[Affinity Publisher - Sneak Preview]

So... gather the funds to contract 20 extra ninjas, graphic programmers to code 14 hours a day, they'd love some help, surely   

Geez.... just be happy they are indeed working at it, plus a ton in Designer and Photo, that the suite will be complete, and meanwhile, just use Quark, InDesign, or if the project's complexity allows it, their PagePlus X9. (not gonna mention Scribus, as while I finally kind of like it, as it has quite more depth than I thought, but a lot of ppl around here (not so in many other places) dislike the UI and stuff.). The ideal situation (even while a lot of us are used to use a very heterogeneous mix of tools and brands) is a suite from the same company (great advantage on working with same UI AND (biggest advantage) files full compatibility ), and that's where it is heading with the pace they CAN given the human and money resources they have. Their only sin is to be very enthusiastic (so evil ! ;p ) at times, making a bit too optimistic plans, but in my ten companies experience I yet to find ONE where plans go EXACTLY as expected... And to be brutally honest, now that I am a full time freelancer, really, sh1t happens, in every color and flavor possible, all sort of stuff. And projects expected to be two months extend to years (and not my fault, just customers add stuff, increase complexity, or simply, needs vary, and so projects size increase. )

 

Heck, they are not coding a notepad alternative, Adobe took eons (I mean, decades) to reach their today's brilliant status, these are really complex applications, of increasing complexity and market/user demands. The "give it to us now" (dunno why it reminds me to the "all your base are belong to us" from that Japanese company's game) is so funny for that, and as reminds me of kids when making the Santa's letter. Dear Santa, I've been a good kid, so...I want... EVERYTHING, NOW.

 

IMO, the correct, practical, sensible, positive, constructive reaction here is to be excited with the new developments... And use whatever you need meanwhile... Well, what I've done all my life since stopped using traditional paper and cardboard for illustration and design and started with computers, in '91. (or could count from '85...) Back then you wouldn't think to blame Staedtler for not releasing their 1.6.3.78 beta 6B pencil... 

[Wacom Tablet for AD - which suitable for those (See sample)]

Nope... I have not the tablet at home, I've seen a ton of tests in videos, that's it.  

 

Anyway, dunno, maybe there's some *ini file somewhere with hardcoded pressure settings way too high, or... maybe it could be related to resolution ?   IE, it might be working with too small canvases in those tests (I know it is vectorial, but maybe there's a way to specify the global size in which it is operating, in its tracking/scanning operation) , and line thickness can be only of a certain minimum. Maybe increasing the resolution of the canvas (or wherever it asks for a total resolution in pixels for an intermediate step) could be a different story ?  I'd for sure test that kind of things if I had one at home.... (hint for my non existent sponsors...)

 

What I was mainly referring to , tho, is to the much more basic need of getting the lines to lay exactly where one wants, with no jitter, and no "guessing" the flow and position with frequent "undos". This seems to get solved in the Paper models (and partially, in cintiqs and alternatives....but not fully), and for me is one of the biggest issues for people not able to ink well with a wacom. From those tests in that thread, clearly some settings could be touched, imo... I mean, the "life" , line weight, and feel of the line is important, of course, but you need first to be able to lay lines as you wanted in terms of position, angle, curve (and without wobble ), etc.

 

[Wacom Tablet for AD - which suitable for those (See sample)]

IMO, the paper edition medium size is a great purchase.   With the L, you would be buying the safest bet, but in a way, the paper function in a medium size, might replace the extra accuracy in line work that would be provided by a L model.

 

One important note: As much a I complain about jitter in alternative brands.... turns out the wobbly complaints about the cintiq Pro 16 model are more than justified (just realized how many tests/complaints about this are there in youtube !  )

https://youtu.be/E21MXal0xT0?t=41s

 They're indeed more wobbly than in battery charged pencils on alternative brands !  Go guess... And updating the drivers (seen videos about it, too) only improves the situation a bit, leaving it even under the situation of several alternative brands !.  But Wacom is still a tad more expensive. This is unacceptable. So, sorry, but in the matter of Cintiqs, scratch my 'all cintiqs are good'... I'd say so for the 27 QHD model, as its excellent, or the machine having most of 27 QHD internals, but being from Dell, and pretty similar to the Wacom 27 QHD : Dell Canvas, is another nice tablet to buy. (expensive, tho cheaper than the 27qhd. Prices are to go down in the release of the Wacom 32", probably this January. ) I mention this as I was praising above all cintiqs, mostly....

[Wacom Tablet for AD - which suitable for those (See sample)]

On 6/12/2017 at 5:39 AM, CutieN said:

Yes that is true. A matter of the price and the needs and comfort. I do read also some people complain for the Intuos Pro that the Tips of the pen are quickly used up as the surface seems quite rough and need another one. I will show my girlfriend the Intuos M (Comic or Art) and Intuos Pro M later with some more information. We might also take a look and have a try too for what she prefer.

