vonBusing

That is a helpful feature! Unfortunately, it's really only useful if you have the intended layer drilled down and scrolled to in the panel – which in a document with a lot of nested groups, can be tedious. I have a suggestion here that I think would be a huge improvement: Auto-drill and auto-scroll to the current selection in the layers panel.
 
 
This works great for selecting a single shape, but half the time, that's not quite what I want to do – I want to select a group within a group (perhaps several layers deep) and transform that, rather than edit the individual paths contained in that group.
 
Imagine you have an illustration of a street with several cars on it and you want to resize the hubcaps on one of the cars. The hubcap is in a group with the wheel, which is in a group with the exterior of the car, which is in a group with the exterior, interior, and driver. You can double-click a few times to get down to the hubcap, but if you go too far and get to the shine on the hubcap, you have to start over from the top. You can use ⌘-click to get to the shine, but there's no way to quickly jump to the hubcap.
 
I think auto-jump on the layers panel would go a long way toward solving this as well.

Now *that's* an interesting idea… However, I think it would only work for the 1.x suite, or at least for tools aiming at feature-parity with the competition, and not for outright novel features.
 
I think Serif, for all its openness, might be taking a page from the Apple playbook here. Just look how hush-hush they are when it comes to their upcoming DAM, their iPad apps and even Publisher (not that a DTP app is much of a mystery, but seeing how digital platforms are all the rage now I can see how coming up with decent e-book authoring tools at affordable prices is probably an opportunity too good to pass on, and so far we haven't seen much in the way of a roadmap for Publisher, which I expect to bring to the table some goodies to make up for the – I'm hoping temporary – loss of basic professional tools like multiline composer).
 
They are holding some of their cards close to their chest because they know it generates buzz amongst the community and keeps the competition a few steps behind. Adobe would be *very* stupid not to have some lurkers in these forums, IMHO…  ;) Though I think they've shown such hubris and such disdain for their users recently that they may very well be dismissing Affinity and its community as a niche. They are very Microsoft-y in that regard…
 
I know I may be going out on a limb here, but don't forget that I'm that guy who wrote a huge letter to Serif just a few days after Adobe announced their CC-only move, back in May 2013, pleading them to come up with an alternative and even promising to buy their Plus suite and run it in a VM as long as they announced a Mac port and provided cross-grade or cross-platform upgrade licensing, without even knowing they were already coding alpha builds of Affinity. On a side note, I've also been kicking myself ever since 2004, when I thought it was probably a good idea to buy Apple stock but was too afraid and/or ignorant about the whole stock buying process to actually do it.  :P
 
I can recognize a winning company when I see one and, though I believe that Serif still has a long way to go before they can go head to head with Adobe (and I'm not just talking about cross-platform support or feature-parity here; stuff like localization, plugin support, a strong push into education and sustained community-building outside of these walls come to mind), I'm pretty damn sure they are the ones who will eventually do it. I also think that at least internally, they believe in that, too, even though they never acknowledge it publicly. All that apparent modesty is just common sense and corporate diplomacy 101; if the giant is, well, sleeping (as it seems), do not wake it up until you have a better chance of beating it…
 
In fact, if I may add, if they were developing alpha builds of Affinity for four years (!) without revealing anything to the world (and that could have been a bright move if done a bit earlier than the first beta release, right after the infamous CC announcement, as it might have just caused a bit of a “third-party Osborne effect” and pent-up demand for quite a few users), they could conceivably be developing early alpha builds of Affinity for Windows already (they do have Windows devs in their company, so, why not? Apple did the same with x86 builds of OS X and just look at where that got them)… They are transparent, alright, and that's extremely refreshing considering how opaque (and unresponsive!) the competition is, but I think they are shrewd enough not to be *too* transparent, which makes this a very fun exercise.  ;)

Hi everyone,
 
We just thought it would be helpful to offer a thread that explained why things may seem quiet at present with respect to Beta releases and new features...
 
 
We have two active code branches at present, one is the bug fix branch from the App Store version (this is where the current 1.4 Betas are built from), the other is our development branch that contains all the new features. At present we have to make sure that our launched Beta versions fix the issues that customers may be encountering, without introducing any other side-effects. This is so that we can be in a position where we know the App Store version is dependable and that customers will be getting a good experience.
 
As soon as we have tested the 1.4.2 Beta thoroughly it will be uploaded to the App Store and will become the 1.4.2 App Store version. We do not expect this to be a lengthy process, but it will not be immediate as it requires a certain amount of testing before we can responsibly push it as an update.
 
