loukash

You are right Bridge cannot show the thumbnails for the Affinity file format.
XnViewMP would be what you are looking for.

On Mac, this is actually a system function. Open/Save dialogs are provided by the OS. The OS also keeps track of last places and writes the location into the respective application's preferences file (*.plist).
Depending on where you've got your app from, it's either in ~/Library/Preferences/com.seriflabs.affinity[app_name].plist (apps from Serif Store) or ~/Library/Containers/com.seriflabs.affinitydesigner/Data/Library/Preferences/com.seriflabs.affinity[app_name].plist (sandboxed apps from Apple App Store).
The standard XML key to look for is "NSNavLastRootDirectory", that's the one provided by the MacOS.
For some reason though, Affinity apps also store their own last directories keys, named "com.seriflabs.opensave.panel.startupdir", "com.seriflabs.export.panel.startupdir" and possibly more as needed. I don't which preference key has more priority, but I'd assume "com.seriflabs.opensave.panel.startupdir" overrides "NSNavLastRootDirectory".

On a Mac, get Default Folder. Any such problems solved, with any app that you are using whatsoever.

I'll be honest here - we will never implement 1bit document support..
However, we would be happy to implement support for *exporting* 1bit TIFF etc. - would that be enough?
Thanks,
A

WHAT?!
We may be in the minority nowadays, but I definitely do work with 1-bit images every now and then.

It just works.

Before I start my "rant" and people will disagree/agree I'd like to admit first - I bought all 3 apps, as well as 2 Ipad versions so I fully support and appreciate what Affinity is doing but the truth is I barely use them, unfortunately.
I hope devs read this forum and hear me out. As someone who used InDesign/Quark for the last 20 years I understand we're at version 1 and there a lot of things we didn't get yet but if the app (all 3 of them) wish to be considered as adobe killers they should at least offer similar capabilities the current version have.
I work in a busy print house but I managed to try Publisher on couple of jobs I do regularly. First one was a health magazine, A4 16 pages. It's a mixture of articles, ads, recipes etc.
I've finalised the mag but here's the list of stuff that made the job hard or sometimes impossible to finish:
No PDF pass-through. The mag includes PDF ads sent by producers so importing them, even as external links caused the ads to be "opened" and fully editable. This is very dangerous as there were fonts missing, images loosing their transparencies etc. Had to convert most of them to tiff's Images with no frames by default. Some people may call in just an old habit but this is how I think layout app should deal with images. When I drop an image on a page I want to control the size of the frame and image inside independently. When one is laying out a page of a magazine you have only a space that text allows so I constantly resize, crop move image inside the frame to get that spot-on position. Publisher allows to do it but it's really clunky, and not on by default. On top of that when I switch this option and resize the outer frame the image inside scales and re-centers itself which drives me maaad!  No hand tool when inside the text frame. I hit the ALT key constantly to move around the page, while my cursor is inside the text frame (cant use space obviously). I know I can move around if I have 3-button mouse but it's not the same as standard hand tool. Changing selected text frame option makes it the default. Not sure why this is the default behaviour. It's very confusing and un-intuitive.  No scope for S&R. This is really huge omission, especially when we can use GREP. I use it all the time to clean up imported text (double spaces, returns, extra tabs, leading numbers). Without an option to limit to current frame or a selection this can really mess up your existing layout. The second job was a technical manual, lots of tables, footers, end-notes. Here's my list of missing features:
No footnotes/endnotes. I'm guessing it's coming in future versions, I mean it has to. No way to split/flow tables between pages.  Tables are separate from text-frames. I know you can anchor the table inside the text frame but then we go into issue 2 - tables won't split themselves between pages. No book feature. My manual is approx. 200 pages. It's a mixture of portrait and landscape pages so my original ID project is a book, which includes all sections. This way I can have portrait and landscape as separate indd files and join them together as one PDF, with page numbers, TOC's all synchronised. This feature is a must for any longer publication I believe. I hope it's on the feature list as well. No separation/overprint preview. This is very crucial feature for pro designers. I check the breakdown of colours on the layout all the time.  Preflight/Packaging. I think that's self explanatory  
To make this post not just a list of complaint here's what i like about the app.
Speed. This is ways ahead than current Adobe apps. Even on an older machine all 3 apps work as fast as I can work myself. Studio link. I like this feature, ability to edit images or vector files without leaving the app is great. I'm still not sure what happens to original files - do they get embedded or originals get edited. I guess I need to use it more often to figure out. The amount of pro features in v.1. Even though I've listed a lot above I'm still impressed how many features we got in the first release. I did manage to finish these complicated jobs with the current version so I'm really impressed and looking forward to future releases. I just wish the list of new features are more aligned to pro user than "Publisher on iPad" - nobody needs that. I would love to use Publisher on as many jobs as I can, now that we have indesign import coming but when I think about the features I miss I just skip and go back to indesign, which is really a bummer.
I hope this post won't start a flame war but a good discussion how we'd like this app to go forward. I think everybody here is tired of Adobe slow apps, lack of real progress, extortionist prices for subscription and would love to drop them for Affinity apps.

