Mann Artt

Honestly, this is absurd. If I wanted to export all of the layers and ignore the document sizing, crop, and positioning that I've made then all Affinity Photo is doing is exporting the original photos back into new files. That's not exporting layers... that's exporting source images back into new files of the same source images! I cannot believe that such a basic Export Layers function is missing when it is absolutely required by just about anyone working with photography for websites. The Export Persona tool is a weird and complicated side step to make you manually do the thing you were trying to automate... but then it doesn't even do that. It doesn't slice to the dimensions of the document, it just goes back to source for every layer. So why bother "slicing"?. I just can't figure out how anyone thought this makes sense? This is a design tool, not a super complicated graphic format conversion app.

I would like to clarify something:  I didn't mean to suggest that people further complicate their lives and workflows by attempting to run an old, obsolete version of CorelDraw to access to features like this.  I merely wanted to point out that Affinity Designer is being marketed as:  "...setting the new industry standard in the world of design.  Best in class for creating concept art, print projects, logos, icons, UI designs, mock-ups and more, it's already the top choice of thousands of professional[s]."

In my opinion, it's a matter of no inconsiderable amount of chutzpah to market the product that way when it is missing a feature that was available to people using CorelDraw on Windows XP back in 2010.  AD is indeed a relative bargain when compared to Illustrator and the latest versions of CD.  It's a powerful tool and a good deal with all of the other wonderful things it can do, and I like it!  However, the marketing speak above is simply not persuasive to me and many others with these features missing. 

As I've said, I'm willing to pay extra money if they add them.  I'll make the difference back on the first project, so I hope they consider it.  Thanks for everyone's additional input.  I also don't mean to imply any disrespect for what Affinity has been able to accomplish.  Going up against Adobe and Corel on their "home turf" so to speak, is no trivial thing, and I applaud them for doing it.  If I had been in the first meeting discussing it, I would have said:  "It's a bit like Luxembourg simultaneously declaring war on the United States and Canada, isn't it?"  Well, they're punching way above their weight class, so I don't mean to bum them out or anything.    

I started with Freehand 7 in 96 which did everything I needed it to 25 years ago, and back in 2014 saw Designer as a shining light as it showed so much promise, looking at all the missing basics planned back then, I thought within a couple of years I'd at least get similar basic functionality as freehand - now we're approaching 7 years from release and I just want to get work done, which is ultra frustrating as Designer is a brilliant beast - brilliant we recently got select same and contour tool but it took 6 years - 
Now at the point - wish someone could find the grave of Freehand and do a super Frankenstein job on it (no subscription)- massive shame Adobe got it hands on it.
Yes I know missing basic features aren't everything, you only have to use VectorStyler to realise how good the Affinity user interface is, I'm just tired of the workarounds on workarounds to get functionality I was getting 25 years ago with Freehand
Also some of us need to print CMYK to CMYK devices!?!?!? 
(Vincent Price type voice) 'O' RISE GREAT FREEHAND' 
Moan moan eff-in moan😕
Sorry guys woke in a mood realise the team are doing all they can to achieve - just getting stuff off my chest

I was shocked that there are no tools like Eraser, Knife, Shadow, Distort, Envelope, Extrude and some transform tools (Roughen, Smudge) in AD 😮
I've just tried Affinity Photo and it's really great so I thought that I will finally get also some good vector graphics tool for occasional personal use because Corel is extremely expensive nowadays and it's "cheaper" version has less and less tools every year... but AD doesn't have some tools that I've seen in Corel TWENTY or at least SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO!
I don't understand it, since many of them are really basic and as other users noticed Serif offered them in their previous app DrawPlus X8 (last version from 2015 if I'm correct)!
Even Gimp seems to have more tools... It's sad because some of them are really crucial for less experienced users (for example Eraser, Knife, Envelope, Extrude...)
It would be great if we knew if and when some of these tools will be finally added. Without them buying AD makes no sense, especially that 2.0 version will be a separate product. 