Once this has happened we will be able to start building from our development branch and produce a 1.5 Beta for you. The development branch contains a large number of new features already, but we won't make them visible until they have reached the standard you would expect, so we're not going to comment on what those features will be until we know we can share them with you.
 
We hope that makes sense and clears up any queries, if you have any comments then please feel free to post them.
 
Thanks,
Matt

Purpose: Fixes
Status: Incremental bug-fix track on 1.4.1
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Here
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it.
 
This is an Incremental Bug-Fix release - it should be considered more stable than the current MAS version (1.4.1) and should be used in preference to that build, if you are experiencing any of the problems listed below.
 
Fixes
 
- Fixed incorrect pixel preview resolution if the document was in multiples of 72dpi or 96dpi
- Fixed incorrect results when changing DPI of an artboard document in some scenarios
- Export of rectangular paths will not automatically convert them to rectangles in vector export if they have more than 4 points
- Added the ability to name an export area in Export Persona with a name that includes folder path, e.g. "folder/image" as the name of your export area will export the item "image" into "folder", creating it if it didn't exist already.
 
 

I've seen this topic repeatedly appear. Why not add a line to the error-window that explains that if they've updated to the latest MAS version it makes any older betas obsolete? That way they don't have to ask on the forums why the beta is "invalid" suddenly. :p I've never seen the message so maybe it already explains that. But we sure see this topic a lot...

One trick to keep the beta runnable all the time: don't update your MAS version until a later beta is released.

Hi ronnyb,
Go to menu View ▸ View Mode ▸ Clip to Canvas, or press "\".

Hi Tom,
 
I don’t believe this option is currently supported, but here’s a trick. Suppose you want to create a text frame of the size of the pink rectangle below, and the text should flow around the blue circle. Then do the following:
Duplicate the blue circle and rescale it to the size of the green circle (this will define the distance of the text to the blue circle). Subtract the green circle from the pink rectangle. Select the Frame Text Tool and click inside the pink rectangle. Add your text. Voilà. Hope that helps …  :)
Alex
Text.afdesign

retrograde, nothing on the forum.  Attached are a few links to jpg versions which don't really show it but I'm trying to add as much detail as possible to the drawings.  I'm still learning but having fun as I do.  I think I find problems most people don't because I'm frequently zoomed in several hundred thousand percent to get screw heads, rivets, logos, texts, etc. drawn and placed correctly.  I hope these few give you an idea...  Thanks for asking.  Oh yes I try to only use vectors, using the draw persona only.
 
https://www.flickr.com/gp/123947409@N05/FNV18T  Cobra
https://www.flickr.com/gp/123947409@N05/ac24oS   Dave the minion
https://www.flickr.com/gp/123947409@N05/96dwj9    2015 Corvette
https://www.flickr.com/gp/123947409@N05/425016   P51
https://www.flickr.com/gp/123947409@N05/tQm4u2  Triumph
https://www.flickr.com/gp/123947409@N05/s8we7f   Cessna
https://www.flickr.com/gp/123947409@N05/p1S330  Richard Mille Tourbillon Saphire
 
Mike

Guys … you should really take your time to celebrate …  :D
 
But as you know, users are insatiable … give them an inch and they will always take a yard … so when I second Ronny’s requests, I am well aware that this might look like typical user behavior. But I would also suggest to address some of those seemingly minor issues that prove somewhat cumbersome in the daily use of your apps. Most of them have been brought up in the past already:
Please add dividers to the Blend Mode and Adjustment Layer menus and group them in a logical fashion. And please order all these menus consistently. Please change the icons for the Node Tool Actions according to a suggestion of MEB long time ago. That’s a point where I always have to look twice, and the suggested icons are far more readable. Please add sticky settings, particularly for the Crop Tool. Please populate the context tool bar of the Perspective Tool, thereby rendering the interface of the Mesh Warp Tool and the Perspective Tool consistent. Though it is great that we have Character and Paragraph Panels now, these panels are hard to use for extended periods of time, particularly on non-retina devices and with eyes like mine. I noticed that I always have to look twice, when I am adjusting text parameters. The icons are quite small, and above all, it is not immediately clear, where the panels start and where they end, since the bars that act as dividers within those panels have almost the same colour as the backgrounds of the tab bars (see below). I would suggest to clear the situation here. Allow Option + Drag actions in the layers list for duplicating layers. Allow the selection of multiple nested Adjustment Layers, without selecting the parent layer. (Or should there be a way to achieve this?) Allow constraining brush movements by holding down Shift. Please add smart thumbnail caching to the Media Browser. Unfortunately, I have no idea how complicated it would be to make the relevant changes, but I am sure, all this would improve the user experience considerably …  :)
 
But once again, you should indeed start the weekend one day earlier …  :)
Thanks, Alex

The betas aren't going to keep working now we've released 1.4 predick, you'll have all the features in the Mac App Store version now.
 
