loukash

"Critical" or not, it's genuinely puzzling that 10 years after its release, Affinity is still lacking a plethora of "classic" vector features which I've been using in Freehand 9 some 25 years ago. 

"Critical" or not, it's genuinely puzzling that 10 years after its release, Affinity is still lacking a plethora of "classic" vector features which I've been using in Freehand 9 some 25 years ago. 

"Critical" or not, it's genuinely puzzling that 10 years after its release, Affinity is still lacking a plethora of "classic" vector features which I've been using in Freehand 9 some 25 years ago. 

Dear Affinity Community
I bought Affinity 2.0 to produce a book. I learnt the software from scratch. When I came up against issues I found it useful to post on the forum. The book is now printed and due for distribution. 
Thank you Affinity and the community.
Tony

I think it will be well suited for Designer.

To batch apply to the vast majority of possible matches, use a regular expression:
View > Studio > Find And Replace Find > cog button > select Match Case and Regular Expression Find: insert "\b(\s?[^\.]?\s\b)([A-Z]\w+)\b" (without the quotes) Replace with: "$1" (without the quotes) & popup menu > Special Characters > Soft Hyphen (inserts a special symbol) & "$2" (without any whitespace and without any quotes) Find – check the list of search results Replace all
apu_regex_unhyph_caps.mp4   As for this  \b(\s?[^\.]?\s\b)([A-Z]\w+)\b and $1 $2 gibberish search/replace strings:
\b = word boundary ( ) = parentheses create a search group \s = white space or line break ? = optional [^\.]? = excludes a result that contains a period if present but optionally allows characters like comma, semicolon or dash, i.e. excludes any words at the beginning of a sentence \b[A-Z] = looks for caps at the word beginning (Match Case must be enabled) \w+ = the first word character must be followed by one or more characters $1 = the result in the 1st search group (parentheses 1) remains unchanged inbetween we're inserting the soft hyphen $2 = the result in the 2nd search group (parentheses 2) remains unchanged Regex is fun. I'm still learning, and stuff like this is a great exercise.
More info: regular-expressions.info/quickstart.html

Like you I feel it should be the opposite, no change when sampling and only use Alt to apply to given item/object/layer.

 

I would prefer a Preference/Setting for old approach or new one, or possible a setting that allows using the Alt key to get the new approach.
One likely issue I see is that if you Sample while you have an object selected, the object's Fill is immediately updated now unless you remember to press Alt. And that is likely to end up surprising users who sample from Image layers, which (unlike Pixel layers) are affected easily by Fill changes.

Apps: Publisher
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
Reading Order Panel
V2.6 introduces the Reading Order panel to improve the accessibility of PDFs produced in Affinity. The panel gives you control over the order in which screen readers and other assistive technology read PDF content.
Where to find it
It is accessed via Window > Reading Order on desktop, and via the ellipsis below the panel icons on iPad.
If you have Acrobat Pro (not Reader), tags related to reading order can be viewed in its 'Accessibility tags' pane.
How to use
Text objects are automatically added to the Reading Order panel. At the panel’s lower-right corner, the ‘Add Article’ button can be used to group and order related objects. Articles indicate this relationship to the assistive technologies. An Article can be given a more representative name by selecting it, then clicking its name and typing, but Article names are only used for identification in Affinity.
Non-text objects, such as images, for which you provide alt text on the Tags Panel are automatically added to the reading order. (Note that removing an object’s alt text also removes it from the reading order.)
The button to the right of Add Article adds the selected object to the reading order. Use it to add objects for which alt text is not set – perhaps because it hasn’t yet been provided to you. If you don’t add alt text to such objects prior to export, the objects simply won’t be included in your PDF’s reading order.
With regards to accessibility tags in text, you can set any text style so that it encloses text in 'Paragraph tags' (<P> in Acrobat Pro’s ‘Accessibility tags’ pane) or 'Heading tags' (<H1> to <H6> in Acrobat Pro). To do this, use the Export Tags section of the Text Style Editor.
The reading order can be changed by dragging items up or down the reading order and dropping them, in a similar way to the Layers Panel. When dragging an item, a blue line indicates the item's new position if dropped.
To locate the object that corresponds to an item, select the item in the reading order and then click 'Go to Article’ at the bottom left of the panel. This focuses the document view on the object and selects the object.
Any item you manually add to the reading order can be removed by selecting it on the panel and then clicking 'Remove Article (the ‘trash can’ icon). Items automatically added to the reading order, such as text objects and images with alt text, cannot be removed from it.
To omit an item from a PDF’s accessibility tags on output, click its adjacent green check mark to change it to a red cross, which indicates the item is excluded from the reading order and so will not have an accessibility tag in PDF output.

