Hokusai

joost, Thanks for the suggestions, no I don't have any issues with any other graphics software. The odd thing is, even Affinity Photo runs smoothly and I've never had it lock up or crash at all. Even with Designer, when it locks up my computer, it isn't do anything CPU intensive or anything only panning (panning using the hand tool), if it was a problem because of an insufficient amount of RAM then I would imagine that it would happen when doing really complex boolean operations but it doesn't (it seems to me that the boolean operations are getting faster and able to handle more complex shapes better).

MattP or MEB, First of all let me just say that I love the software and I know that you guys are working hard to add new things and to improve other things but I'm still having the same issue that I wrote about above. It is an issue that I've been having ever since I first started using Affinity Designer last November. It is rather intermittent but it seems to be happening a lot more recently and it is making me crazy. Are there any known issues with ATI Graphics cards? When I'm using Affinity Designer it locks up my whole computer, to the point where I have to hard boot it. There is no crash report generated, I'm guessing because the program doesn't crash, it freezes up and I can't access anything else (I can't force quit, nothing). I work on some complex files but it doesn't matter whether or not the drawing is complex or not, I still get lock ups with simple drawings too. I do use Japanese occasionally but it isn't my main language, I don't know if that would make any difference. I saw a post where another user, Garytagreg was having problems and he mentioned that he also uses Japanese as a secondary language and so I was just curious? It seems to be graphics related (graphic card related but that is only a guess) because it always happens when I move and the screen has to redraw. It seems strange, normally I save frequently but there are times when I forget to save and I do a lot of drawing, this is normally when I get a lock up. If I save often (and I mean often, like every 30 second) then it seems to keep the mysterious lock ups away but not always. I set the RAM usage to the max in the preferences and it helped at first but now it doesn't seem to make any difference. Any ideas as to what is causing my problems? I have never had any lock ups with any other programs and it only happens when I'm using Affinity Designer. I love the software and I would love to figure out what is causing the problems that I'm having so I can focus on being creative. Thanks in advance for any help or insight that you can offer, Hokusai

DesignNorth, I can understand how you feel. I think having a manual (a physical book) next to you that you can refer to is great but I like it to be an option as there are some applications where I don't want the manual and I'd rather not have to pay for it if I don't want or need it. I do have a question, you said that your purchased manuals for InDesign, Photoshop, & Illustrator but did you purchase them from Adobe or from another company (like the Missing Manual series for example)? Just curious.

joost, I'm glad that it helped. I know what you mean about the highlight being too subtle and I agree, it is too light or thin. I too have problems when I select multiple items and it contains items that are stacked on top of each other, it is very difficult to see whether or not objects that are inside have been selected or not. The only sure way for me to know (as it works now) is to check the Layers Panel but I too would prefer it if there was a way to have a stronger highlight line or a line that was more clearly noticeable. Maybe MEB or MattP has a possible solution? Hokusai

Busenitz, I'm not sure if this is the same as you're asking for but if you use the gradient tool and then go to the context menu and click on "type" you have the choice of using a bitmap as the fill. Or are you talking about something different?

joost, I'm not sure if this is something that would help you in your situation but I often use the contextual menu (control + click or right click if you use a two button mouse). If you have an object selected and then you command + click on an object you will get a contextual menu and it has the option to "Find in the Layers Panel" which will take you directly to where it is in the Layers Panel. I hope it helps. Hokusai

MattP, Thanks again to you and all of the Affinity team for all the hard work! I like that you added this "Command+W now hides the application frame if there were no documents open, just like pressing the red cross in the top left of the window." I'm still hoping that one day I will see "Hide/Show All" sometime when I first launch a new beta (but I know that you guys have a full plate but hopefully sometime down the road)! Thanks again! Hokusai

MEB, Thanks a lot for the info! I saw the "Selection" button on the context toolbar but it didn't realise what it was for. Hokusai

omegaman, It worked for me just as MEB said but for me, I would like to have a palette or a flyout menu that gave me more info (and choices) for the clipping path. Hokusai

MEB, Thanks for the info! I'm glad to hear that clipping paths are supported. You said that it isn't possible to convert a selection into a path right now but how about converting a path into a selection? I'm guessing it isn't possible? Hokusai