The beta program will continue when the devs add new features and release a new beta.
 
[edit] Just wanted to add a little detail - our betas validate themselves against an installed Mac App Store version otherwise they won't run - this prevents them being 'abused' as free versions and limits ongoing use to customers that are engaging with the process. When we update the Mac App Store version and you install the update, the beta no longer validates because it's suddenly obsolete, older than the MAS version which it no longer recognises. This all resets itself when we make new betas.

The names of these filters are well-established in software, precisely because they're the names of the algorithms. It's like when you go to apply an "Unsharp Mask" or a "Gaussian Blur". You have learned what those mean, and you know that they mean the same thing regardless of what application you use. It's not "sharpness" or "blur", which would be too vague and generic.
 
Unfortunately, people are much less aware of how various scaling filters look. I mentioned the differences at the bottom of my post:
 
"And if people are interested in the difference between nearest neighbor, bilinear, bicubic and lanczos for enlarging, it's basically as follows from worst to best: Nearest neighbor = jaggy pixels (extreme aliasing), Bilinear = smooth pixels (the values are blended together; produces no ringing), Bicubic = sharper but has visible ringing, Lanczos = sharper than bicubic and rounder handling of diagonal curves than bicubic (less aliasing), similar amount of ringing." (Ringing means "halos" around contrasting edges between colors, such as at the edges of objects.)
 
I think the best thing Affinity could do is provide a graphical selection screen for beginners, with small, zoomed-in previews of each filter, all using the same test image (not the user's own image). They would then see that Nearest Neighbor = "big, ugly, square pixels; only useful for enlarging pixel art", "Bilinear" = "smoothed out pixels", "Bicubic" = sharp but has halos (ringing) around all contrasting outlines, "Lanczos" = even sharper *and* has smoother handling of diagonal curves (less aliasing/stair-stepping), and has a similar amount of ringing (halos).
 
Anyone just doing general resizing will probably always want Lanczos. Its quality is very good. If you get too much ringing, use Bilinear resizing instead and manually apply an Unsharp Mask filter with a ringing-free Radius to make it sharp again.
 
If the resize panel ever gets an "Advanced" mode, I'd also want to have access to 2-lobe, 3-lobe and 4-lobe versions of the filters so that I can choose how sharp or blurry the Lanczos resize should be.
 
I still hope the "non-separable" (Slow, 2D) version of Lanczos is removed, if indeed proven superfluous (as it was claimed by all the reference books and material I looked through): https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/9378-what-is-the-difference-between-lanczos-seperable-and-non-seperable/&p=53992

@JDW. No... Sharpness is a separate parameter of the filter, regardless of mode...
 
You could have this:
 
Lanczos (non-separable; smooth)
Lanczos (non-separable; sharp)
Lanczos (non-separable; very sharp)
Lanczos (non-separable; extremely sharp)
Lanczos (separable; smooth)
Lanczos (separable; sharp)
Lanczos (separable; very sharp)
Lanczos (separable; extremely sharp)
  So it makes no sense to rename "non-separable" as "sharper".   I guess what the devs *could* do, is to throw away the slow non-separable version (why is it even there?!), and instead tweak the sharpness parameter of the faster separable version to provide both a smooth and a sharp version of the fast 1D implementation.   The sharpness of a Lanczos filter is defined by the number of "lobes".  
Further investigation showed that a Lanczos filter is fully separable, meaning that non-separable and separable are capable of identical output. The existence of the 10-15x slower "non-separable" mode means Affinity seem to have misimplemented Lanczos. There is no reason for the non-separable version of that filter to exist.
 
If all of this is correct, then it would be best to delete the non-separable (slow 2D version). Keep the separable (fast 1D version). Tweak the number of lobes to provide a few presets with varying sharpness, as such: http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Lanczos_lobs/taps
 
(Taps = affects the down/upscaling scale; Lobes = affects the sharpness; common values are 2 lobes = the best compromise between sharpness and low amount of ringing, and 4 lobes = more ringing but extra sharpness).
 
