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The four uppermost input fields (X/Y/W/H) in the Transform panel are different sizes (taller) when using a Pen tool line compared with using other types of layers, such as a Shape layer or Image layer. Although it's only a minor UI difference, it's distracting when switching between layers with the Move tool selected, as it alters the panel size and therefore moves the other panels. The input field sizes should probably be uniform. Video: Transform.mp4

As Walt mentioned, Windows File Explorer camera raw codecs are no longer distributed through Windows updates. You need to install the "Raw Image Extension" from the Microsoft Store. https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9NCTDW2W1BH8

I have included screenshots below showing the Start menu tiles with both light and dark themes. While the Affinity Start menu tile looks even worse on a light theme, the issue in the original post remains regardless of colour theme. Screenshot A (what it looks like): Screenshot B (what it should look like): It seems as though the icon needs more padding and also the icon background changed to transparent so that the tile background colour shows the Windows theme set by the user and matches the rest of their Start menu tiles. Screenshot C:

Although this won't resolve your issue if the text is too small, one of the differences between V1 and V2 is that the text is darker (greyer), which doesn't help with readability. Increasing the 'Text Contrast' and the 'UI Brightness' in settings may help a bit. However, even with the text contrast slider all the way to the right, it will still not be as clear as Affinity V1.

Thanks for the tip! Named them "- My Assets" and the Assets panel now opens to them by default. 👍

It is not possible to import assets (*.afassets) directly into the "Default" category in the Assets panel. Therefore, when importing assets they are placed in their own category beneath it. The problem is whenever Affinity Photo is restarted, it always defaults back to the "Default" category – which is permanently blank as I have no use for this category. The only category I use is the assets imported from file (My Assets.afassets) and add new assets to that category. If the "Default" category is deleted so that only "My Assets" are listed, then instead of "My Assets" becoming the new default, Affinity Photo just adds another "Default" category when restarted and defaults straight back to it again. I would like the "My Assets" category to be open whenever the Assets panel is opened, instead of it keep changing back to the "Default" category. Therefore, I think the Affinity Photo Assets panel should open to the last category the user had open, instead of keep reverting back to "Default".

I never modify the permissions for the WindowsApps folder, as doing so will likely allow privilege escalation. So the answer is yes, they will work when users have not modified the permissions of the WindowsApps folder If a user tries to navigate to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps through Windows File Explorer, then they will see a warning saying "You don't currently have permission to access this folder". What the OP is doing though is pasting the path to the Affinity folder in the Windows File Explorer address bar, which is launched by the Windows Security app when clicking the "Add an allowed app" button. I.E. When pasting one of the below in the address bar, it will navigate directly to that folder location without displaying the permissions warning and will allow selecting the required exe to add to the allow list (assuming the app is installed). C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPublisher2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App Adding allowed applications using PowerShell or Group Policy will also work fine with default folder permissions.

As you mentioned, if you've enabled "Controlled Folder Access" in the Windows Security settings, then any applications you want to allow to write or modify locations protected by Controlled Folder Access will need to be manually added to the list of allowed applications. If an application has not been added to the Controlled Folder Access allow list, then users will see an error when trying to save to a protected folder location saying the following: File not found. Check the filename and try again. This is out of Serif's control. The reason for the issue is that the paths to Affinity applications have been changed in Version 2. What you posted is fine, however whenever you update any of the Affinity applications, you're going to have exactly the same issue again and again, as the software version number (2.0.0.1640 at the moment) is now included in the file paths. Fortunately, Controlled Folder Access allows the use of wildcards for application paths. However, unfortunately I don't think the Windows Security user interface will allow using them, as the UI expects the user to navigate to the actual application they want to add to the allow list. Therefore, in order to use wildcards you would need to use Group Policy or PowerShell to add the allowed application paths. I've added a PowerShell script below, where the paths use wildcards (*) in place of the version numbers. This way it shouldn't be necessary to keep adding new Controlled Folder Access rules every single time the applications are updated. These will then appear in the Windows Security app in the allowed apps section. To add the rules, run the below in PowerShell (running as Administrator). $Applications = @( "%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_*_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App\Photo.exe" "%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_*_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App\Designer.exe" "%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPublisher2_*_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App\Publisher.exe" ) Add-MpPreference -ControlledFolderAccessAllowedApplications $Applications To remove the rules again, run the below in PowerShell (running as Administrator). $Applications = @( "%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_*_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App\Photo.exe" "%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_*_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App\Designer.exe" "%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPublisher2_*_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App\Publisher.exe" ) Remove-MpPreference -ControlledFolderAccessAllowedApplications $Applications

