Henry Stahle

Sorry for digging this up, but I work only on Surface Pro 7 and like Affinity Photo a lot. The way I do it is I have a bluetooth keyboard lying to the left of the tablet (you can put it to the right if you're left handed, but the point is it's not connected to the bottom of the tablet like the cover keyboard). Then I draw with the pen in my right hand and my left hand lies on the keyboard, ready to press TAB, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+N etc. This way of working is relatively smooth.
My only complaint is that the tablet gets a little hot after some time, but maybe I overlooked some performance options.

Hello,
I left adobe products for Affinity because of the efficiency and how well it runs and how practical everything is. But there's one thing that drives me insane and that is that I can't rotate my canvas by hand, and I must clic 10 times on "Rotate right" to flip my canvas and draw the other way around...
Obviously I could use keyboard shortcuts but the thing is I can't draw with a keyboard, I take it out of my tablet because I like to draw on my tablet as if it were paper. But I can't do anything about this rotation. PLEASE make this a thing. I must have this.. please I'm begging.
Rotating the canvas freely by hand, please.
 
Kindly, a fan custommer.

If you are tempted to reply to any negativity in this thread, please just post your own positive thoughts instead, or just step away. (It is directed at us and we do not need defending, thank you)
This offer goes out to everyone who has not unsubscribed from our marketing offers, and is here to do 2 things:
Encourage you to try the software that you have not yet bought, or encourage those around you to do so for 90 days. Without letting you know it was available you would not know to tell your friends. Encourage the purchase at a discount of something that you have not yet bought, for example the iPad versions (Serif cannot tell if you have purchased Affinity software from the Mac App Store or iPad store by looking at your Serif Account, as that sale is Apple's data and we cannot see it)

Thank you to the whole team for what you do 🤗
I have already bought the three softwares, I'm only waiting for the next major versions. 
A fan from France  

Thanks, Affinity! This is wonderful way of helping and empathising with your customer base. Well done!

In the email you received you have the option to opt-out of future emails (at the bottom)
Just don't come back and complain when you miss out on something you wanted, like Version 2.0 at 50% off

WOW! Who could have thought this this generous offer would meet with negativity? Affinity continues to set standards.

Or maybe you need to grow up.
What about people who own only one program and would want to take advantage of this and buy the other two.
Or people who bought programs for Mac and would also want to buy now for Windows, or the other way around.
 

Someone in your marketing department needs a promotion
 
Please keep sending me emails like this. 50% off everything in the Affinity store is a great way to reward your customers. Especially so, during the pandemic.

I am  a Surface Pro lover. Every Affinity Suite app runs well on my Win 10 little computer. But! and that is a big BUT! (not BUTT), is the not so good UI for a tablet design. One beloved UI design on Surface Pro is Leonardo (beta) that is a very simple painting and sketching program. He (the single developer) has this very god solution to a true touchscreen UI. Down at the bottom of the toolbar there is a toggle on/off button for shortcuts. That means I can work without a keyboard. Every other tool can be used without keyboard shortcuts, the alternative in a tool can be used by pressing the alt or ctrl key (or other keys). So smart!
Even the RadialMenu solution is a one mans work, and that works good too, as well as TabletPro. 
The difference to RadialMenu and TabletPro to tha Leaonardo solution is that Leaonardo's does hardly take up space on screen, while the others do
This Leonardo thing would not take so much effort from the Affinity team to deliver!? Or..?

This is an ongoing request from Surface Pro users, the UI of Affinity apps are not made for the tablet mode. Year after year there has been a request for some change, but no, Affinity/Serif does not listen, probably because they have no interest in us Surface Pro users (or any other Win Tablet users). I have my third generation of Surface tablet/computer. I can have the keyboard as attached, but then I lose the closeness to the screen as the tablet mode is meant to be. The Dial is just for desktop work, not when you are in some other place. There is an app "Radial Menu" that helps me using Affinity on Surface, still it is not the very best solution. There must be a quick way of adding some UI elements to get things better working in Affinity, like the ClipStudio has. Or Leonardo! Or Adobe Fresco! Or the oldtimer Sketchbook..!
Serif has to get working on satisfying us Surface users or Affinity users will turn back to the Adobe ecosystem. I bought Fresco yesterday to try out the full version, but that is not for my desktop, Fresco is touch screen tablets only. That is limiting. Still, it is great on the Surface tablet. No keyboard attached. 
Please Serif! Do something! I am tired of waiting...