Apps: Designer
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
Pencil Tool improvements
Affinity Designer’s Pencil Tool now includes several new options on its context toolbar.

 Auto Close
Up to 2.6, we’ve only offered a proximity-based auto-closing option when making a closed shape from a pencil curve. As a reminder, a red ‘dog bone’ indicator popped up when the active end of a pencil curve approached the stroke’s starting point. This design aid suggested that the curve could be closed by clicking.  
In 2.6, we’ve now introduced an Auto Close pop-up menu that offer a choice of options:

Off - the curve is never closed. Near - the curve is closed when end points approach each other (this is as per the [2.6 release; the ‘dog bone’ indicator still shows). Far - similar to Near but the distance between end points is greater. Always - the curve is always closed irrespective of distance between end points. 
Auto close behaviours when using the Pencil Tool: Off (A), Near (B), Far (C) and Always (D).
Smoothness
Smoothness can be applied in advance of pencil drawing or to pencil curves you’ve just drawn. By design, further smoothing is no longer possible once the curve is deselected.

The feature works by repositioning, adding or removing nodes on the curve to affect the smoothing results. You can decrease or increase smoothing by dragging the slider left or right from the default value (50%), respectively; nodes are removed or added as a result.
Note that this is not to be confused with the smoothing you’ll see when using the Stabiliser option on the context toolbar. It would be beneficial to switch this off while testing Smoothness.
Use line style
Prior to 2.6, the Pencil Tool presented the Use fill option as a check box on its context toolbar. This is now presented as an icon, and is accompanied by a new Use line style option, also an icon. This lets you adopt the currently set stroke properties (width, dot/dash, pressure) you have currently set up on the Stroke panel for new pencil strokes.

Applying Use line style as you draw a pencil stroke.
Pen Tool improvements
The Pen Tool also benefits from the new Use line style option described above.
Node Tool improvements
Converting nodes from Sharp to Smooth requires a visit to the Node Tool context toolbar or right-click menu. In 2.6, Affinity now lets you double-click (or alt-click) a node to cycle between these node types, keeping you more focused on the curve. 
As another addition, either control handle on a Bézier curve’s node can be removed by double-clicking on its handle; the associated node becomes a sharp (cusp) corner

"Advanced Page Management" has been split into 4 New Feature threads (this is one of those 4). If you want to discuss a change to page management please check out each of these threads and choose the best one to discuss the change you are observing
Multiple Pages Feature  Add Pages: Flow Pages Add Pages: Extend Spread Add Pages: New Spread Dragging to create/change layout Page Migration Improvements  Page move options Split Masters Move Master Content Reapply Masters Anchor Toward Spine Page Reflow Control New drag drop interactions Reflow on a per-spread basis New options where to add pages General Improvements (this thread) Page Thumbnails Master Tags Bug Fixes / Improvements ====================================================================================
General Improvements
Apps: Affinity Publisher
Platforms: All
IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ FIRST
The implementation of this feature (and the many associated improvements listed at the bottom of the post) involved a rewrite of much of the existing page, spread and master code, as such 2.6.0 cannot support backward compatibility to 2.5 for page operations. Any undo history saved with a document that was created in 2.5.5 or earlier, which involves page or spread manipulation, will be truncated. You won't be able to undo back past the last page operation you did. If your 2.5.x document was saved with history and it includes any page action you will be told when you open in 2.6.0 that the history has been truncated. Any changes made using 2.6 will save and load their history going forward, and this restriction only relates to page functions whose history was created in earlier versions. Additionally you should take particular care to backup your old documents when trying them out in the new beta in case there are bugs converting from the old file structure to the new.
Page Thumbnails
An extra large size for page thumbnails is available on the Pages Panel’s preferences menu.
However wide you make the panel – perhaps undocked on a second display – thumbnails are scaled so the widest spread pretty much fills its width.
Master Tags
If you right click on a master you can select a tag colour. The tag colour is displayed as a circle on the master thumbnail and a bar above all the pages where it is used. This makes it easier to identify which master is used where.
You can hide tags by unticking Show master page tags in the panel preferences menu.
Bug Fixes / Improvements
Improvements to auto-flowing of text frames to more consistently add the right number of pages and choose the right template pages. Fixes and improvements in consistencies between Add, Delete, Copy and Move page operations. Layers panel now hides master objects that are not part of the applied page range. Spread Properties now highlights selected page in spread (added in 2.6.0.2831)