 

Sorry, due to work overload (lotsa drawings) , have been unable to attend the forums in any way. The forum software warns me when am being mentioned, tho, hehe. 

 

My bet for it would be same than yours, if budget allows : Intuos Pro Paper, all the way. Specially thought for inking, And for manga (btw, the first drawing of those two mangas is specially good ) is ALL about accuracy and control over the lines. 'Paper' allows her to draw like with a cintiq, for what is the line art. Even better, as has not the parallax effect of a Cintiq !, which (cintiqs or pen-displays in general, and way more, regular intuos/pro) has its learning curve. Yet tho, disclaimer here, I have NOT had my hands on Paper, yet (but have, for long, with Cintiq, Intuos Pro (old models) and iPad Pro). But have seen a lot of videos of how this Paper new thing behaves, seems quite accurate and more seamless of a transition for your girlfriend coming from traditional inking/penciling. The coloring part is a tad easier task, can be done digitally very easily (indeed, even with an small intuos, that part. Reason why some ppl just do the pencils and ink in paper (meaning regular paper), scan, clean and fix the scan, coloring and finishing digitally). My advice is all the way with Wacom Intuos Pro Paper, if u can afford it. But if not, what is important is the tablet's size. An intuos 'Small' for this task is not sth I'd never EVER recommend (unless planned to do all inking in paper). Medium size as a bare minimum, be it Intuos or Intuos Pro. The gap in performance, comfort, control (very specially) between a Intuos medium and a Small, is the largest one. Still, my golden purchase for illustration, when budget allows, is not a cintiq (although there's nothing better than a 27 QHD, for now. that's the best of the best, for now, for drawing and illustrating) but an Intuos Large Pro paper (also, easier to replace a 500-700 bucks device than a 2k + one ! If breaks out of warranty). Large size tho, can be huge for a regular small computer desktop, the working space, those that a lot of people have, which almost only have space for the  mouse and keyboard. Of course, this is not the set  up for a pro illustrator, nor even an advanced hobbyist. And also, found out that some ppl really hate bulky devices (this is because they don't know, and some never will, how much more useful some of those bigger things are) and can't really stand a large tablet.

 

So, the Intuos Pro Medium Paper has a bit of every need covered. For accurate line work, which would normally require a Intuos Pro Large (I have the XL which is a ton bigger han the L (65 cm wide...)), but important notice, even a large needs stabilization ! (unless she's an inking genius in digital (i can ink no jitter, 100% accracy in traditional! ))  , she can always use the Paper function to ink as with regular pen and paper, and as that's about ~ A4 or letter size, gives enough space to work a usual drawing (you can mount larger canvases later by composition, digitally). So, the Paper function kindda compensates not being a Large model for better accuracy. Reason why if wouldn't opt for the Paper edition, I'd then recommend more heavily in that case the Large over the medium (while I always consider the L Paper the best purchase in the entire wacom gamma, if not giving the jump to a cintiq 27qhd or newer future 32"  (and depending on each one ergonomics preferences.... I personally prefer the intuos large ! But leaving it clear: Is faster to work with that sweet thing , the 27qhd. I prefer to work with my screen at a major distance, and see my drawing in a vertical monitor ) ) .

 

Consider anyway, that the Paper has a trap. It needs special ink refills, only provided by Wacom! , and those a re NOT cheap. I see it a bit as the golden inkjet tremendous business (or cash milking) . The business is surely in the ink! and your money loss through the time. I say "could", as it depends a lot on how fast those refills last or get dry. I dunno, sadly I don't have yet a Paper model (friggin' bills...) at home. Still, I believe it could be great for serious inking.  it could be a constant money hole, or might be just fine even for a pro illustrator if each refill last a lot.  Just leaving this issue with a question  mark...

 

If the ink refills is a concern, as she is doing manga line art, I'd totally recommend at least the no Paper, LARGE (L) model (of course, cheaper). We can't be sure about if she'd handle just fine with a medium intuos (Pro or not, is not that important among those two) but using line stabilization (Affinity has it, and a bunch other apps), which is another take at it. I use line stabilization a lot, and is a great thing. Still, once you draw more and more, you find your self reducing the strength setting of stabilization, as you get used to do firm lines with a wacom (is very different: She might have an amazing line in traditional and not in digitally. Tell her NEVER worrry about it, that this is normal, is just that the technology IS NOT YET THERE. It took my time to realize it wasn't me.). Still, even with today's tablets, long lines, specially accurate subtle long curves, if to be precise, they still quite require a high value of stabilization.