This is an ongoing request from Surface Pro users, the UI of Affinity apps are not made for the tablet mode. Year after year there has been a request for some change, but no, Affinity/Serif does not listen, probably because they have no interest in us Surface Pro users (or any other Win Tablet users). I have my third generation of Surface tablet/computer. I can have the keyboard as attached, but then I lose the closeness to the screen as the tablet mode is meant to be. The Dial is just for desktop work, not when you are in some other place. There is an app "Radial Menu" that helps me using Affinity on Surface, still it is not the very best solution. There must be a quick way of adding some UI elements to get things better working in Affinity, like the ClipStudio has. Or Leonardo! Or Adobe Fresco! Or the oldtimer Sketchbook..!
Serif has to get working on satisfying us Surface users or Affinity users will turn back to the Adobe ecosystem. I bought Fresco yesterday to try out the full version, but that is not for my desktop, Fresco is touch screen tablets only. That is limiting. Still, it is great on the Surface tablet. No keyboard attached. 
Please Serif! Do something! I am tired of waiting...

Thank you for your response. I really like that promise since I love using my Surface tablet / computer on the go or anywhere away from my desktop. As the ClipStudio has a special workspace setting as well as Corel Painter got one for the Surface (or any other device like it) it must be possible making the same in Affinity. :)
Until this is in place I will continue using it on my desktop. 

I use Affinity Photo every day in every way on my desktop and will continue doing so. 
I find it a bit disappointing that there is no effort put into the development of the Affinity Photo to make it work better on a Windows tablet like many other illustration and painting programs. Photoshop, ClipStudio, Sketchbook Pro, Krita, Corel Painter... all works much better.
I will keep on using the Affinity suite. For painting, sketching and illustrating I will use other software both on my Surface tablet and on my desktop computer.

I have bought the latest Affinity Photo (1.7....) version that I tried out on my Surface Pro 6. Disappointed. I will not use it on that device any more, just on my desktop. Affinity is not designed for a Windows tablet, it i totally depending on the use of a keyboard, and the tablet's idea is "no keyboard". iPad has no keyboard and Affinity is designed for that. Not for Surface Pro.
I removed Affinity from my Surface Pro 6 and I stop using it for my illustration work.
ClipStudio UI is made for Surface Pro and Desktop, it is so easy to switch between my two machines without any problems. That is where I find the workspace and workflow I like and need, keeping everything easy for a digital painting artist like me.
Sorry Affinity. 
 

Adobe has made improvements to the Photoshop brush manager recently and my opinion is that Affinity Photo is well behind. I have a large collection and use them a lot, but managing them from AP is difficult. There is no way to arrange loaded brush categories alphabetically, so they become a jumble I have to fish through to find what I want. And when I do locate the correct category, selecting the brush I want is really hard with those tiny little thumbnails. Having to click on each individual cloud brush to get an idea of what it looks like is inefficient and frustrating. So if you are reading this, Serif, please do something about your inadequate brush manager. 

Just like in Photoshop I find it so slow and irritating to move around from brush category to another while illustrating, painting and drawing in Affinity. In Krita there is a brush manager where you collect your favourites, in Painter too, in ClipStudio, in SketchBook Pro it is easy to drag brushes around to collect them in one single library, and now even in Photoshop (I have not tired it yet). Why not in Affinity? Or is there a way to manage to keep your favourites in one single place already, a way I have not found out about yet?
Please, if someone knows a way to do it, to manage my favourites in one place, tell me how. If not, please developers, make a manager like the Brush Box (found on Gumroad). It will make workflow soo much better
Henry
 

Hi,
just my very first test. Loaded a RAW file, Canon 5472 x 3648 px file, and clicked develop at once in the RAW persona. It took a little more than 33 sec. until the photo was developed.
I did the same in Photoshop, the RAW file converter opened and I sent it to PS and it opened. It took 13 sec.
Affinity Photo was 20 seconds slower than PS (latest version)..! Now, that is slow. (The Affinity Photo 1.6.5.135 was 4 sec. slower than this latest beta, so it got a bit better..
I am on a Win 10. 
PS: This pic is from the same series of photos the I tested in Affinity and PS was developed in another program. Nearly instant loading and development in that program. I like that.
As a RAW converter, Affinity Photo is very slow.
Besides this I like Affinity Photo in many other respects. Use it every day, not often PS.

