Lojza

Actually there is a pattern for this in the gradient fill tool. When using this on a shape, there is a small dropdown on the tool bar named "Context", where one can set if the gradient should be applied to either fill or outline.
 
Would it be feasible to extend "Context" dropdown with options: Text fill, Text outline, Shape fill, Shape outline? Gradient fill tool has also the option to use solid color, instead of a gradient, so this might work. Of course, the Stroke pane should also reflect this setting (in order to properly set either text stroke or shape stroke properties).

Hi Wiredframe,
This will be available in the next Designer Beta (1.5 beta 11).
It's already implemented in Photo.
 
Moving thread to Affinity Photo on Mac Beta.

So I tried macros, but when I record manual transorm, then during run on another object, the transformation is set somehow relatively to object's current position / dimensions. Is it possible to record / apply absolute values? E.g. placing the object exactly on 100, 100 coordinates and setting exactly 200px widht and 200px height?
 
Thanks for any insights... :)

In the beta 9 release notes MattP said "Hopefully resolved file save/restore issues seen when starting from a 'recovery file.'"
 
I am still seeing what I think is that bug in the beta 10 release, but I cannot pin down exactly what triggers it. What I sometimes see is the 'file in use by another app' notice when I try to reopen an AD file when no other app has it open.
 
As best as I can tell, this occurs only if I make some change in the AD file & then close it with the 'Don't save changes' option. But that alone doesn't trigger the notice when I try to reopen the file -- there has to be some other step(s) between closing the file with unsaved changes & opening it again.
 
I know this is a bug & that no other app is using the file because simply quitting & restarting AD beta 10 eliminates the notice & I can reopen the file without problems.

With Premiere and Final Cut there is a "paste special/attributes" function where you can choose which effects you want to paste afterward. Why not something similar?
 

I have had more duplicate objects since this was changed than I have had in the 2 years before.  I'd rather not have the measurement tool than to have to press cmd after the beginning of the move.  Oh I sound all negative!  That's not the case, I'm still loving AD.

This still feels like a bug to me, or at least a kind of clunky UI decision - when hovering over a corner, with Cmd depressed, the cursor shows a resize cursor, but clicking and dragging on the corner handle instead duplicates the object.
 
At the very least, in this situation the cursor should give feedback as to the expected outcome - there should not be a resize cursor present, if clicking and dragging does not result in the indicated action.
 
Cheers
Oliver.

Ah, I see. Maybe the info message in the lower bar should be changed then? it is a little confusing as is, but maybe that's just me :)
 
Oliver.

On a similar point, quite frequently when closing with multiple unsaved documents, AD will fail to bring the relevant unsaved document into focus - and as the rest of the interface is unresponsive when the save dialog is present, the only way to check the identity of the document to which it is referring is to dismiss the save dialog and manually change to the appropriate tab.
 
Cheers
Oliver.

You have to use an absolute size, not a size scaling. So for example if you want to export a particular slice with a width of 400px you have to input 400w.
If you want to add more sizes to that particular slice click on the plus marked on screenshot and add another one. You can also define a height instead of the width. In that case just enter 400h.
See the example on the screenshot - it will export slice1 in three sizes (widths): 200px, 300px and 400px.
 

Glad you like it! 
 
We examined a number of algorithms - including the ones you suggest - but they all appeared to be earlier / less capable versions of the two we have shipped..
 
That said, if there is a good reason to implement others - we will certainly do our best to oblige!
 
I continue to be surprised at the number of Photo users who do pixel art - there are thousands of you!! That's why we added this feature - along with the improvements to the Pixel Tool listed in the 1.5 Beta launch post. We think the Alt-Drag-To-Paint-From-History is especially handy - let us know if it works for you :)
 
We'll continue to improve Photo for pixel artists too - feel free to make suggestions / feature requests as necessary..
 
Thanks,
 
Andy.

A big thanks for the "New “Pixel Art” Document Resizing"! :wub:
 
Are there any other algorithms planned? Like hqnx, xBRZ and others? I was mentioning some of them here https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/21462-advanced-scaling-algorithms/.
The results for small pixel art images, thumbnails or very low-res images are fantastic -  or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_gallery_of_image_scaling_algorithms.
 