 

This software trick can be used with any model and brand ! (provided the drawing app has a proper implementation of it). Even so, the better the hardware, the better experience. Software only tries to improve the situation: better if has less to improve . If she gets a Large Pro Paper model, she'll be able to draw quite well, imo (but from traditional drawing, it has quite more learning curve an intuos than a pen-display, cintiq or alternative. These are WAY more natural. ). Even if at some point (with large or medium ) she stops using the paper function due to not willing to be purchasing refills from time to time. Still then she has not thrown the money away (only a bit of it), a regular great Large Wacom.  Can ink her mangas very well with only a bit of line stabilization. I mean, these Paper models do come with two type of pens, sets of nibs and refills in case of the Paper Pen. You can mount it to ink, or not , at every moment.You can even buy the paper version and only use its Paper capabilities from time to time, using it mostly as a regular Intuos Pro Large.

 

And again, with quite some line stabilization ON (in Affinity Photo or any software allowing line stabilization) , an Intuos Pro Medium non Paper edition can do the deal as well. Actually, provided she finds herself able to do the task with this software feature, in that case even an Intuos non Pro could do. Just remember that going to Small size is the not-cool thing to do here. I tend to recommend that if that tiny is the budget, then go for a medium size of another brand (even some called "small" in other brands are huge, just check the active area in specs ! ), there's a very nice offer in Amazon, can't remember the brand.. Star 03 or Star 06 were the model names (yep, these are XP-PEN models, Star 03 and the more modern Star 06 ). If the price approaches a Wacom Intuos (non Pro!) medium, then it'd be silly to purchase any other brand (even XP-PEN. Wacom is really ...quality. And durability. ), as there are very important matters in why battery-less Wacom pens are much, much better choice. is just that a Small size tablet, for inking, is close to useless, unless a ton of stabilization is used. Still, is great for mere photo retouching (as the only use). but is not the theme in this thread...  . Would be just fine too for pixel art.

 

Summarizing, and considering her work, and the use I imagine she'd be after , clever purchases, depending on money to be used, the budget (in ascending order), in bold letter, what I consider golden purchases:

 

- The Star 03 or 06 (30 bucks of a difference) from XP-PEN. (non affiliate links included above)

- Wacom Intuos medium (the touch or non touch feature, as well as the wireless matter is of zero importance for me, so allow me not to consider it on my list... . I respect other ppl's opinions about it.) . This is a golden purchase for most people.  Has a bit for every need, for evey use has at least a "workable" path (even if harder), even a pro illustrator, with proper software stabilziation can do pro work with it ! highly sustainable in the freelancer bills, as is only 170  bucks or so --> EASY to replace at any moment !  

- Wacom Intuos Pro Medium Paper (Not listing the regular PRO medium, as you'll notice. Is fine, too, but in real world, not super huge difference with non Pro at this size)

- Wacom Intuos Pro Large (a lot of accuracy by default, is significantly cheaper than its paper model. A pity that she wouldn't get to try the Paper function ! )

- Wacom Intuos Large Paper (as said, my golden purchase, even for my self ! ) .This is a very top solution. Regular Large is already, but this one could provide the line accuracy that you'd only get with a cintiq (and who knows if more), for quite less money ! . If only gap noticed/suffered is line accuracy. (cintiqs... the quality offered by a 27 QHD provides as well with a professional calibrated monitor, of very high value !  Golden purchase if you don't have a pro monitor, as if so, really the tablet price would only be 1k bucks, as is avoiding the purchase of an expensive monitor (mine is equivalent and is around 800k, or that was the price in its day). )

- Wacom Cintiq 27QHD

 

Currently (since recently), I do not recommend Cintiq alternatives (and...btw, Wacom Cintiq 22" and 24" are quite fine if don't care as much as I do for color calibration/color gamma. Reason why I did not list them. ). The alternatives are fine and good, but have my reasons to think the above (even when the other brand in the ultra cheap range is a good purchase, if counting on line stabilization by software) set of options is preferable, would be too long -even longer- to explain this last change of heart of mine... If anything I can tell you this much : most have battery based pens, these tend to have more jitter in the line (unsure on how much of it can be compensated by software stabilization, for each brand and model), a lot of them are bad in its color calibration, even some of them being IPS screens, some have screen ghosting due to low refresh rate in the screen, some of the cheapr and older models -still sold- used TN screens (you need to look for IPS or at least VA (MVA, PVA, etc)), so with horrid color and bad view angles, too many of them are glossy screens, imo, horrible for long hours illustrating, and the filters/films included, if not set by default, are hard to set without bubbles, and well, drivers in the Wacom world are full of issues, but some people have very serious issues with these alternatives ones (tho most cases are solved by FULLY uninstalling Wacom's drivers or other drivers from previous tablets in that system). 