So glad you are bringing this up. I made a post about the same thing a few months ago and while it didn't gain much attention, a few others agreed and there doesn't seem to be an equivalent feature yet.
This really should be a higher priority. It's part of the workflow of a lot of painters and cartoon artists and the like, and pretty much every other program with layer support has it.
I know the small team at Serif already has their hands full, but I'd consider this a core functionality of the flood fill tool.

It would make sense if you had spoken with every person working in the motion graphics industry throughout the world & each of them had agreed to let you speak for them. That seems very unlikely to me, so no, it does not make sense to me.
But again, I can only speak for myself.

I don't know about anyone else but I am always impressed by someone who can speak for all of an industry! 

But that is an unrealistic expectation. For example, you can't even provide an "end user editable" Adobe Illustrator file and "know that [the recipient] can make any necessary changes in Photoshop." Illustrator can't "seamlessly" open an Adobe Fireworks or an Adobe Flash file and "make any necessary changes" nor vice-versa.
Are you aware that Adobe InDesign can neither open nor even import native Adobe Illustrator content? It can only import the PDF content that is stored within the Illustrator file. You can try this yourself. Simply save an Illustrator file without turning on the "Create PDF Compatible File" option, and then try to import it into an InDesign file. Turning that option on merely tells Illustrator to create a PDF of the entire file's content and then include it within the supposed "Adobe Illustrator" file.
File exchange between raster imaging programs has always been more "seamless" because, when it comes down to it, a raster image is a simpler construct; basically just a rectangular array of pixel color values. And since the beginning, their cross-application exchange has been accomplished by means of cross-application raster formats (.TIFF, .GIF, .JPEG, PNG, etc.)
Vector-based graphics program (drawing and page-layout) files are collections of individual, independent objects. (vector based paths, raster images, live text, and various proprietary constructs which combine and elaborate upon those objects). So unlike raster formats, there was no plethora of cross-application open exchange formats. (This is a large part of why vector-based graphics has been so long and slow in coming to the web.) There was only PostScript (EPS); basically an uneditable "locked box" which the importing program could just pass along to the printer. And not all drawing programs created PostScript output, and not all of those that did were actually full-blown PostScript interpreters.
So vendors of vector programs had to sort of "reverse engineer" their own import filters so as to claim to "open" (dissect and try to convert) competing files. And that has never been perfect, and still isn't; not even between different programs from the same vendor, because all such programs create native constructs which the other programs don't understand. For just one of many examples, both Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw provide path Blends. But that doesn't mean they are identical constructs. Both programs claim to "open" the other's files. But in either direction, the Blends are often dumbed-down to just stacks of individual paths with no "blend" functionality. Similar issues occur with other proprietary constructs.
It's the same way with CAD/CAE programs. You don't directly "open" a native Solidworks file with, say, AutoCAD; you export the Solidworks file to an exchange format, and then open that exchange format file with AutoCAD. And much is lost in the "translation."
But today there are at least a few standardized open exchange object-based formats which the various vendors can choose to implement (primarily PDF and SVG), and Affinity supports both. But even of these, PDF is not actually intended to be an editing format. And with either format, full editability at both ends of the exchange is far from "seamless" in terms of native round-trip editing, because the exchange formats do not fully support all of the native editing constructs of all the programs that use them.
That doesn't mean one can't use multiple drawing programs in the same workflow. But you have to be aware of the limitations and devise your workflow accordingly. It's always been that way anytime you try to share files between competing products, and Affinity is not to blame for that.
JET

Hi Vaaish,
The issue is that those common formats don't support all functionality/features of Adobe or Affinity software so there's no way to keep everything editable as in the original program. There's always some loss.
 

