shushustorm

Hey everyone!
I'm sorry, but after having bought the universal license and done some testing, I deleted V2 Designer, Publisher and Photo from my iPad.
Publisher would have been great to work on files due to using Designer and Photo tools via Studio link (I'm not even doing layout stuff!) and I'd have used Designer for its export persona if I don't need editing the file later on or port .svg to V1 (quite limited, but with knife and shape builder in V2 at least somewhat interesting).
In its current state, however, the suite is a massive downgrade from V1 and even with the knife tool, shape builder and the quick menu being great tools that do work wonders on workflow efficiency, it's still much slower and quite risky to work with:
- No V1 file compatibility
- Online activation required
as well as the following issues:
- Only starts up to my files section if there are files already
- Can't double tap layers to expand and collapse
- Button lower left has to be disabled each time when opening a file
- Bars left and right show last icon only by scrolling even though there is room for displaying them (iPad mini 5)
- Frequent crashes (about 5-7 times per hour) by just using the knife, boolean operations or the shape builder
- Shape outline sporadically creating blobs at start of vertex loop when shape was created by shape builder
- Grouping layers (very basic) takes two taps instead of one, yet I got massive UI for sorting layers (probably rarely needed in general; personally, I never need it)
- Couldn't find vector warp on iPad
I can't remember alpha or beta testing any software that included such a number of huge workflow impairing issues that were regressions from a previous version. And this is a release. Frequent crashes and missing V1 compatibility are the worst ones.
Sad. Not going for a refund, though. Hope it gets better (worthwhile). You did a great job with V1 after all.
Not really going to discuss here any further. For the time being, I'll keep using V1 and be productive.
Best wishes,
Shu
[EDIT:
Two months later, testing again, some issues are solved, others appeared. Current issues:
- No V1 file compatibility
- Online activation required
- Only starts up to my files section if there are files already
- Button lower left has to be disabled each time when opening a file (changed now, but should probably be a per app setting rather than per document)
- Bars left and right show last icon only by scrolling even though there is room for displaying them (iPad mini 5)
- There is a new feature, using a tool by swiping on an icon, yet I need to scroll on the tool bar to get to certain tools. How does that work out? Badly.
- 3D filter still only shows one light source when adding further ones.
- It's great that Designer now has Duplicate when touch & holding by accessing the quick menu, but getting rid of the small menu bar completely isn't optimal either, since when you only need copy or paste (or duplicate in Photo), you now have much more screen travel than before on a funcion that's used quite frequently, making it incredibly exhausting. I'd suggest reinstantiating the old menu, including duplicate for Designer and invoking the new one by other means (maybe touch & hold, then swipe up).]

Yes. And a way to rearrange their order. (If that's not a V2 feature already; I'm still using V1.)

+1
It would be great to be able to manually reorder Symbols.
Right now, I can't change their order, which, when working with a lot of Symbols, gets confusing fast.
Maybe even different options would be useful:
- Order manually
- Order by name
- Order by layer depth
- Order by time created (right now, default and, in my opinion, least useful)

Affinity clears its content from the public pasteboard when the app closes which macOS apps aren't supposed to do. I keep tripping over this issue - I'll open Publisher, copy a paragraph, quit the app, and then try to paste it into another app only to find that there's nothing on the pasteboard.
I tested apps from Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft and they all maintain the public pasteboard when exiting. Private data on the pasteboard, such as Photoshop layers, are cleared.
Thanks

I am the opposite.  I really have no plans to purchase a new iPad.  I have almost replaced my aging iPad with a new-to-me MacBook Air.  Maybe I might consider an iPad mini at some point in the future as an iPod/iPad replacement but other than that, I plan to stick with MacBooks of some variation though, as others have mentioned, I am not fond of the newer ones where RAM and especially storage is not user replaceable.  The new-to-me MacBook Air is an older model that I can upgrade the hard drive in if I want to.
And that cycles back to a +1 for backwards compatibility.  I purchased the v2 apps but I only use v1 apps.  Since the v2 apps require Internet activation, I can not be certain that I would be able to use them into the future.  Already went through that with Adobe and their "aging" activation servers that "had" to be shut down because a huge corporation can't possibly afford to port to new servers.    With the Affinity v1 apps, I know I can install and use them (as long as I have something functional to run them on) regardless of whether Serif has active servers or not.  With v2, there is no such confidence.
My preference would be an activation system that did not require Internet activation of any sort but that is something that appears is never going to happen.  So backwards compatibility where you could save v2 files in a v1 format would at least provide some assurance that files could be opened in the future if need be, even if some things might have to be outlined or otherwise downgraded to work in v1.
This is especially important, IMHO, in Publisher.  With Designer or Photo, you have multiple export options that allow files to be opened in other design or image programs.  But with Publisher, you can't export to a suitable format that you can open in InDesign, QuarkXPress, Scribus or even Publisher v1.  PDF?  Okay but that's not the same as something equivalent to IDML.