"Advanced Page Management" has been split into 4 New Feature threads (this is one of those 4). If you want to discuss a change to page management please check out each of these threads and choose the best one to discuss the change you are observing
Multiple Pages Feature Add Pages: Flow Pages Add Pages: Extend Spread Add Pages: New Spread Dragging to create/change layout Page Migration Improvements (this thread) Page move options Split Masters Move Master Content Reapply Masters Anchor Toward Spine Page Reflow Control New drag drop interactions Reflow on a per-spread basis New options where to add pages General Improvements Page Thumbnails Master Tags Bug Fixes / Improvements ====================================================================================
Page Migration Improvements
Apps: Affinity Publisher
Platforms: All
IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ FIRST
The implementation of this feature (and the many associated improvements listed at the bottom of the post) involved a rewrite of much of the existing page, spread and master code, as such 2.6.0 cannot support backward compatibility to 2.5 for page operations. Any undo history saved with a document that was created in 2.5.5 or earlier, which involves page or spread manipulation, will be truncated. You won't be able to undo back past the last page operation you did. If your 2.5.x document was saved with history and it includes any page action you will be told when you open in 2.6.0 that the history has been truncated. Any changes made using 2.6 will save and load their history going forward, and this restriction only relates to page functions whose history was created in earlier versions. Additionally you should take particular care to backup your old documents when trying them out in the new beta in case there are bugs converting from the old file structure to the new.
Page move options
We already talked about the Reflow Pages option on the panel preferences menu. There are four other page move options alongside it. In the words of our development team, here’s what they do:
Split Masters
When moving and reflowing pages, they are preserved exactly as they looked by cutting multi-page masters into individual pages and applying them to whatever page they fall on, even if they end up on the wrong side of the spine. This preserves visual fidelity but may lead to incorrect margins.
This is a good option to use when you intend to make multiple edits that may temporarily push pages onto the wrong side but expect to flow them mostly back to the right place in the end, or if you don't care about chirality.
Move Master Content
This is the default and the same behaviour as V2.5. Objects inherited from master pages which have been modified, e.g. a frame that has been populated, are moved with the page along with non master page content.
Master objects that have not been modified are replaced with the 'correct' master page content for the spread page that it ends up on.
The app will try hard to preserve content but you may end up with clashes, especially if your masters don’t have symmetrical frames on either side of the spine or have detached edits.
Reapply Masters
After pages have been moved, the master will be reapplied to every moved page using the smart master migration rules.
This is a potentially powerful option to allow free reordering of pages with confidence that the frames will always fit the margins and any chiral design elements. However, careful master design is important. For it work well, you need each master page to have left and right design alternatives for each page layout you are using.
Although content will always be preserved, some detached edits, such as colour changes, might be lost.
Anchor toward spine
When a page element moves from one side of the spine to the other (either a page object or a master object that is being moved via Move Master Content) controls whether it maintains its absolute position on the page or its distance from the spine.
If your margins are symmetrical about the spine but different for inner and outer, ‘Anchor toward spine’ is more likely to keep things glued to the margins. However, objects aligned to an outer page edge may unexpectedly move to align to the opposite edge. This can be avoided by pinning the object.