It's no longer possible to install Affinity Photo without outbound internet access, as the installer now requires a Serif store username and password – instead of just an email address and serial number. Internet access is also required for other optional features in the app. For machines that automatically block outbound connections by default (I.E. use Windows Firewall whitelisting), this means they will be automatically blocked from making outbound connections as they do not have a valid firewall rule (outbound connections that do not match a rule are blocked). The main problem is Serif have moved from using an EXE installer, to using an MSIX installer and these MSIX packages include the version number in the file path. I.E. %programfiles%\windowsapps\serifeuropeltd.affinityphoto2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\app\Photo.exe This creates problems with creating Group Policy firewall rules as the Windows Firewall rule will only be valid for that exact version – as firewall paths can't include wildcards. This means every time the software is updated, the firewall allow rule will no longer work and internet access will be automatically blocked again, as the version number in the path will change and the path will no longer be valid. Windows Firewall does however allow creating firewall rules using an App Package name, instead of a direct file path, specifically for this purpose. This gets around this issue and means the rule will continue working even when the program is updated. I.E. serifeuropeltd.affinityphoto2_3cqzy0nppv2rt The problem is using the App Package name doesn't work with Affinity Photo. When using the App Package name, outbound connections still remain blocked. TimeCreated : 09/11/2022 16:41:01 Message : The Windows Filtering Platform has blocked a connection. Application Information: Process ID: 660 Application Name: \device\harddiskvolume3\program files\windowsapps\serifeuropeltd.affinityphoto2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\app\photo.exe Network Information: Direction: Outbound Source Address: 192.168.1.2 Source Port: 61160 Destination Address: 18.165.242.52 Destination Port: 443 Protocol: 6 Filter Information: Filter Run-Time ID: 76235 Layer Name: Connect Layer Run-Time ID: 48 Id : 5157 I'm not sure whether Windows Firewall rules are something that developers need to include in the app manifest or something? ----- Windows 10 - 22H2 (19045.2251) Affinity Photo - 2.0.0.1640

When using the MSIX installer from the Serif store, the Start menu icon is an eyesore and doesn't match the rest of the tiles. 1) The icon in the Windows Start menu is massive, with little in the way of padding. 2) It doesn't use the Start menu tile background colour the user has set as the colour set in Windows settings. 3) It contains no text below the icon. Screenshot: ----- Windows 10 - 22H2 (19045.2251) Affinity Photo - 2.0.0.1640

Although there are alternative methods that can be reasonably quick depending on what you're doing, in order to replicate what Photoshop does with white point, grey point and black point pickers in Curves and Levels, it is a slow manual process in Affinity Photo. Those pickers are something that anyone who uses Photoshop will absolutely miss in Affinity Photo as they save a lot of time. Even more so with old faded scanned images – the Photoshop pickers are pretty great, along with the "Auto" button in Curves, that users can [ALT/OPT + Click] to bring up the settings. To try to mimick the Photoshop white point picker directly, you need to determine what point of the image should be pure white (R=255, G=255, B=255) and manually adjust the white point of each RGB channel with a Curves adjustment layer – using the Info pane as a guide. But it will quickly become a PITA, unless you only have a couple of images to work on. Maybe Serif will add them in the future… Video: Video.mp4 Affinity File: 222670981_WhiteBackground-1 (NEW).afphoto [Removed to save space]

That's a great photo. Did you use a remote shutter, or go full "Andy Rouse" and lay on the ground with a 16-35 like a psychopath…

It's likely that you pressed your keyboard's left or right arrow keys (which manually rotate the brush nozzle). As far as I'm aware there isn't a keyboard shortcut key to reset the rotation back to zero, however you could create a new pixel brush preset – based on a new square brush – and then click the preset to reset the brush back to default settings.