Thank you!

Status: Beta Release
Purpose: New features, fixes, improvements
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: 1.5 Beta 1 Here
 
This is an early beta of a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it should be considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity that you may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.5 cannot be opened in 1.4 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.5 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.4 version.
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it.
 
With all that said, here is a list of all the new things we can do with 1.5. This will be a fairly short beta (approx. 6 weeks) and things will likely be bad / broken for the the first week or two. After that, we expect the beta to become more stable and usable.
 
Please understand that all betas must start somewhere - and that they are beta for a reason!
 
Thanks once again for taking the time to download and use our beta :) - here's the list:
 
Focus Merge Support
  Focus merging allows you to generate a detailed composite image from a number of images focussed at differing lengths. Use File -> New Focus Merge to get started.   HDR Merge Support   HDR merging lets you create a deep, unbounded 32-bit image from a number of exposure bracketed source images. Use File -> New HDR Merge to get started.   New 32bit RGB Editing Mode   Photo now offers a full compositing / editing environment for 32bit unbounded images. It correctly deals with 0-alpha cases (as per the OpenEXR spec) and generally operates in linear space.   Known Issues: Whilst most filters will work out of the box, we still have significant work to do to make all adjustments / blend modes work correctly in 32bit. Don't be surprised if you get weird result sometimes.   Known Issues: Our renderer will seem very slow when dealing with 32bit documents - it's because we are (at the moment) falling back to CPU where we should be able to use the GPU. This will get faster soon :)   Tone Mapping Persona   Full tone mapping Persona for both HDR and LDR images. This is obviously best used with an image merged by HDR merge - although you can use it on any image.   Known Issues: The UI still requires refinement and eventually there may be more sliders!   OpenEXR / HDR (Radiance) Import / Export   Photo can now import and export .hdr (Radiance, RGBE) and .exr (OpenEXR) images.   Known Issues: We know that people need lots of export options - mainly for OpenEXR - these will drop in in the next few weeks.   Macros   Using the View -> Studio -> Macro and View -> Studio -> Library menu items, you can access new panels which will allow you to record actions, save them, then play them back later. You can also store them in a handy gallery which will offer you live previews of what each stored macro would do to your document if you applied it.   Known Issues: You will find that you can not record some actions which seem natural / obvious (eg. selecting layers). This will be fixed soon.   Batch Processing   Using File -> New Batch job, you can queue up processing on a large number of files. You can resize, convert format and apply any number of macros to each file. The batch processing happens in the background - so you can continue working whilst the jobs are processed.   Live Projections   Photo 1.5 contains a new mechanism which allows you to edit an image in different spatial domains - we currently support the “Equirectangular” domain (360 pano - Ricoh Theta, etc.). You can use all tools when editing - and you can convert back once you have edited. This is especially useful for cleaning up stitching artefacts, or artefacts at the zenith / nadir of the image. Use the options in Layer -> Live Projection to get started.   Known Issues: Perspective projection is disabled. Will be introduced soon.   Improved Pixel Tool   The pixel tool is improved in 1.5 - you can hold shift when dragging to constrain the direction of painting (sorry we did not get this working sooner!). You can also select what happens when you hold Alt and drag - erase to transparent, erase to background colour, or erase to whatever the nominated snapshot / history location is (like in the Clone tool).   New “Pixel Art” Document Resizing   Photo now contains an alternative way to resize a document - using well known pixel-art resampling algorithms. If you work with pixel art and want to use this feature, it’s located under the Document menu.   Known Issues: This can crash if your document is huge - we will fix this.   New “Accumulation” Brush Dynamics   Many users have asked for “Opacity Jitter”. For us, opacity is a constant thing and will remain constant. However, we have added a new property to brushes - “Accumulation” - which should allow you to get what you need :) Please let us know how this works out for you..   Text Styles   Affinity Photo now has the same Text Styles support as Designer - it’s all shared code so it should work right out of the box :) Let us know if you find anything odd about it.   