 

"Advanced Page Management" has been split into 4 New Feature threads (this is one of those 4). If you want to discuss a change to page management please check out each of these threads and choose the best one to discuss the change you are observing
Multiple Pages Feature Add Pages: Flow Pages Add Pages: Extend Spread Add Pages: New Spread Dragging to create/change layout Page Migration Improvements Page move options Split Masters Move Master Content Reapply Masters Anchor Toward Spine Page Reflow Control (this thread) New drag drop interactions Reflow on a per-spread basis New options where to add pages General Improvements Page Thumbnails Master Tags Bug Fixes / Improvements ====================================================================================
Page Reflow Control
Apps: Affinity Publisher
Platforms: All
IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ FIRST
The implementation of this feature (and the many associated improvements listed at the bottom of the post) involved a rewrite of much of the existing page, spread and master code, as such 2.6.0 cannot support backward compatibility to 2.5 for page operations. Any undo history saved with a document that was created in 2.5.5 or earlier, which involves page or spread manipulation, will be truncated. You won't be able to undo back past the last page operation you did. If your 2.5.x document was saved with history and it includes any page action you will be told when you open in 2.6.0 that the history has been truncated. Any changes made using 2.6 will save and load their history going forward, and this restriction only relates to page functions whose history was created in earlier versions. Additionally you should take particular care to backup your old documents when trying them out in the new beta in case there are bugs converting from the old file structure to the new.
New drag drop interactions in the pages panel to copy and rearrange pages with full manual control or automatic reflowing.
In the burger menu of the pages panel, there is now an option to disable or enable automatic reflowing of documents, called “Reflow Pages”.
New icons will appear when drag dropping pages to help demonstrate what will happen when a page is moved

(these icons changed during beta)
Added Fine control of reflow on a per-spread basis.
Spreads also have an option “Reflow through spread”, which will disable reflowing for that specific spread even if the document is set up to allow it via the Pages Panel
Options to add pages in the document flow, to a specific spread or as a new spread.
As mentioned in this thread, it’s now possible to add pages respecting the flow of the current document, or adding them outside of the flow
 

"Advanced Page Management" has been split into 4 New Feature threads (this is one of those 4). If you want to discuss a change to page management please check out each of these threads and choose the best one to discuss the change you are observing
Multiple Pages Feature (this thread) Add Pages: Flow Pages Add Pages: Extend Spread Add Pages: New Spread Dragging to create/change layout Page Migration Improvements  Page move options Split Masters Move Master Content Reapply Masters Anchor Toward Spine Page Reflow Control New drag drop interactions Reflow on a per-spread basis New options where to add pages General Improvements  Page Thumbnails Master Tags Bug Fixes / Improvements ====================================================================================
Multiple Pages Feature
Apps: Affinity Publisher
Platforms: All
IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ FIRST
The implementation of this feature (and the many associated improvements listed at the bottom of the post) involved a rewrite of much of the existing page, spread and master code, as such 2.6.0 cannot support backward compatibility to 2.5 for page operations. Any undo history saved with a document that was created in 2.5.5 or earlier, which involves page or spread manipulation, will be truncated. You won't be able to undo back past the last page operation you did. If your 2.5.x document was saved with history and it includes any page action you will be told when you open in 2.6.0 that the history has been truncated. Any changes made using 2.6 will save and load their history going forward, and this restriction only relates to page functions whose history was created in earlier versions. Additionally you should take particular care to backup your old documents when trying them out in the new beta in case there are bugs converting from the old file structure to the new.
Multi-page spreads
Spreads can now contain more than two pages, making it easy to create trifold, gatefold, accordion fold and other page arrangements.
A new option when adding pages
When adding pages to a document, the new Spread Wrapping setting determines how existing pages flow to accommodate the newly added pages.

