SrPx

Fully disagree with that.... Krita (my very favourite open source software, or I'd say, on par with Blender and Wings3D. I do prefer it indeed to all digital painting software I've used, the probable exception of Clip Paint Studio(Manga Studio), but not saying one is better than the other) and GIMP work well, even in my Windows ! And while I have been a Linux user for long, since elder years, not having installed anymore, but been told that in Linux, those apps perform even better. I do use Gimp, and mostly, Krita. This last one is completely professional in my view, as a professional tool for illustrators. There will be always limitations in an application(free like this, or commercial like AP), but heck, I can paint whatever with krita. Wishing AP and AD serve me someday as well for painting. (that day is probably not far) Yeah, I agree. But really, GIMP is much more useful and usable than people think... Just for print stuff, no freaking way, I need a lot more control over color managing, color profiles and CMYK. Something a few users, we have asked for years (but they have total right to not develop that). In that very aspect of graphic production, I would agree fully that Linux is way behind. For RGB only (a lot of digital print companies will do fine for not super top level kind of things, I have a VERY recent pair of commissions done with just sRGB files, as per limitation of those companies, and the result in the printed product was surprisingly good. Their handling of the matter improves every year. And I guess the machines, too... But you can do this only with certain type of projects. Many others require serious CMYK and color managing, and all the offset requirements, professional PDF export for print and stuff. DTP is not their priority... I think. ) So, unless one is into (and photography related, not necessarily having that requirement) this specific aspect, you can do fine with what is available now in Linux. Ease of use and learn, and certain amount of top level features, I'd say then would be justified the interest on Affinity line, by far. UIs and learning curve aren't an issue for me. For a lot of users, it is. And one thing I am not freaking able to understand... Now I am not interested in Linux, being a graphic software user, by freelance profession, but, during years, I had even two Windows in my machine, and 2 linuxes. And that with the rather smaller HDs that were available by the times, and being way, way harder to install and manage a Linux and multi boot system than now... I know Windows is around 130$ the standalone non OEM version (so to be able to purchase in any computer). But heck. That much of an issue? when all your professional or high end hobby (if not so,why not use the linux graphic software instead, no need for more) applications are going to be installed on whatever the OS, heck, put the not so huge bucks in a Mac OS or Windows license. The latter if you want more amount of applications. I mean, a true power user of graphical stuff, be it whatever the profile, there should be no issue for one-off purchases (I'm strongly against renting, though) of low to mid cost. Just install [ For work reasons I had to use Wine, and in my tests at least, Windows software on an emulator like Wine (tested other emulators, too) did not perform equally than in a native Windows machine. Might not be the case for others, but I can only trust in what works for me...] both OSes (Win/Linux) and you then can get almost every application out there for making graphics. And this costs close to nothing. If you have at some point some extra month pay or whatever, I'd ever recommend purchasing an inexpensive Mac with a good graphic card (if that's possible) , as there are indeed "some" Mac apps I'd love to have and use as part of my set of tools. Trust me, there's no harm in using several OSes (multi boot or several machines). I agree that regular day use, you can't be booting for every stage of a project, but to me, it made a real lot of sense that I'd use one or another OS depending on a full single project. As mostly, each project needs a particular set of tools. Not so painful if one week I'd use windows, the next one using Linux. Did so for years and worked great for me. Just these days I avoid the extra maintenance effort (to me, the only issue I could barely consider, but the depends on the benefits doing so brings to me in each case) as I have all I want in Windows, because most apps I love (Wings3D, Blender, Krita, Gimp) have today very good and stable Windows ports. The ones being Mac only, I have equally good (if not better) alternatives in Windows. And I truly, truly love the jump in performance (the most significant one in stability and performance was from Vista(an actual downgrade) to Windows 7) in 8.1, and, as is very similar in that, Windows 10. You might not believe me, but I had purchased a cheap, very cheap 18.3 inches laptop just for drawing when am travelling (great screen, though) and was slow as heck, not usable for other than basic user stuff. Purchased a Win 8.1 later on, it works now like charm, fast and snappy.

