Petar Petrenko

Will there eventually be support for Python and not just Javascript?

Maybe, maybe not.
Given I was the one who started this discussion almost 5 years ago - and explicitly mentioned things like PDF creation, tagged text, importing into documents etc - I think it's reasonable for me to have an opinion on scripting capabilities.
I hope they do bring scripting capabilities to Affinity Photo, but with over 40 years experience in the printing and publishing industry, I have a very good idea of where priorities for automation should lie.
As to your point about Affinity information, it's in their best interests to give as much information as possible as early as possible. The last thing they'd want to do is spend many years working on something only to find it doesn't meet the expectations or requirements of users. They're far better off getting feedback before they're fully committed to a wrong direction.

I'm pleased to see some progress but - I'm sorry - a little underwhelmed by the examples. As a publishing company our primary tool is InDesign. Our priority for scripting is Publisher and things like placing and formatting text, importing tagged text, archiving files, creating PDFs, exporting for web etc.
Creating grids and designs is 'pretty', but it's of zero interest to us compared to the aforementioned text and document processing which happens every minute of every day and is where the real time savings are. I appreciate others may feel differently, but as a working publishing company I'm focused on the greatest savings we can get.
Thanks for the update but I'll reserve any 'excitement' for when you can demonstrate some productivity scripts in Publisher.

Or, you create an initial file with the settings and the Master Pages you need, but no document text, and create a Template from it. Then you just Open the template once per chapter, add the text, and Save. Then create the Book, and add the chapters. All the setup was done just once.

Hi All,
Thanks again for all your continued help with this release. We are getting very close to launch. This will be the final beta build before what will hopefully be our first release candidate next week. For that reason we are not really making any further significant changes (or anything which could be considered risky). 
The main thing I want to make you all aware of is that we have decided to not release the cross-references feature with 2.1. For that reason this feature has been removed from this week's build.
Any documents you may have created which include cross references will still open (and they will even still update), but you will not be able to edit or create new cross-references in 2.1. We understand this might be disappointing for some of you, however we will be moving into 2.2 beta very shortly after 2.1 release, and as soon as a 2.2 beta is available that will include cross-references again (and will definitely make it to 2.2 release!)
We have made this decision primarily as we have been working on adding better formatting options (as have been requested on these forums) into the feature, but we have not quite managed to get it to a point where we feel it will be releasable in time - and considering all the other great stuff / fixes we have put into 2.1 we don't want to delay the whole of 2.1 because of it.

Other than that in this build it's mostly just fixes which you can see in this thread.
Thanks,
Ash

The issue "IDML file imports with all embedded images replaced with the same initial image - File specific" (REF: AFB-7612) has been fixed by the developers in internal build &quot2.1.0.1769&quot.
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

You could set the decoration to use Column instead of the Text as you have it now. Then just set the Decoration's offsets to 0 (zero).

The Image/Frames are imported into Publisher with no image scaling set though evidently that's not the case with your original file, it's likely a by product of the issue with the embedded images all being replaced with the same initial image which is now logged. When importing your file into Publisher with the images set to linked they all appear to honour the same scaling that they had in InDesign.
There is an outstanding improvement logged internally which relates to IDML import features that includes Footnotes/Endnotes, though it's not something I can provide a timescale for.

Hi All,
Another update to the beta will be shortly available to you on auto update (this is version 2.1.0.1742 for all apps other than Designer and Publisher on iPad which is 2.1.0.1743). Here's some of the main changes to look out for:
Further iPad layers panel changes
The main change we have wanted to get in for a while and has been discussed in these forums again is promoting opacity and blend mode to the top of the main layer panel, rather than only being available via the ... or left swipe menu.
An additional touch is double tapping on opacity value to reset to 100%, and double tap on blend mode to reset to "Normal"

