Jim Monson

BTW, if you want to see more of how useful Affinity's programs are for my work, here is a link to more maps.
https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/regional-study-maps

Much appreciated explanations, tomaso. Yes, I now see the slight change. I guess I was fixed on the unlock icon. I have it working, thanks to you, plus it does disappear when using a Spot color. Your illustrations were very clear and helpful.
Thanks, Walt. I thought I had searched Affinity Help but it appears I didn't, or that from the icon I thought it was about general Mac things and not Affinity. It's worked very well.
Thanks, Mike. Forty years of working in these maps, from Freehand via Illustrator to Affinity (yes, I'm 85 this year). Started when the first IBM desktop appears (with an exciting 10mg(!) hard disk, a monster). Affinity now makes it a joy to work on them in our fifth edition of the maps.
Your explanation and diagrams were very useful. I've followed through on them, with much gratitude.
Good to hear of your work, Lagarto, and that it went well. With the Affinity programs my work is tremendously faster and easier. In 1.7 I only seldom locked up, and of course with thousands of objects in some 20+ layers it was no doubt due to a memory problem in my "undos." But Affinity brought my recent unsaved work back. I "save as" and put a date at at the end of my docs as I work (e.g., 200229a, 200229b, etc.) so I let AD catch up with itself, but as yet 1.8.1 has not locked up (but it is only out a couple of days). I'm very excited about the new features, esp the InDesign import. I'm in the process of bringing decades of work into Affinity, and very grateful for all the work they do for us (and all for $50/app - amazing).
I will indulge in a little history since you asked, Lagarto (although my wife tells me simply to say "yes" or "no" if asked a question). In the 80s and 90s (before Google Earth) I digitized 16,000,000 xyz points on a small digitizing tablet (12" x 12"), producing about 300 smaller digital docs and then placing them in a much larger grid (I still have the old floppys, etc. backups!). I was a beta tester for the IBM Surfer program of Golden Software (GS) since at that time I had the biggest personal data base that they knew of. I could only printout a wire mesh map but had a great artist as a student (whom I found making a beautiful caricature of his prof - in class!). Over ten years he transformed the wire mesh printouts into some 60 maps on mylar (pencil and line drawings). He worked over 120 hours on the one I'm now reprinting for the fifth time. I then had them professionally photographed (an old German continuous tone device) so I could edit them digitally. 
I kept asking GS to make their Surfer to put out a true relief map ... and finally in 2001 they ask me to test their algorithms with my 16,000,000 xyz points. I was stunned at the result (see cover for northern view in https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/regions-on-the-run). I was at last able to twist, turn, adjust z level, edit color, etc. Then I could edit the results in Photoshop, put all the vector on in Illustrator (from my Freehand docs). At that time Illustrator was a mess to use compared to Freehand, as you no doubt know. Now Affinity has let me out of the Adobe prison. Since then we have gone through various bleeding edge digital stages with both the hand drawn and digitally produced maps, using them in our books, in PDFs, etc. and moving into Flash/Animate, Keynote, iBooks, Hype and other programs
To answer your question, in Illustrator I could assign a color directly to my greyscale, but now in APhoto I must bring up the bitmap, create a fill layer immediately above it, choose the right color, play with the blends and adjustments (above the fill layer) and then export the tif to use in my AD vector work. When resizing became available in Photoshop (and now in APhoto) I could make all of the maps really hi-res. For our upcoming Apple app (hopefully later this year) I wish I could vectorized the relief for speed, but that is not possible. It must remain raster for definition. Rather than PNGs or JGPs I find that taking good quality screen shots and putting them together in APhoto brings quality up and size down for our app developer. For app speed we had to make all our vector work into SVGs, with all the xywh info for exact placement. Huge undertaking!
The Affinity apps and my iMac Pro makes it all so much easier. I'm now waiting for Affinity to create a replacement for Adobe's Animate. I still pay $30/mo for Adobe's CC until I don't need it any more. They have bled me enough. No problems in Affinity yet, and I don't expect any. I am so appreciative of the help you and others give me via the forum. I could not ask for more.
I'll let all of you know when I get the proof from my printer to see how my map relief color and especially background gradient appears.
There, Lagarto, is my "short version" to answer your short question. Just think of what we can now do with Affinity and with all that is becoming available. jim
PS: I asked GS to create a digitizing program since in old days I had had to use the old $89.00 Generic Software for digitizing. Generic Software kindly rewrote the program back in the 80s so I could input the Dead Sea which is below sea level. GS did come out with Didger that you might look into if you want to digitize a contour map. (https://www.goldensoftware.com/products)