Even so, for the valiant (I might do it someday ! ) , I'd say I'm interested lately in a good, cheap model, theParblo Coast 22 (22 inches) . Seems to be a good screen, and battery free pens :  https://www.amazon.com/Parblo-Graphics-Cordless-Battery-free-Protector/dp/B01CTVHHKS/   . Is cheaper even than my previous cheaper favorite (XP PEN 22 , but both it and its improved version have issues with color calibration and full color gamma. Not an issue for hobbyists, tho. ). Yiynova are said to be the best screens (for color) in these alternatives, but I read mixed things, so I'd yet have to have one and test it to believe it... Thing is, these COULD be great. But an intuos Pro Paper or just an Intuos Medium, I just know they work in any scenario. Very rock solid pieces of hardware. Yes, the danger would be loosing the ease of work in a cintiq alternative, so much similar to traditional drawing, but is also sth to consider, that not everyone is ready to draw so near a screen a bunch of hours a day -is not for me, possibly, I used a Cintiq for months. This applies even more to a tablet like and iPad Pro, which I wouldn't use for 24/7 work,,,,Plus have the enormous issue -for me- of being tiny.

 

About scratching the surface. I've never done so with my Intuos Pro XL, and it has that kind of soft surface. You can install one of the default nibs, which is sofer, is what i do. Also, I'm a light pressure drawing artist. I barely touch the surface. This XL has a lot of years of intensive usage, not a scratch. But there are people really "intense" with pressure while drawing, so is hard to say if your girlfriend could damage it. Yeah, if she is that way, maybe a yiynova, which is  in its top models pure glass, would be safer....I don't recommend her a cintiq alternative already, even so. An intuos Pro Paper (medium or large(large is much better)) , just tell her to do soft lines, and help her changing first the nib, setting the softer one. 

 

EDIT: The more reviews / tests, etc I see, the less I'd recommend cintiq alternatives, Until I see more line jitter free solutions, my opinions wont change...So, yeah, for now, Large Paper Pro all the way, or anything below till reaching the bare minimum of an Intuos medium size. I am not related to Wacom, in any way you could imagine, nor with any brand or company. Is just my mere opinion and experience.

 

[Affinity Publisher]

On 17/11/2017 at 4:10 AM, retrograde said:

Personally I'd like to see Designer and Photo remain the focus, nailing down all of those promised road map features before branching off the team onto a 3rd tier. Especially Designer. :-)

 

Very much agree.   on the part of "one at a time". Two is already a stretch... Is a small team. But I can see development going fast with the two.

[Can the brush overlay be turned off?]

I see your point.  Might not agree with all (mostly in the conclusions (I am much, much more optimistic with Affinity and the company), but all is very well explained in the above post), but I share at least the desire of providing the paint field inside the application, all the love and care possible. It is a large market, after all : Illustrators, digital painters (not necessarily same ppl... I'm thinking here mostly concept artists), comic artists (a legion among pros and hobbyists), pixel artists (many pros for that, am one  ) , fashion sketching/illustrating pros, story board artists (yep, whole profession apart), tatoo design artists (a lot of those use vector tools, tho), etc, etc. Not counting also on the fact that for good photo retouching you need excellent painting tools  . And what is very important, and not often mentioned, while Krita (BTW, just recently read from one of the main developers : It is a PAINTING tool, not a general editing tool ! Which is great and wonderful, but also, very important to know. Even while it serves well in other fields, despite that matter. Very far (less complete) from Photo in those other matters, logically.) , Painter,  Art Rage, etc, are superb for painting, they are NOT complete image editors, in the sense of "can compete with Adobe PS" in those features. The amazing thing is: Despite the issues, Photo can.  Simply, those painting tools don't have the focus there. And what is rarely mentioned, but crucial,  is: A lot of illustrators DO need those other features !! Even just for illustration ! Leaving aside the hard fact that any illustrator needs end up doing almost many tasks, not just illustration. If a gig comes which needs image editing, the almost never nice financial situation of an artist does not allow to leave that pass by....I have even been called to just crop some artwork and do levels/curves adjustments !  Dunno if stuff have changed since latest times I used Painter (which is fantabulous) and  and Art rage , but heck, only RGB mode !!! I dunno,  I send stuff to print a lot, and while the world has been taken (dunno if sadly, tho I love that almost anyone can do a printed product today) by POD printers, non cmyk workflows, I still need too often the other, high quality and accurate method. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. There's a ton of other matters .... the power/flexibility in selections, exports, layers handling capabilities, in general, the image editing features, etc. As sweet, gorgeous as Art rage and Painter are, a number of illustrators, we any day would prefer Adobe PS with the right brushes or like my case, just round brushes with certain settings ( I build my several styles so. I don't need any special brushes to render oils-like stuff. And I know is just me. (and certain really amazing and famous artist out there...)), rather than a  paint focused application with "some" image editing features. The triumph of Krita is that is taking more care of those other features (plus the zero cost, of course), is not so one-world-only, Affinity does this too, a lot (ie, the one pixel tool for pixel artists, great addition, I felt very well checking that  .) . And that's the right road if they want to compete with Adobe, don't have a doubt in that. Still, the text tool, layers handling etc, in these matters, and well, almost everything image editing related, Photo is way above than most painting-only tools, even if those are a tad better in its brush system.  And in the vector area, and said with a lot of sadness, as I like Inkscape and Open Source, Designer is way, way above it, too.