 
Exactly how pages are arranged depends on the number of pages added and where they are inserted.
To show how the setting’s three options work, we’ll start with two facing pages and show the resulting page arrangement you’ll see when inserting two new pages in the middle of the existing spread and after the existing spread’s last page.
In the illustrations below, grey pages are the existing pages, and green pages are the newly added pages.
To help you confirm the spine’s position within any spread, look for small notches that protrude above and below the page thumbnails. You’ll see this on the updated Pages Panel in the beta app, too.
Flow Pages reflows other pages just like you’re used to in earlier versions of Affinity Publisher.
(A) The result of using Flow Pages to add two pages after the existing spread.

(B) The result of using Flow Pages to add two pages in the middle of the existing spread.

Extend Spread literally extends the spread at your specified position. No other spreads are affected.
(A) The result of using Extend Spread to add two pages after the existing spread.

(B) The result of using Extend Spread to add two pages in the middle of the existing spread.

New Spread always creates a new spread (or spreads) containing new pages, and if the insertion point is within an existing spread, that spread’s pages will be broken apart into two separate spreads.
(A) The result of using New Spread to add two pages after the existing spread.

(B) The result of using New Spread to add two pages in the middle of the existing spread.

Where an existing spread is split, two ‘ghost’ pages are shown opposite the original pages. These are fainter in appearance to indicate your pages no longer conform to the document setup. Affinity Publisher creates the exact number of pages you’ve instructed it to add; it’s left to you to resolve such deviations.
Example: Creating a gatefold
Here’s how you could use the Extend Spread option to create a gatefold. Start with a two-page spread like this one:

On the Pages Panel, select Add Pages, apply the following settings on the dialog, then select OK:
Number of Pages: 2 Insert: After Page: 2 (our right page’s number) Spread wrapping: Extend Spread The Pages Panel should now show a four-page spread, with the spine shown between the original pages, which are the two on the left.

On the panel’s preferences menu, disable Page move options > Reflow Pages. This allows you to drag and drop page thumbnails without Affinity Publisher automatically reflowing other pages.
Drag the rightmost of the four pages to the left of the spread. Drop it when you see a blue line at the edge of the leftmost page.
While dragging, observe that we’ve introduced various new cursors that indicate the result to expect if you were to drop the thumbnail at various positions.

The dragged page is moved to the left of the spread, giving us a gatefold arrangement.

Another way of making this would be to make a four-page master. On the Pages Panel, select Add Master, apply the following settings on the dialog, then select OK:
Page Layout: Facing Page Count: 4 Spine Location: After Page: 2 You can then make a new four-page spread by dragging the master thumbnail from the top half of the panel to the bottom.
You can also convert an existing two-page spread, right click on a spread and select Apply Master, choose your 4 page master and set Conform Pages to Size & Count and select OK. The spread will be converted from two pages to four pages.
New option when applying a Master to fully conform the target spread to the master's page count and layout
When applying a master page, you can now choose “Size & Count” which will ensure the number of pages of the spread it is being applied to will match the master page

Hi All,
Below is the list of all new feature and improvements which are included in the 2.6 beta (bug fix list is available here).
To learn more about these features please click on the links below to go to each feature's dedicated post. To give feedback or report bugs against any of these features please reply to that same post (also check out bug reporting and feedback tips).
Advanced Page Management: Multiple Pages Feature  Page Reflow Control Page Migration Improvements General Improvements Machine Learning: Object Selection Tool  Select Subject  Pencil, Pen and Node Tool improvements Colour Picker Improvements  Updated SerifLabs RAW Support & Lens Recognition Database  Reading Order Panel QR Code as a Data Merge Field Other Improvements Affinity's Machine Learning Features
As you will see there are two new features which use machine learning models for automatic object and subject selection. These features are optional and require downloading of the relevant models for them to work (instructions included in the posts themselves). We want to make sure it is clear that these are installed as pre-trained models and they do not use any of your own data for further training. Furthermore these operations all work ‘on device’ meaning none of your data leaves your device at any time.
Getting the 2.6 beta
If you have not enrolled into the beta program yet and would like to take part, you can do so here. This will immediately give you access to the latest 2.6 beta builds from your account to try for yourself.
If you are already enrolled in the beta program you have two options:
If you still have the 2.5 beta installed, you can now run up those beta versions and you will be prompted to update them to the 2.6 beta. If you have uninstalled your earlier beta, you will need to go back to Your Account -> Downloads and product keys and find your previous order for the Affinity Beta Software Program, and you can download the 2.6 beta from there. Using the 2.6 beta
You should take particular care to work on backups of your existing documents when trying them out in this new beta in case there are bugs or oversights converting from the 2.5 file structure to the new 2.6 data structures. Once a file has been saved in any 2.6 build that file cannot be read in the release version 2.5.5
Thanks,
Patrick