I don't do much work with vector graphics, however it's possible depending on what you want to do. I'm not sure whether or not the separated effects layer will need to be rasterized for what you're intending to do with it, so I added this step at the end as well. There's a way to save it as a macro in Affinity Photo so that it can be a one-click process, but that obviously won't be much use to you if you are using Affinity Designer. Untitled.mp4

This step is where the problem lies. When transforming or resizing a selection in Affinity Photo, it will soften the edges (even though you have antialias and feather turned off). It's not just when creating a new document from clipboard, creating a mask from the selection will have the same problem (see below). It's a PITA. Screenshot A: Screenshot B: Although obviously not ideal, you would need use the Rectangle tool instead of the Marquee tool to create selections in this way and retain the sharp edge. [CMD/CTRL + left click] on the rectangle layer icon in the layers panel will create a selection from the rectangle shape (the fill opacity of the rectangle will need to be put back from 0% to 100% opacity before creating the selection). In your case though, depending on what you're doing, it will likely be better to create a document at the correct final dimensions (3840×2160) and place the original image straight into that document, where you can then move it around and resize it.

And Affinity Photo already has a feature precisely for this type of thing [View > Assistant Manager], where it could be added. But Serif will continue to ignore it – like they always do. The nerds will continue to gaslight and make excuses – like they always do. And people will have to keep paying through the nose for Photoshop on their main machine because nothing come close to it and it just works. Serif really need to get out of this nerd-bubble and do some real-world usability testing. How they think the majority of users use their software is not how they actually use it. Nobody wants blurry layers, or hairline seams at the edges of their vectors, or blend modes that don't work properly, or to wrestle with countless other idiosyncrasies with the software that keep trying to trip them up, they just want to get on with what they are doing. A constant stream of "work-a-rounds" impresses nobody.

@Stokestack I agree about fractions of pixels being a PITA. I would gladly welcome a setting where absolutely everything is automatically rounded to whole pixels – I despise fractions of pixels. Anyway, regarding the degradation of the image quality when merging down (I.E. making the image blurry). I haven't been following the issue, however has anyone given an explanation why the bottom layer moves slightly when merging the top layer down? In the below test file, when the top layer is merged down, the bottom layer expands slightly – which will obviously cause blurring. I have no idea why it would be considered normal to do this when both layers are already perfectly aligned to the pixel grid. Upper Layer Before Merge Down: Lower Layer Before Merge Down: Merged Down: Before Merge Down (Close-up): After Merge Down (Close-up): Test File: Test.afphoto

You have your wires crossed – nobody is looking to get rid of that feature. It's a feature I use myself with digital drawing for example (I.E. select an area – such as a nose – using the Freehand Selection tool and move/scale/rotate the selection slightly with the Move tool so it's better proportioned. The problem is with the way the Marquee tools work. I.E. the user is expected to be able to select a pixel perfect area in one go, first time, and without even being able to use any modifier keys such as the spacebar to position it. The OP is talking about a rectangular selection, however this gets even more tricky when using the Elliptical Marquee tool to select parts of eyes, such as pupils and irises, or wheels for example. If the user has come from Photoshop, it will be a jarring experience. A work-a-round is then posted that allows changing it afterwards, however it doesn't work as expected (I.E. it makes the edges soft when resizing the marquee) as either the workaround wasn't originally designed to be used for that particular purpose, or it's possible there's a discrepancy between how it works on different platforms. The hope is not for the tool makers (Serif) to remove functionality from the workaround (which is a bit like Free Transform), but to look at the problem the tool user is experiencing (with the Marquee tools in this case, not the Move tool) and figure out a better way to do it – maybe even with a [Select > Transform selection] menu item.

We are talking about the blurring of the edges being a bug. If you want soft edges instead of hard edges, you can still do that using various other methods. I.E. 1) Enter a "Feather" value in the selection tool context menu at the top, or the [Select > Feather] menu. 2) Select the "Anti-alias" tick box from the selection tool context menu at the top. 3) Select "Refine…" from the selection tool context menu at the top, or the [Select > Refine Edges] menu, where it's possible to also enter a feather value. 4) Add a Gaussian Blur directly to the layer mask. Or, to do it non-destructively, clip the layer mask to the image layer (longer horizontal bar, instead of short vertical bar) and then clip a Gaussian Blur Adjustment Layer to the layer mask to blur the mask.