 

My main point is : In open source tools, which I used more predominantly before, in 2D (now mostly in 3D), you could wait for ever for a fix of stuff like what you ask for. If the developer wouldn't feel going for it, that'd never happen. Maybe I got by then a bad habit, having a lot of patience, even accepting that if a feature is never developed, opting for substituting that part of the workflow with another tool... Even sth like Adobe PS has had very much needed features (line smoothing, which Photo has added just some months after its initial Windows release) , tons of folks crying for that, mostly in the painting realm, -I've been waiting for that almost since PS 2.0, back in '95.... -  With zero attention to it in...decades. And man, do they have resources and human power... So, we get here a Suite for the price of 1/3 of even some of the _equivalent_ competitors (IMO, Corel, and little more than that can really compete in the full range of pro needs covered (and this if we consider the full purchase a combo including Photopaint and Paint Shop Pro, if not, not even Corel )) , and we get it with some areas still needing some polishing... I'd say I'll loose my patience if the situation continues so still in 2,5 years more. Even so, if by then it serves for me for "a part" of each of a number of projects, am good with that, for the price ! . It is not like the 800 bucks that PS used to cost by itself when forced renting was not yet here... Or the 700ish sth that costs the Corel suite (right now not even sure if includes PSP ! ). 

 

About painting issues. I don't know how much have you been reading the long threads, and beta times etc, I imagine a lot of time... In the threads where I did my own requests -all related to painting- in several occasions was mentioned by the developers that was (most surely, I believe it was not a "promise", but something likely to happen in the future) pending a full brush engine rewrite. I suspect it's yet to happen, reason why probably several fixes would come in avalanche with that. Probably knowing there's that, could be also a reason for giving more priority to Photography related features, for now, besides the obvious heavy reason of the user base so focused in photography, both for the number of posts (but I've been seeing a royal ton of posts related to painting issues, wacom and non wacom tablets, etc... is probably then as crowded with painters as other 2D communities are...) but also for the before mentioned Photography Plan "escapees"  . I can yet though imagine they'd be winning a large number of users (as a pleasant painting experience does the marketing for you  . ppl end up using what works right, that becomes the winner in an area, very fast) if the brush engine and painting stuff had frequent improvements. It has had a number of them already, in quite short time, though. But the whole painting thing has a lot of edges, is a compIex area by its own, in every package,  am not surprised that some aspects are left with probs, yet.

 

I can understand that if you need that fixed asap for working the way you prefer, you can't wait any longer, and you'd move, or have moved already (as business can't wait) to another tool, at least as for using it as your main painting tool. Still, as mentioned before, I see the purchase as a "must have", so I would not regret to have purchased it, in any case, no way. Even if at a point you paint with another tool, and edit with Photo, export with it. Heck, for what it costs... Anyway, I could paint with it very comfortably, after some fixes, and with some tricks. probably not my cup of coffee the color picking system (I'm a total fan of UI-less alt click just for that(programmed in my Wacom pen's side button)) But due to my projects, my combo can end up being painting in Krita and Clip Paint Studio (is what am doing right now), and export to Affinity Photo (and vectors, everything with designer, I have no real probs there) for absolutely everything else.  I'm just saying, once again, the mixed workflows might be better  than a bunch of artists could imagine.... Anyway, if you'd ask me, I'm ALL for Photo getting super powers in the painting area, and doing full projects only with it.    Gotta be cool doing so... :). Anyway, I'm too much in the extreme of the mixed workflow. Even a slight difference makes me trigger a specialized tool, then export and re-import again, and do that cycle as many times as needed or desired. 

 

But totally understand if you get back to Adobe CC subscription. It is all about each person's needs/situation. 

 

[Linux. Seriously now.]

Hmmm....I fear one thing.... At some point, if this has success, MS can probably easily force some sort of barrier, to avoid loosing business here...Though, dunno, ppl would be needing a Windows license to do this, is not like they are loosing sellls... Oh, but they loose all the telemetry and control ... yeah, they might take action, I'm afraid...

[Linux. Seriously now.]

Anyway, what would be really demonstrating it is seeing a press file with like 40 layers (zooming, panning, making complex selection, some filters...), a file of around 7k x 7k pixels, in CMYK mode, loaded in.... Photoshop or Affinity Photo, and see how it goes. If it does provide at least an ok experience, a similar one with similar hardware in Windows (not a super-duper machine doing the test compared to a regular typical mid end i7 running Windows ).....I'd then start to believe it....