The free version of Nik Collection that used to be available for download from Google still works with APhoto as a plugin. I haven't used Viveza yet, but recently I was editing a couple of photos in APhoto, among others using the Analog Efex Pro 2 plugin from the free collection.
The main issue with the old Nik Collection is the installer that may or may not work properly on recent versions of Mac OS. Eventually I made it work on El Capitan somehow. Haven't tried on newer MacOS yet.
Oh, and you must have the Arial font enabled, otherwise the plugins may crash.
No idea if it's still downloadable somewhere. But I'm always backing up every installer that I've downloaded in the past, say, 20 years.

Stop adding features for a moment and fix the bugs instead!

Stop adding features for a moment and fix the bugs instead!

Why no manual, PDF or otherwise, for Affinity Designer? The short videos are inadequate for someone new to the software. 

No, Keyboard Maestro can handle the document window sizes and positions just fine. You can save its macros just to affect the Affinity apps, be it via its global menu, a keyboard shortcut, whatever.
But it's everything else that's wrong with the Separated mode, starting with UI rendering bugs, unmovable palettes appearing off-screen at the top, and ending with no option to save the workspace arrangement after spending an hour to set everything up the way I like, only to accidentaly select the "reset" menu command. Been there done that…
Perhaps Keyboard Maestro can access the palettes by some means, too. I just haven't wasted my time to find out yet…  

Seriously, I hope none.  I do not have Affinity Publisher, but I do rely heavily on Affinity Photo.  I am dismayed at how long some features remain broken, while others seem trapped in a cycle of breaking, being fixed, then regressing.  A long thread about compatibility with Apple Photos is an example of the former.  And it is still not possible to print directly (i. e., without merging layers or exporting to another format ... except PDF) an .afphoto that uses live filters. In my experience as a software developer for a major Swiss bank and a large Swiss pharmaceutical company, it is sometimes necessary to put new software and new features on the back burner in order to fix the foundations of existing products.  This would be a good time to do so.

Signed up for an account just to cosign this request. Separated Mode is irritating to use, my document always has it's top bar area (title/Mac buttons to minimize, maximize, close) behind the top toolbar, nothing snaps to the edges, maximizing the window goes behind panels instead.
This tedium, along with there not being some list as far as I can tell of keyboard shortcut mappings to be more in line with Adobe are basically the two major things keeping me from using Affinity products in the long term. The keyboard shortcuts is not really poor experience per se, Affinity does it's thing which is fine, but some of us have been stuck in the Adobe ecosystem for decades and those shortcuts are ingrained muscle memory…however, the thing with Separated mode is really lousy UX. Please fix. 

JGD , I get you.
I also use Affinity Photo in separate mode and its a waste of time moving windows every time you open a new document and it's hidden by the toolbars...
Zooming in and out of photos you have to manually resize the windows ( the window frames keep the original size) And when you have 10, 15 images open at the same time you can imagine the waste of clicks and drags just to start working...
These little things are not buzz words  sellers like :  OpenEXR and Radiance HDR support / Import OpenColorIO configurations /  HDR / EDR monitor support
but we need them for the daily use of the software ... 
Little things that Photoshop has (and now  you miss)  and appreciate them more  when you don't have them. Photoshop veterans will notice this when they are trying to make the switch and notice the software is not "polished" 
I've seen posts asking things like this in this couple of years but I guess they don't get much track... A 1.7.1 update would be great to address interface adjustments in the Mac. 
An example post (9 months old): 
 
 
 

