1
Changes in this build
The changes in Affinity Designer for MacOS 1.8.1 (over the last release Affinity Designer macOS 1.7.3) are as follows:
New Features & Improvements:
Template support – save documents as template files to re-use time and time again, share templates across all apps and even access files on multiple devices through cloud storage. New document dialog – it’s now simpler than ever to find, create and manage document presets with customised, saveable presets and thumbnail previews. Unified toolbar – thanks to the integration of window controls and the app’s main toolbar, Mac users (Mojave and above) can now enjoy more usable document space. Boolean operation improvements – add, subtract and combine shapes to create custom designs better than ever before. Updated PANTONE© library – work with a seemingly endless range of colours, including updated PANTONE© Color Bridge and PANTONE© Formula Guide solid palettes (coated and uncoated). Massive expand stroke improvements – get incredibly accurate results with far fewer nodes than before. New Stock panel – quickly access royalty free images through the app’s brand-new Stock panel. Apple keyboard shortcuts for text editing — use Apple default keyboard shortcuts for text editing and entry for an even more streamlined workflow. Many other improvements and fixes. Fixes 
(some of these are phrased in the negative but nevertheless fixed)
Clicking close button whilst in full screen does not close window Symbols: crash when performing non-destructive boolean operation with elements within a symbol in certain circumstances Performing a non-destructive boolean operation inside a group with constraints applied crashes Designer Quick double click to rename an object will fail on macOS Sierra Grid moves position when zooming CMYK waterfall covers sliders Hidden layer's pixel content is lost when exporting to PSD Toggle UI does not work after restarting the app Guides Manager: Remove Guide doesn't work Improvement: Add boolean labelled unison in history Assets: Double Click and drag places assets with wrong aspect. Zoom Tool UI (context toolbar) glitches/truncated while being edited Duplicating a Global Colour should suffix the name with 'copy' Cursor Icons are not rotated to match Canvas Rotation User file: PDF import renders TIFF CMYK image in one of the pages entirely red Alignment is incorrectly labelled as Arrange in Export Persona Bullets and Numbering missing quick character selection drop-down PANTONE swatch palette list is ordered incorrectly Sample download bar hard to see using Graphite accents Using CMD+Backspace in the Swatches Panel causes Affinity to crash Text on path hang - file/font specific Add to swatches > As global colour fails with multiple objects Selecting a large number of objects is way too slow Complex imported PDF slows application down Appearance Panel: Check boxes can swap positions when they shouldn't Appearance Panel: Doesn't refresh if a new Stroke or fill is added with the fly-out present Customer Specific PDF fails to export Tool Settings/Presets saved showing in other applications that don't support them Layer thumbnails on the Layers panel don't get updated after changing a a global colour from the swatches panel User file TIFF Alpha does not render correctly Missing tool-tip on Brushes panel Pixel Selection appears incorrectly when started near page edge File > Export: padlock icon state not honoured in certain circumstances Live filters and PDF export: live filters not being processed/rendered when exporting to PDF Windows menu: Enter full screen and Toggle Full screen - duplicate entry Other minor fixes and improvements  
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in application menu, Affinity Designer > About).
If you’ve purchased from the Mac App Store— updates are done automatically next time you run your software after it is available in the Mac App Store. If this does not happen for you, open the Mac App Store app and go to the Updates page and then Store > Reload page or press CMD+R. This should hopefully force the update to show. Apple sometimes phase roll outs around the world which can mean it may take up to 72 hours for your update to be available.
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer to download and install any available update, or in the application main menu there is an option Check for Updates. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "Download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Designer for macOS) can be downloaded from this link (that installer is NOT for Mac App Store purchases and needs a product key).
 
NOTE: This was originally released as 1.8.0 on the Affinity Store and the Mac App Store. Affinity Designer 1.8.0 on the Mac App Store had a single file missing that caused a number of problems. That build has been replaced with an otherwise identical 1.8.1 build. The Affinity Store version did not have this problem, but has been rebuilt to keep numbering systems in sync with the Mac App Store.

Well, Mark, then we do have a different approach here. We both want to put the designer in charge — but from opposite directions. I concede your points.
What would help though is if the app would somehow memorize the originally dialed in colour values. So when the colour space would change back from a different one to the original one the colour values would jump back to what exactly one intended them to be.

Thank you! I'll take a look! (it's not the 'expand stroke' function itself that's causing the issue, it's the boolean operation 'add' that I run on the results to remove overlaps that's causing the problem - I need to fix this though, so hang in there and I'll take a look!)  
 
Edited to say: I've just tried this in my latest beta build (I've not released it yet, but it will be 1.8.0.3) and it succeeds - but I still maintain there's a problem with the Boolean operations that causes some issues and I'll try to fix that  

Hi Mark!,
I've passed this on an improvement to development.

If you're using a PMS or any other sort of named colour swatch it should use the name it came with. If you want to rename it you should have that ability but I think, for clarity sake, it should default to the name it comes with.