debraspicher

Yes and I find that particular quote you and @bbrother cited to be both stubborn and insulting when there are years and years of unaddressed efforts by the users of this forum. That's why I refuse to participate in the betas at this point. It's counterintuitive. They have rode off into the sunset after literally cashing out on all our goodwill but still only have vague insinuations production could be higher (relying again on our imaginings of what could be), but then insist "nothing will change". They were acquired, not as a blessing but out of necessity, so clearly a lot needs to change.

Yes and I find that particular quote you and @bbrother cited to be both stubborn and insulting when there are years and years of unaddressed efforts by the users of this forum. That's why I refuse to participate in the betas at this point. It's counterintuitive. They have rode off into the sunset after literally cashing out on all our goodwill but still only have vague insinuations production could be higher (relying again on our imaginings of what could be), but then insist "nothing will change". They were acquired, not as a blessing but out of necessity, so clearly a lot needs to change.

INDEED arrogant sales nonsense that I and others have warned about sounds as if it was written by a bad used car salesman. It's condescending, inaccurate, and boastful drivel that is so damaging to Serif's credibility as a company, they have likely already painted themselves into a corner as far as all professionals are concerned, those who have read it first and then tried the programs. Serif may shudder at the thought of how much they have isolated themselves from professional customers at that level with such words that simply do not hold true.
As I've said, it's not enough with financial resources; it's about the attitude and professionalism at Serif, which needs to go up several levels. Something radical needs to happen before radical results can be expected. Not tweaks.

These are my biggest fears.
Because I expect and would like development to move in such a direction that Affinity programs become truly professional tools equipped with mature and high-quality functions, which means, for example:
top-notch rendering library (no redraw issues, smooth zoom-in-out without flashing render tiles, no delays in rendering / updating thumbnails) professional object styles (dedicated dialog, ability to either clear and replace all object settings or replace only specific ones or save defaults) Split/ span columns  professional spread and page management (multi-page spreads, moving and page reorder) foolproof color managment and pdf export workflow comparable to a professional tool (without reinventing the wheel, where everything has been working optimally for many years) true vector brushes and patterns vector symmetry tools symbols libraries variable font support creating cutom glyph sets drag-n-drop to rearrange columns and rows in table tables across multiple page or inside text frames envelope distort (using selected object as a shape for the envelope) and more and more... Otherwise, I can't imagine how Affinity would compete with Adobe, which is what the owners of Canva declare.
 
And for God's sake, stop this type of marketing↓
With all my sympathy and respect for your programs, it has nothing to do with reality. What's more, such arrogant marketing, unsupported by quality, slowly becomes distasteful and discourages rather than encourages people to buy your products.
You can advertise your product in a more balanced way without treating your current and potential customers like mindless idiots.

If there is a way, it’s far from obvious! However, the URLs of thumbnails for a YT video can easily be determined from the YouTube ID.
For the video at https://youtu.be/v-QLiJiSvWE, the default HQ thumbnail is at https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v-QLiJiSvWE/hqdefault.jpg (and there are tiny and huge versions named ‘default.jpg’ and ‘maxresdefault.jpg’, respectively).

It is well accepted, I think, that humans can study the work of other humans and learn from it and improve their own work. Even there, though, if you study the work of a living artist and produce something too similar to one of the existing works, you may be sued for copyright infringement.
The difference with AI, I think, is more a matter of scale, and of not knowing exactly how the source material is being copied or modified.

I agree with @philipt18 on the benefits but the site needs a professionals area, in general. Typesetting (but a bright broader?... print design maybe?) could be one sub in such an area.
May I also point out to staff it would not only better show to you how your users actually solve their daily problems, make proper use of the suite, but show painpoints and room for improvement in a more straightforward way. Right now we can only assume how others actually work. Anyway, it woukd show to everyday visitors the software and its real world usecase beyond just the occassional tutorial.
Also, it allow users to interact more one on one without being lost in technical support jargon and exchange critical insights. Right now that energy is wasted because it often gets hidden in offtopic dialogue. The prominence of which just shows the community is being underutilized.

I think a professional design area would be great. Print Design would be fine as well. If there were a bunch of sub-forums then Book Design might be good as well, as it has its own challenges.

The tools we end up using in the grand scheme are not the be all, end all of what sets us apart professionally as designers. Those focusing on which tools were used ("I used these long before these other 4 things came along!") have missed the point entirely.
If an artist is exclusively using Procreate, for example, to make a very decent living, then it doesn't matter in the end whether it is considered "pro" tools to that person. They balk at these discussions because they're often maligned by the elitist crowd as if they're exempt from the industry overall because they use an iPad over Mac/PC, etc. That discussion happened earlier and it is ironic given what gave Affinity its head start.
Affinity benefited a great deal from embracing this crowd, but they risk falling into the same counter-productive rat race as Adobe trying to score points by packing on half-baked features but not refining the programs to keep intact what sets them apart from traditionally industry tools, practically speaking.
One of the major reason programs like Procreate are so popular are because they are snappy, simple, yet highly polished and help produce deliverable productions with great UX. It is very accessible to people who need a workflow that works best with their creativity rather than being hobbled down with overbuilt functionality, needless knobs, dialogs, bugs, etc.
I imagine its also why some people don't upgrade to V2. Just a thought.

