loukash

Another option would be using overprint swatches when possible: Once I also tried another weird experimental trick by using Symbols and Linked Layers via Designer and Photo personae: apu_pinned_in_background.mp4 That all said, not being able to simply place pinned objects behind text is a serious omission.

It's a MacOS security feature. Not a "bug".

Probably you have accidentally enabled View → View Mode → Pixels

As noted, that is a "limitation" of e.g. InDesign as well: The layout app expects to find an image file at the saved location (which by itself is already a kind of "alias concept") to replace the saved low-res preview with the original image data on the fly. But instead it finds a file of the same name that doesn't contain any image data whatsoever. For a layout app, that is a "corrupt file". Therefore the asset must be relinked to the alias so that the layout app is now told by Finder where the original is stored. It's a limitation of the Finder alias feature. Some apps can't handle Mac aliases at all but may work with Unix symbolic links instead. Other apps have it vice versa. I've been doing lots of alias/symlink trickery in the past decades, and often it's been a hit-or-miss.

The Ignore button is your friend.

Or create an alias of the whole folder "images1" and place it to your new layout version. That's the workflow I've been using since at least 25 years, going back to the QXP days…

So, for the fun of it, I tried this scenario not just in APu, but also in InDesign CS5.5. Guess what: ID suffers from the same "bug"! Thing is, you can do a lot with aliases (or symbolic links for that matter), but there are limits. So, to fix this limit in APU, you may want to relink each placed image to the alias. Or even easier: Don't duplicate the "images2" folder in the first place. You can link to the same external files in "images1" from multiple layout documents.

All Affinity apps support both aliases and symlinks as expected. So either the alias or the PNG itself are broken. Also note that "alias" ≠ "symlink". If you're actually using symlinks (I do in certain scenarios), then you must not ever move the original file because a symlink is essentially just a POSIX file path/URL. Much like web URLs, if you change only one character in the original file's path, the symlink will break. Whereas an alias can "track down" the original file even if you move it to a different location on the same disk because it keeps track of its filesystem ID instead.

What did it say in the dialog after you've selected the image to place? Also, if no image is selected, the "Open" button should actually be grayed out.

Designer → Appearance panel → stack as many gradient fills as you like.

It worked for me yesterday, although it seemingly stalled for a minute or two.

Well, to draw comparison with e.g. Apple, Apple also didn't have any professional audio recording and sequencing software before they bought Emagic some 20 years ago. But that was why they bought Emagic, so that they would have not only the Logic DAW for the pros, but eventually also the free GarageBand – which is directly based on Logic – for everyone. And from what I read a few years ago, reportedly the original Emagic team that now works for Apple is still based in Germany.

They already have, following my advice:

make your settings scroll back where it says "File Settings" → "Preset" click the "hamburger" symbol next to "Preset" choose "Create preset" from the popup menu voilà

Or perhaps we're only holding it wrong…?

I also always wonder why the wine from a 0.7 l bottle never fits into the 0.1 l wine glass. Likely I should drink the wine from a Bavarian beer mug instead.

Given that I began my DTP journey on a Macintosh SE/30, and was doing layouts on a PowerBook 140 for quite a few years, I've been doing just fine with 15" PowerBooks/MacBooks for the past 20 years… My trick: I keep the display quite close to my nose so that it appears large while I'm sitting in my most favorite comfy workspace I've ever had… Meow! (Not sure what this all still has to do with the Canva takeover, but there you go )

I don't think it's an "issue" per se. This feature just isn't implemented. So you may want to request it: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/52-feedback-suggestions

And you're absolutely right, of course. Hence also my deliberate usage of the word "emulate". sigh…

Quite a few, including old Swiss letterpress books from the 50s or 60s which I found in a garbage container some 30 years ago… Looking at your photos, "Heldustry" and "Helios" are obvious Helvetica rip-offs, hehe… Also "Triplett" rings a bell although I can't put my finger on it off the top of my head.

Hence my deliberate usage of the word "somewhat"…

You can somewhat emulate it by turning antialiasing off and finetune using coverage map.

I know what you meant. It's still Ctrl-Shift-Drag… Just try it yourself.

I know all that, of course. (No matter how ugly Arial is in print, it used to look great at small sizes on CRT displays; unlike Helvetica.) What I didn't know is that some apps have the feature to turn the defined bitmap preview on and off.

Interesting! I never realized that something like this even exists – possibly because I've rarely ever used a bitmap editor for typography work. This thread should be turned into a feature request.