vonBusing

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 an incremental update to the 1.9.3 version recently released to all customers (although it still installs parallel to the released version, as described above). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Thanks again for your continued support!
Many thanks!
Matt

 
 
Changes This Time
- Potentially huge performance improvements for large documents. We've spent a long time looking at this and have improved performance many-fold for large documents and improved scalability. If you have particular documents that still appear 'too slow' then feel free to share them with me and I'll do my best to look into them
- Memory handling improvements
- Fixed PDF Export group opacity potentially being applied twice
- Fixed potential crash when quitting with layers still on the clipboard
- Localisation improvements

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, improvements and fixes.
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download ZIP: Download
Auto-update: Available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the first build of Affinity Photo 1.9.4 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 1.9.3 version recently released to all customers (although it still installs parallel to the released version, as described above). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
The 1.9.4 beta will have a performance focus as we circle back to clean up some inefficiencies which have crept in over time. If you notice performance improvements (or regressions!) over 1.9.3, or if you notice rendering bugs which appear to have been introduced in 1.9.4, please let us know.
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes Since 1.9.3
 
- Added a new "median" mode to the frequency separation filter.
- The gradient map adjustment now has a GPU implementation.
- Restored the GPU rendering improvements which were dropped towards the end of the 1.9.2 beta. The benchmark version is once again set to 1920.
- Improve performance when manipulating the selected layer immediately after loading a document.
- Significant performance improvements in low-memory situations, reducing use of the swap file.
- Panorama stitching performance improvements.
- Significant performance improvements for documents which contain flattened, opaque layers (usually the result of merge visible).
- Render EXIF exposure time as decimal if above 1.
- Fixed F-number always showing as "f/0" for Leica M-series cameras (and others).
- Fixed issue whereby LUTs would incorrectly report "Identity" as the description.
- Fixed potential crash when quitting with layers still on the clipboard.
- Fixed performance issues with CMYK documents when GPU acceleration is enabled.
- Assorted small fixes.
- Localisation improvements.
 

We are pleased to announce an update for the macOS release of Affinity Publisher, version 1.9.3
Changes in this build
The detailed changes in Affinity Publisher for MacOS 1.9.3 over the release build Affinity Publisher for macOS 1.9.2 are as follows:
Fixes & Improvements:
Resource Manager - memory leak fixed Fixed a performance regression Memory leak fixes in the Layer panel Help and Localisation improvements The new features in 1.9 are listed in some detail in this 1.9.0 Publisher macOS update announcement 
 
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 Publisher > 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 Publisher for macOS) can be downloaded from this link (that installer is NOT for Mac App Store purchases and needs a product key).

Good for them they fixed this, although I have zero clue what that means. There are 2 parts left and right of "reverse chaining" that could, maybe, be understandable,. But how  "reverse chaining" is connecting them is not even Greek to me. But it sounds like pretty good song material.

Good for them they fixed this, although I have zero clue what that means. There are 2 parts left and right of "reverse chaining" that could, maybe, be understandable,. But how  "reverse chaining" is connecting them is not even Greek to me. But it sounds like pretty good song material.

Good for them they fixed this, although I have zero clue what that means. There are 2 parts left and right of "reverse chaining" that could, maybe, be understandable,. But how  "reverse chaining" is connecting them is not even Greek to me. But it sounds like pretty good song material.

Make a song with this in it: Added support for OpenType reverse chaining contextual single substitutions. lol!

Status: Beta
Purpose: Fixes / Improvements
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Available
---
We are pleased to announce that Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.9.2.998 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 from the 1.9.1 version recently released to all customers (although it still installs parallel to the released version, as described above). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
---
Fixes
Document / Spread setup
Document size presets create incorrectly sized pages if the Document DPI doesn't match the preset DPI
Business card templates shouldn't be facing page
New Document Templates are now alphabetically ordered
Fixed bleed / margin colour tooltips
Import / Export / Resources
Fixed being unable to download full resolution OpenAsset images
Improved Brush and Asset categories alphabetical sort options
Fixed crash choosing Add Pages from File with 'After Last Page' selected
Replacing a scaled Picture Frame image wasn't maintaining placement
Convert to Picture Frame does not use default saved settings, cf Convert to Text Frame
Renaming then re-linking a cropped PDF or AF document scales the un-cropped document
Missing Content Status for placed PDFs
Placed PDF Page Box / Maximum Content calculated incorrectly
Add Pages from File could handle z-order badly when moving page content
Renamed Export Area 'With background' option to avoid confusion. Fixed other Export UI inconsistencies
Prevent overwriting a Package on document close
Fix for Export More > Preset menu being disabled
Text
Added Preferences option to normalise text breaks on copy to clipboard
Unwanted auto-correct capitalisation caused by exclamation and question marks
Inline text objects should not have Text Wrap options enabled
Text Style Editor > Next level should use "[Same Style]" rather than "[No Style]"
Active text Selection on pasteboard not always drawn correctly
Decrement paragraph level would sometimes find the wrong previous style
Fixed potential hang moving pinned nodes
If spaces are overset, squeeze them up to keep the caret within the frame
Performance improvements generating text wrap shapes in complex cases
Table Format Panel previews always rendered as RGB
Hyperlinks to Anchors can point to incorrect Anchors if Anchor name has been duplicated
Paragraph Decoration has no "inherit state" when used as "based on" style
Alignment context toolbar options for table cells don't work
Hyperlinks containing spaces at the end of the URL broken
Hyperlink button can be incorrect disabled
Anchor dialog doesn't display correctly on older macOS
Edit Text Style dialog list truncated on Big Sur
General
Fixed Assets and Symbols transforming when dragged onto resized Artboards or Groups
Fixed Live filters that have any position controls being broken on saving and re-opening the document
Guides added via Guides Manager are now clamped to Spread size
Master Page Guides could be applied incorrectly when a Master is applied to only one page of a facing page Spread
Transform panel ignores ruler origin in line mode
Showing a studio page should unhide the application UI
---
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