 
Tweak to default tools in Designer iPad
Again we know the right answer for a future update is to allow user customisation for tools, but in the meantime based on various feedback we have:
Split Pencil and Brush so they are no longer nested. Nested Fill and transparency Included the new Vector Flood Fill tool as it's own tool This new default layout can be seen the above screenshot too.
Vector Flood tool fill changes
1. The fill mode options should now be working correctly. The idea behind these are that if your bucket is currently filled with a partially transparent swatch (e.g. might just be Red with 50% opacity, or could be a bitmap fill which has alpha for example), then when you add that fill to an existing shape / area these options gives you control over what you want to happen.
Add - the fill will be added / layered on top. This means for example if you had a bitmap halftone texture this would then add on top of your base colour fill. If you apply again it will keep laying additional fills on top. Smart - the same as Add other than it only allows the same fill to be applied once to any area. Knockout - this will always just replace the current fill(s) with your current swatch. 2. Tap to convert asset or stock item to bitmap fill now works on iPad. On iPad, when you have Vector Flood Tool selected when you tap on any asset you will get an additional option of "Set as Fill" to load your bucket with that. Same applies with a single tap on any stock image. 
Crop tool auto crop to opaque on rotate / straighten
As was requested on this thread we have now made it when you rotate / straighten an image while in crop tool the bounds of the crop will automatically resize to crop out the transparent areas created.
Stroke panel tweaks
Dragging on the Dash or gap indicators on stroke panel now increments values by 0.1 rather than 1.0 You can click-drag on the phase label now too to adjust value (obviously phase only active when balanced is false) The buttons at the bottom of the panel on iPad (remove arrow heads, reverse heads, etc.) should now work! Pantone library update - this build includes updating the PANTONE Solid, Process Coated and uncoated tables to version 5
Cross References
I want to give you a heads up that while cross references will remain in the beta, we have decided that this feature will not be included in the final release of 2.1 - we are going to push it back to release with 2.2. If you have created documents which use cross references they will still load in the release version of 2.1, but you will be unable to edit the references. However, you will be able to continue to use the beta version of 2.1 (and not long after 2.1 release, the beta of 2.2) if you wish to use this feature.
 
You can find the list of bug fixes in this build in the fix list thread.
Thanks,
Ash

Thanks for sending the file over, somethings definitely going wrong on Publisher's end with this file as it's replacing all 32 embedded images with the initial image on page 29, therefore I've logged this example with the developers.
As a workaround in InDesign, I found that unembedding the images, saving them to an external folder, save the IDML and then open the IDML in Publisher will correctly import the images in, at which point they can be changed back to embedded in Publisher's resource manager if required.

It is uploaded.

According to the image he sent, all options I mentioned are in game. If there is some other complicated case, he could send such.

I created the IDML from correct INDD file. So, nothing like you mentioned.

Select the page from which you want to remove the header and apply an empty master to it.

Please Affinity, add an option in Preferences or with some modifier key to crop objects in Photo, not only the canvas.

Selections can be saved, so there is that. They can also be saved/loaded from a file. Also, there's the possibility to snap selections to elements in the document using Quick Mask. It's also possible to create selections based upon layer contents specifically. This makes it possible to select based on alpha (transparency). If I select contents and want to make really delicate changes to the selection (expand, pad with 10px, etc) afterwards, then it would more straightforward to convert that to a crop.
Much of this is workflow dependent and just depends on what the ultimate goals are. Some people may never use it. Others may use it a ton and save time.

Crop to selection is a fantastic feature.
I did get my hopes up for cropping individual layers when I first read the 2.1 feature list though. If I may ask, why isn't cropping individual layers implemented in the Affinity Suite? Is this a philosophical choice or is there a simply a prioritization to implement other features?
Currently I crop my layers in Windows Photos before importing or in a separate Affinity document and it's just a bit cumbersome.

Hi All,
We are pleased to make available the next update to the 2.1 beta (2.1.0.1736). This will be available for you shortly on auto-update. Below are some of the main changes in this update...
WebP and JPEG XL now available in batch export
As has been commonly requested since adding these new formats to V2, we have now made them available as batch format options in Affinity Photo.

