Lojza

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! :)

Wow, thank you, A_B_C. This did the trick! I wasn't able to figure it out, just trying to adjust the word spacing...

This is due to your letter spacing settings, Lojza. Set the Maximum Letter Spacing to 0%, and you will immediately be able to use soft hyphenation on the word “hlubokomyslných” … see my example with the corrected value below your text frame …  :)

Thanks for reporting those. On the second one, I find I can get justified text to break at soft hyphens if I play around with the frame size. I suspect they are not breaking in your example because justified text has more latitude to change word spacing than aligned text. If you look at the Paragraph Studio panel, Justification settings, the Min/Max Word Spacing and Letter Spacing only apply to justified text. So for left-aligned text, the word spacing will always be what is set as the Desired Word Spacing here, but for justified text, Affinity may choose to reduce the word spacing rather than hyphenate the word.
 
If you want justified text line ends to match aligned text ones, then you can set the Minimum and Maximum Word Spacing to 100%. The default is 80%/133% because most people want to avoid hyphens in justified text.

Hi Guys,
 
I don't mean to put pressure but as the beta releases have a one month expiration baked into them and since the last beta was release on 30th March, we have approximately 4 days left?
 
I know you are busy with the 1.5 code but just a heads up just in case this slips through again.
 
Cheers,
 
Nana

I've forgotten some requests :
In AD we can't resize, rotate, etc a part of a shape. When you are looking for the perfect shape, it's impossible with AD without spending a lot of time. I do it almost every time in AI.
 
Instances (named Symbols in AI) : a shape master, several shapes slaves. You change the master > you change the slaves.

AD is my main app for illustration. But a lot of things can't be done today. My AI is always opened for specific tasks : spirals, gradient with shapes, offset with shapes, all the deformation tools (twirl, twist, bend, etc).
 
Many little things are missing : In AI, when you move a point of a shape, we can see the old shape until we release the mouse button. It's very handy when you must follow a line who is not horizontal or vertical. IN AD, we are blind.
We can't align points in horizontal or vertical just by typing 0 in Transform menu.
The center point works only with rotation, not with scale or mirror. It's a great lack.
 
What I hate in AD : selecting objects is not effective enough. It's my main waste of time.
Why Deselect (cmd D) doesn't work ?
 
I would like to see in the scene manager (layers) the same functions we can find in cinema4d (duplicate with CMD, search by name, open/close hierarchies, solo, objects visibility, etc).
 
What I love in AD : fx, adjustments, masks, corner tool, donut tool, square star tool, ultra speedy registrations, beautiful anti aliasing, elegant GUI.

And this!! Visibility checkboxes are no longer covered by scrollbar! Wooow! :wub:
 

Ooh, sending much love for this! :wub:

And this!! Visibility checkboxes are no longer covered by scrollbar! Wooow! :wub:
 

Purpose: Fixes
Status: Incremental bug-fix track on 1.4.1
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Here
 
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.
 
This is an Incremental Bug-Fix release - it should be considered more stable than the current MAS version (1.4.1) and should be used in preference to that build, if you are experiencing any of the problems listed below.
 
Fixes
 
- Many PSD compatibility improvements, particularly when using 16 bit documents
- Single-click in the Art Text Tool no longer creates a new Art Text object if you are already in caret mode on an Art Text object
- Improved SVG font export compatibility
- Fix for SVG export generating invalid IDs
- Fix for vector export of cropped bitmaps
- Fix for PDF import of large images and soft masks

Hi Lojza,
 
At the moment there is no option to stop the semi-transparent edge when you resize a selected area. It will be worth raising this as a Feature Request.

I've seen this topic repeatedly appear. Why not add a line to the error-window that explains that if they've updated to the latest MAS version it makes any older betas obsolete? That way they don't have to ask on the forums why the beta is "invalid" suddenly. :p I've never seen the message so maybe it already explains that. But we sure see this topic a lot...

This thread's getting old, but I was stuck on this, and now I find (AP v. 1.4) it's really easy:
sample the white background with the eyedropper in the Colour tab, and set that to the foreground color choose Select>Select Sampled Colour click on one of the yellow patches. I left the tolerance to 25%, and that selected all the yellow except for a few anti-aliasing pixels on the edges use the flood fill (paint can icon) to recolor selection to white repeat steps 2 to 4 on the pale yellow anti-aliasing pixels that are left around the areas you've recolored white set the foreground color to a suitable grey for anti-aliasing the black type repeat steps 2 to 4 on the yellowish-grey pixels where the yellow met the black type I ended up with a clean (as far as my old eyes can see) version after about two minutes' work.

This is all great, but unfortunately I still cannot used your software which I bought months ago. I cannot work with a software for graphic design which doesn't have a properly working eyedropper tool and a shortcut attached to it. Could you please tell me how long do I need to wait for it? Is there any solution that I'm not aware of? 
 