[Linux. Seriously now.]

20 minutes ago, raptor said:

 

Of course it might not be as seamless as running the native Linux app but it looks pretty promising.
I will donate at least a few dollars to the main guy working on this project.

 

 

Very interesting...yet though, this requires Windows license purchase...

Interesting, anyway.

[Can the brush overlay be turned off?]

It is a small company in comparison to Adobe (a number of us are aware of this sort of issues since long (and have seen improvements of very large scale, in just months, I can assure it to you), know the trade, and just are prepared to some differences, even lacks, in some cases (for now). You can't get all at once... it's the dilemma: A large company's level of service in exchange of not allowing you to go for a real license purchase and for ever limited to renting stuff of variable price tag (and btw, I've seen how features requests work there...   ), or the old great way, fully purchasing it (at a ridiculously low price), with a small company and its issues (yes, but these are small, sorry. No offense intended, though. I'm a painter, illustrator, comic artist too (professional... money depends on quality, speed, etc)...) and still, I prefer the latter. ).

So, I guess bugs or improvements are attended following an order (surely a roadmap + high priority for total crashes), but again, with limited resources. (also we are on the weekend, I suspect they don't work till Monday, for some sentences I've read sometimes...even if the forums seem to get replies on the weekends, too) . If it were a fatal crash, though, or the like, the issue would become very first priority, running on top of the list for the few developers. That they don't attend own's "preferred" issues is a very common thing in other packages, anyway. And they attend issues on the forums way more than other companies (and with a lot more patience) I've been customer of -or even I have worked at- . BTW, am curious, it seems you have been already user -previous to Affinity- of at least CSP, Art Rage and Painter. Just curiosity... (I myself use Krita and CSP, besides Designer, planned purchase of Photo, after overall very convincing heavy beta test (very intense) with the first windows betas of both, mostly Photo) .Indeed, in my beta times, I made way more detailed posts (lots of images, videos, etc) about issues with the brush engine. Not immediately, not at the following day, it took months, but they have been solving a lot of those issues. (And even adding line smoothing! did not see that one coming). And am sure, certainly not because I asked for it, but, as happened to me in Blender, because one might detect these things faster specially if the issue affects one's professional area, but the developers end up "seeing it" after a long process of different individuals feedback, tests, interaction, and often, the improvements to be applied, need other areas to be attended, before even being possible to solve that particular issue. I mean, sometimes it just need a previous step, is not that they are not willing to make a perfect application in every corner. So, maybe just the roadmap order, or that it needs other library related or whatever, general fix or change.

Also, remember the app is called Photo, (not Art rage, nor Painter, neither Clip Paint Studio) and the other is a vector tool. Is not rare that there is less attention for painting features, and more for photography related ones (and in the other app, for graphic design). I realized that after some time, and it's perfectly right. Each app tends to target a certain audience mostly. Like any product/business does. If  you see, there's obvious majority of Photography related posters (a ton of advanced hobbyists ). And the software has an amazing lot of features related to photography and general image editing. Which is great, because there are several GREAT painting apps already (a  bunch more not even mentioned here), but not so many this complete in professional image editing. Indeed, the business plan, which people tend to forget often, is important. And it all seems to me, and this is just my mere imagination, btw, that they have a huge opportunity with mostly the lowest end (meaning, people not willing to put that much money in the editing tool, not implying being less professional, or poorer, is probably the opposite, in both matters) customers of the "Photography Plan". Not really with diehard fans purchasing the entire suite since...always. Or companies needing the entire suite. Those are other prices and other wider focuses. So, makes a lot of sense their focus on photography. We must not miss that aspect, imo, even if there's zero evidence of what I am saying here (like about most cr4p I speak about... ).  Even more: they come from producing a non-pro (VERY arguable naming it so, though, I've used some of the legacy ones: very capable ) app covering needs in the range of image editing and photography (PhotoPlus). It was not called either Painter Plus, or comic Plus, or... you get it.  

It does not mean there's no focus in painting: Indeed, I believe there's A LOT, happily.  :). Also, I see this more as an alternative "through the time". Wont get a monopoly-killer in 4 weeks. Probably neither in one year more (and in any case, it'd compete always, IMO, as a combination of quality, flexibility and price, not in "raw power"). But give it time and patience, and you will for sure see it improving.  Anyway, I'm in no way connected to them, having the same clues about their roadmap, plans, way of work, internals, etc as you might have...I only say, that patience provides everything. Specially if coupled with using in the meantime other apps while Affinity matures, if really you can't stand some specific lacks in your area. Hey I have my pretty good "arsenal" of tools on my 'digital shelves', and sooner or later, I ended up using all..

