retrograde

Hmm. Similar chops here, but no longer with a Fortune 500 company. (And quite happy about that!) The Affinity suite functions very differently than the Adobe suite, though there are obvious similarities. When anyone who's accustomed to Adobe tries Affinity software, the differences are clear hurdles to productivity. Admittedly, some of the differences aren't completely logical, certainly not at first. However, the fact that there are many professional creatives making their living with Affinity software, deeming it unusable is an obvious overstatement.
It seems that many detractors ignore that Affinity does not claim parity with Adobe, or any other, software. The clear attraction to Affinity—and likely why many stick around vs. just leaving and not commenting regularly about Affinity's shortcomings—is that it's a company determined to deliver a viable alternative to the software rental model that is consuming the market via Adobe and others.
Most everyone here detests, with a passion, the idea of renting software. It's on par with renting a house for thirty years vs. buying. At the end, you've got nothing. Nothing current, nothing outdated ... nothing. This is why (most of us) fervently support this little company and its software.
Are there issues yet to be overcome? Undoubtedly. Are there UI/UX choices that are frustrating? Clearly. But is the software functional, usable? Absolutely. If it weren't, Serif wouldn't exist. That said, the progress lately has been very encouraging. Not perfect, just encouraging.
And encouraging is what I intend to be while I'm here. Developing software that challenges the 800 pound gorilla and their endless treasure chest is hard enough without me bashing the team at every turn. If I ever get to the point where I find something better for my needs, that's it, I'm out of here. But that hasn't happened yet, and as long as that remains true, I'll praise every positive thing I can, and offer only constructive and hopefully helpful critiques along the way.
Cheers.
[steps down from soapbox]

Hi all Affinity-leaning creative types, here's a recent cover piece completed for a Canadian magazine entitled Aboriginal Business Quarterly based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The theme of this Spring 2018 issue is Transportation and Infrastructure in Northern Canada.
The snow and ice are finally melting, making way for a busy season of road work/maintenance and resupply shipping - by boat and float planes equipped with skis - supporting various remote communities and industries. 
It's another example of my Affinity Designer isometric styled compositions built up using a limited colour palette, simplified elements and extensive use of gradients... And of course the awesome isometric grid feature.
For those interested, there are more views of this piece on my Behance site.  Hope you like. :-)
https://www.behance.net/gallery/65266715/Aboriginal-Business-Quarterly-Cover-Affinity-Designer
 

Hey Affinity team, any progress on this topic?
I am working with multiple artboards and would love to drag guides across all of them simultaneously to line up some elements common to all of the artboards...

I'm not using image tracing in my everyday job, but I need to vectorize a bitmap from time to time. As a former Illustrator user I've usually tried that one, and recently also tried to deal with Inkscape. The type of image I use is usually flat and "technical", so I always end up preferring manual tracing, than editing the thousand nodes created by the automatic function.
Maybe this is the reason I can't fully understand why people more skilled than me with drawing apps can't copy and paste an image from a dedicated tracing program to Designer. The arrogance with which some reclaim this feature sounds more like kids pretending a toy, than professionals trying to optimize their workflow.
Paolo
 

People want Affinity products to do this tracing suggesting that every other graphical program does this. I've tried a number of programs (Pixelmator Pro, Logoist) as well as the websites suggested above as well as others. They all do a half decent job. For instance, the attachment is the result of making use of the website suggested by IPv6 (Thanks for sharing. I can now bookmark yet another one which promises to do this 😀). The rectangles in the flag are not created as rectangles but curves with many nodes. This is not good enough for me (I would create a few rectangles manually, rotate them, etc.). In case it is good enough for you (could be anybody), why not make use of such websites, import the result in AD/APh and move on with your workflow? Is it really that important that this exercise is performed inside of Affinity (note that, many years ago, I also gave a suggestion on this forum to include this. I've decided to wait until Affinity comes with something superior to everything else. I'm patient.)?
 
 

export-2023-05-21 071720.svg

1) Select the layer you want to turn back to standard.
2) Then go to the "transform" tab which is left of the "isometric" tab.
3) Switch the Shear (S) to 0°.

Hi guys!👋

Join us in watching our latest video where we provide a comprehensive overview of Affinity Designer 2.1, showcasing all the exciting changes and improvements.