I believe that is perfectly possible. +1 on the digital painting focus (even while I am EQUALLY interested in AP now as a 2D image editing general work horse. ) But yeah, brush engine love... :)

Thanks ! As basic as it probably is, I didn't know that... My bad, as is the RTFM! typical issue, in my case ;)

Thank you very much for this deep and informative thread ! I did not know several details explained here. Did hit the 'follow' button with a passion. Good to know though that if using no midpoint stops and setting to not rasterizing I'd be good to go for those projects that allow me so (those that are fine using simple gradients, which in my case, are a bunch)... Anyway, very good to know that is only a PDF export matter, other formats might work perfectly. Yeah, in the software company I worked at (until some years ago, is almost recent), updating a library was sometimes only a matter of replacing some files and some config settings, in other cases, a world of issues. Also, dunno the pricing for commercial embedded distribution. In game companies (at which I also worked) things like that could be from free or cheap, till 10k $ or the issue : much more. So, who knows

I am using other apps until 1.6 (purchased AD, but waiting to some upgrades for AP), so am a bit disconnected now, but in its day i built my self a workflow for that and other shortcut/mouse overrides. Worked great. I'm afraid you might need an equivalent utility on your Mac. In Windows 7 this works great, at least. I have for all my applications an utility that interferes between the application -whatever it is- and my input devices. So I can effectively override almost any config, and like with Wacom panel, have an automatic config per application, that triggers automatically. It is free. I have wrote a lot of tutts and explanations about it in these forums. I would be surprised if there's not an equivalent -free or not- utility for this on the Mac. This one is where I explain how to use the app (again, useful if you use both Affinity's versions, Windows an Mac). But the example shortcut, not so useful now, as now it is added the possibility to setup wheel zoom as a preference. I believe it was not so in the beginning. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/27990-zoom-like-a-photoshop/?p=135701 But the one you are asking for : https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/27858-brush-resize-and-hardness-with-ctrl-alt/?p=135888 BTW, for brush size, I realized sometime ago (and I work drawing 10 - 14 hours a day) that fine tuning (in Windows, I know the sensitivity max and min values is different in Wacom driver for both platforms) there's simply nothing faster than a well configured wheel ring that the intuos Pro and cintiq comes with. But for those having a basic Intuos or alternative, by all means, if are Windows users, this free utility is a royal gift. By all means ! I use it for every application, as I kindda am way faster by having in every place pan with middle mouse, and zoom wheel (to cursor point). Works with everything I've tested. Before all these, and even knowing about Affinity, in every painting app that allowed it, I'd just have c anf v keys to increase/decrease, in settings. But well, after very intensive sessions, the Wacom ring configured to not high sensitivity as comes by the default, is by far the fastest. EDIT: And it is faster for me (the ring) as my (left, in my case) hand is always in that area, anyways, and near also the keyboard, most of the time over it. Dunno, I don't notice the hand "travelling" but my mind having to switch from the usual keys while drawing (Alt is in the pen, as is undo) , that is, ctrl, etc. Same that I don't realize now when am using the mouse to pan and zoom, it became an organic automatic thing...Just like the ring. With the app and my trick, you could configure one of the two side buttons for several things : brush size, color picker combo --> this button only, etc.

Hello, Michael. Sorry, my bad. I saw the post duplicated, and these days in every community there is a lot of spam, so one might be in "over alert" about that. I had yep, replied about it, in the middle of a thread, you asked for it in a thread where the subject was related. I took my time to look at it and specs, and let you know, in summary, that it was a good purchase specially for one matter: It's a big size for that price, and big tablets tend to allow more line art work. The Amazon price was really good. With good line stabilization ( Krita, Sai, Manga Studio (Clip Paint), and Nezumi have offered this for a while, and (YAY) we are getting it in both AP and AD for 1.6. I'm eager to test it ! ) a small tablet can do the deal very well. Still, I keep my best recommendation about any piece of hardware ever: When possible, get a medium size. Intuos or Intuos Pro, but at least medium (once you are eager for an upgrade). I'm heading for the Large (L) model, paper edition, but drawing and illustration is my job, so to say. I was heading to a diverse graphic freelancer (as says my sig) making use of all my profiles, but in the end built a good personal network, so it's all illustration now, hence my interest in brush features and improvements, here. Yep, the software bundled is a thing to quite consider. Artists doing 3D work would be amazingly crazy not to purchase the Wacom's 3D Intuos (comes with a reduced Zbrush-ish software, very useful), even if it were a small size (can't remember) , for texturing small is perfect. Is for steady line, outlines, etc, when the size is more decisive. For photo retouch, painting-only (like an oil painter) it is not so critical. Still, once you use a medium tablet, you never want to go back to smal... From my XL though, yep, I'll go back to Large, IMO the sweet spot for illustrators. A wacom refurbished is IMO potentially a better chance than a first hand alternative. Like if I'd sell now my XL, is totally perfect after many years -I'm very careful and draw with very subtle pressure- , so I can understand it is indeed a good purchase. Wacom makes deluxe pieces, very durable (unless you are of the type that paints with a lot of pressure, if so it can last one week ) . Specially if is an Amazon verified product, and a certified refurbished. In these cases, important to see how is the USB port (if it's wrecked in some way), and even more, how is the cable in the connection with the tablet, if is an usb cable fixed -like my Intuos 4 XL. If that breaks, That's it- . Also if are there any bumps or scratches -noticeable when the pen goes over them, at least. How are the nibs , and if really the support is having inside it at least sufficient nibs (better: All which the product info says it must have, in the Amazon page. ) Yeah, drawing with a small tablet in a 27"...IMO not the best fit... Is doable, but... For photo retouching, it doesn't matter. Even so: It can be very interesting to try the Small with AP or AD 1.6 with "line smoothing" on....It might do the deal. :) I don't know if your model will have all sort of nibs, but if you can, use the softer one: Best for the tablet durability. The nib can wear, no worries, is way way cheaper than a new tablet, and 5 nibs can work -for me- for decades....