As I mentioned in the other thread, I have my workarounds about that, and other issues... I have a much more positive view about AP for painting, as PS serves for painting, too.  Indeed, AP has some advantages for actual painting over PS, due to the actual UI,  but this would be too long to explain.    I only need the 4 mentioned (which I am mentioning too much lately, I'll stop that....)  fixes. At least 3 of them are requested by everyone having tried to paint with AP, or almost everyone. What i am seeing is that... maybe, just maybe, there is a misconception. AD is the tool to draw and paint, and Photo the one for image editing/photo manipulation. The issue is that illustrators, comic creators, pixel artists, texture artist, concept artists, etc, do work majorly in raster (ps, painter, psp, etc), there are legions... they arrive, find these 4 issues, and after 5 minutes with the trial, uninstall and leave. They've often even mentioned this very thing in a one post thing, and left. if one looks at the masses in Deviantart, wow, very huge number. And that's just one of the many communities. And a bunch of hobbyists and pros are in no community, association or forum. But it's a massive number drawing and painting in raster tools. And yeah, illustration can't be done in apps where there's not even a text tool, or not a proper one, there's a ridiculous canvas size limit, can't handle CMYK for print, etc, etc. Not for serious and varied stuff to depend on it for a living, certainly.  But that's the status of most "specializing painting" tools. And they wont make an entire 2D editing app, ever. Is not their focus, and too much of a task for , generally, a single individual coding, a bedroom coder or small team.
This is what I've been doing, and can keep on doing. But it would be so much more interesting to do it in AP. I don't see the other two so much better, either. Yes in the brush system, but features and UI... not so much. krita has quite some issues, I'm realizing that in latest weeks... Even while I wish for it the best.
It has a way... but gotta get used to certain workflow.... and build certain custom UI distribution. Is not as configurable as CSP, but stuff can be done.
I believe one of the problems is you, probably, are not comfortable either illustrating in PS, while I always was. I handle anything not on reach by shortcuts, I don't even use context menu by RMB in any app, not even krita, the movement is slower for me, my left hand is already always in the keyboard. Keys are always faster to me, set up in the tablet buttons, or specially in the 2 pen side buttons, and the rest in the good old keyboard. It's speed of light. This allows to be a lot more independent and free from the UI, only needing the core functioning (ie, brush) being solid.
I do... PS. At any company, I can do absolutely everything with it, and extremely comfortable. What I like about AP and AD is how close it feels to that. See? There lays the difference... I am very comfortable painting in PS, and I do every sort of drawing and painting style.... is probably for having two very different ways of work, even if the activity is surely very similar in terms of drawing and painting. This is an old story. A ton of people has always disliked PS for painting, and usually moved to Painter. Others, like me, can't stand to loose the extra features one has in PS that are not in Painter. Like the inability to even do a CMYK conversion. Heck, this has been like for ever in Corel Photopaint ! Most painting tools don't have it (CSP is a rare exception) And Photopaint is a tool for raster image editing (despite the mixed name, lol)....Not their painter (which is, obviously, Painter, lol)
Yep. Here resides really the problem. You are trying it not to be PS, because you don't want to paint in sth like PS, by any means, you almost hate it for that, which is the opposite case of mine. But a ton of concept artists, illustrators, and etc which I knew at game companies, do use Photoshop for drawing and painting, of course, AAA quality work. Reason why I have no issues with the UI for painting, but yep with the brush system and color picker, as these issues are not in PS, neither in CSP, SAI, not even in Gimp, these days !  But the UI, I don't need anything, all is shortcut-able, you can pretty well set certain color panel for fast picking color (there's a great tut out there in a good setup for painting with AP, from certain user), you have even a latest colors used extra panel, and several other smart details. But  those 4 issues are right now a barrier. I am neither in a real hurry. I believe they might get fixed, or might not, as this is a private project, they decide as they see fit, obviously, and it could be very well leaving the brush and painting status as-is, no change. It is very much their call ! We cannot really complain there. Even less when the tool is good for a subset of what PS does, if not for illustration and etc, till those (or if) get fixed.
Or CSP, isn't it ?
Yep, I remember this as being your workflow. Photoline, in my tests, did also the zoomed-out jitter drawing issue, too, and had other painting-related issues... I know, you use it only for that....
Indeed, the 1 bit requirement is definitely not in every illustration gig....  Sometimes, not even in comic.
It's a glove, for me. I don't even notice it, it's natural.  I don't have any issues with it for painting (therefor, neither with AP UI...), sorry....
Yep, this concept varies outstandingly from one artist to another. In games, I've seen, and worked with, full armies of artists using exclusively PS for painting and drawing, me included
I believe it will never do for you, as you require a "painting" dedicated UI. I don't... only the fixes in the brush and picker....Which is way less than an overhaul on the UI and whole structure...luckily, as I was saying, a lot of other artists are used to PS for painting.... Both pros and hobbyists.
