PaoloT

Hi, I'm on 32 inch display with UHD resolution and the interface texts are very tiny. The text size is 8px and it should be a bit bigger, at last 10-12px. It's really hard to read. It would be great if there was an option to scale interface like it is in Photoshop or even better like in Blender.
The attached file shows Affinity fonts on left and Adobe on the right.

Looks like an easy thing to do. If Google did it, it shouldn't be all that difficult or expensive!
 

Are you implying that Serif can't buy them and get their technology anytime they want???
 

I agree these shouldn't be kept in consideration. I would only consider vector-based file formats.
My perplexity in insisting on DXF from AfDesigner is that this would mean one conversion more. It would mean having to go from a Bézier-curves-based file format, to a Spline-based one, and then to the machine's own language/format. It would be a multiple lossy process.
If the machine's software can read a Bézier-based format, like EPS or PDF, we could expect a single lossy conversion, that is from the Bézier-based format to the machine's own language. A much more accurate process.
Paolo
 
 

The Apple LaserWriter was the first laser printer on the market to offer PostScript support, making general market DTP applications feasible for the first time.  Prior to that laser printers all had proprietary page description languages and worked with fairly expensive systems, making such tools impractical.

it is safe to say that Apple *PAYED* Xerox with Apple shares. The only one ripping off here was Microsoft.

No, Apple was the first company who had serious systems for DTP, 30 years ago.

Not exactly.
If you use TruTops Burst, which is the programming system made by trumpf, than you read the dxf files (or draw by yourself) and then save the geometry in the geo file format.
We in our company use PN4000 from Wicam instead, which has also its own file format, but the source is allways the same.
Meanwhile these CAD/CAM system are also able to import 3D files, althoug our lasers are 2D machines only.
The statement, that trumpf can handle BMP, is more marketing.
Sure, our system also can read all these file formats, but in the end, the resulting geometry is a complete mess.
PDF is an exception, because it can store the complete (correct) information of a dxf or stp file. So your CAM System only needs a filter for PDF import.
Vector based file formats are also providing all the information required for a coorct geometry, but you have the problem with the vectors/splines.
All others, like bmp, jpg or tiff are pixel based files, where a software can make a black/white image from, if there is a high enough contrast, but i am sure you dont want a part that is lasered with the result from that conversion.

I have no experience with DXF whatsoever, but I seriously wonder why the guy with the "commercial machine" doesn't buy this €89 tool to be able to convert any vector format to the required DXF themselves?
I mean, comparably, I haven't been asked by a printer to deliver them imposed layout in literally decades. Every self-respecting printer I've been working with will want to do page impositions themselves.
So I'm genuinely puzzled. Please enlighten me.

Another alternative may be to draw lines rotated to the requested angle, and lock them. They will do nearly the same as guides.
Paolo
 

Works perfectly for vectorizing bitmap QR codes:

If the image doesn't have transparency yet, all you need to do is:
Place the QR code image in Publisher and select it with the Move tool Context toolbar > Edit Image Switch the opened image to the Photo persona Flood Select tool > Contiguous: off > click the white background Delete (optionally enable Transparent Background to check if all white pixels are gone) Save (if PNG) or export as PNG (if JPEG, then replace the JPEG in the other afpub) proceed with Wrap Outline as above

Believe it or not, a rudimentary vectorizer has been included with Affinity from the very launch of Publisher 1!
Before you get too excited though: it only works on images with transparency, for example 1-bit images with alpha channel.
But hey, better than nothing, right?
Place your image into a Publisher document, the more pixels the original image has, the better Select the image and click the Edit Wrap Outline button in the main toolbar Copy Paste = Curves object: there's your image (roughly) vectorized, traced based on the transparency outline Apply fill and stroke as you see fit Optionally convert all the sharp nodes to smooth or smart nodes to make it appear less jagged, clean up as you see fit Tested in APu v1.10.6 Mac and APu v2.0.3 iPad.

fwiw Inkscape can generate vector QR codes and barcodes and it's free. Bar and QR code bits starts at around 9:50.
There are some other cool features Inkscape has in this video but that would be another discussion...
 