(this is _not_ off topic, is very relevant, speaking about "bad image" --> ) I am reading CC prices are going to be raised in March in the UK, around 11 to 18 % (first rumors were around a 60%! But seems the former one is more accurate) . And that A. blames it to Brexit (No, I doubt that's the case. I feared this since the very first launch of a renting model ). I wonder if that will propagate to other countries... I fear it will...

Cekuhnen, there is a lag (In windows, too) when starting a stroke, and depending on case, it can do a straight line. I reported several issues with the brush engine, long ago, Mark told me they would probably rewrite the brush engine. There have been, though, improvements here and there, but several relevant issues do persist. (I made very long, screenshots filled threads for documenting the issues, even some video, for both AP and AD, in beta times and a bit after that, too.) I'm drawing with Krita in the meantime, but keeping a very close eye on progress here, (as I am interested in both, Krita and Affinity). Other issues were in its day that if you did draw zoomed out, it could cause jittered (heavily) lines, but it was solved to a big degree with an update, now I don't know the status, to be sincere. There was an overall lag (very noticeable in hand writing), and the lag starting the stroke. Also, the continuous refresh/redraw of the screen even only moving the cursor -not necessarily drawing- as is how the engine works to optimize performance (this can be distracting for someone drawing). The redraw would not happen if you draw zoomed in (ie, for details) or just doing pixel art, as then you are always "zoomed in", so. There was jitter when you draw (more than with other apps), in Photo. Lastly (of what I remember that I reported) , aliasing. To me this was not an issue, as I did certain setting to the max, and it made a sort of smooth line. For some people this was the same issue (although I never understood why people did not apply my trick to that. ). In AD, I reported in detail that when you paint with AD, the raster preview is correct in position, but it then (when you release the pen pressure, lift the pen from the tablet) "vectorizes" it and as a sort of jitter in the process, very noticeable, another user, an illustrator, had reported the same, I just went into detail. This might have been solved, too. I believe a fix was made, but it kept happening in certain degree in which I cannot use it (for free hand painting, but as I said, both applications are very useful anyway, despite the brush problems. ). Please, consider that a 90% (or not) of that might have been fixed already. I just am working with other tools, for the moment (but watching the updates lists from time to time). I explain it here to you just in case you notice some of that, is not your side, your system, machine or Wacom. The good news is that at some point they might rewrite the brush system. Not in all machines/systems happen every issue. Hardware has an influence here. I believe the issue is in all, it's just that really good hardware can make it better in some problems. (always to help a Blenderhead ;) ) That said, 1.6 is around the corner, with a line smoothing feature. I wouldn't be surprised if those issues, maybe all, are solved in this update. We will see. :) I purchased AD, as I find it (VERY, VERY) useful in my work flows (AP would be too, in all its editing features. But I have those covered in several ways, for now) even using only the mouse, but refrained to purchase AP until the brush matters are fixed... So, might jump in the wagon with 1.6. :) PD: AP --> How we call here Affinity Photo, AD --> Affinity Designer. Lastly, I believe Affinity tools are going to be really a big thing (way more than they are already). That is why I am so interested. They are in a continuous improvement process, and I think it's really worth it. Even more when I just read Adobe CC subscriptions are going to be raised in a whooping 11% to 18% in March...Yikes ! (indeed, I had totally predicted that, some fellows friends of the profession did not believe me... Ha ! ) Affinity, please, survive.... ;-)

I haven't experienced it with a recent project (colors did look identical), but I can say I am worried about this issue. Color accuracy is critical... My monitor is hardware calibrated (i1 Display Pro. I calibrate it often), but with a sRGB profile. It's a SpectraView 231, and my printed work does look great, accurate (when the print company is good) , and color is consistent across several applications. But... I am very afraid of using some tool in the chain that might be not accurate with color, as everything could go wrong there...

One reason more to be kind to them, hehe.