 

[Trace in designer]

yes...Anyway, when I have a bunch of images, I tend to prefer batch processing focused tools... Even just command line....but I'm a bit weird... 

My everyday at companies used to need a tad of apps of very different nature, and constant switch. (one of the reasons why I'm more eager to buy a Ryzen 7 than a powerful intel (those new six cores are gorgeous, tho)... I guess anyone doing heavy multi tasking would benefit from many cores...)

[When will there be a sort of live trace tool for faster creation of Vector graphics out of Bit maps?]

There's talk and answers to that in an active thread (well that's one of them)

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/51145-trace-in-designer/

PD: Is not, by any means, essential, there are extremely good specialized utilities for that, which are even free and able to be combined with Affinity.

 

[A.Designer, A.Photo - Bitmap brush engine is low quality, lines are faceted]

Is not a solution for your problem, mostly a curiosity.... Which machine (cpu, ram, disk) and graphic card are you testing this on? And what is the size of the canvas ? Are you working in RGB, CMYK, 32 bits ? Are you running other software at the same time ? In the very first betas given to public -windows ones- I did not notice any faceting (but yep other issues, which I believe were mostly solved in 1.6). This effect can very well happen in Photoshop in a laptop or any under powered PC or simply one with heavy load. So, it might help for example testing it in some powerful machine, see if still it does happen to you. Same reason why even MS Surface Pro can't deal well with a large size brush (the cheaper version does not have a great CPU, in reality)

[Trace in designer]

Indeed, couldn't agree more, is exactly like that.   And also, that last very important bit : Number one matter for a good tracing is having a high resolution raster image. (Even while I'm always more favorable to manual tracing, if time allows, and even more, no tracing at all, but fully hand made original art. But there are situations that have each of these techniques as the ideal for particular projects, each one depending on each case.) . For example, I have needed to make tracing stuff to get a SVG out of an existing logo -with all permissions from the client-owner, obviously-  as the author wanted a 3D print which included his logo (to be imported in a 3D software, extrude, embed, mixed with a 3D mascot I made, etc). I could have made it by hand, but was in an extreme hurry, all permissions were given ,and no 100% accuracy was even desired. (mascot-logo). In cases like that, is a bit of a time loss... As one needs anyway to optimize nodes and curves by hand, to very high curve and line quality. I mean, I used just the same time, or more...! 

 

It has its uses... In my case is extremely rare (the need of tracing). So much that Potrace (or Autotrace, I need to try it  ) or its implementation in other programs, launched twice a year (as much), is more than enough....(but it has useful applications and in some cases I can understand it is an actual need, I can understand that. My point is that these tools have been around a long time, and are tested to work.    I'm always in the idea that one has to be able to handle the best utilities for certain specific uses. There's no harm in doing so, quite the opposite.  We are used to have a suite and do everything with it. In my opinion, this is good, compact and fast in workflows, but a bit too limiting if one decides that in no case some work can be done by an external tool, that it has to be the absolute 100% made with a suite, be it Affinity or Adobe, or etc. Those having worked in companies producing graphics (2D or 3D) might be more of my opinion : You end up needing to handle a bunch of tools. usually the ones that excel in certain tasks, besides the powerful suite of choice. )

 

 

 

[Trace in designer]

Nice...color, potrace can, too... Anyway, that's always tricky in every software... a bit of a pain, indeed...I usually have to play quite with settings for getting a decent result. Anyway, been avoiding to accept gigs about this since long, for these and other reasons...

[Adobe Photoshop & InDesign Alternatives]

oohh.... so, ass (yeh, I know what other meanings has ) is donkey in British informal... had to google it, suspected sth in the thoughtful and illustrated posts a bit above.... This spaniard has his limits....

 

Any copy & pasted image without some integration with the background (ie, shadows that it projects, gamma/levels/color integration, etc... is a PITA......    ...for me to see, at least. Even in a joke....Now is when someone posts "what joke? ")

[iPad Pro: which pencil would you recommend?]