We'll be highlighting the most important topics, giving you valuable insights into the new version.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to stay up-to-date and enhance your design skills. Checkout the video available below👇
 
See you there, enjoy!😍
 

Here's a list of some of the bugs which have been fixed in 2.1.0.1790
The Improvements in build 2.1.0.1790 are found in this post
Please reply in this forum only to comment on any fixes which are in this list (in particular to let us know if you notice that something we say is fixed isn't!) To report any new bugs please do that against the relevant new feature post, or if unrelated to new functionality in the Other bugs & issues forum.
Bugs affecting Desktop (Windows and macOS)
Margins that are linked in New document setup are shown as unlinked in document setup [AFB-7642] Books Panel Menu still has entries for Cross references "Calculations failed" error message while flow filling of design containing complex geometry in some instances Bugs affecting Windows
New Document Dialog: When deleting a Recent document, the scrollbar jumps up Background grey level slider doesn't function [AFB-7679] General performance improvements Bugs affecting macOS
Zooming in/out on a document with Live Perspective can intermittently cause a crash on (M1/M2) MacBooks [AFD-6345] Running Header Settings dialog can get stuck open in the background Book crashing on export to PDF [AFB-7606] Bugs affecting iPad
Brush Panel corruption can occur with multiple brush kits installed [AFP-6132] Viewport 'furniture' is not being drawn at the correct scale when document is opened with rulers enabled [AFD-6519] On fields whose output can be formatted, the related context menu item is labelled differently than on desktop Popover that contains tab stop options is missing a couple of labels It's possible to force gaps to appear in the Studio Panel bar

Not sure how you check out software, but it's help will tell you, same as with the Affinity apps ...
https://amadine.com/support/help/layers-blending https://amadine.com/support/help/shape-clipping-mask https://amadine.com/support/help/shape-free-transform-tool Amadine offered free distortion long before ADe.

I know this has been asked before but I'd like to ask again.
Is there is any chance we could get the ability to password protect exported pdfs to restrict editing and/or opening? 

"Save As ..." Where the file came from, please!
Here's the issue:
I'm working on file A from Folder A. While doing so I open file B from Folder B in another tab. I am now working on two files in unison - sometimes important for continuity of colour etc.
But when I come to save Illustration A with 'Save As ...' the system automatically opens the last fold I took a file from - in this example It automatically offers Fold B for File A.
I know the answer is use the folder drop-down, but sometimes I don't notice, particularly if folded A&B have similar names. Then later, when I want to retrieve File A, I often wonder where it's got to or cringe at the thought that I failed to save it!
Can't a file have a background (unseen) tag indicating where it came from so that the system knows where best to suggest saving it?
BTW: I know Cmd/S already does this, but does that not work if I want to keep the original File A and Save As File A2.
Hope that makes sense.
John.

The Affinity applications do not have that function. It has been requested before, in the Feedback section of the forums.

I know this has been asked before but I'd like to ask again.
Is there is any chance we could get the ability to password protect exported pdfs to restrict editing and/or opening? 

I know this has been asked before but I'd like to ask again.
Is there is any chance we could get the ability to password protect exported pdfs to restrict editing and/or opening? 

Hi All,
We are pleased to make available the next update to the 2.1 beta (2.1.0.1736). This will be available for you shortly on auto-update. Below are some of the main changes in this update...
WebP and JPEG XL now available in batch export
As has been commonly requested since adding these new formats to V2, we have now made them available as batch format options in Affinity Photo.

New left swipe options on iPad layers panel
You can now access lock/unlock, rename layer and change compound type (if layer in question is a compound) by swiping left on a layer as shown below:
RPReplay_Final1680080397.mov
 
Brush panel improvements
Texture brushes in Designer persona can now be viewed in thumbnail view (i.e. you now have ability to uncheck "Show as list") Alt-Click on raster brushes now changes brush while keeping your current brush width as well as ignoring associated tool. If you just want to ignore associated tool then use shift-alt-click Auto-select
With auto select turned off you can now hold cmd (Mac/iPad) / ctrl (Windows) to temporarily turn it back on to make another selection on document.
Also note: We have encountered some problems with auto select being off with multi-page documents. For that reason it is currently disabled with a multi-page doc, we are hoping to have a fix for this soon.
Vector flood fill tool
When your bucket is loaded with a colour / fill you can now just click on any object to fill it even if it is not selected. In this case this will just fill the whole object - if you want the fill tool to take into account intersecting shapes and curves they all need to be pre-selected as before. While in the tool you can now just click on an asset or stock item to load your bucket with that bitmap texture (i.e. without having to drag drop as before). This is currently only implemented on desktop, but will be added to iPad in too in the next update. There are new controls for whether you want to add as an additional fill or replace the current fill. To be honest there is still some outstanding work which needs to be done with this, so we will talk more about this / what the expected behaviour is in the next update. A new option to "fill to visible boundaries". This means if any of the objects in your selection are obscuring any line segments from other objects, these can now optionally be ignored by the tool. In the example below - without the new option checked there are 12 possible areas you can fill to, but now you can alternatively choose to just show the 6 areas on the right. 
Crop tool
Cmd / ctrl / shift constrain modifiers are now available when in unconstrained mode as promised.
Dashed lines
We now accept zero as the 2nd and 3rd dash value to give different options, particularly when in combination with balanced lines. This example was discussed on the thread - the left option begins with a dot and when balanced dots are in the rectangle corners. The right option begins with a dash, but the 2nd "dash" can now be set to a dot (zero value) to enable dashes in the corners in this case.