It kind of looks like -from posts I have read from the staff- that they are really over-booked. Staff formed by very few persons. The person making the site is also coding other stuff and surely doing another loads of tasks. Add to it that there are tons of features requests, and besides that ton of bugs, also many new ones come from adding a lot of features. Even just attending these super active forums is removing very valuable time from developers, I am sure.... (specially got crazy levels in recent beta times, I'm sure they needed to use here a lot of time which might have been dedicated better for development. but they preferred to be gentle and supportive. ) Indeed, as "bad image" is not a concept you can decontextualize, that is, you totally need to compare to the other market competitors, like any thing, site, service, product or company in the market, then definitely how they handle it, even if they were a large army of devs, can't be considered as bad, in any way. The behaviors in every of the aspects mentioned are way worse in many respected, dominant companies. This being, in my very long experience using many graphic production applications (at work and at home) the kindest and more tolerant company I ever dealt with. To "correct a reported error" is not something requiring the push of a button. Is a very long task of many hours, usually days or weeks, requiring isolating a developer for that task. And considering that can even end up in not solving the issue (very valuable time lost, so, often devs go for a safer bet, when time is so tight), a company with very few people has to measure that a lot. Plus, I am 100% sure they consider and track every single bug, just are fixing them in order of priority (ie, critical bugs previous to anything) , and when there's very few staff, that list takes quite a longer time to run, and reach your special favorite bug to be fixed. If, considering all this, you still complain, then you clearly are expecting that they should -there is no other way for that- contract more people, run turns (I hope you don't expect the coders to stop having a normal life, see their families, etc. So, the options is contracting more) , etc. But... What if they can't do that ? (9 out of ten companies with these characteristics can't ) In my experience, a contract was often signed with investors, and any change in the staff number was really hard to make, as any other increase of money over already a big sum, was very hard to make and get from the investors. So, they, like most middle size or small company, are pretty tied to go putting as much work as they can. Trust me, I have been in the other side (web coder, but also tech support, designer, graphic guy, etc), is really frustrating to leaving even your last breath and your last sweat and tears over exhausting working days of 14 to 18 hours and still get in the social media or email, or etc, people complaining over a lot of things, as if you weren't doing all you can, already. Nah. Bills do not pay by themselves. In a company it's often reached a point where it is bankruptcy or change the course and port to other platform, ie, Windows. Doing so, they might be able to come back later to the other platform and continue evolving it. Some might prefer the company closing ? Because the port to Windows looks to me totally a matter of getting enough sells to maintain the company. (in cases I know, this sort of port was even forced in the investors' contracts) And anyway, if you are so angry about it, your solution is extremely easy. is just a few clicks : http://www.coreldraw.com . It is 700 euros, though. Good luck !

Are you sure you have in settings the same color profile configured in Photo, than the one you are using in PS ? I have a question : Could it be that this is issue is somehow related to this one ? And then, somehow, a solution to it would fix both ?