New Marquee Modes (Polygonal, Magnetic) [NOT AVAILABLE YET]   We are committed to adding these modes in 1.5. There are already icons / modes for them in the context toolbar of the Freehand Marquee tool. At the moment, it won’t let you enter these modes - but it will in a subsequent beta build :)   Even more RAW cameras supported   We have upgraded our RAW support again! I’m sorry I can’t give a full list of supported hardware right now, but I aim to do so tomorrow :)   Improved Metadata Mining   Our detection of RAW / JPEG / etc. metadata has been upgraded - after reports of certain lenses not being properly recognised - hopefully this update will fix the missing ones, but if not, please let us know!   Massive Improvements to Export Persona   Our Export Persona has seen huge upgrades in this cycle - you now have total control of exactly what resolution sets get exported. You can also use our handy batch export builders to quickly generate content for external consumption - ie. Xcode .assets - even Spline compatible metadata can be generated!   Layered TIFF Interop   Users have constantly asked us to support “Layered TIFF”. Layered TIFF is not a thing. TIFF with embedded data is a thing - and I’m happy to report that we now import embedded PSD / Affinity data and can write TIFF with embedded Affinity data.   Halftone Filter   We have a marvellous new halftone pattern filter in 1.5 - it can approximate monochrome, colour, circular and line halftones and can even be applied as a “Live Filter”.   Known Issues: This filter can be a bit funky in "Live Filter" mode - and if you have a retina screen, you will see some jittering even in non-live.   Dust & Scratches Filter   Many user have asked us for a “Dust & Scratches” filter - so we have made one. It’s extremely useful for removing sporadic small defects in images. Please let us know if it works for you.   Layer Linking [NOT IMPLEMENTED YET]   Layer linking will happen in 1.5 - at the moment it is currently not exposed in this beta. Look out for it soon though - it should set the benchmark for how linked layers should work in a raster editor.. More on this soon!   “Edit in Affinity Photo” Photos extension   This is something which we didn’t think we could do - a Photos extension for Mac OS 10.9 and above which simply allows you to use the full Photo app to edit your images - and stores the changes you have made as a layered document.   New Colour Picker Tool   After literally thousands of requests, we have implemented a dedicated picker tool for colours. It requires little explanation - so let us know if it works for you :)   New Clone Sources Panel   We now have a new studio panel which allows you to store up an unlimited number of global sources for the Clone / Healing brush - it even works across multiple documents.   Direct PSD Write-Back   One of the most requested features - direct write-back to PSD. A number of 3rd party DAM applications will happily deal in PSD - but until now, Photo required you to File -> Export for PSD. No longer! You can now just hit File -> Save! You will need to turn this on - in File -> Preferences - please read the warning there carefully!   No Thumbnails Option   This is more a Designer feature, but I promised it some time ago so here it is - you can choose (in Preferences) not to write out a thumbnail with your documents. This has the advantage of making your documents use less space - but obviously you won’t get Finder thumbnails, etc.   Improved Vectorscope   Our old HSL vectorscope is no more - replaced by a vastly more appropriate Rec.709 YUV scope with an improved graticule :)   Improved Photoshop Plugin Support   We have found a significant bug with our plugin code - it has been fixed :) That said - please don’t expect all your plugins to now work. This fix primarily puts us in a position to work properly with plugin makers to move forward. That said, some plugins will now spring into life - “Focus Magic” being a notable example.   Multi-monitor Colour Profile Support   Sorry it took so long to get this fixed - we now can profile different on different monitors.   Adjustment Performance Improvements   Found and fixed a simple issue which made changing adjustment parameters appear to be slow. Fixed.   This update also includes literally hundreds of fixes and small improvements, some of which are listed below:   - User control over two pass rendering on Retina devices. - PSD import / export improvements. - PDF import / export improvements. - Snapping improvements - candidate-free snapping, gaps-and-spans (Alt key in Move Tool), so much more!   - Performance and stability improvements for macOS Sierra.   Thanks again for taking the time to use this beta!   Affinity Photo Team  :ph34r:

Hi,
 
No worries lhodaniel - we have been late on this release, and have been unclear (even to our own staff) with regards to beta dates..
 
That said, in my humble opinion, 1.5 is a massive release - worth waiting for ;) - and I look forward to delivering it to you all this week :)
 
Andy.