For what you look for in a painting tool, you should not hope for that, IMO... And indeed, stick with CSP, Krita, Rebelle, Paintsotrm Studio, Art Rage, Sketchbook Pro. Those are specialized UIs for painting. I am in a massive other group who does not need it, and need the powerful raster editing capabilities, like AP has... Again, this ain't bad or good. Is old as the Spectrum and Amiga... there have always been people hating painting in PS, and people not willing to miss features by opting for the more comfortable Painter. And in its day, was around 50%, or more for the PS people... (today, at least in studios, etc, I believe the PS portion is even bigger) . Among other reasons, because the same person that does the concept art, drawing for splash screens, pixel art, is also told to do the UI pieces, and graphics for the web, etc. having worked in small studios, I used to have to do everything (in my case, including modeling, animation, video edit, etc) . You are a thousand times better off with a full work horse that makes everything. I am also a defender of the specialized tools, though. But what sth like PS or AP gives you, and it being capable to allow you the whole production with that main integration tool... that's extremely good specially with tight deadlines and the crazily varied nature of certain jbs in certain small companies (in games, but also in regular software developers and web design / agencies...been at all those, and a few more types...)
I already have, with nice results. Two of my 4 brush-core issues disappear in that use case due to the only typical way one works in pixel art (zoomed in, often not needing large lines like in inking, etc). Pixel art is already in the list of things I can do already with AP...I can even do it with just the reduced set that is Pixel Persona in AD.
I never really liked the UI, althou prefer it to ZB's, and I see it pricey (even if about 50% of ZB, but ZB is the standard always requested for every job !, even for freelancing, too) for the % of gigs I get (I don't tend to take them) in that area...
I meant textures for low pol, or basic VR, abit old school, low res... for current gen games, is all PBR based, need to use sth like Substance painter and Designer in combination with ZB , Mudbox or 3D Coat. I was thinking more of 2D textures for design, etc, and low pol 3D games (I also model, high and low) , or textures for high res 2D games.
Agree, terrible.
Blender and Wings 3D for the win. And Max at any company, it is still the habit in the local companies around here. Have handled Maya when requested. Not my cup of tea, tho.
Agree... I don't even see that much of a point in introducing that in Krita. Is frakensteining a bit a tool, which can have a varied focus, but not that much. And I love the krita anim features, they are nicely built, and convenient for me, though. But is cramming a  lot of extra functionality, and UIs are limited in space... Plus, diveting too much the implementation effort, IMO. But having a bit of painting, and image editing in same app.... I know is not your case, but believe me, is massive out there... PS artists out there....tons. "They are legion". And more importantly, they are a critic mass in the companies (not just in game developer studios). IMO, it is one of the keys to throw a deadly torpedo in the top dog's floating line....
I don't see the point of those. And even less when there are a big variety of tools, free and cheap, out there, doing exactly that, which are very complete, often not needing anything else for whole projects. I don't get it. But do realize how this is almost never requested by animation professionals. 
For you....then.
It would be very long to explain, but there is a lot of projects, a lot of people, that need a mix of graphic design and illustration, as a whole pack, and where the tasks are so connected that one is doing, and often, has to do so, almost all at a time. Or mixing the two graphic areas very tightly, making having a text tool a need. Among other things. I don't typically do comics, lately. But it seems is your case or a big part of it...I do comic like illustration (a lot) as one of the styles requested. 
Anyone doing collage art mixed with illustration ( it is illustration as a whole, indeed) needs this too, even if as a mere base.
It seems you are thinking mostly in comics creation.... I do a wildly varied set of tasks.... 
If you get to be able to use one for all, and be pretty fast with it ( I do illustration, game textures and all sort of assets for games, graphic design, etc, with PS at companies) it gets the huuuge advantage of not having to go to other tools, and have less issues, speed up the process due to other reasons. This while my current setup is using CSP, a bit krita and a bunch others. But only as I don't want to get into a subscription system, to be brutally sincere... Meaning, I only need a PS-like for everything. Even making coffee. Or tea. Of any flavor.
A lot of ppl liked Nezumi... never my case...CSP has the best one, followed by Krita's, imo. But I have tried latest CC 2018 trial (the app eats hardware resources for breakfast, now, but I guess is totally fine in a modern machine. Indeed, it can work in a very low machine with certain key adjustments, loosing some of the new features) one... really a work of art, its stabilizer (about time)  That one is really good, and the entire brush system. If the latest you tried was a CS PS, it is now another world. Still, CSP's stabilizer is better.
IMO, Photo is amazing for practically anything image editing related. I maintain my main purpose... To use it for illustration, too...
 

We're currently using LensFun for obtaining camera lens vignetting, unfortunately they don't support your camera yet (you can see the list of supported lenses here http://lensfun.sourceforge.net/lenslist/).