If Serif (a company that during decades has provided ALL of us with free software (old but great versions I could get with computer magazines (printed), later on direct downloads) and extremely cheap current versions too. Some more gratitude would be expected, more flexibility with what to me is just an error of estimation, as much, and way common and frequent for any developer (and YES, comparison with other developers is a MUST, you don't live in a world without context, specially as your other option is to purchase or rent from those other developers we can't even mention) ) would be just the single and only company to postpone a release, yeah, that might be "bad image" , though many pros, we really do prefer a delay but a good release, than anything rushed. But the "facts" are indeed that every software company on earth, big or small, has had delays in many or all of their products. So, to say that a delay gives them bad image, please take no offense in this, as is never my intention to offend anyone, but is laughable. EA, Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, a huge etc they have always delayed crazily their releases, and even worse! Their releases are often cosmetic, after more than 2 years. Releases in here are very significant even in very small fraction of time. And those companies have way, way less room for excuses, as they can literally push the pedal whenever they want to, if they want to. Heck, Duke Nukem anyone ? That took dunno if more than a decade... Game releases (despite the fact that today a lot of studios have an army of at least 100 pros inside (I've worked in only medium/small ones, but know close friends working in huge ones, know the internals very well)) are often every five years. Adobe has taken decades to get you the suite it is now. With the same features you are expecting to have it freaking ALL in a very short period from a much smaller company. Can be said that they were probably too optimistic in their first estimations? Maybe. Do you have a right to complaint infinitely about it? Nope, I certainly don't think so. And it is rude, IMO. My main point is : When a developer makes a brilliant prototype, the team might think all can be achieved in a certain amount of time. But then, features start to give problems, or -most probably- porting to a native platform brings a can of worms that was not expected. Add on top of it that maybe in the way to that, by own initiative to make the product even better, or more competitive in today's market, some feature, which you will enjoy in its day, probably added after reading feedback here, is added, indeed, several or a lot, and it all delays more the project. Or even a bunch of features desired to be there by the investors, as those have -usually- more than a say in any development. There are so many factors you people do seem to be ignoring, not considering, when going so fast in a complaint, that it leads me to think that you don't really know how things work in applications development (or don't care), and/or are not doing a fair comparison with many other software developers, their usual delays, the fact that this is a very small company with only a few (this is one of the few things we know for sure) very highly qualified professionals (but they probably can't do a freaking miracle). And as has been said. Is not a clever attitude. You would only generate negativity in them related to this, and who knows if also to general users' feedback. Which will only play against all of us, and very specially APub. They are not legally, by any stretch, obliged to bring you the application you want (neither to the platform you want ! ) : Is their company , plans, road map. Bring that to court if you will, lol. And also your neighbor's for his car color. Green is an ugly color for a car, you feel offended. It also makes me wonder if many of the complainers are very used to typical releases time frames, delays, estimations and such (or have used just a few applications, mostly from a single company/brand, and that's it). As Everything on earth has been delayed, and with way worse delays. (Just ask 3D Max users, or even Adobe's, MS, etc. And when releasing, often with such buggy applications that work flow is affected very seriously. Edit: To be honest, that was years ago, exactly the same time frame were Affiinity is now, similar number of years in the market. Now they are very stable. (BTW, I don't have crashes with AD and AP, but it can be just me)) Instead of that behavior, you could just be patient, and accept this : If a publishing application is not produced by your favorite company in the time frame you desire, then just purchase Corel Draw, Xara, or download Scribus, and make the best of it. Indeed, spend with the trials and that open source some intense hours trying to discover if it would fit your needs. I for one will prefer to purchase Apub, and meanwhile use Scribus for projects were I need it, but that's me. Looks to me as if you would prefer to keep paying the renting from CC. Burning money to never own a permanent license. InDesign is there, waiting for you, go for it ! Nothing stops you from doing that, either. I'll stay here, thanks...So, this is another pov: You have a lot of choices, is not like this was your only path for having a publishing application. And after this thread, maybe we now will never have it (thank you ! ). I for one would not be motivated, as a developer...Not being legally forced to anything, after this sweet, warm, polite treatment, I would definitely direct my development to other more friendly users base, that's for sure. I am a freelancer, and I certainly don't put up with certain type of clients, for example...Don't need to, at all.

Seriously. There would never be an intention of "lying". They would be the first ones interested in having it now ready to purchase, don't you think ? :o But crap happens in every development project, unpredictable things, then all have to be delayed and there's nothing physically possible to do about it. Again.. please get to work -or talk to some close friend who worked at one- at a company making software, you would become aware on the way it works and needs to do so, and would understand a ton of things... The company is also really permissive. In any other company's forums a thread like this would have been closed long ago, even in the first posts.... I have watched it happening so in almost every company's forum I've visited. (indeed, happens in many other type of forums, even those moderated but not owned by companies. )

When I am in need of an application (during the years as a company worker, and now as a freelance) , if it is not available in the very day (in some cases, week) when I need it, I have no other chance than use an alternative path (my bosses used to not understand even a five minutes delay, so...). I mean, you can use other alternative, and still consider getting back to Affinity for a great tool and very well priced once it is released. Nothing stops you from doing that ! There are some alternatives already (people here seems to not like Scribus's UI, (I agree in that it is spartan) but I think the application is quite good...) . And you should study each of them, to see which suits you. As, other than Adobe's, in my usual researches, what I tend to find is those alternatives aren't usually great for all, like CC stuff is (mostly) . But each one tends to excel in one niche. This you can find it if you google about it cleverly and in depth, a lot of opinions (forums, comments, Q & A sites, etc) and user experience will help you decide. A roadmap, and that a team/company prediction is very doable in time, is sth likely to happen when resources are large, and you can put two or more teams on it if sth needs to accomplish a milestone (but lol, in other apps, and/or in games, the delays are WAY more crazy, btw). You don't know their circumstances, neither do I (I read some basic details some time ago) . But we both know they have not the size and power of Adobe, by any stretch. Let's be a ton more coherent with that... ;). They are actually doing an heroic thing, given the time of releasing and what they have achieved, being their size. So, from what I mention in the first paragraph, the complaint, IMO, is of not much use. As much you are going to put the developers in a negative emotion against it. That is far from inspiring and encouraging for people with a lot of work and pressure. Is the opposite way to go if you want to see one day a great Publishing application being produced by this company, IMHO. Plus, you can get Xara, Corel Draw, or Scribus, for your edition needs, IMO, choosing the right one for the tasks you are mostly going to do. (even that's not so, as it also depends on the level of of things you need in a niche) Or you can keep some time more using the CC subscription, and once the app is ready, you buy it in that minute, and stop paying that...renting. That wouldn't be a bad thing to do, either. Financially speaking, probably a better road, as a full alternative package's price, might be more expensive, depending on a number of factors, depends on the cases.

