h_d

But do you understand what that means?
It's: (Left-mouse + move the mouse) + shift + right-mouse. That is, both buttons pressed. And note that this probably works a mouse, but may not work with a trackpad.

Layer - New Adjustment Layer is a good place to start:
 

 
Also checkout Layer - New Live Filter Layer:
 

 
All of these are non-destructive.
 
 

I’ve attached a short video showing one easy-to-do workflow.
First set most of the snapping options ON – I don’t know which is actually needed. Next draw a Square Star, set the number of points to 16, and colour it. Then draw a Star, set the number of points to 16, drag it so it snaps to the first Square Star, and colour it. Then draw another Star, set the number of points to 16, rotate it by 360/number-of-points/2, drag it so it snaps to the first Star, and colour it. Then draw an Ellipse and colour it. When drawing the shapes start from the centre of the page and use Ctrl+Shift to keep the height and width the same.
My example is not exactly the same as the sample given but it’s easy to modify as can be seen near the end of the video.
2022-12-03 08-33-16.mp4

Hey h_d,
This is a known issue so I've updated the bug report.

Also worth making sure that Ignore Baseline Grid is ticked in the General tab of the Text Frame Panel:

Screen Recording 2022-11-28 at 20.42.35.mov    
 
 
I'm pretty certain it's something to do with the baseline grid, but there are a lot of different options to work through.

Works for me on macOS Ventura:
 
\\
 
This is after creating the preset, then quitting and restarting Affinity Photo 2.
To answer the OP's other question, I don't believe there is any way of organising these presets.

Running macOS Ventura, Affinity Photo v2.0.0
What happens:
I open a .jpg image, make no edits in Photo Persona and switch into Liquify Persona.
I load a previously-saved .affinity_liquify_mesh file. The image distorts as expected.
I click the close button, or type Cmd-W, or choose Close from the File menu.
The image closes immediately without saving - there is no Save dialog.

mesh_warp.mov    
 
I would expect to be presented with a Save dialog or an opportunity to return to Photo Persona without saving.
If I edit the image in Photo Persona before entering Liquify Persona and loading the Mesh file, I am asked if I wish to save my changes. The issue only occurs if no edits are made before applying the mesh.
The mesh file I used in the video is nearly 74mb (!)  so I'd rather not upload it unless absolutely necessary. 

The brush issue has been reported in the Bugs section of the Forum and is is already logged with the Dev team to resolve

Also make sure that Use Independent Baseline Grid is disabled in the Text Frame panel

Search the Help for 'XMP Sidecar', follow the link to 'Metadata Panel', read to the bottom.

 
Metadata Panel in Develop Persona:
.
 

Your second screen shot doesn't show the complete Spacing Panel so it's a bit hard to tell what's going on.
I can replicate your 'small' 20pt text in a couple of ways: either by setting it to Subscript in the Positioning & Transform section of the Character Panel, or by reducing the Horizontal and Vertical Scale in the same place. 
 

 
(The scaling options are just above the Subscript button.) Might be worth checking those out.

Your second screen shot doesn't show the complete Spacing Panel so it's a bit hard to tell what's going on.
I can replicate your 'small' 20pt text in a couple of ways: either by setting it to Subscript in the Positioning & Transform section of the Character Panel, or by reducing the Horizontal and Vertical Scale in the same place. 
 

 
(The scaling options are just above the Subscript button.) Might be worth checking those out.

To Ron P - THANK YOU for that excellent information. It is a definite challenge to learn all the complexities of this program. I think I was confused because AP no longer uses the donut stroke selector, while AD and AP still do, and those two programs stil have the stroke tab in the color panel. I'll get there.  Good info also on the Control Run Up startup.
I also appreciate the welcome to the forum. I hope to come up to speed fairly quickly, and be able to contribute here soon.
To h_d - THAT WAS IT, thank you! I thought I had tried that option, but evidently not. I'm still learning the terminology of the programs.
----------------
I have been using Xara Designer Pro (and its previous iterations) for more than 20 years, so I have the foundations and concepts. But I recently acquired a MacBook M1X for video processing, and Xara doesn't run on a Mac. Affinity does, and that's why the switch.
So far, I like it a lot.

Thank you very much!

Search the Help for 'XMP Sidecar', follow the link to 'Metadata Panel', read to the bottom.

 
Metadata Panel in Develop Persona:
.
 

It would be so helpful if people would actually read all Terms and Conditions when they consider buying something, whether a car, a computer, or some software.  If they don’t quite understand, there is always Google Translate, or Deepl.  But to misinterpret Serif’s clearly used terms of “update” and “upgrade” is not a valid excuse for demanding special consideration.  As for me, I was very happy with v1.  I am even more happy with v2.  There will undoubtedly be many free updates to v2.  And then at some point in time there will be a paid upgrade which will be v3.  
Mac didn’t start with Big Sur or Ventura all those years ago.  I now have Big Sur and don’t want to upgrade to Ventura.  But to get to Big Sur in order to access the capabilities of the M1 chip, I had to buy a new computer.  And it wasn’t $100.00.  If people don’t want the wonderful new capabilities of Affinity V2, that is entirely up to them.  But if they do, then it would seem that they might graciously accept the very generous offer from Serif.
 

Single click!  🤣
 

 
(Node Tool selected).

Hi @znello and welcome to the Forums! 😀
If you select the preset in the Export dialog, then click More, followed by Manage Presets, there's an option to Delete preset:

There's an option in Preferences to Reset Default User Defaults, but that may be a bit of a blunt instrument, and the Help files are not helpful about what is actually reset by clicking this particular button.

Cheers,
H
 

I think with a bit of experimentation you could achieve similar results to those in the video with Affinity Photo, but as @GarryP says it may not necessarily be easy. Depends on how much time (as opposed to cash) you're prepared to invest in learning the ins and outs.
If you simply want an out-of-the-box solution for creating cartoon-like images, then one of the Jixipix products may be more up your street.
 

Hi @barret.wallace and welcome!
Affinity Publisher will do this - draw grid of identical circular picture frames, drag images on and they are scaled to the shortest dimension and centred on the frame, on the fly. It would be a bit more complicated in Photo or Designer.
 

Sorry, I didn't explain myself fully.
Using the Live Pinch/Punch Filter, if you don't click the mouse, the effect is applied by default in the centre of the image. Dragging and/or clicking in different areas moves the centre of the effect. If you click in the middle of a very large, single-colour object (bigger than 1024px), there will be no observable effect.

Screen Recording 2022-04-30 at 08.34.18.mov    
The small rectangle above is 1024px wide.
The effect is much more pronounced in a smaller photographic image:
 

Screen Recording 2022-04-30 at 08.46.15.mov    
But it may be more effective to use Liquefy Persona and a very large brush.

I've just re-read my original answer and I can in fact snap the control handles to the curve's geometry with those snapping options selected - no guides needed. You learn something every day...

Interesting. I'll use it all. Your help means a lot to me. Thanks for your time.
Dekade

You can assign your own keyboard shortcuts to any function for which there's a menu command, via Preferences - Keyboard Shortcuts. I don't know with Windows, but on macOS, within the Designer Persona shortcuts, you can set a shortcut for Pixel Persona and Export Persona:

 
If you then switch the first button to Pixel, you can set another shortcut for Designer Persona:
 

 
I would imagine the procedure is almost exactly the same in Windows.
Cheers,
H

@ h_d
OK, thanks, I got it. Really cool. I think that's the solution.