h_d

thanks to both of you. i will try it out tonight. the erase tool sounds great. didn’t have one or brushes on ps mix. just the option to erase by shape selecting or free hand. also thank u i noticed the no mobile app thing and am good with that. it bothers me how used to i am of using the touchscreen for designing. i feel almost lost without constant pinching and tapping and rotating fingers and want to seriously learn a desktop setup. i’ll see where i get with the pixel persona and get the photo trial and decide. thanks for the help and not just thinking i’m a dumdum

Yes this problem has been avoided in V2.0

Wikipedia article on ISO standard 216.
Most of the presets in Publisher are 'starting points': even if I were setting up a standard A4 publication I'd almost immediately want to manually check, and probably modify, settings like margins, bleed dimensions and colour format - before importing any text.

I certainly wouldn't buy a book that contained that sort of wording.

Gianno Becatinni should think twice before putting such crap in the front section if his book. When I read such things at the beginning of a book, that book and the author will immediatelly loose my interest... forever! The only conclusion coming from that paragraph is the frustration with the software and temperament of the author.
Many other authors successfully, create and publish books made in Affinity Publisher. They struggle from time to time, have to find workaround but in the end they deliver their masterpiece to their audience.
Like Loukash already perfectly said, if you are not happy but the Affinity Suite, then use something else. There are other alternatives which will let you do the same thing, even for free. But Gianno Becatinni, don't put that kind of message in your book, it only shows you are a very short tempered person. Instead, just use another application which gives you better results. Maybe Affinity is not a good tool for you and another will deliver perfect results for you. Such things happen.
I hope you learned a wise lesson  today.
Chris
 

I certainly wouldn't buy a book that contained that sort of wording.

I certainly wouldn't buy a book that contained that sort of wording.

I certainly wouldn't buy a book that contained that sort of wording.

That really doesn't look promising 😩

Maybe make a suggestion in the Feedback and Suggestions section?

Again, I'm using the trial version so I can't save, but nothing I have seen would induce me to part with cash for it. If I load a .jpg image...

 
and then switch to the Brush tool I get this.

and the Brush and Eraser tools don't seem to have any effect. I may not be using it correctly but it seems to be badly broken, at least under Ventura.

This is my experience with macOS 13 Ventura, Affinity Photo 2.
I suspect that the Retouch4Me installer doesn't actually install the plugin (at least for me when I downloaded and installed the trial version of Dodge&Burn).
I had to use a package manager (Pacifist) to locate the plugin in the downloaded package:

I extracted it to my desktop, then used Finder to move it into one of my recognised plugin folders.
After that I was able to access it through the Filters menu;

 
 
But performance is very very dodgy. It takes a minute or so to load the image, then it sort of works, although I've had application hangs and slow-downs which have required me to force restart Affinity Photo, especially if I switch between apps while the plugin window is open.

Ultimately I can't confirm whether it works or not, because the trial version of the plugin doesn't save any changes. But it strikes me that it needs a lot more work from the developer to get it to (a) install correctly; and (b) work properly as a plugin.
 
 

This Video was a Toll on the Head. Very Complicated to Understand from the Spare Channels that he keeps making.

If you're also asking about automatic subject detection, which I believe is available in Pixelmator Pro (not sure about Pixelmator Photo, the iOS app), then as far as I'm aware there's no equivalent in Affinity Photo.

I am allowed to write release notes ahead of times without having the date questioned. Those were not visible till 3 hours ago when the updates started rolling live

2.0.3 for Photo and Publisher for macOS are now available (I bought direct from Affinity: the Apple App Store may be a bit behind.)
                 
 
Edit - just noticed that the version of Publisher appears from the Software Update dialog to be "2 1688". Yet the splash screen for the installed version reads "2.0.3".
There's never a dull moment with Affinity...

I'm downloading the macOS version of Designer 2.0.3 now. Photo and Publisher don't seem to be available yet.

Not an answer to your question but maybe worth knowing about for future reference. In both APub V1 & V2 on Macs, by default your full user account name will appear automatically in the Author field. Since you may not want this to be included for privacy reasons, you can change this in a non-obvious way:
With no document open, set the Author field to something else -- I use "me!" -- & that will become the new default.

@SusB, as h_d stated it needs the brush tool and the pixel layer*  to be selected. What the Protect Alpha will do is allow you to paint with the new colour overtop the existing pixels with some colour in them and it will not paint onto pixels with no colour on them.
* A pixel layer with some brush stokes and some fully transparent areas. A completely clear Pixel Layer will get no added colour/ink/painting/Strokes added to it if the Protect Alpha is checked.

If you scroll to the bottom of this page you can take advantage of the 30-day free trial offer. That's the link to Photos, but there are identical offers for Designer and Publisher.

Hi @Roter_Rabe and welcome.
Here's one way.
In Publisher, enable View - Show Grid:

Then choose View - Grid and Axis and set up a grid with the Spacing set to your desired 'equal spacing' Here I've used 5mm, not subdivided:

 
Close the dialog, then go to View - Snapping and enable Snap to Grid:

 
Close the dialog and use the Picture Frame Rectangle Tool (F) to design your layout:

 
The shapes will 'snap' to the gridlines to help you maintain the spacing (spot the mistake above).
Once you're happy with the layout, click on each frame in turn, choose File - Place, navigate to your chosen image and select it. Hide the Grid and Margins from the View menu, and check the results:

You can adjust the positioning and size of the images using the Move tool. 
 
 

With a brush selected, it's here:

 
On a small screen it may be hidden: to access it, click the double arrow on the right-hand side of the context toolbar.
When it's turned on, you can't paint on empty areas of the layer.
 

Thank you for your responses.  I bought the app directly from Serif so not Apple’s fault.  I think GarryP was correct in that for some reason the app hadn’t installed correctly. The DMG file was showing in the Apps folder and not the Affinity icon.  I have now deleted the app and reinstalled and it seems to be working ok now. Many thanks. 

That is perfect, thank you very much!

Hi @Roter_Rabe and welcome.
Here's one way.
In Publisher, enable View - Show Grid:

Then choose View - Grid and Axis and set up a grid with the Spacing set to your desired 'equal spacing' Here I've used 5mm, not subdivided:

 
Close the dialog, then go to View - Snapping and enable Snap to Grid:

 
Close the dialog and use the Picture Frame Rectangle Tool (F) to design your layout:

 
The shapes will 'snap' to the gridlines to help you maintain the spacing (spot the mistake above).
Once you're happy with the layout, click on each frame in turn, choose File - Place, navigate to your chosen image and select it. Hide the Grid and Margins from the View menu, and check the results:

You can adjust the positioning and size of the images using the Move tool.