BTW, if you want to see more of how useful Affinity's programs are for my work, here is a link to more maps.
https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/regional-study-maps

BTW, if you want to see more of how useful Affinity's programs are for my work, here is a link to more maps.
https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/regional-study-maps

BTW, if you want to see more of how useful Affinity's programs are for my work, here is a link to more maps.
https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/regional-study-maps

Hey,  fellows! I'm deeply impressed by all of your complete answers and excellent clarifications - greatly appreciate the patience you have and time you take to help out. The printer will be very happy come Monday. Having worked in Illustrator (and earlier in Freehand) I should have known that Affinity happily gives us more options. Here is a bit of the hand drawn map relief with my ancient overlays for you to understand my concern in printing 10,000 of them next week. The screen snap blurs some things (like the fort symbol) but you can get the gist of what I do. Roads are "natural" from site to site and not modern. I'd be constantly crashing in Illustrator. Keep up your very helpful contributions.

BTW, if you want to see more of how useful Affinity's programs are for my work, here is a link to more maps.
https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/regional-study-maps

BTW, if you want to see more of how useful Affinity's programs are for my work, here is a link to more maps.
https://www.biblicalbackgrounds.com/regional-study-maps

In my opinion, deleting a page or layer in Affinity apps is too easy. Could there be a preference added that would allow the user to see a warning before deleting a page or layer? I know that the user can see if a layer is empty by its icon, but a simply touching the delete key can easily delete a layer without the user noticing. This is one of the few things I appreciated about Illustrator.
As to deleting a page, I found this morning that two complex double pages of a large doc I was working on until late last night are gone this morning. I must have deleted them without noticing. OK, it's my mistake for working late at night, but a "Do you want to delete this/these pages" would have saved me tons of time today. This could be a preference so that one could receive the message or not. Thanks for considering this.

Great help, Walt and R C-R. I should have guessed that Affinity would have thought of some creative way. Your input, however, made it crystal clear. Many thanks.

AD does not distinguish between a layer and an object *except* that an object in the layer panel is followed by the type of object in italics (e.g., curve). This is one of the many strengths of AD in my opinion. Illustrator frustrates me for many reasons but one of them is the fact that an object cannot be at the same level as a top layer. Having layers and objects at the same level is very natural once one notices the above. As for Publisher, it is not meant to be another AD. In my view having the Layer/Object both available in the top layer in AD is critical. As for Freehand, I used it for many years, and now I feel that at last I am back home. AD designers are open-minded and responsive to us, but please do not encourage them to take us back to Illustrator. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

Amen to all of the above! I share your grief with Adobe's total lack of reaching out to help us and meanwhile charging an arm and a leg, in stark contrast to Serif's pricing and constant care. BTW, Adobe must be hurting since they have dropped their prices and are now asking their remaining users for suggestions. Too little and too late. (They thought they had us bamboozled.) Now I'm hoping that Serif will ambush Animate (aka Flash). Can't wait.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

Thanks for the dog update. You are absolutely right. If you want a (loyal) friend, get a dog!

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words. 

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I simply had to stop my work and give all of you there at Affinity a huge thanks! I have used your products for years, but this ability now to switch back and forth to use various tools in each of the three programs is beyond anything  I dreamt of in the past. I am working on a book project with tons of complex graphic, I have made - yes, brought over from Freehand and Illustrator but in Designer since it came out. To switch back and forth in Affinity's programs saves tons of time and frustration. All I can say is "Bravo!" for thinking of us who work day and night in publishing. Your work is appreciated far beyond these few words.