I would like to suggest some things which could be beneficial added to affinity publisher: 
 
- QR code generator
- watermarking
 

Hi,
we need the option to export our work from Affintiy to Adobe Illustrator (ai-format) because it is used very often by media designers and so on.
When will it be avaible with Affinity?
Regards
Tom

I bought 1 years ago and only nibbled. I just upgraded to 2 Saturday, and just completed my first serious project with Designer, with very few hiccups.
Take it from someone who loved Aldus Freehand, and despised Illustrator, Designer is a first class job! I had consigned myself to trying to be creative with Graffle, but no more.
THANK YOU!
Clark

Um, yeah, sure… FWIW if Serif ceased support for iPads I (as a designer and illustrator) wouldn't be using Affinity products at all. I get that some folks really want a DAM, and some folks really want {insert your product/feature request here}, but please let's not minimize others priorities because they don't align with yours. 
At the end of the day it all comes down to Serif's priorities for their products, and their business.
 

Affinity is not a religion and Serif is not a church. At least not the last time I checked, hehe…  
When Serif are ready to announce a new product, they will.
Until then, all we can do is post feedback and bump existing feature requests to let them know what we'd like.
And yes, I'd love to have a modern equivalent of the good ole iView/Expression Media DAM, better yesterday rather than in ten years! Whether it comes from Serif or from someone else. (Some developers are already getting quite close to it, yet still not what I'd need. Dang.)

Portable devices like an iPad are hardly niche products. Even professionals use touch screen devices for working, especially as the tech has become significantly better in terms of performance with the Metal run chips. Serif even did an interview with a Japanese website where the owner even stated that the iPad version of Designer was outselling the desktop version in Japan while being their 4th largest market after the US, UK, and Germany. See source:
It is not about being defeatist, it is about being realistic. Serif are significantly smaller than Adobe with fewer resources to expand into every creative market. If they thought it was a good idea to prioritise a DAM software they likely would have done so by now. Heck, they may even have something planned at some point, but there is more than enough things to improve for the other three softwares before the need to build another one. It's not until last year that we even got the complete trinity on all platforms, which was the original goal when building the Affinity Suite. The customer base already have a ton of requests for Photo, Designer, and Publisher, so it's a smart thing to cater to the already existing audience by adding and polishing up these three, especially in such a competitive market with the new AI boom as of late.
Also, please format your sentences.

Dan, thank you for your explanation.
Please consider that these 'empty' frames may become unavoidable, when you think to exporting to HTML. Without a containing frame, images exported from Publisher will go everywhere in a web page. The container I use will become a Div (or a Figure in other markup dialects), keeping the assembly together.
Considering it normal practice would prepare Publisher to be compatible with a web-savvy format.
Paolo
 

Hi,
Could I please request that a hex value box be added to the swatches panel like you have done with the colour wheel. Currently if I want to grab the hex value of a swatch (which is quite often) I have to select the swatch > go to the colour menu (which defaults to the edit view - which is annoying) > Then I have to select colour wheel from top right menu.
It is a very verbose way to grab hex value. Can we just add it to the swatches panel.
Thank you.

OK, I had a look at the Mac and Windows bug tracking fora and they look much of a muchness to me. If there are some definitive relative bug tracking stats somewhere happy to be pointed to them.
I use Affinity on Mac and Windows and don't notice any differences really other than those of the underlying environment.
Serif of course were a Windows shop long before they did any Mac software so I don't think the assertion that they are Apple focused is necessarily true (unless of course they are making a lot more money from that user-base, in which case who can blame them?)