Sorry but warping pixels is completely different than warping vectors.
But, it's not rocket science. They know how to do it. DrawPlus is the predecessor of Affinity Designer (yes, by Serif) and it has a lot of features that are still missing in Designer (and vice versa).
Among the features: Envelope, Roughen and Perspective tools

The point is that some of these tools exist in-part already in Photo. Also they existed in past legacy Serif apps. No excuse for the missing tools - especially warping. 

Damn right
But seven years is a long time to tolerate temporary workarounds especially when in 1.9 those workarounds now need further workarounds because of a recent colour bug....
Moan moan waffle blah......😶

Rolling my eyes. We are not supporting a poor company in a third world country that hasn't got the funds to implement such features before several years pass. Affinity got both a lot of attention and hype and went far beyond a critical mass of paying customers. They are doing just fine. Wake up and smell the coffee!
This is not a kickstarter. You are paying customers and remember that this company is decades old and made similar more mature software with these features until recently (plus series). Did so for many years. You don't have these features because someone decided you shouldn't. Yet. Or ever. You don't know. It is all about business priorities and scaling. Designer obviously gets the least attention and features. I still don't believe Serif has the vector expertise or the required number of developers with this expertise to push Designer further in bigger steps than we have seen (tiny steps). I don't see the evidence. Publishing software was always Serifs pet project and flagship product so lets see if Designer ever gets the love and features it needs to become more than a tool for digital painters (bitmap). Niche software. Half of Designer - the pixel features - are shared with Photo. 99% of vector brushes are in fact pixel brushes. The other half is so feature weak it is depressing. The toolbar in the designer persona is mostly shapes. Shapes!
So it it perfectly valid to air criticism and wishes here. The very high number of posts with feature requests and customers asking in disbelief why nothing happened about this and that yet tells a story about where Designer should go to evolve and serve existing and potential customers. Stiff opposition from a core base of forum users (of which ever so few are more than hobby users with simple hobby needs and no insight whatsoever into more professional use and needs) is just not what is needed for Serif or from the customers requesting these features. It is ludicrous. 
Cheap doesn't matter. As a vector drawing program Designer is not cheap because it has so few and just basic vector features. It doesn't cost "coconut money" whatever that is. Possibly an offensive term in Sweden. Designer is a simple product and you get only what you pay for. Not much more. Besides the great user interface that Serif really did well. Many small programs are actually often overpriced when you see how much you get for four times the price in professional software. But you will never reach that level of knowledge without experience and expertise. What REALLY is expensive in the short and especially long term is workarounds. Again something hobbyists doesn't see or feel.
So let the customers voice their concerns, wishes, criticism and input. Let Serif handle its unsatisfied (potential) customers and communicate the reasons for this and that. In a more professional tone. 

I agree 100%. In fact I have bought the package, and it’s quite useful.
However, the point about the skimpy basic transform operations goes back to at least 2017. There have been inquiries from paying customers all the way through, because these are BASIC tools for a vector design application, going all the way back to Fontographer, the grandmother of Aldus/Macromedia/Adobe Freehand (RIP). I was a beta tester in the late 1980s for Freehand, and Fontographer before that!
But yes. Please support innovative small developers.
But developers, communication is the key... What UP!?!
Thanks!
PF
@ideaswords (IG)
alphabets.com (fonts)
fraterdeus.com
 

"Free vector perspective" and "Free vector extrusion" is a MUST for many professional users.
Without this function, the program can only be used by artists.
I work as a technical illustrator and would be happy to bury CorelDraw and Illustrator.
Just like Affinity Photo has replaced Photoshop.
But unfortunately this is NOT possible without these functions.
I'm looking forward to future updates and uninstall the actual designer demo again...  : - (((

Hello @4personnen and @dominik,
thats the only thread i have found for my problem.
I am not new to Affinity tools, but i cant get any iead how to handle my problem.
The starting point:
I need to create many variable pictures of an article.
I've got a PSD file with a lot of groups and layers.
Like this:
Group 1 - Option 1 of the article [got 5 layers in it]
Group 2 - Option 2 of the article [got 5 layers in it]
Group 3 - Option 3 of the article [got 25 layers in it]
Group 4 - Option 4 of the article [got 25 layers in it]
Group 5 - Option 5 of the article [got 5 layers in it]
My goal: I need to export one picture for every combination automatically. Like your problem @4personnen, but a bit more complex.
Is it possible to to this with Affinity Photo/Designer at all?
 