I still use Adobe Illustrator for everything and I cannot see myself switching to Affinity Designer anytime soon even though I paid for it... I must admit I hoped that this is going to be something that will give Adobe guys headaches, but what I see is that you're working hard on new features, but completely ignored the basics. Being able to use eyedropper tool instantly with one click is absolutely essential without a doubt.
 
I don't even mention something like recolour tool... I guess recolouring a complex artwork with hundreds of objects would take enormous amount of time given the tools we have available now in Designer.
 
All best

Yes! The "Leading Override" value in Character panel was set to large number (above 21000 pt).
Pheeeww... I feel like I could use some kind of tutorial on this...
 
Anyway, thanks so much for help!

Purpose: Improvements / Fixes
Status: Release Candidate
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
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.
 
This is a Release Candidate build. It is our intention to submit this for review to Apple in the first week of December. Any help you could offer to stabilise and refine the product at this stage will be very gratefully received      :)  We won't be implementing any new features now for this version and we will be focusing on stabilising the product for the immediate future. We will obviously start adding more features again as soon as this update goes live.
 
Improvements / Fixes
 
- New sample (“The Meeting” by Paolo Limoncelli).
  - Improved tool performance in Panorama persona.
- Fixed drawing artefacts when using some panorama tools. - Handle orientation metadata when stitching panoramas. - More meaningful progress bar when rendering panoramas.   - Improve dehaze result on images with transparency (especially panoramas). - Fixed issued when using “Merge Selected” with Live Filters. - Photos Extensions UI improvements.   - Default all raster exports to "Embed ICC Profile". - Improved canvas rotation detection logic (to avoid accidentally rotating while zooming). - PDF import improvements. - PDF overprint export improvements. - Character panel improvements. - Fix for crash when trying to export selected item when there is no selection. - Fixed tabbing issues between some controls. - Localisation improvements. - Drawing fixes for OS X 10.7 when switching active document. - Fixed crash when resizing a document when only width or height are changed.

Oh My, I really get headaches from the color picker... :(
 

 
Why in the heck does it shows colors that aren't nowhere in the image? How should I sample exactly the one color at the end of a gradient fill of a bitmap?
 
Please, revamp the color picking functions across all the app... There are so many UX glitches here and there (for example concurrent pickers on various windows and dialogs) that makes working with this tool really unpleasant :(

It would be nice if, when using perspective tool, it would be possible to zoom in and out and create rulers.

Hi Lojza
 
I've logged this issue to see if the developer can improve it at all for you
 
Cheers :)

Thanks for letting us know about this Lojza.
There's a few issues going on here: the filters are not being processed in the merge operation when used as independent layers. I believe this is why they also affect the final composite if placed in the middle of the adjustements as A_B_C's clip shows.
There's still a few more issues that i need to investigate.
I've logged this to be looked at.
Thank you all.

Please, is there a way how to save UI state on quit?
Every time I start AP, I have to make at least three clicks to switch to the tabs I use most:
Histogram -> Colour
Adjustment -> Layers
Navigator -> Transform
 
Thanks!
 
(More issues on the way -- I had a "tester" day today ;))

Purpose: Features / Improvements / Fixes
Status: Beta
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
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.
 
Features / Improvements / Fixes
 
- Panorama UI improvements (including crop tool).
- Fix for document view having visible borders at different zoom levels and pan locations
- Fix for marching ants disappearing when the canvas is rotated
- Fix for text blurring on some buttons in the UI for retina screens - Export persona’s Slice panel now sets the exportable state for all items in the selection, not just the current item - Move Tool’s marquee drag is no longer hidden when the ‘Hide selection while dragging’ option is set - Canvas rotation now makes the grid rotate properly - Many PDF export and import improvements - Fix snapping marker rendering in the Node Tool - The performance cat has lost his ‘Miaow’ in the Preferences dialog (and we all mourn its loss)

Hi,
 
I recently did some pixel-precise designs and I have some comments/suggestions regarding pixel alignment / pixel moving behavior in Affinity Designer.
 
If Force Pixel Alignment = ON
1) Vertical and horizontal distribution should preserve x, y  placement "to whole pixels".

If Force Pixel Alignment = OFF
and Move By Whole Pixels = ON (which combination is currently not possible)
2) Nudging should add/subtract 1 pixel, no matter, what the coordinate is (e.g. x: 567,8 -> x: 568,8).
3) Same principle should also apply for changing shape's dimensions.

If Force Pixel Alignment = ON
and Move By Whole Pixels = ON
4) Nudging should round to nearest whole pixel value (e.g. x: 567,8 -> x: 568) and then continue adding/subtracting whole pixels.
5) Same principle should also apply for changing shape's dimensions.
 
I would like to hear from others, whether such behavior makes sense. Maybe I'm just using the tools wrong way or missing some idea behind those switches...
 
Thanks.

I'm afraid this PDF does not conform to the PDF standard. For example, it does not contain an "startxref". It does contain a mis-spelt "startref", but the value in it is nonsense. There are more problems with it later. Preview is more tolerant of these issues than Affinity.
 
If you open it in Preview and resave it, Affinity will then open the saved version.