Making a 2D application like Photo to compete with today's top applications, achieving current standards and pro features is an amazingly daunting task that took decades to the competitors. Doing so with Designer, is another crazy load of work and complexity. To carry on top of all that as well the development or initial pieces of a third huge application, is IMO quite too much. This is so for an average-big company. Even for a large one with lots of resources. For an average-small company (even while formed by ninjas) is absolutely logical that no estimation can be done. A lot of people don't know WHY is this (for example, if sth goes wrong, ie, is discovered that something needs way more time, there's not so much room and margin for a quick solution) , tho they end up knowing once they get to work at one company in that situation. As well, they don't realize (or they'd be more careful/respectful) the actual very high value of what the company is achieving with the other 2 apps. IMO.

I had answered you in depth already about that tablet.... You made many posts about it (you got one closed).... In different times..... Are you just spamming about that tablet ? (if so, not doing any favor to the brand and product )

BTW, I dunno if is a Déjà vu, and I actually answered this in a different site... but am almost 100% positive I answered an identical question about that tablet right here... Did you use the search function ?

So, yeah, keep that Ugee. Is a very nice size at a great price. AND... I'd be grateful if you post any issues, or breakage, as is indeed a GOOD purchase. You can compensate fully the functions location with a good use and positioning of your keyboard, trust me ! :) The main thing is, bigger sizes allow more accurate lines. That should be a more important factor of the purchase, except for photographers only using it for retouch and application handling. (a small, imo, not a tool for a comic inker or line art based illustrator)

That Ugee you bought though, I had seen the infos a while ago. Has a great advantage: Size for that price. I just don't know how good it is in serious usage, how accurate, etc. And of course, I do know how many years a Wacom lasts, but no idea about other brands. I'd keep that Ugee despite the buttons location, technismart. The side controls are not that key if you have your keyboard in the side where you would have those buttons, and just asign hotkeys to those functions. Anyway, any heavy usage in graphic work will need constantly the keyboard. IMO is not true those can totally replace the keyboard. Look, I ONLY use the ring, and just for brush size change (fine tunned the step increment to make it functional). BUT, I could totally do that as well with the hand holding the pen, in the other side, probably faster. never used the ring for zoom other than to try it, as I'm fully fine to rotate with my Logitech mouse's wheel and panning by mid click-drag. (i use that utility that allows me to force panning and zooming so in every application I use, no matter what.) This setup: keyboard on my left side (change left-> right in your case in this paragraph), left hand always over it constantly hitting ky shortcuts. A Wacom Intuos small in the middle (but was way less accurate than medium size), and the right of it, my standard mouse. Just switching as needed right hand from pen and mouse (becomes a mechanic thing, your mind wont even notice after a little while...) , and left hand hitting the shortcuts as needed. Mates, colleagues, would say i worked as a car production chain robot with it, so , I even know from external viewers that it's functional ! :) . I produced all 2D retouch and drawings during 8 months with just that. (was the one and only 2D guy there). And it was a commercial large game, just not a huge production. Later on, similar workflow but then it was my old Intuos 1 A4 which was in the middle, another company. And a bit later, 11 years ago the one in the middle was a graphire or the one previous to that, but a small size, too. Today it's an XL of 65 cm wide, at home as a freelancer, and still same work flow --> keyboard in left side, large swimming pool of a tablet in the middle, logitech (hey, they are really sturdy, those) cheapo standard wired optical (no wireless, no laser, thank you) mouse on the right. Just doing the same than with the others, just a lot more chances of inking being productive.

I'm right hand, but I believe all Wacom Intuos are prepared for both hands (I believe you can rotate them and work with it as you exactly need). Not all tablets brands do this. Wacom allows it since very long . Specially at the low end, I entirely recommend wacom. Is not that big money for the hobby you love. (Intuos Draw, as is cheaper, medium size if it is for illustration or comic, small is fine for just photo retouch... the golden purchase.). IMO, a different brand can be more sensible in the case of cintiqs (due to the super high price) Now I'm totally sold on the new paper edition version. It's amazing, seen it working. Great accuracy. You can ink over paper OR use it as a regular intuos pro, both things. I believe is a dream come true for those of us who need to ink line art from time to time. (or for every day inkers in comics' world). But that one is an expensive Intuos Pro (500+ bucks.) The one I recommend in the low end is just the non pro intuos. I was ready for a cintiq alternative, but in the end, i paint easy -digital painting- with my intuos pro, it was only for line art accuracy in inking. Seems the gap is solved with this new product. Plus, the wacom pen's vrsion 2 is extremely better : 8k pressure levels, clearly more accurate to your actual hand movement, much improved in many areas. Itself would have worth for me the upgrade. (it will, pretty soon) Probably there's a chinese alternative (XP Pen, Yiynova or Huion) in non screen-tablets, super cheap small tablets, providing both hands usage, but can be a bit of a gamble. Seriously, while IMO makes no sense to put 3k on a Cintiq 27, some 100 bucks or 70 in Amazon, make real sense for such a quality hardware as an Intuos (medium or small depending on planned usage). If gonna be your work horse, my advice, go with Wacom...