Both very good points.... and one more:
High Sierra is far and away the most stable for animations and audio work. As a result of significant later changes, many professionals are stuck on it (10.13.6) for those reasons, on at least one of their machines,  and will be for the foreseeable future as subsequent changes aren't ever going to be good. Like font rendering and T2 "security" interrupting audio.
Ableton Live, by way of example, is still supporting 10.13.6 in latest releases, for these very reasons.

yeah, graphic design in general can be demanding, but most of the work doesn't require a ton of horsepower. I still use that c2d mac for light work for example, maxed out at High Sierra on OS side.
I consider getting some older i5 now that they sell out because how much value they lost with the release of M1 and M2 macs.

Something to be considered is that sales of Macs have been dropping by some 30-40%. It is very likely that many people purchasing Macs not as a luxury toy, but as a work/hobby machine, are remaining with an older OS for long.
Paolo
 

All good points! - Though I would go one step further here ...
V2 apps would allow -as already everywhere above said- to export also to a stripped down V1 file format Older V1 app users would get offered a seperate auxiliary Affinity "V2 format to V1 format file converter program". So they can make still some use out of V2 app format files after an appropriate conversion, without having to install a V2 app all together. Since on some older OS systems (like MacOS < Catalina) you either way can't run a V2 app version anymore.  
 

this is not working as you need constant access to the system with the v2 version and it is a great burden to go back and forth.
Those days I work everything in V1 till the lag issue of v2 is fixed, plus at home where I need to work too, my wife is also working on the main system that have v2 so I'm left with my old macbook that can only run v1. So if I need a file made in v2 (like everything I have worked since v2 release) I simple can't work on it.
Even if I had access to v2 on my macbook I need to spent time that I don't have, to do workarounds to get the file to v1 because at the workstation (windows) v2 lags so much that I can't work on it without restarting the app every few minutes so I need everything those days worked on v1.
 
So yeah backward compatibility is something that I and others need, and I will ask for it because I do expect at least some level of it on my tools of the trade. I see no reason being locked in the latest version of the app, the other day a friend sent me a v1 file to fix something and I only had v2 on my system so I couldn't help him. What supposed to do, to tell him to go pay for a newer version that he doesn't need?

No, OP did not:
V2 should be able to import (which it already does) and export V1 files. Not vice versa. And I absolutely agree with that.
Similarly to OP, I could use V2 on iPad if I could export V1 files to use on Mac (running an OS unsupported by V2). Besides, it would make the instability of V2 less of a burden, because one could always go back to V1 if needed.
Right now, having purchased the whole V2 suite, I can only make use of V2 Designer on iPad, and only for knife and shape builder and port the vectors to V1. Quite limited. Not to mention user base fragmentation, but I guess I've sent enough feedback.

No, OP did not:
V2 should be able to import (which it already does) and export V1 files. Not vice versa. And I absolutely agree with that.
Similarly to OP, I could use V2 on iPad if I could export V1 files to use on Mac (running an OS unsupported by V2). Besides, it would make the instability of V2 less of a burden, because one could always go back to V1 if needed.
Right now, having purchased the whole V2 suite, I can only make use of V2 Designer on iPad, and only for knife and shape builder and port the vectors to V1. Quite limited. Not to mention user base fragmentation, but I guess I've sent enough feedback.

This is the approach we are taking. In our world, scripts are just interpreted plugins, with the exact same capabilities as compiled plugins. 

It's pretty common for other vector graphics applications to be able to save layouts down to earlier versions of the software. Obviously newer effects and features would "break" when saving down, but if all one needed to do was get elements with a basic appearance exported to another application such a thing should be do-able.

For example, the current version of Adobe Illustrator can open an AI file made in any prior version, going all the way back to the late 1980's. In Illustrator it's possible to save AI or EPS files down to any prior Creative Suite version, as well as versions 10, 9, 8 and 3. This capability is there because a lot of other applications, such as industry-specific software, cannot import an AI, EPS or PDF file saved using the latest version of Illustrator. CorelDRAW has some backward saving capability, but not nearly as good as Illustrator. The past few versions of CorelDRAW will not open or import CDR files made prior to version 6 and will save down no farther back than version X5.

I wish there was such a thing as a truly generic, open source vector graphics format that supported all the advanced features in applications such as Illustrator but wasn't dependent on such an application. I think EPS is about the closest thing we have to that (PDF is not really an edit-friendly format; it's really for viewing & print only). But the EPS format is primitive. It doesn't support features like true transparency. SVG is not a print-friendly format.