Why non-separable filters are slower: Upscaling in 1D only requires two 4-tap filters. Upscaling in 2D requires a single 16-tap (4*4 taps) filter, which is an order of magnitude slower. There is no reason to have a non-separable version of a Lanczos filter.

Since no one knows what the difference is between Lanczos 3 "separable" and "non-separable" may I suggest that Serif put something more meaningful and descriptive into those parenthesis instead?
 
In my testing, Lanczos 3 (separable) enlargements and reductions a tad sharper than Bicubic, and Lanczos 3 (non-separable) is much sharper.
 
So I would think the Resample popup should read as follows:
Nearest Neighbor Bilinear Bicubic Lanczos 3 (sharp) Lanczos 3 (sharper) Because, quite honestly, "separable" and "non-separable" may appeal to the left-brainers, but isn't Affinity Photo appealing to our right-brain creative side?  Yes.  So make the descriptions more understandable, please!

I think that artboards shouldn't not move with "Moove Tool" but only with "Artboard Tool" as in "AI".
 
Many thanks for the New things :-)

Now, when do we get Affinity Publisher for Linux?
 
 
 
 
 
(I hope you get the irony. ;) )

Purpose: Fixes 
Status: Release Candidate - Gold Master (again!)
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Submitted
Download: Here
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it. Please note that if you use features which are only present in the Beta version then save your document, it will no longer open in the Mac App Store version.
 
This is a Release Candidate and desperate last minute update build. It is our intention to submit this for review This has been submitted to Apple. We will obviously start adding more features again as soon as this update goes live.
 
Fixes
 
- Fix for width/height in Transform panel becoming unruly with Artboard selected - Fix for overprint in PDF export

Hi benjaminduall,
Thanks for your report.
The input field numbers jumping back to the existing value is already logged.
I'm not having issues with TAB in the transform panel.
Which OS are you running?

Go home Andy :) you guys have kicked bum enough this week

Yeah, these documents are composed of many other embedded afdesign documents.
 
That's a shame, as the Mac App Store behavior causes my SVGs to all be 3-10x larger, since they're entirely rasterized... and that's at pixelated garbage resolution. Would it be possible to get a link to the last beta version that used the new export method?  .15?  I really depended on that much decreased export size.

@A_B_C
That one was already logged but wasn't fixed yet.

Illustrator appears to be getting confused by the SVG viewBox and the units somehow. I tried a quick test and got "stroke-width:20.83px" in the SVG, but Illustrator turned the width into 20.83pt. It also got the document size wrong. If I use Export > SVG > More and uncheck Set viewBox, then Illustrator gets both the document size and the stroke width right. I suggest you try unchecking that option and see if you get better results.
 
The stroke Scale with object setting only affects how strokes are affected when you resize within Affinity. It doesn't affect export. As Bripmd says, I believe our SVG export is correct because other apps interpret it correctly.

Purpose: Improvements / Fixes 
Status: Release Candidate
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it. Please note that if you use features which are only present in the Beta version then save your document, it will no longer open in the Mac App Store version.
 
This is a Release Candidate build. It is our intention to submit this for review to Apple in the first week of December. Any help you could offer to stabilise and refine the product at this stage will be very gratefully received    :)  We won't be implementing any new features now for this version and we will be focusing on stabilising the product for the immediate future. We will obviously start adding more features again as soon as this update goes live.
 
Improvements / Fixes
 
- Chinese (Simplified) localisation.
- Help improvements (including localisations).   - Bleed support for artboards. - More small artboard issues fixed.   - Fixed grey artefacts when zooming. - Fixed terrible problems when multiple documents with different RGB profiles are open. - Fixed font fallback for certain scripts (Korean, for example). - Improved export progress reporting. - Fixed tab bar issues when many documents are open. - Node Tool performance fix. - Printers marks improvements.  

Ok that indeed seems to be the cause (thanks A_B_C !).
So my suggestion would be to have beta versions also look for the paid version in the folder where the beta currently resides...

and just to point it straight into this thread 
- linked bleed values so that you don´t have to type 4 times (in probably most cases)
- same for margins please
 
 
And very important (I posted it in the AP thread but it really belongs to AD)
- bleed for artboards and bleed preview