[Affinity crashes when trying to rearrange swatches]

Thanks Sean. I'll try using Application palettes instead.

[Affinity crashes when trying to rearrange swatches]

Are you using the latest release version?
Yes: 1.9.1 for macOS

Can you reproduce it?
Yes: Create a new system palette, add colours, move one colour to the end of the list, crash.

Does it happen for a new document? If not do you have a document you can share that shows the problem?
Yes. It happens even without a document open.

If you cannot provide a sample document then please give an accurate description of the problem for example it should include most of the following:

•    What is your operating system and version (Windows 10, OSX Mojave, iOS 12 etc)?
  • macOS Big Sur 11.2.2 (20D80) on an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019, 32GB ram)
•    Any unusual hardware (like tablets or external monitors or drives that may affect things) or relevant other applications like font managers or display managers.
  • I'm using a Wacom Intuos, but the crash also happens when using the mouse.

[Affinity products for Linux]

I'm now almost three years on Linux. I have no plans to move back to macOS, and certainly not to Windows. At the moment, I'm getting by with Glimpse for Photo editing and Gravit for vector graphics. Both for which I pay (£75/year for Gravit and $10/month for Glimpse). At the time, I also paid for Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher, on both macOS and Windows. I really wouldn't mind paying for it again to get it on Linux. I would even pay for to get a working version of the apps on Wine.

I know Serif isn't keen on to releasing a Linux version. But a bit of support to get it working on Wine would be very welcome.

[Affinity Linux]

On 8/24/2017 at 10:54 PM, NigelGunn said:

There's obviously a requirement for a Linux photo editor.

There is a requirement for both a Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo on Linux. I'd buy them even if the price was twice that of the macOS and Windows versions (that's me of course). Now we are stuck with second grade apps in this area on Linux, so I need to dual boot Windows.

In most other fields Linux is covered:

- Audio: Bitwig, Reaper, Ardour, ...

- Video: Lightworks

- 3D: Maya, Houdini, Blender, Modo...

- CAD: DraftSight

- Office: LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, ...

- UI design: Figma

But when it comes to Photo editors, we're stuck with Gimp. I'm not mentioning Krita because it's more focused towards painting. Not that the Gimp is bad, but its UI and UX is way below what we find acceptable these days.

And the same can be said for Vector Graphics editors and Desktop Publishing. Inkscape and Scribus are in the same boat as Gimp. They're not necessarily bad but not pleasant to work with, either. To be fair, GravitDesigner is working hard to deliver a vector graphics app, but it's nowhere near Affinity Designer.

Lately, a lot of companies are investing in Linux. Take Bitwig for example, also fairly new like the Affinity apps. More than 30% of their customer base are Linux users. This is partially thanks to the fact that Ableton Live does not run on Linux (natively). But it shows that money can be made from the Linux world. On Linux, Serif has an open field. There is literally no competition. I know a lot of people would be happy to leave the macOS/Windows world if any company would provide decent apps for graphic designers. And especially with the rise of elementary OS and POP!_OS, it's clear that a new group of design-oriented people is entering the Linux environment.

 

[Offset Path?]

On 12/1/2016 at 5:13 PM, MEB said:

Hi Ed S.,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

Currently there's no offset path tool in Designer. Hopefully this will be added in a future version as it's a frequent request.

Meanwhile you can use the following workaround to offset a path/shape:

- select the object you want to offset

- duplicate it and apply a stroke (the bigger the stroke width the bigger will be the offset)

- convert the stroke to a path (select the duplicated object with the stoke and go to menu Layer ▹ Expand Stroke

- with the stroke/path still selected go to menu Layer ▹ Geometry ▹ Divide. This will separate the stroke outlines in two shapes. The bigger one is the offset you were looking for.

I was wondering if there is an ETA on this feature. I need it very often and the expand stroke approach is not usable for me because it bloats the path with points. Basically, not having this in AD makes me keep my Illustrator subscription and it's a lot of hustle moving pdf's back and forth.

[AD: Permanently disable all buttons in Typography panel]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Most fonts include ligatures for certain letter combinations like "fi" & "fl." They should not disappear when you type them. Visually, only their spacing & possibly their appearance should change if Typography > Standard Ligatures (the button with the fi icon) is enabled in the Character panel & you are using a font that includes ligatures. If the font does not include a ligature for the combination, it should not matter if this option is enabled or not -- either way the two characters should appear the same because no substitutions should occur.

 

If they are disappearing, this might indicate a problem with the font you are using or with your computer's ability to accesses them. Are you using a Mac or a Window PC?

2

I just read up on ligatures and it all makes much more sense now.

I'm using a font that I created back in 2002. Looking into the original file, the fi glyph was activated but empty. So it was an error on my side

Anyway, thanks for the explanation!

[AD: Permanently disable all buttons in Typography panel]

One feature in AD is bugging me for quite some time now. When I type the letters fi, they disappear. I already found out I can fix it by disabling Character > Typography > fi, but every time I open a new document it's enabled again. In my case, it's particularly annoying because my last name and my company name start with fi.

So how can I disable this permanently? I don't even know what it's for, so I am probably never going to use it anyway.

[Ability to lock an Artboard in position]

If you are picking one accidentally with objects over it can you please describe the steps you are performing? It may be a bug.

 

After looking more closely I noticed the whole header, the total height of the artboard's name all along the width of the artboard, acts as a drag handle. If it only would be the label, that would be ok. But I tend to start dragging my marquee right outside the artboard, most of the times from top left to bottom right. So in that case, it's really easy to accidentally grab the artboard.

 

 

Regarding selecting elements without having to enclose them with the selection marquee, if you press ⌃(ctrl) while dragging the selection marquee Affinity will include all the objects touched by the selection marquee. There's also an option in Affinity Preferences, Tools section to enable this permanently: check Select object when intersect with selection marquee.

 

Great tip, thanks! :) 

[Ability to lock an Artboard in position]

I love using a lot of artboards. Many times, when I try to select a series of elements on an artboard by pulling a box around them, I accidentally grab another artboard. Because AD requires pulling the box around the whole element instead of just a part, this happens quite often.

 

It 'd be good to have a position lock on artboards to prevent this. I already tried activating the lock on an artboard in the layers tab, but this makes the contained elements unselectable. 

[DXF or DWG file import in Affinity Designer]

+1

 

It would be a welcome addition.