JohnG

It's almost 2024 and I see no sign that Affinity supports or is planning to support .ASL files.
Support of .ASL files is the single most important thing missing from Affinity products.
It was bad enough, before. But the problem is exacerbated, since I moved to an M2 Mac. I now can't even run Photoshop CS6 in VMware under MacOS 14. I used to be able to open the old PS in VMware create a font, type and rasterize my text in hi-res, and save it in a transparent PNG file that could be used in Affinity. But now, I have numerous style packs from the old PS days and the only option I have is trying to try to recreate them in Affinity Photo/Designer. I can do it. But in most cases, it takes more time to recreate the style than it's worth.

It's almost 2024 and I see no sign that Affinity supports or is planning to support .ASL files.
Support of .ASL files is the single most important thing missing from Affinity products.
It was bad enough, before. But the problem is exacerbated, since I moved to an M2 Mac. I now can't even run Photoshop CS6 in VMware under MacOS 14. I used to be able to open the old PS in VMware create a font, type and rasterize my text in hi-res, and save it in a transparent PNG file that could be used in Affinity. But now, I have numerous style packs from the old PS days and the only option I have is trying to try to recreate them in Affinity Photo/Designer. I can do it. But in most cases, it takes more time to recreate the style than it's worth.

I’ve been able to get the attached sample by using multiple layers and a mix of effects but I’m still not satisfied with it.
It simply doesn’t have the ‘bling factor’ that is shown in your Photoshop examples and it looks too ‘flat’ to me.
Also, there are more layers than I would like there to be.
More experimentation is needed.

This is getting me closer and I may be able to create a work-around for the remaining problem. The remaining issue is that since the bitmap, in this case, is a background to the text layer, any effects overlays cover the pattern that I include as a text fill. I've been trying all kinds of blending options and I have so far, found nothing that will allow that text fill to show through enough to make a difference in the final product. I'm used to picking a fill of any level of brightness or darkness and using blending options to do away with the color and just keep the texture. There is a possibility that I might be able to create a texture that is already light enough that I can lower the transparency of overlays to allow that texture to show through from the bottom.
It would be so much better and easier, if a texture fill was included as an overlay, in AP, like it is in PS. When it's an overlay, I can make any number of modifications to any font in a matter of a minute or two. I'm now working on three days and although I seem to be getting closer, the result and ease of use I'm trying to achieve in font effects, is still eluding me.
But I'll be working on this concept a little more in the morning. It's going in the right direction. But I still don't see an end, due to the texture being a fill, rather than an overlay. OTOH, I've been known to create effects in PS that many others said was not possible, so I'm not ready to give up.
Thanks.

One of the primary reasons why I bought Affinity Designer was as a replacement for the no longer supported Adobe Fireworks. As such, I have MANY PNG files that I need to be able to edit that were created with layers. But so far, I have found no way to open a PNG file and retain the layers. Is there such a feature within Affinity Designer?
 
One of the problem files is attached.
 
There is another question that I have not tested for yet, but that relates to the above question. Is it possible to open a PNG file with frames and retain the frames, with Affinity Designer?
 
Thanks.