Pencil double tap option for quick menu
If menu is already visible a second double tap will now dismiss it.
Rename Layers
You can now double click / tap on an artboard name to rename it!
 
Plus as usual lots of bug fixes as listed in the fix list thread!
To comment / give feedback on any of these changes please go to the relevant thread for that feature which is linked to in each of the headings above.

Thanks,
Ash

It's not a blend tool and agree I think we definitely need one but the new somewhat hidden quick grid feature can help to layout simple shapes from the shape tools.
To use it, grab a shape from the shape tool panel and drag it out, before letting go of the tool press the right arrow key to add copies of your shape to the right of the original. Each press adds a new copy, holding the arrow key adds space between each copy. You can use any of the arrows keys to add copies in that direction. While still pressed you can resize the shape as you make additional copies and they will all resize at the same time. It's not a perfect solution as it's kind of a one way workflow, once you "unclick" you lose the ability to add more copies or make any adjustments. Hence the need for a proper blend tool, but for some cases this quick grid feature will suffice.
Like the opacity/noise toggle feature in the colour panel this one is kind of hidden, once you know, you know, I suppose. Someone should start a thread on these forums of hidden features of the suite, I'm sure there are probably more out there...

I've felt the same minor annoyance with this getting used to V2. It would be cool to be able to move them up or down in the stack to whatever order you like.

Hi - I'm pleased to say we have now added the ability to create balanced dashed lines and this is available to test in the latest beta. There are more details in the post below and it would be great if you wanted to try it out in the beta and let us know what you think - you can sign up to the beta program here.
 
 

Hi - in the latest 2.1 beta we have now reverted behaviour of the mask button in the layers panel back to the same as V1. So one click to add mask, alt-click to add empty mask. There are more details in the post below and it would be great if you wanted to try it out in the beta and let us know what you think - you can sign up to the beta program here.
 
 

Hi - thanks for this feedback. In the latest 2.1 beta we have redesigned the edit menu, including adding the icons back for the isometric options. There are more details in the post below and it would be great if you wanted to try it out in the beta and let us know what you think - you can sign up to the beta program here.
 

Apps: Publisher
Platforms: Windows and macOS
Rename layer has been added to the Layer menu. This has been primarily added from customer requests that it be made possible for a shortcut to be assigned to this function.
In the case of an artboard, you can also now open the rename dialog by double clicking / tapping the artboard name on document.
In addition, for V2 we added the function that if you rename a layer in the Layers panel hitting tab would commit that name and immediately give focus to the next layer's name in the stack to edit (shift-tab to go to the previous layer). Well, as it turned out this was something which only ended up in the Windows version, so in 2.1 this tab functionality in the layers panel is now available in the Mac version too.

Thinking about it a bit more, the most appropriate solution to this would be to option double-click the asset to place it on the page/artboard.
That wold leave the current behaviour as is.

The apps lack visual feedback in some areas. It adds to a snappy feel to have these little things added. (ie makes it feel more effortless). It's not a game-changer, but I've noticed this as well and I always do a double take and wonder if it didn't register. Specifically, because I'm often on tablet and so not sure if it registered double click or did a hold click. Just the nature of working on the tablet too quickly at times.

Seems like a minor thing, but little tweaks like this overtime add up to time being saved and help to improve the feeling of the programs overall. Can't say enough how much it is appreciated.

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows and macOS
You can now re-order subcategories within the Asset Panel by drag and drop (as well as using the burger menu on the subcategory to move up and move down as before). Additionally a new option from the Asset Panel burger menu is available to quickly expand and collapse all sub categories in the panel.  Finally we have also fixed the frustrating behaviour of all subcategories expanding every time you reorder anything!