Hi,
As an enthusiastic user of Affinity Photo (and occasional user of Affinity Designer), mostly on my desktop (MacBook Pro) but occasionally on my iPad as well, I was happy to support a 2.0 version and bought the suite and have them all installed. I find, however, that I am not using Photo 2.0 after all (I just went back to using the original version of Affinity Photo) due to some issues.
1. I love using the plugin Nik Silver Effex Pro 3, but with Photo 2.0, when I go to Filters/Plug-ins/NikCollection/SilverEffectsPro, the plug-in window opens up in Photo 2.0, BUT the dialog box at the bottom, that allows you to Apply (or Cancel) your work in the Silver Effex Pro pop-up window, does NOT exist when using the plug-in with Photo 2.0. So, there is no way to Apply my work in the Nik Silver Efex pop-up window so that it becomes a layer back in Photo 2.0.  This is not an issue with the original Affinity Photo version. Because I like to occasionally turn my work to a BnW version, I decided to just use the original Affinity Photo in my workflow because I know will support the plug in if I chose to employ it.
2. Today, I finally decided to just ignore the annoyance of the Silver Efex Pro performance and go ahead and bite the bullet and start using Photo 2.0 from now on for my work. To give it another chance. I opened 4 files at once (each RAW files from my full frame Sony a99ii) and I was working on the first image, using the Distort filter, and Photo 2.0 just crashed. Sigh. This does not happen with the original Affinity Photo version.
3. Some months ago, right after I purchased Photo 2.0 and installed it (shortly after it was released), I found that there was a lag when trying to use some basic tools on a single image file. That lag problem is something that I had never experienced with the original Affinity Photo version. It was at that point that I decided to just use what works for me and just ignore the fact that there was a 2.0.
4. This is just an opinion but I really do not care for the new look of the icons (I can't tell what the pictures are supposed to be in some cases) as well as the use of buttons instead of checked and unchecked boxes within the layers. This is just a personal aside. 
5. I went to View/ShowGrid and no grid appeared as it does in the original Affinity Photo version. ??
All in all, I think I am going to just continue using the oldie-but-goodie ORIGINAL Affinity Photo and put off, again, using the new 2.0 version. I haven't found any benefit to the upgrade, although this is due to the fact that I have had problems right away when using the new version and, thus, do not likely have enough experience using it, yet, to see the benefits.
Anyone else having these types of simple problems that do not seem to occur with the original version?

No, OP did not:
V2 should be able to import (which it already does) and export V1 files. Not vice versa. And I absolutely agree with that.
Similarly to OP, I could use V2 on iPad if I could export V1 files to use on Mac (running an OS unsupported by V2). Besides, it would make the instability of V2 less of a burden, because one could always go back to V1 if needed.
Right now, having purchased the whole V2 suite, I can only make use of V2 Designer on iPad, and only for knife and shape builder and port the vectors to V1. Quite limited. Not to mention user base fragmentation, but I guess I've sent enough feedback.

No, OP did not:
V2 should be able to import (which it already does) and export V1 files. Not vice versa. And I absolutely agree with that.
Similarly to OP, I could use V2 on iPad if I could export V1 files to use on Mac (running an OS unsupported by V2). Besides, it would make the instability of V2 less of a burden, because one could always go back to V1 if needed.
Right now, having purchased the whole V2 suite, I can only make use of V2 Designer on iPad, and only for knife and shape builder and port the vectors to V1. Quite limited. Not to mention user base fragmentation, but I guess I've sent enough feedback.

Sorry, for a few reasons that's not something I can get into at this stage.
Similar to StudioLink, Photo-specific scripting functionality will be available from any product as long as you have a Photo license enabled.

This is indeed what we are hoping to do. 

Hi!

Coming from Figma and Sketch, I need to be able to organize my Symbols using Folders.

In Sketch / Figma, this is done by inputing a forward slash "/" inside a name, like this: "Control / Button"

It would help A LOT to work faster.

Thank you very much!

Hello I just wanted to make a clean thread asking for backward compatible files between v2 and v1 of programs.
I didn't had any reason to need it till now but now I do notice what a big problem it is.
First of all now that the summer time that I have most of my workload I did noticed problems with designer v2 performance and I wished to move back on v1 till it is fixed, but nope. I can't open v2 files, I need to do workarounds with sketchy imports.
Second, I wanted to work on my macbook from home so I tried to get the designer v2 trial there to see what's up, but nope OS not supported so it can only use v1. But I use v2 on workstation and this is another roadblock.
So yeah dear Serif, please we need backward compatibility.
It is understandable that there is tools that are simple not available on v1 but this can be bypassed by automatically converting to curves whatever is not gonna work and display a warning of losing the editability of some objects if the file is saved with the older program version.
Thanks

If you are a new arrival to this thread and have found that it is locked but still want to show your support for Affinity on Linux, simply like this post

This is why I use v1 and not v2. I cant not with these sliders. i prefer the context menu from v1. Definitely a set back. 
@Ashyou need to go back to the context menu from V1 and get rid of these sliders and context menu at the top of the UI. I know right now is not the time for UI changes because youre busy with other things but it really does need to go back to the context menu being at the bottom of the UI like in v1. I'm gonna make a whole video eventually explaining why this needs to happen and itll justify the context menu being at the bottom. 

As the title suggests…the ability to Record Macros on iPad.
There has been a long history of posts about it…even one reply by a Moderator back in 2020, about it still being in the works.
With Affinity Photo V2 out…you’d think it would have been a definitive inclusion for the iPad version, but obviously was not.
Having to rely on chance of finding…or paying… only to get close to what you want, and having to “fill the gaps” so to speak is really disheartening. Should have this as an option on the iPad, to Record your own Macros.

Hi Intuos5,
Yes that's correct -  the plan is that commands exposed by scripts/plugins will appear in the Shortcuts settings page, alongside native commands.