Evening all,
 
AP 1.5 will go to public beta this week (probably late this week). I hope this clears up any ambiguity :)
 
Thanks,
 
Andy.

Hi MrKellyGraham,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
No, currently there's no way to match two image colours automatically (similar to what Match Colour does in Photoshop).
Nice suggestion ;) I would like to see it added too.

In addition to what VIPStephan said, in v1.4.2, you can use the View > "Customize tools..." menu item to add a never hidden Artboard tool to the Tools palette (& optionally replace the two-tool Move/Artboard tool icon with a Move only one). This will make it more like the default layout of the Tools palette in the 1.5 beta.
 
In either version you can customize the order of the tool icons in the palette, the number of columns they are arranged in, & which ones appear in it.

In the official version (which is 1.4.2, I believe) the artboard tool is kind of hidden behind the move tool (the black arrow pointer). Click and hold that tool and you’ll see the artboard tool. In the latest beta version the artboard tool has gotten its own space in the toolbar, below the node tool (the smaller white arrow). In both versions, with the artboard tool selected, you can either drag a new artboard on the canvas then or you click the “add new artboard” button in the context toolbar (don’t know the correct name for that bar at the moment) at the top.

Thanks. Of course, I'm aware how circle/ellipse and frame text tools work :)
 
Anyway, I would like to hear some feedback from other users, too.
 
I still think the unified Shift modifier would improve general usability...

1) When resizing single element, proportions are preserved by default and Shift works as a modifier to change proportions.
 
2) When resizing multiple selected elements, proportions are NOT preserved. Shift works as a modifier to preserve proportions.
 
This feels like inconsistency and it makes learning AD harder. I would prefer behavior described in 1) as default for all resizing. Thanks for considering ;)

I guess I'm missing something, because the eyedropper seems to work the same way as it did: backward.
 
In any other color picker, you pick the eyedropper tool, then use it to click on a color somewhere, and the chosen color is moved into a color well. Then you can select objects and click on the color well to change their color.
 
Affinity does exactly the opposite. Why?

Thanks. Of course, I'm aware how circle/ellipse and frame text tools work :)
 
Anyway, I would like to hear some feedback from other users, too.
 
I still think the unified Shift modifier would improve general usability...

Thanks for the rationale.
 
I still tend to disagree, though. When you select two elements with natural aspect ratio - like two texts - according to mentioned logic, both texts should resize proportionally. But they're considered a group and resizing is non-proportinal.
 
Moreover, it's hard to make such mental exercise continuously. For example, if I draw perfect circle holding Shift, I would consider it furher as a circle with "natural" aspect ratio 1:1. Yet it behaves like a shape without constant proportions.
 
Reverse example: if I resize artistic text horizontally or vertically alone, I wouldn't consider it "naturally" proportional further on. But it still keeps its distorted proportions when resizing with the corner point...
 
Hence I would prefer same sizing behavior for all elements, regardless of what they are.

1) When resizing single element, proportions are preserved by default and Shift works as a modifier to change proportions.
 
2) When resizing multiple selected elements, proportions are NOT preserved. Shift works as a modifier to preserve proportions.
 
This feels like inconsistency and it makes learning AD harder. I would prefer behavior described in 1) as default for all resizing. Thanks for considering ;)

Hi, I would like to ask for comprehending some new scaling algorithms into Affinity Photo. There is plenty of approaches beyond nearest neighbour, bilinear, bicubic and Lanczos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_scaling
Especially algorithms developed for pixel-art scaling provide amazing results when enlarging low-res images (Super 2xSal, Super Eagle, hqnx, xBRZ...).
 
Here's my suggestion:
 
1) add a new "Rescale" filter, which would allow user to choose scaling algorithm and target pixel layer size.
 
2) eventually add "Rasterize using... >" item to contextual menu over layers. Behind this item, in the second menu level, there could be the algorithms available for rasterizing. In some cases, the default rasterizing algorithm isn't always the best option, especially when working with screenshots, images with text in it, where readability and certain sharpness is desired even after rasterizing.
 
 
Thank you for considering! :)