New left swipe options on iPad layers panel
You can now access lock/unlock, rename layer and change compound type (if layer in question is a compound) by swiping left on a layer as shown below:
RPReplay_Final1680080397.mov
 
Brush panel improvements
Texture brushes in Designer persona can now be viewed in thumbnail view (i.e. you now have ability to uncheck "Show as list") Alt-Click on raster brushes now changes brush while keeping your current brush width as well as ignoring associated tool. If you just want to ignore associated tool then use shift-alt-click Auto-select
With auto select turned off you can now hold cmd (Mac/iPad) / ctrl (Windows) to temporarily turn it back on to make another selection on document.
Also note: We have encountered some problems with auto select being off with multi-page documents. For that reason it is currently disabled with a multi-page doc, we are hoping to have a fix for this soon.
Vector flood fill tool
When your bucket is loaded with a colour / fill you can now just click on any object to fill it even if it is not selected. In this case this will just fill the whole object - if you want the fill tool to take into account intersecting shapes and curves they all need to be pre-selected as before. While in the tool you can now just click on an asset or stock item to load your bucket with that bitmap texture (i.e. without having to drag drop as before). This is currently only implemented on desktop, but will be added to iPad in too in the next update. There are new controls for whether you want to add as an additional fill or replace the current fill. To be honest there is still some outstanding work which needs to be done with this, so we will talk more about this / what the expected behaviour is in the next update. A new option to "fill to visible boundaries". This means if any of the objects in your selection are obscuring any line segments from other objects, these can now optionally be ignored by the tool. In the example below - without the new option checked there are 12 possible areas you can fill to, but now you can alternatively choose to just show the 6 areas on the right. 
Crop tool
Cmd / ctrl / shift constrain modifiers are now available when in unconstrained mode as promised.
Dashed lines
We now accept zero as the 2nd and 3rd dash value to give different options, particularly when in combination with balanced lines. This example was discussed on the thread - the left option begins with a dot and when balanced dots are in the rectangle corners. The right option begins with a dash, but the 2nd "dash" can now be set to a dot (zero value) to enable dashes in the corners in this case.

Pencil double tap option for quick menu
If menu is already visible a second double tap will now dismiss it.
Rename Layers
You can now double click / tap on an artboard name to rename it!
 
Plus as usual lots of bug fixes as listed in the fix list thread!
To comment / give feedback on any of these changes please go to the relevant thread for that feature which is linked to in each of the headings above.

Thanks,
Ash

Hi @NNN,
Unfortunately I'm limited in the amount of information I can provide here at this time, language support will be font dependant so different languages may be available for future fonts, but this isn't something we can guarantee currently.
.Affonts are encrypted/protected fonts and therefore can't be edited, my apologies!