Not at all: duckduckgo.com/?q=online+ocr
If your document is still open since you have actually typed the text:
View > Studio > History panel scroll back in time until you see the editable text frame

I'd be quite happy if the growing list of "known issues" (bugs) that we are continually being told have been "passed to the developers" were actually dealt with and fixed! (Especially the "silly" ones, like missing icons, incorrect labels/translations, UI problems and the like.)

Some of the reason for the pause in information is a change I made to the @Affinity Info Bot posts which used to tell users that a bug had been fixed and {is/would be} available in a beta available {already/very soon}. However I decided that going forward the bot would only post here once a beta build is actually available. So without starting a 2.6.0 beta, the regular nudge nudge of coming fixes has been silent. Sorry but I felt this change was necessary, as I knew that it would be a long time to tease users that their particular issue was theoretically fixed, but without a 2.6.0 beta to download that same fix was not available to try. I thought that would be incredibly frustrating and cause a lot of users to demand a 2.6 beta started before it was ready. Until now 2.6 has not been ready, and we're still a little way off.
So let me explain why there has been this extended period with no significant new beta..... We recognised that, by introducing multi-page spreads in 2.6 (so more than 2 pages per spread), we were making a significant change that would require a long internal testing period. The rearchitecture of spreads is nearly complete. As soon as we're ready with this and the other new features, we will announce the 2.6 beta in the beta forums and a flurry of over 200 bug fixes will be announced by the Affinity Info Bot.
The changes and improvements in 2.6 will, as Walt says, only be public once the beta starts. The multi-page change is unusual in that it has been discussed early.
 

My biggest concern is the amount of energy it needs and the cost, both financial and environmental—including environmental justice issues—that it will require.  (EJ in terms of both dirty generation in EJ communities and redirecting of affordable energy away from working-/middle-class communities.)
(Have I mentioned that I am not a great capitalist?)

^ I actually haven't finished this thought yet (we first wanted to go out for a "sunday walk" while the sun is still shining… )
So, as noted, the linear or decaying Spiral tool with Arc Angle = 360° will create a very specific concentric circle shape with all circles aligned to one side.
To center the circles:
convert to curves Layer → Geometry → Divide Layer → Alignment → Align Center voilà Quite a fast and straightforward workflow, especially if you assign a keyboard shortcut to each required step.
If you need concentric rectangles, select all nodes of the converted circles and convert them to sharp nodes.

Hi All.
My apologies for the delayed response to this thread this has now been logged with our developers to be fixed in a future update. I'll update this thread once I have more info.
Thanks
C

This is why it is worth Affinity doing a DAM that links the three together.  As Aphoto  does image editing, there doesn't need to be any image editing in it.  Though it does need metadata editing,  both EXIF and ITPC. 
 

That's why it will be very likely mentioned and described in the user manual, once the feature has been finalized.
Because e.g. I, for one, also don't remember every field input expression by heart, even after all those years, and may need to look them up every now and then…

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

Because Assets are something else.
The Assets panel is the equivalent of InDesign's Library panel.
Except that I like the flexible "My_Library_Name.indl" file concept better, rather than the monolithical and buried "assets.propcol" database.
That's not a "workaround", that's the workflow. Vive la différence.
Create a "Symbols" category in your Assets panel to keep them sorted.
~~~
That all said, also in context of the aforementioned "assets.propcol" file:
The truly mindboggling flaw with assets is that each app has its own assets.propcol file, and they cannot "communicate" with each other.
This is definitely bad UI design.
And that's why Adobe's *.indl concept is better.