Hi guys. Once again, I'm sorry for overusing my “CRITICAL & OVERDUE” “tag” of sorts, but… until the end of the v.1.x cycle, better get used and pay attention to it. I'm reserving it only for the most glaring omissions, especially those which damage Affinity apps' reputation the most as professional tools.
Anyway, I digress; what I'm asking is: please make Affinity apps (especially Photo, where it makes the most sense) under Separated Mode behave like all Adobe apps when the Application Frame is disabled, FontLab 5.x, Microsoft Office X/2004/2008 for Mac, AppleWorks, and pretty much every classic Mac app with floating UI elements since 1984. Nineteen-freaking-eighty-four; those are thirty+ years of muscle memory for some users (in my case, it's only a respectable 16, but still).
Floating palettes and other UI elements have a reason to exist, but they also should work in a sensible and intuitive fashion, otherwise you might as well not have them at all. If you decided to implement a “Separated Mode”, at least take the time to fully learn, understand and respect Apple's Human Interface Guidelines (and, by extension, Mac users). Don't make the same mistakes Microsoft did with their infamous, universally-hated Microsoft Word 6 for Mac (source: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/rick_schaut/2004/02/26/mac-word-6-0/ ).
As it stands, the Separated Mode is very cumbersome, forcing users to painstakingly resize windows by hand, one by one, so that they fit on the screen and fit their content, aren't obscured by the floating UI elements (which forces them to switch to another app or toggling the Studio just so they can grab their titlebars), etc. Making them dockable and properly coding the document windows and Zoom behaviour to prevent those scenarios would allow one to open several windows in cascade, side by side, tiled, etc.
I should add that the Window>Zoom command/green “+” titlebar button is not MS Windows' “Maximize”!!! We all know that Serif devs come from a Windows background, and this is a common misconception former Windows devs have, and a common error they commit, when porting their apps to the Mac. To make matters worse, the Affinity apps actually started out as Mac-only but never even behaved properly as such, ever. Please make that button behave precisely like in Photoshop, Preview, TextEdit, Pages, etc. Will it be inconsistent with the Windows version? Maybe, yes. But it should, first and foremost, be coherent with the host OS. On the Mac, that command/button should be a toggle between a default/custom size and a “fit-to-content” size (which can be very useful in Affinity Photo, and which I constantly use in Photoshop, Preview, etc.), and not a “maximise button”; for that, we have the default Fullscreen behaviour.
Better yet: under Separated Mode please disable Fullscreen for the green button and make it Zoom (properly, please) by default. Seriously, try activating Separated Mode and opening a document window in Fullscreen; it's not very useful and doesn't bring much to the table, functionality-wise, over opening the app in regular mode and making it Fullscreen am I right? I'm willing to bet that maybe 0,0001% of your users ever turn to that particular combo… At least, please allow the user to set the default behaviour under Preferences.
Yes, I know this is no longer the default “green button” behaviour in macOS, and that Apple is pushing us heavily towards Fullscreen mode. But seriously, until Apple disables it altogether (and I reckon they never will, as they keep selling huge iMacs and now will start selling the even bigger Pro Display XDR, which will be a massive hit with pro photographers), please implement it correctly for the users who still use the Window>Zoom command. It's the least you can do as a self-respecting Mac developer.

Yup:
Might be a font issue as well.
 

I'm happy to report that the App Store version 1.7.1 now runs on Mountain Lion again. Thanks!

It would be convenient when changing the document size automatically recalculate the size (for non pixel units) <-> DPI as in Photoshop when "Resample" is disabled:   The dialog might look something like this:

A feature that still gives Illustrator a slight edge over AF is the vector 'filters' and 'effects' - things that change the appearance of the vector paths [ which can then be 'expanded' into curves if need be.]

For instance there is a simple 'roughen' effect [or filter] that can be applied to the vector shapes in illustrator

Another example is the powerful feature of the 'transform' effect. see image

 
Any thoughts?

I know I've suggested a similar feature, but all this talk of smoothing curves brought this up in my mind; in addition to a tool to smooth a curve, Affinity Designer should also have the opposite.  I am of course referring to Midpoint Displacement, which would allow illustrators to make non-uniform curves more easily than having to draw each node individually.
 

 
Being able to smooth curves is indeed important, but as it is, it's really hard to produce a line that doesn't look uniform, and a roughening tool to add pseudorandom midpoint displacement would make illustrating much less time-consuming.