Other styluses do work, till a (very) limited extent for drawing matters. There's a main issue with the nib area size (I mean, the actual affected pixels by the nib) which as far as I know, get you the best situation with the Apple Pencil (the accuracy for example for line art), but also, much faster refresh rate on the pencil tracking, and I'm sure there's not any other device able of such tilt sensitivity (this specific aspect, unmatched in the whole market, no matter what brand or platform). Plus, from what I've read, the screen grid, the system to track the brush strokes, etc, has been designed for Apple Pencil, I mean, optimized for it. In comparison to a wacom device, and even more, any cintiq alternative, there's the evident advantage of zero (or to a practical level, is zero) parallax, better tilt, and general more natural feel. This latest part is way more important than it sounds. Even so, IMO, it all gets severely damaged due to being only a 12,9 inches screen. Small size drives to less accuracy, and mostly, not so great for large, detailed compositions, frequent work for clients. In the wacom advantages, there are many, too, though. Be it Wacom, or XP-Pen, Huion, Yiynova, etc, they have this possibility of actually seeing the cursor (big thing for many, I'm trained first as a traditional artist, decades ago, so, no issue), also, the fact that with the iPad Pro+Pencil you can"t "hover" where are you going to draw (I don't do this much)  , as the Pencil technology it seems works by direct contact only (wacom and alternatives allow some distance), and the major issue of the iOS limits in color calibration (lack of options, tho its sRGB and new profile are rock solid) and availability of pro software (even while there's a few of very good quality, and Affinity comes very handy here, it indeed supports CMYK on the iPad)

 

 

[iPad Pro: which pencil would you recommend?]

Buying an iPad Pro (which is far from cheap) and not buying Apple Pencil would be a fatal error, imo.  Apple Pencil is among the best drawing devices created to date (and I am a total Windows/PC fan!), for several tested reasons (too long to explain here). So, you made the right choice, imo.

 

I'm a professional illustrator, and the other styluses have tried hard to create a good experience in drawing with the iPads... Absolutely none comes even close to an Apple Pencil. Heck, in certain - key for me- aspects, Apple Pencil is way better than every Wacom implementation. Just that the tablet-screen size, software-OS issues (iOS) makes still a wacom + whatever the pen-display + and a powerful pc/mac, a better combination for full time professionals. But if there was already (if there's ever gonna be one... ) a 19 ", 22" or bigger tablet/pen-display monitor with the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro (large tablet, there's not even a 16" size! ) system , prepared for Apple Pencil, it could easily (IMO) beat any wacom + pc/mac combination. Right now, a Cintiq 27 QHD (98% Adobe RGB) + any powerful computer (to deal with that resolution! not every machine can, neither every card has display port, etc) beats anything else, in the pricey high end, only considering pro quality as a factor.  So, if to decide among Apple Pencil or other stylus, even being a 100$ device, the decision is extremely easy.

 

 

 

[Adobe Photoshop & InDesign Alternatives]

On 4/11/2017 at 2:01 AM, Canuck said:

 

It is hurting me to see those without some drop shadow in the hat's bottom borders, and some levels correction after import...

[Trace in designer]

Euh.... zero interest in one tool instead of the other, though.... But I am seeing updates in potrace binaries from even 2017, while latest in Autotrace seem from 2002....That's a major factor, imo... besides I see quite more platforms/versions in potrace... Anyway, I have not tested Autotrace: Maybe it is a jewel.

[Trace in designer]

As a curiosity, I don't find Potrace linked or mentioned anywhere on the Autotrace's site, but I do find Autotrace mentioned and linked in Potrace's site, together with this description from Potrace's author :

"This program performs a similar task as Potrace. In my opinion, the output is not as nice, but it supports a much larger number of file formats, and it has been integrated with a larger number of other software packages. "

 

I only have experience with Potrace and its embedded version in Inkscape, though. I know is pretty capable, but gotta test some day Autotrace, too.

[3d program?]

(Plus, there's a ton of FREE 3D software with full capabilities... feel free to PM me if you need to know about available free software that matches your projects needs.... I'm a 3D "pro", and all my work in the 3D field (several areas), is done with free software since years. And is not "worse", in a bunch of aspects. In some is even better. )

[eps / pdf export without rasterised gradient]

er...everything can be turned to gradients (shadows too), I mean, if you did it well, build it all with vector based tools... and yes, gradients can be exported now as PDF... Are you sure you are filling well the exporter settings ?

[Adobe Photoshop & InDesign Alternatives]

5 hours ago, camisa florida said:

The biggest problem here is: there is no Adobe license only for the inDesign; you have to pay for Illustrator, Photoshop and inDesign package. We are wating for Publisher to jump for Affinity. Without the Publisher, for many creatives, your platform is useless.

 

And for many others, is great, already. 

Plus you can always combine any existing publishing app with the current Affinity apps. Please, ppl, start seeing the half full bottle, not the half empty one... (better to build than destroy, etc... ) 

[Trace in designer]

For tracing, I keep recommending this one (if ready to learn it well, otherwise might get the impression that is not good...which would be very far from reality) , which is command line (you need to learn and test well the parameters) open source, and multi platform : 

 

http://potrace.sourceforge.net

 

Is in now way substitute of a 2D vector or raster package. Is "just" a command line utility to make this vectorization. But extremely awesome in good hands. The export can be very well imported to Affinity Designer or Photo to complete your project. Once you learn it well, IMO, due to the flexibility allowed (which can get you always the result you want, not "sometimes") is superior to most built-in solutions you can see in high end 2D packages.