@Dan C Both the "quick mask" technique and the "empty pixel layer" technique make the edges soft when resizing the marquee. The marquee tools need to be changed to operate in the same way the rectangle and ellipse tools do. These tools also allow the user to position the first corner while holding down the spacebar and then releasing the spacebar and dragging to select the rest. The marquee tools in their current form are pretty useless. Marquee Tool.mp4

Thanks.

Below are similar images to the original post, just with the mask shifted up slightly. Screenshot C : Screenshot D : Original File: Test 02.afphoto

This is an old issue – I even commented on it five years ago. However, I never figured out what Affinity Photo is actually doing. Affinity Photo is obviously applying some sort of blending mode, but I don't understand what blending mode it is actually applying – or why it is applying it. I can't think of any reason how this would be considered normal operation; there are no real world scenarios where this behaviour would be expected. The attached test file contains a single pixel layer, which is in a group, and a mask is applied to the group. In a real world scenario, there would be more layers in the group and therefore the mask would be masking multiple layers in the group, but for demonstration purposes I am only using one pixel layer in the group here. The default blending mode for groups in Affinity Photo is Passthrough. With the Passthrough blending mode, the mask does not work as expected (see below screenshots). Screenshot A: The mask that is masking the group is just a straight horizontal line running through the centre of the image. The expected result would be the group mask just revealing the pink layer (Fill layer) below. However, as can be seen in the screenshot, the Passthrough blending mode causes odd distortions, colour shifts and fringes. Screenshot B: With the group blending mode set to Normal, the mask works as expected – the straight horizontal mask running through the centre of the image just reveals the pink layer below, with no odd distortions, colour shifts and fringes. Original File: Test 01.afphoto

Generally I don't use Dodge and Burn tools for dodging and burning. I find using curves adjustment layers (and painting directly on the layer masks with a soft brush set to a low flow) a more flexible method for dodging and burning; and it will allow you to set a maximum amount that you want to dodge/burn using the curve adjustment. The masks can be edited afterwards using a black or white brush. The amount of dodge and burn can also be edited afterwards by adjusting the curve in the curves adjustment layer. If you record the steps for creating the dodge and burn layers with a macro, you can save it to the macro library to use on other documents. See below video. Dodge & Burn.mp4

The lengths Serif go to to avoid admitting they made a poor decision is astounding. If you want to cure your OCD, do what you should have done in the first place (and what I have been complaining about for four years) and make it (*.tif;*.tiff) and (*.jpg;*.jpeg) so that it defaults to three letter extensions – like the entire imaging industry has been doing for over 25 years. This is already the long established de facto standard for those file types. It has also always been recommended practice to use the most commonly used extension on the left (which .tiff and .jpeg are not). "For Save File, include all variations of the supported file extensions, even if uncommon, and put the most common extension first." Serif's obsession with forcing their users to use *.tiff is absurd; I have never come across a single person in 25 years who has wanted files to be saved as *.tiff or *.jpeg. There are zero advantages to doing this, it only creates problems and inconsistencies with what is already in place. If you get OCD over a dialogue box, try having to deal with having both *.tif and *.tiff in the same folder and two files of the same file type being able to have the same name. Fighting Affinity software workflow issues like this is why I decided to go back to using Photoshop, which I had previously been using since Photoshop 5 in 1998 anyway. Earlier this year I had enough; I had an archive of over 18000 historical images I needed to go through, clean up the metadata and embed ICC profiles in. Affinity Photo insisting on taking the *.tif originals and then spitting them out as *.tiff when batch processing them was too unworkable. Whether Serif thinks .tiff looks prettier – or some equally nonsense reason – is moot; the software cannot do what I need it to do. With Photoshop I do not need to fight the software or use work-a-rounds – it just works as it should. I cannot force you to act on feedback, however when I was a frequent visitor in this forum, I used to see a lot of excellent feedback from people who were very clearly power users – then someone would reply with some sort of excuse or work-a-round. Serif then appear to view these issues as 'problem solved'; I never saw any of that feedback from heavy users acted on. A work-a-round is perhaps OK for hobbyists dealing with relatively small numbers of images at their leisure, but when dealing with large numbers of images at a time and working extensively with the software every day, even something seemingly minor to others makes using the software unbearable for what is already a tedious and repetitive process. Power users know what they want to software to do; Serif can try to justify their decisions and ignore the feedback, but the issue won't go away – it just leads to resenting the software. To be clear, I'm not looking for a reply – this is feedback only.