Wow ! Hello, cekuhnen, didn't know you were here [ Very well known Blender Artists (Elisyun) forums member. I'm there too since 2002 (used Blender since earler, indeed, I'm "Extrudeface" there and at Wings3D forums. ) ]. A pleasure to have you here :) I would agree - I believe I mentioned in a very early post in the thread - that freedom wise, the one allowing more "customization" is Linux, by very far. You can use it and shape it almost infinitely, but requires a real lot of time in your side. (which at least we full time freelancers don't have as I did while worked as an employee... Well, heck, not even then. ). Windows does allow A LOT of customization and configuring, just is given to the average joe as a compact thing to make the learning curve smooth. Closed source, and way less configurable than Linux, IMO that gets by far compensated with the fact that it has drivers for almost every hardware on earth, and that the biggest number of applications are produced and ported for that system. Surely due to that 91.4% (or whatever the real number is). I've heard from mac users that they are very well set with graphic design software, not so much with 3D. I would agree that the most options in software alternatives for graphic production is -globally, when you consider 3D- in Windows. But IMO, even a user can be wrong about his/her fav personal OS. Macs DO have great solutions for 3D. Cinema 4D is requested in so many job offers (architect medium studios, video studios of mid/smal size, as a production seat for certain other very different types of companies....) . There's Maya, Mudbox, Zbrush (full standard for game and many CGI companies ) , and a lot more (even Autocad). For a graphic person like me, stability and good performance is key in every day work. Macs give you that, I've used them at jobs. And while there are situations where the flexibility in configuring and variety of applications was desirable even -or specially- at many times while being at those companies, those machines are great for graphic work. But IMO, Windows PCs are, too. You are more likely to need to be savy in system issues than with a Mac, just like a lot more in Linux, than in Windows or Macs. I'm here with Keith that it is indeed a big error to prioritize your OS over a practical solution to get your work done. For years I had a multi boot machine (to the point of having 4 OSes in the same machine !) just hoping the level of productivity in Linux would surpass anything else. That did not happen, even while I use Wings3D, Blender (but both installed in my Windows 7....) and Krita for "traditional" painting (works now very stable on Windows, too. It is at a very pro level, now. ) in professional work. The day Linux becomes an equal choice of practical usage for a pro, I will probably switch to it (only if I am not forced to abandon the specific applications I use every day for my work ) Heck, as a freelancer, I depend exactly on what I work for the plate of food, am even every day trying to find new tricks to improve work-flows, avoid waits, produce more and better, paint faster and more accurately and digging to crazy limits every technology upgrade (Wacom (their new line is the world winner now, imo...), ipad Pro, cheaper alternatives, etc... ) in terms of tablets and drawing devices accuracy... I don't need added factors that would slow me down...