Hi All,
We are pleased to make available the next update to the 2.1 beta (2.1.0.1732). This should now be available for you shortly on auto-update.
To set expectations we are now at the point where no additional features will be added to 2.1 before release as we focus on final bug fixing and smaller tweaks to the features already added - the list of those included in this build are below (and also included in the main bug fix list )
Bugs affecting all platforms
Auto-Select Groups Failing to Cycle Through the Complete Layer Stack Drawing a new table does not take selected font into account Line width, column guides and distance from text do not scale when rescaling document Renaming global colour adds a history step of "Set global colour" Resampling/resizing text decorations on a master page increases the width of the decoration, relative to the number of pages Strip Camera Raw crs metadata on export to raster formats Brush accumulation fixes Bugs affecting Desktop (Windows and macOS)
2 page facing document starting on the left cannot export page 2 individually to PDF Attached documents cause app to crash when added as a Book Chapter Edit Embedded PDF > Layer selection through the layers panel does not select the objects and ignores any edits made to it Hang printing a book Preflight Maximum ink setting can wrongly report an error Publisher hangs adding an Index on a book Running headers - add to main menu fields Snapping indicator is offset when drawing objects User File - importing IDML document with embedded EPS files opens with placed resource size of 0x0, EPS files are not displayed When cross-references are updated during export of a book, their values disappear from publication pages Bugs affecting Windows
Expanding multiple entry in resource manager 'jumps' to last manually selected resource First Dash Pattern Gap no longer has a minimum value of 0.05 on Windows Font Manager - Fonts disappear after selecting substitute Running headers end on dropdown has no entries in it Text Contrast doesn't affect Adjustments or renamed layers on Windows Bugs affecting macOS
Adjusting spinners in Character Panel can cause all spinners to stop working Blend Mode Shortcuts: Add is missing a shortcut on macOS Brush panel - brush selection lost when category changed Brush panel - name labels don't scale with font size preference Brush selection highlight is lost when switching categories  Edit Field... Right click option incorrectly available on some fields On the Books panel's Preferences menu, Update Cross-References seems permanently unavailable Bugs affecting iPad
Allow multi-select place in Designer and Photo Add Status indicator to Style Picker Tool Context Bar Brush panel - reverts to Basic category on persona change Don't dismiss Style Picker menu when All / None selected Long pressing a Section Name field in document text displays unnecessary Edit option Menu can go offscreen PDF export issue / lock up on iPad Running headers - add as field on keyboard? Stock Panel - Pixabay has lost the vector option on first run Text Vertical alignment setting is not reflected in the UI

Grumpy grandad in:
First; I love Affinity's apps. I'm a total evangelist and convinced a lot of customers and colleagues to purchase it. I have been a "Affinitier" since 2015 and I won't go back. So please, don't take this as a free light ranting.
I'm tired. I'm frustrated. Because of tables. And I have been this way since Publisher came out. I can't understand by Affinity decided to make tables as a separate monolithic object only.
Why, in the name of the design gods, they decided to make it like something outside of the text (Something that even the cheapest, crappiest text editor app understand).
Why, in the name of the design hell's lord they decided that tables can't spread through text containers, columns and pages.
Why, in the name of sanity, can't we set a fixed width to a table, or set fixed width to a column, or block the width to prevent Publisher resizing them whenever I move any other single column, making a nightmare to set the table layout.
I'm tired. This is the single cause of friction and discussion inside out studio team. This is the cause of delays and multiple errors on our work. It is the cause that we have started to make tables in a larger document apart so we can work with big tables before segmenting them to be placed into the final layout. This is why we fear to add or move any design element, because the hideous tables will no spread or move correctly in the documents breaking all the text workflow. This is why we fear to modify a table layout, because we will have to do it on all the segments of the table.
Our last work toke 4 extra hours just because of the tables. Because of the need to segment it and re-layout it after any document modification. And that's 4 hours I can't pass onto the customer because is not their fault.
In 2019, Affinity recognized that this was a very requested feature. Now we are in 2023, and that forum post is deep under into the vault of the lost threads. But we still have to design tables with virtual scissors and glue.
Publisher v2 has been a great improvement on a lot of things, but this table thing is outrageous, and just now, in the middle of a urgent complex corporate document full of tables, it is wat is making us to be working on Sunday instead of walking the dog in the countryside.
I don't know what more to say. I wish Affinity to tell us something more that "we know it is requested we will look into it, someday"
For all the love that I have to the team, I hate tables in Affinity. And I hate to be inside the studio trying to make tables to work on Sunday.
Grumpy grandad out.

Yes, that is exactly what I want.
This would be even better. Lets see if Affinity is going to do something about this in near future.

That's expected, as Vector brushes don't have Nozzles. You should find that it works in Designer, but only in the Pixel Persona.

Great! It was a long-waited feature.
Just a suggestion. For me, it is very hard to find, which also leads to slowing the workflow. Wasn't it more logical to be located where the other fields are -- under "Text > Insert > Fields"?