Have finally gotten around too checking out the data merge function in Publisher. Using the just the basics it works well. I would like to see some refinement to the UI. I do not like the Data Merge Manager window always hovering, this should be able to be looked to the toolbar on the right. A big feature I think is missing (may be there but I am not sure where) is the ability to export a merge directly to PDF rather than generate a merged document with all the graphical elements and then export again. Should be able to cut out that middle step.  I tried a simple merge of around 11,000 records. Speed is good and seems to be about the same as Indesign doing the same thing. Data merge along with PDF passthrough are big steps and massive improvements that make this much more usable in a pro environment. I may try some simple live jobs when I have the time and see how things go and compare. 

I also want to thank everyone involved in the implementation of the Data Merge feature.
Although its integration seemed absolutely necessary for Publisher, there's no doubt it must have requested a lot of work.

Thank you so much: Affinity is a solid alternative to competition now!💪

With version 1.9 just out, I just wanted to pop in here and offer my sincere thanks to everyone in the team who worked on bringing us Data Merge in AP.
You listened to us and also delivered an excellent implementation of the feature.
Very well done and thank you!
/RG

It's also under View in Photo, which does have a Document menu.
I've always found the placement of items as a mixture between Document, and File, and View a bit confusing. And having the same function in two different places depending on the application doesn't help.

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
- Fixed Contour Tool's light UI context toolbar icons being invisible
- Contours now form miters (when requested) until greater angles
- Performing a boolean operation on an object with a contour no longer leaves the new object with an additional (unwanted) contour
- Double-clicking the View Tool's tool icon should zoom to fit
- Export preview UI tweaks and ensure it uses the correct ICC profile to show the colours as intended
- Improved performance of OpenType features
 
Changes Since 1.8.x
- Added export preview panel (for raster types) - updates live whenever you change an export parameter
- Added JPEG-XR 101010 import support (useful for screen captures from Xbox, etc.)
- Added new splash screen
- Content download service improvements
- Numerous assorted fixes
- Help improvements
- Localisation improvements
- Export Time-lapse should now draw without pixellation when showing zoomed in areas
- PDF export improvements - particularly around filter effects
- Added 'Select Same Name' and 'Select Same Colour Tag' options
- Updated Help
- A few Big Sur UI-related tweaks
- Fix for printing of passthrough PDFs
- Fix a number of potential symbol-related problems
- Text improvements - particularly relating to mid-word punctuation
- Snapping tweaks - you can now snap to column guides if they're hidden and you have 'snap to hidden objects' turned on
- Added hierarchical antialiasing control - accessed from the Blend Options dialog on the layers panel
- Added 'Export Time-lapse' feature from Photo
- Fixed insertion target button failure!
- Fixed font combo not previewing changes in the document correctly
- New cat shape (accessible on Friday 13th or if you know the magic trick!)
- Misc PDF export tweaks
- Fix for Column Guides not updating correctly
- PDF Import improvements (particularly around tinted colours and unknown fonts)
- Fix for a UI issue in Big Sur (the vertical positioning of some checkboxes)
- New samples! 
- Added Preferences item to allow auto-updating of linked images in the document when the images are edited externally
- Fix for 'Embed'/'Link' image placement preference working incorrectly from some dialogs...
- Added 'Save as package' feature for easy delivery of a complete project
- Improvements to application registration and content syncing
- Fix for pixel layers inside symbols occasionally acting incorrectly (painting may not apply to all symbol instances, items may transform oddly, for example)
- Added Studio Presets with, hopefully, complete functionality 
- Tabbing between fields in the New Document dialog should no longer crash! (sigh)
- Fixed sporadic crash with Pencil Tool (yay!) and hopefully generally improved product stability
- Fix for artefacts occasionally noticed in the noise pattern while editing objects with noise on a linear fill
- Fix for occasional disabling of some buttons
- Added registration page to the app - allows users to login and auto-install brushes (so far)
- 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.
- 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

What does "Auto-update: Soon " mean in terms of measurable time?