The issue is...time and resources. The way you are describing it sounds as if it were all about just posting a blog article explaining the possible project asking people to donate. A crowd funding campaign is a constant work of promotion, creation of marketing material, and most of all, showing a proof of concept, so, doing a a very solid part of the project. At least a functional alpha prototype ! Getting 500k without doing that? :o ... I would be amazed... Even more, a quite advanced stage of the project. You need resources and time, employees' hours for making the promotion material, and also for the prototype or project till certain stage, for people to actually care for backing... The company is already crushed with milestones, with a small team, from what I could read in an old post. (and many others, later on) Unless you mean just making a blank, empty campaign, not doing anything else than the initial post/explanation. And get 500k so ? Well nothing is impossible, could happen. Still, I've seen too many campaigns failing even doing the best effort. And BTW, nothing beats working in several ones, as talking is cheap (hey, not meaning it harshly neither directed to you ;) , is a figure of speech. ), but once working for one, you face a lot of issues. The people is also very variable in trends and at the time to give feedback, and this is an added issue, we suffered that... The possibility always exists, of course. But then... in case it fails....how would that look? Not to you and me, or any other geek user. But to the mass, the global opinion. You seem to see no risk neither potential loss.. Any failure is dangerous (been at SEO and marketing for a bunch of years)... If the crowdfunding gets nothing near to the 500k, that's bad promo for the whole Affinity (IMO ! )... Anyway, I am not saying it's 100% impossible. Then there's another bad side, more in the technical side (in case the campaign is successful, or... even quite before). We get to find out the possible issues just casually, thinking randomly, but am sure they know these very well, since quite long. Even if they don't do nothing until funded, just the announcement, you need at least some research, some rough prototype (of an app as complex and deep as AP and AD are! ) to actually know beforehand that the code base "could" be translated to Linux flawlessly. Otherwise, it could be , again, bad promo for Affinity. Google results bad promo of any product is to be avoided by any company...IE : Imagine the case... people donate, and all, and then all the hassle of telling the backers that the project is not doable, once campaign ended successfully, after finally doing a real prototype, as the systems do not translate well in terms of graphic libraries, or that the engine is not very compatible with Linux code. Or there do not exist certain kind of graphic libraries in Linux, or not performing at the level required, or not as complete as in Mac or Win, as simply has not been the need or focus of anyone. Great selling slogan for the whole A. line. Heck, even more. Not every one can code in every OS. I've worked very long years inside software (be it applications and games, decades) and found out programmers (seen by the graphics guy, externally) tend to be more based on a particular system. Specially at very high end matters. (IE, Windows graphic libraries, people knowing deeply how to handle kernel stuff of a certain OS, etc). maybe that's not a problem for them, at all (I don't know). But what i experienced is they tend to specialize in an area. AND... not easy to find the ones you need, with the specific experience you need, meaning pro veterans in that specific matter. The point also is: if was that easy (the 500k whole thing and port all to Linux).. Don't you think they would have made so already ? I mean, if it is all advantages... they have been with the affinity line for a while.. Wouldn't have we already see at least an announcement? Not only we haven't, they have said they are not planing even something like that. So, IMO, cut them some slack, maybe they know what they are doing... :) And I insist am not anti-Linux. Quite the opposite. And if it 'd be as simple as to put a campaign title and wait for the backers to rain, and reach 500k in 28 days, and then, profit for decades of linux versions! hey, then am all for it. I just am not too fond of basing projects in a not 100% realistic base. You can destroy a company or team if you do it wrong... Even more, is the matter of the user base. They probably can't be sure if numbers like that (2.27 % against a 91.4 % of Windows (even if that data could be very wrong) ) can make it worth a Linux version in the long run. Yep, you manage magically to pull everything and even develop the whole line in Linux. Can you imagine the big issue if then there are note enough sales to maintain that over time, over the years ? Not only the culture of free of charge is well installed in Linux (a lot of Linux users are ready to pay for good applications, I know... but how's that % ? ) , is the other fact that over that already complex perspective, there are already great 2D products in Linux, very, very good, I know them well (Krita, Inkscape, MyPaint, Sk1, Scribus, Gimp, etc) . Yet another risk. Indeed...Who knows. Maybe the main reason is not even related to the campaign matter. I worked at a company developing a pair of applications as its main focus (less complex!). And probably the number of seasoned professional dedicated to developing it was close to identical. Support of a different OS takes the focus of a great key developer, (or a team) at least. Being resources medium/small (I suspect mostly small), they probably know it wouldn't be sustainable over the time, being such a time eater, then yep, would be a high risk/error. My very personal 2c... ---> They'd better off first take some solid gained territory to the huge big names dominating by now the field (and in only Mac/Win). Once solidly installed there, Publisher also released, so you get a kind of a pro suite at a very attractive purchasing option, you are established, can after the good success/impact get new ambitions/fronts, like (but not necessarily that) a Linux version... (But Adobe PS or Max, they never did, and man, are they profitable... You need to convince the men and women (investors, marketing experts, etc) handling the numbers...) My very fear is that they'd end up loosing strength and capability to deliver fast (and time is key...) diverting so much the resources.... As always, I could be completely wrong in every detail, though.

https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8&qpcustomd=0 (According to the same site posted... or we could find a new meaning for "extremely fast" (I've seen that , ehm, fast growth since my first experiences with that OS in early 90s...). Because if 2.27 % is huge ...What adjective could we use for the 91,41 % of Windows ? Edit: A 2 % of a big number IS a big number. My point is that with that proportion, makes a lot of sense that a small company does focus on what have more chances of sells... my 2c. ) PD: I never am very sure to trust at all these stats sites... it all depends on how they took their measures and data, that counting on not there being some interests or third party companies gaming the system. Usually mostly depends on the type of users from which they are collecting the data, and how they are doing it. That said, sometimes for a particular product a niche can be extremely profitable. But I guess they'd need some full proof of that in their case (a generic statement and the best intention is not anything solid), which is really difficult to know beforehand. At least, something, as is such a big risk. Something like that can sink a company.

Exactly, word by word, it is just like that.