I too would like to know about clipping paths. Does Affinity Photo plan to support them and as well, enable us to create them in Affinity Photo (maybe there is a way but if there is I couldn't find it). Hokusai

+1, I agree with ronnyb, being able to link layers would be very useful in both Photo and Designer!

ronnyb, I agree with you, this is something that is very important and useful to anyone doing prepress work or preparing files to be sent to a commercial printer. You can check which fonts are outlines and which ones are not very quickly. I requested this feature a couple of months ago but no one posted anything about it and so I just figured that I was one of the few that used it in Illustrator ( Hokusai

Ben & MEB, Thanks for the responses. I wasn't sure what it is but now that I know I can imagine that I get it when I change to "outline" view and I hit command + Y and I hit the "Y" key first. I thought it was the Node tool because it is white like the Node tool but I was mistaken. Hokusai

Sometimes what looks like a wine glass appears next to the Node tool. Could someone enlighten me over what it is for?

MEB, Thanks for the tip, I looked through the menus for "Step and Repeat" but I didn't see that option and to be honest, even after looking at the Transform tab, it doesn't appear overly obvious how to to do it or that you can even step and repeat. If I hadn't seen the video that you posted, I would never have guessed how to use it. I was looking for fields that say "Step: ____mm (cm, inches, etc) Repeat: ____ times" but there isn't any such field. To make matters even more confusing, there is a "R" and a "S". Now normally in a Transform tab, I would guess these to be rotate and skew but the fact that you can also step and repeat using the same tab is confusing. Why not just have the whole word "rotate" and "skew"? For me, I like the old Quark Xpress "step and repeat" dialogue box, super simple and straight forward. I do like the extra things that I can do using the Power Duplicate in Affinity Designer but I request that it be a little more user-friendly and intuitive, of course that is just me. Hokusai

MEB, I like Affinity Designer's "power duplicate" feature, it is easy and works well but I think for some people (like prepress people as well as some designers too), being able to enter the exact amount of space between each item that you want to step and repeat is essential. For many people, just dragging the item to set the distance works great but when it has to be precise, I'm not sure it is enough. Are there any plans to put a dialogue box with options for stepping and repeating? Hokusai

retrograde, I agree with you. Recently I too had been noticing duplicate elements on top of each and I couldn't figure out why, but now I know. I too am always using the option drag and while the command drag might have its uses, I would like to be able to disable it.

A_B_C, Thanks for the link, I had no idea. I just used option + drag as that is the basic standard Mac copy procedure but it is useful to know the difference between the two. Hokusai

I too would like to put in a +1 for this as well! It isn't something that is crucial for me but it is nice to have and very useful at times.

ronnyb, Wow, thanks for the tip (I know that you didn't intend for it to be a tip, but it was a tip for me)! I didn't know the command + drag would copy things. I use option + drag to copy. Is there a difference between option + drag and command + drag? For me, I have issues with command + J (duplicate). When I use the keyboard shortcut, it duplicates things (in place) but after using it several times, the behavior changes to more of a "step and repeat" kind of behavior (but not really step and repeat but it doesn't duplicate the item in place, it offsets it). I haven't for the life of me figured out why it does that. Hokusai

MattP, Thanks for considering it. I recommend to give it a try in Illustrator (if you have a copy ;)). Command click on the Visibility icon of a layer will make only that layer Outlines, as karim said, for complex drawings it is very helpful. Hokusai

karim, Have you tried using the Split View? It is very useful but It isn't the same as what you are talking about. I agree with you, there are times when it would be very useful to be able to change one layer to outlines while leaving others as regular view. You can do this in Illustrator and while it isn't something that I used to use a lot, when I needed it, it was a life-saver. Hokusai

MEB, No, I'm not using any applications that would interfere with the shortcuts. The only thing that has changed for me since I first started using Affinity Designer Last November is I changed to a different mouse. I'm now using an Apple "mighty mouse" with the scroll wheel but I have deactivated the zoom on the mouse via the preferences. Thanks for looking into it. Hokusai

MEB, Sorry I can't give you particular examples I just know that often when I'm using either the move tool or the node tool and I want to zoom in or out, I can't access the magnifying glass without selecting it in the tool bar. As well there are occasions when I have issues with the move tool and the node tool, I can't access them using the keyboard shortcuts (but I can access them if I go to the tool bar and click on them). Hokusai