Cheers
Frank

Thanks ,
Well, how do I show only one line of text with all layers showing?
If I show all the layers, I have 50 lines of text on top of each others (it's not legible  )
If I only select the layers I need to: ("static" text, background, and the text layer needed) the resulting export will be of these 3 elements in 3 files (1 slice per item)
Unless I misunderstood something (which is very possible)

Hi there,
 
First post and on top not very constructive - I LOVE Affinity Photo but honestly can we still not export layers to files like in Photoshop without the most cumbersome slice approach?
Is there any way to do it?
 
Thanks for listening to my whining

July Update - this is definitely one of those "oh damn, I can't cancel my Creative Cloud subscription yet" missing features. It shouldn't be impossible to export each layer as the artboard size - for example, doing "Export to Layers" in Photoshop simply requires un-checking "Trim Layers" in the export options.

Hi there,
since Affinity 1.8 it is possible to edit the metadata in Affinity Photo. Exactly this feature I had mentioned a long time ago. I wonder why the metadata panel is not included in Affinity Designer 1.8.
Is there anything you can do?
I ask again because I am not a friend of work-arounds.
Or do I need to buy Affinity Publisher? (makes no sense to me, because I only need this feature)
My old thread: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/101472-set-pdf-document-properties/&tab=comments#comment-544049
best regards! 
 

Yes! It could be so easy... 
I just spent 15 minutes having to do manually what that button could do in a second! 😫

Yes, and in my case almost every time.
All we need is this little fellow:

Smadell, I understand about duplicating the background layer but as a “newbie” and not totally comfortable with a new program I feel safer duplicating. Hopefully the day will come when I don’t feel the need, and Carl123 has some good points too.

One more thing... Duplicating the Background layer is a very Photoshop-ish way of doing things. Most (but not all) things you do in AP will be non-destructive. That includes Adjustment layers, Live Filter layers, cloning and inpainting (as long as they are done on separate Pixel layers), and many other operations. I find that I only “duplicate” to a new layer when I’m doing something that has to be destructive, and then I will use Merge Visible from the Layer menu. Destructive things include non-Live filters, Frequency Separation, and a few other operations. For the most part, the Photoshop behavior of immediately duplicating the Background layer is (in my view) unnecessary.

.... Just to add also, as a long-time Fireworks user, you can't underestimate how useful these option are in Fireworks, especially if you're creating mockups:
Crops selected bitmap (crops the slection only and doesn't affect canavs size)
Crop document (crops canvas to the selection)
Trim canvas (similair to crop document)
Fit canvas (resizes canvas to fit all layers, including objects outside of the document area)
Used these a zillion times over the years - so simple, yet really useful. Something to think about for Photo and Designer maybe?

Agreed on that

This may seem like an odd question but is there any way to crop 'destructively'? That is to say to make a crop physically erase permanently everything outside its bounds. 
 
I won't bother you with the reasons but there are times I would like to be able to completely remove all the excess material that extends beyond the image border.

Found that. Thanks owenr. Very helpful. I do think it could be made simpler and consistent with how other Mac OS apps do this when the title is right clicked, that's my wish:
 

Please add the ability to right click the file title at the top of the Affinity window to see the finder path of the file. This is a very useful feature and pretty much standard on current Mac OS apps.

I just thought of a way to do this with a pixel layer. It's kinda obvious once you get the "Aha!" moment. 
Select the shape you want to stroke and create a new layer. Fill the new layer with white (or any other color for that matter; it just needs to be different from the Stroke). 

Define the Stroke (as if stroking a path) using FX > Stroke. With a white Fill, use a black Stroke. Make a copy of this layer if you think you may need to make adjustments. 
Rasterize the layer, then select the fill color and delete it. Voila! You've now got a stroked path! 
It's kind of a kludge, but it works! :-)