(Warning: I have not read the thread, just the initial premise) I don't think that a port to Android would be easily satisfactory. Android's API changes quite frequently. It's also unfair to compare Android numbers against the iPad market which uses a different OS (and for good reason).
I've bought Android tablets with "powerful" hardware in the past and I've come to see they became a bad investment in short order because of the fact they are out of date too much quicker than their price tag warrants. I just tossed several into the bin because even though the hardware is fine. The software support is garbage because the API versions of most modern apps are too high so they can't be installed. Even some basic social media won't run on them anymore and what it will download and support often runs horribly. Those tablets that were once snappy on date of purchase then become ridiculously tedious to use even with a device reset, just because of the way code is supported on Android. Doesn't matter if I update to a higher OS, or whether I bought double the storage to accommodate the additional bloat. It's just down to the way Android recycles (or doesn't) old code and encourages users to constantly upgrade. This is out of sync with Serif's cost-conscious crowd.
Android has many more users, sure, but each of those users are on a different API version, often much older. This is also counting both phones and tablets. The API changes between versions is often fine for phones as most of the apps developed at that scope port well. If you're a power user looking at purchasing a tablet, however, your options were limited at time of purchase and inevitably become increasingly limited over time. It's not a great experience. Open source solutions often work better in this scenario, hence the prevalence of "rooting" and non-official software environments. (Which Serif can't reasonably support either)
Supporting a number of devices across the spectrum is likely tedious from the point of development by time they release, as that API version will already be quite old. So on top of asking Serif to support multiple API versions (down to whatever version they chose), it's also asking Serif to develop for both UI and stability for phones and tablets and different kernels. That's quite different than just simply porting over UI & code from the iPad. iPad at the hardware level is also much more homogeneous.
We already can see in current development they are attempting to streamline the experience as much as possible between all platforms to keep their ecosystem consistent, in keeping with the vision of "Affinity". Keeping this streamlined with an Android port would be tedious beyond measure. Specifically because Android is meant be run across a spectrum of hardware, there's no easy way to say "Use these recommended hardware specifications" to guarantee the "preferred" experience, because so much of Android is meant to run on even budget devices and their hardware is quite fragmented. As soon as Serif raises the minimum standard API to keep development time within reason, which will likely be more frequent than not, prior support will always be dropped anyway which would invite additional complaints. This means also losing reach. Even if keeping their support window on the narrow end, the amount of testing required to adequately service users this way is possibly out of reach.

And it's not even touching on the economics. So imho, if it happens, it'll be when Affinity has matured considerably and they have the ability to support. Or Google makes Android a better value proposition for power users with tablets to warrant developers flocking to support that hardware.
TLDR: There's a reason Android sees so few power apps for their tablets. Can you imagine grandma trying to edit a cat photo clogging up Affinity support because she's trying to do too much on her potato tablet with a small form factor. How do you tell her which system setting to check when Android settings menu changes faster than a person's underwear? How do you know which she should check when every device configuration is different? How do you service that user properly when the solution is an OS update which that device will never receive? (Search "AMD GPU drivers") That's a big ask of Serif to provide that level of care. A smaller developer who can focus solely on the nuances of Android development and device variability is a better bet. Or, a company like Adobe who can afford to throw money at Android like literal bird seed are more likely to see the benefits. Heck, even Outlook for Android is buggy the last I used it. So I dropped it and searched for a "native" app. Android doesn't cater well to the tablet crowd and is a "master of none" OS, in my opinion. Why buy a $600-1000 device that still manages to run like a potato over a short span of time only for the experience to be completely degraded within the span of a few years? And outright unusable soon after that.

I have the same problem. I find it incredibly difficult to differentiate between the active tab & the other tabs in Photo 2. I frequently have many images open & trying to find the active one is really hard (see screenshot). Why can't the active tab be a completely different colour? White, blue, red, purple... I don't mind, but it would be great to be able to quickly see which one it is!  Looking at my screenshot, it's much clearer on that than it is in the programme!
Thanks

Yes, it is generally when you have exactly two open that it can be a bit confusing.
One obvious work-around is to always open a third document, even if you aren't doing anything with it.
Personally I don't think the color choice is too overly important here - changing the shape of the active tab is some way to help set it apart more distinctly as the active one would be a better choice.