Usually means 'The next (working) day'. In this case I will upload it this afternoon all being well.

When can we expect the pending auto-update to be available?

Thanks for this, another little improvement would be to match any roundings, I have just tested an excel sheet that had an average formula, the sheet displays whole numbers but when imported it is displaying 6 decimal places.
Thanks again for all the hard work.
Stay safe.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Stability and General Testing
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Yes
---
Happy New Year!
We are pleased to announce that Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.9.0.887 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 significant update from the 1.8 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 or future versions of Affinity Publisher.
---
Improvements and Fixes

General
Data Merge Manager layout improvements
Pages panel loses the scroll position when switching between document tabs
Glyph Browser was missing glyphs under certain circumstances when sorting via Unicode
Assets delete category was enabled when no categories present
It is now possible to importing a duplicate Styles category 
Document
Fixed issue where re-applying master pages with text frames with pinned objects could cause document instability.
When modifying Adjustment Layers any bleed and pasteboard areas affected were not updating correctly
Import / Export
Excel Import - Fix for issues arising when importing files containing merged cells
Excel Import - Currency Format improvements
PDF Export - Filter Effects could be wrongly rasterised and cause export failures
Document Merge - Added option to ignore unused incoming text styles
Print Dialog with Book or Booklet Document Layout showing could lead to instability
Text
Prevent application of Hyperlink Anchors to Layers / Master Page instances
Prevent creation of blank Hyperlink Anchors that could case errors on PDF Export
Multi-curve text wrap could be combined incorrectly resulting in unexpected wrapping around complex shapes
Resources
Artboard and other settings could be lost when reconnecting missing Affinity resources
Place linked files could be opened as <Embedded> under certain circumstances
'Size frame to content' for images imported from IDML could behave incorrectly
Picture frame within a Picture Frame could cause crash
Affinity Web Services
Miscellaneous improvements including resumable downloads
---
Release Notes for 1.9.0.874
---
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

I was not expecting to see it floating and separate from the dialog as well. I've logged an improvement/bug for us to be able to zoom.

Great to have an Export Preview, but I expected it to be part of the Export window UI rather than an additional window to the left, personally I feel it looks a bit untidy at the moment. Also as others have mentioned I expected a zoom of some kind, wasn't clear I could do that after a quick look.

From 3 pm GMT on Thursday 24th December 2020 until 9 am GMT Monday 4th January 2021 the Serif company is officially closed. There will be some light coverage of the support channels during these 12 days, but most staff are taking time off whilst the offices are closed. Customer Service and Technical Support tickets will take priority and queries about bugs and beta builds will be picked up in the New Year. Unusually, the way the year has panned out a number of staff have not been on holiday for obvious reasons so some are also taking annual holiday now before this company closure, and so it is fair to say that from this week there will be fewer staff here on the forums. 
Please bear with us if you contact us during this time and potentially for a short time after the annual closure, whist we deal with any backlog.
Thank you in advance for your patience and we will make every effort to address your queries in the shortest time-frame possible.

Studiolink doesn't actually grab the features from the other app.
The Designer features that are available to Publisher are included in the Publisher build and disabled unless it sees that Designer is there.
Thus with the Designer build being newer than the Publisher build, the new features won't show up in Publisher until the next Publisher build comes out.
 
The type of modularity you seem to be thinking of would be technically infeasible while following the app store model, and since Serif releases to app stores, they need to do it that way to work around those limitations.

Although I'm fully aware of the issue and know what I need to do, I get caught by this little issue regularly; especially when I'm in a hurry... It's a true time waster. A fix would be very appreciated.

Hi!
Currently, when exporting to pdf, the default area setting is set to "All Spreads" in the export dialogue. I'm not sure when this is actually helpful, but 99.9% of the time I use "All Pages" (otherwise I export current page/selection). Could this be the default instead or, at least, stick once it is changed?
I'd be glad to hear when and for what purpose people are using the All Spread area setting. 
ref, this thread: 
 

The app itself didn't do any of these things. If anything, macOS did it. I've noticed that macOS tends to use the newer version of the same app if both are installed. I don't know what you mean by "the folders set up by Publisher". The support folders of the beta are completely separate from the public release. Other than that, Publish doesn't create new folders.