Aongus Collins

No, it doesn't seem to work in a freeform or AI envelope way. On first glance the most powerful envelope distortion feature in this release appears to be isometric projection. A group consisting of text, curves and shapes can be projected on to any isometric plane, then flipped, rotated, moved on that plane and even projected on to another plane. Most impressively, the text remains editable. Otherwise, while text frames can be rotated, text must be converted to curves (expanded) before any skewing can happen. It would be good to see such functionality expanded beyond the confines of the Isometric Panel: the ability to skew type can be really useful in other forms of perspective drawing.

The Node tool’s new Transform Mode allows for a high level of distortion and transformation. Now in addition to the traditional rectangular selection, it’s possible to lasso-select points freehand style. Designer highlights the selected points in a bounding box on which operations such as skew, scale, move, rotate etc can be performed. Just started exploring this feature, which promises to be very powerful. I’ve used mesh fills in Illustrator for years, and look forward to seeing them in Designer some day! A knife tool would work faster (though probably less precisely) than my current practice of selecting points and clicking ‘Break Curve.’

Bullets and Numbering working fine on my system... haven't had a chance to explore other text features.

In the absence of video tutorials, the documentation has been updated to cover new features such as construction mode and changes to the pen & pencil tools. There is a minor glitch in the section on the Isometric panel — some images are missing. Otherwise great job!

As a sole trader, I'm interested in some of the points you raised. 1. Typically companies or traders ask for a VAT invoice in order to reclaim that part of a transaction when they submit a VAT return later. Software vendors such as Smith Micro have set up systems that allow customers to input their national VAT IDs in the checkout pages and -- in accordance with international agreements -- those purchases are zero-rated. I'd like to see Serif adopt that system in time, but currently their prices are so low as not to make it a big issue. 2. My understanding is that Serif's licence is basically per user, not per machine. If I have a number of computers, I may use the software on only one system at a time. If I hire an employee or a sub-contractor, I need to purchase an additional licence. This is good: if a machine dies, the licence lets me use the software on a replacement. If business expands to the point where I must employ someone else, the cost of an extra licence would be very small in comparison to my employer's liabilities!

Congratulations on your Windows launch. I've already got the Mac version, running it on a fairly powerful Mac Pro with lots of memory and a decent graphics card. My Windows laptop, on the other hand, is entry-level. I'm really impressed by Designer's responsiveness on the lower-spec machine. Subjectively, it's not a million miles from a workstation performance, at least when working on relatively straight forward files such as cartoons. And it works beautifully with a Wacom Intuous tablet. Affinity Designer is amazing value for pro software. The value proposition is even better when you factor in that Designer allows you to use older hardware for longer (also an environmental benefit!).

I've had the same experience. Purchased on the 20th, but the order is still listed as "pending." In an earlier post, Serif said there was an issue with some zip codes, and they were planning to clear it by Monday. Fingers crossed!

This issue was dealt with previously and is now marked as fixed: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/1157-vector-brush-tool-crashing-release-candidate-1/ Unfortunately I was able to reproduce it today in RC3, when the program crashed after I'd drawn about 25 brush strokes. Crash report attached. Crash Report 24 Sept Vector Brush.zip

Actually there were no bitmap images in this file, just simple vector shapes down-saved to Illustrator EPS 8 format. I'm attaching the EPS I used. test import size eps.zip

I have been able to repeat this. 1. Create graphic in Illustrator, sized 80mm X 80 mm 2. On import into Affinity, the artwork dimensions change to 60 mm X 60 mm.

Thanks MEB! I've got it now.

How do you skew on the canvas... contextual menu or a tool? I can't find out how in the online help.

Hello Matt, I've just emailed two old Freehand files. They're old newspaper and magazine illustrations, and not at all confidential. I can't open them myself, but I'm attaching JPGs as well. Regards Aongus Collins

You can specify CMYK colours by moving sliders in the colour palette. Just like Illustrator or Photoshop. Affinity presents a colour wheel in the colour palette by default, but If you click the options icon at the top right of the palette, you'll see a down-menu offering a choice of 3 methods of specifying colour: Wheel, Sliders and Box. If you select Sliders, you can then choose from a number of colour modes: CMYK, RGB, LAB greyscale and more.

Hi, I’ve been playing with the smart nodes. It brought to mind a technique used by some Flash animators and designers to create characters or props for animation. The idea is to start out with a very simple geometrical shape — a rectangle. (In Affinity, you would then need to make the primitive shape editable by clicking the Convert to Curves in the context toolbar.) The next step is to add nice curves to the boxlike object. Smart Nodes let you do this simply by clicking and dragging with the node tool anywhere in a line between two existing points (nodes). This can be used to create economical, stylised graphics. It can be quicker and more intuitive than adding nodes and adjusting direction handles. I’ve seen some very attractive designs done in this way using Flash, and the viewer would never guess their humble geometric origin… Usually the artists work from a scanned pencil sketch.