i enjoyed reading  TidBITS   take on the issue:
Canva Acquires the Affinity Suite
 
 
 
 
;

Hi everybody 👋🏼 still new to the forum, but have been using Designer and Publisher for a couple of years now.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is currently a way to export that wireframe mode look outside of removing fills and leaving only a thin outline.
See attachment for reference.
So I wanted to suggest this feature, possibly as an option in the export window.
Cheers! 🍻

I think of AI somewhat like how I think of langauge translation programs, namely that, if, for example, I view a video of a song in a language that I do not know and I wonder what it means, if I find the lyrics of the song in that language on the web, then the translation program translating from that language to English gives me a good impression of what the song is about, but I would not use the translation program to publish something that I had written translated into a language that I do not know.
William
 
 

As @biomed32uk hasn't popped in to see your question, Bruce, maybe this example will help.

I think that Serif could easily include the dimensions in the 'custom presets' function in the export window (well hidden as it is behind the little three-line menu icon). It records the selected resizing algorithm, so why not the dimensions?!
Yet again, Serif – almost there, but no cigar…
I so often have to export several photos in predetermined sizes for websites that being able to create our own export presets with specified sizes would be very welcome. Given that it is common in other software (at least from my perspective), it looks like an odd omission. What we seem to have now is either a custom preset or a resize option, but not both.

Pure tragedy

MYSTERY SOLVED
Hello all, just heard back from Bob Byrne, the author of the Shizzle style pack.
The world/globe icons mean that those styles will tile/repeat seamlessly! 

The tools we end up using in the grand scheme are not the be all, end all of what sets us apart professionally as designers. Those focusing on which tools were used ("I used these long before these other 4 things came along!") have missed the point entirely.
If an artist is exclusively using Procreate, for example, to make a very decent living, then it doesn't matter in the end whether it is considered "pro" tools to that person. They balk at these discussions because they're often maligned by the elitist crowd as if they're exempt from the industry overall because they use an iPad over Mac/PC, etc. That discussion happened earlier and it is ironic given what gave Affinity its head start.
Affinity benefited a great deal from embracing this crowd, but they risk falling into the same counter-productive rat race as Adobe trying to score points by packing on half-baked features but not refining the programs to keep intact what sets them apart from traditionally industry tools, practically speaking.
One of the major reason programs like Procreate are so popular are because they are snappy, simple, yet highly polished and help produce deliverable productions with great UX. It is very accessible to people who need a workflow that works best with their creativity rather than being hobbled down with overbuilt functionality, needless knobs, dialogs, bugs, etc.
I imagine its also why some people don't upgrade to V2. Just a thought.

I'd say we are not yet burned again. I lived through the Macromedia-Adobe situation. We are not quite there yet and maybe never will be. It is different. Adobe already had pro apps.

Be careful with how you just worded that. Some companies charge for the right to post on their forums. (It's been brought up already)

The user can look forward to paying for access to obscure Mac hardware references, bad software jokes and a chance to face off with a random Serif employee in a vicious death match over whether certain functionality is a feature or a bug. $5/mo. Free with paid Canva membership.

Same. I'm an optimist in many ways in my own living, but as far as software and the ways of the world, I save my energy for productive things and try to lead life with common sense. Common sense is that change is the only constant. I believe generally in my own capabilities at this point and whatever happens, I will adapt.

That said, I really hope that the team that does remain, whether they stay or go, find some meaningful way to take the critical energies we spent here and put them to some good use. That's the most I ever expected, tbqh.

It's become a chat thread at this point. If they want to keep it up, it'll help keep the Canva-related tensions off the rest of the forum as all discussions-related can be pointed to here...

It's become a chat thread at this point. If they want to keep it up, it'll help keep the Canva-related tensions off the rest of the forum as all discussions-related can be pointed to here...

So I hear Patrick could be handing out buttons (of course, they'll be hyperlinked) for us to wear pretty soon... (It's a joke, watch the end of the video)

Another angle for balance. Everything is still speculative, so this is just for side analysis... the above is a more positive take per a current Canva user
Edit: Does anyone know if YT embeds can be resized?

Yeah the thumbnail is clickbait which is typical. I found the commentary quite mild on average, but YMMV.

The first video was very interesting; solid points. The second video... It's something I can't really define, but there was "something" -very subtle- on the thumbnail that did not make me wish to watch it   
I don't know of any method (like I do in other forums). But I can think of hitting there at the bottom once you paste the youtube link on the post, where it says something like "this was pasted as rich text, click here to use it as plain text", as what it does is just showing the mere youtube (clickable) links, filling up no space. If you would want it more sophisticated, maybe making a screenshot of the thumbnail, saving to the size you prefer (ie, a 200px width image), inserting the images into the post, then making those images links (with the chain icon (besides the quotes one) after selecting each image) using each Youtube video URL.    

Be careful with how you just worded that. Some companies charge for the right to post on their forums. (It's been brought up already)

The user can look forward to paying for access to obscure Mac hardware references, bad software jokes and a chance to face off with a random Serif employee in a vicious death match over whether certain functionality is a feature or a bug. $5/mo. Free with paid Canva membership.