LilleG

JPG does not support transparency. I think your file needs to be a png.

Ash takes a quick look at two of the new features which will be coming to Affinity Designer in version 1.5: Constraints and Symbols.
MattP also posted a small demo/preview of Symbols some time ago here.
 
If you pay attention to the first video you may also discover a highly requested feature/improvement.... :)

The beta looks for the MAS and so the MAS is the "key" for the beta to work.
The every MAS has a different key (maybe the beta just creates a hash from certain parts of the MAS install?).
Anyway, the current MAS is as new if not even more up to date than the latest beta so in theory there should be no need to access the beta.
 
One valid problem I see though is that the beta descriptions states "This build should be considered more stable than the current MAS version (1.4.1) and should be used in preference to that build."
- if people follow that rule and build presets etc. in the beta, they now loose access to those presets which is unfortunate.

Creating Indents, First Line Indents, and tab stops should be a more "graphical" procedural, besides having the option to adjust the values numerically.
It is a pain and a hit & miss process to add tab stops that are just created numerically.
FreeHand had the most amazing (optional) Text Ruler where we could, just by dragging, adjust the Indent/First Line Indent and all types of Tab Stops.
 

csp:
 
Yes. It is frustrating and we have been promised this problem will be solved.
 
> i understand your frustration but i think tonyB is absolut right, without some support from the pluggin developers side the problem is not really solvable.
 
I disagree. Clearly other pixel developers have solved this problem since my Topaz plugins all work in those other editors, so the problem must be solvable. If photoLine can launch my plugins there is no reason I can see that AP should not be able to. And, as I said, there are other solutions to this problem.
 
1) Surely there are contract engineers who know how to solve this problem. Serif could let a contract for one or two of them to work to complete the interface. The companies that I worked for before I returned did that sort of thing all the time to solve knotty problems.
 
2)  They could implement an external application call rather than just a plugin interface. That would allow users to call external apps and the plugins could be called through those. An external app interface would solve many of my problems.
 
3) They could tell us what is going on. They have been completely silent on this whole subject for some time now. If they are working on the problem and have some expected solution date, then they should tell us. If they believe that the present state of the plugin functionality is all that will be developed, then they should tell us so.
 
tonyB's comment was that the plugin manufacturers place files where Adobe products are and the implication is that they will not be anyplace accessible if there are no Adobe products on the system, but Topaz places its products in /Library/Application Support/Topaz Labs and they are there for all to see and use. Dxo places its plugins at /Library/Application Support/Dxo Labs. OnOne places its plugins at /Library/Application Support/OnOne Software. And so on. It is not like they are hidden.
 
I don't want this to sound like a rant. I love AP but I am just frustrated by the lack of communications about this and feel that I have no idea when, if ever, this problem will be addressed. If Serif were Adobe I would expect this kind of silence but the moderators and developers of AP were been so willing to share what was happening up to launch that I am puzzled by this lack of information.
 
As an owner of AP I want it to prosper and grow but I believe it will never become what it is capable of without the ability to run plugins in some fashion.

Hi!
 
Pigmento is a set of 84 raster brushes carefully handcrafted for digital painters
Designed for Affinity Photo and Designer, this set offer natural media look and feel. Acrylics, Gouaches, Oils and more with expressive colour dynamics and tablet responsiveness to speed, pressure and direction.
Now updated with DAUB Spatula set (12 new tools for Paint Mixer Tool) and a new classification: you'll find them in different categories, hopefully now it should be easier to spot the correct tool!
Check this video for a quick sample!
 
This set is fully compatible with Windows and iOS Version of Affinity.

This is a quick concept done using one of the included tool, to show the colour dynamic and blending features.
 
 
 
Some Tips
 
DAUB Grunge Acrylic 4
This is a brush that creates nice textures with a glaze effect and continuous tone modulation using pen pressure.
You can use it as a pure cover changing the blending mode to Normal.
 
Do you know that with Pixel tool presets if you press CMD key while painting you can erase using the same preset?
 
Get it here
 
I'll improve these tool with free updates, so if you want those please add your real email to the purchase page.
 
Happy Painting!
Paolo
 

Tracing will come in the future - but it will be a new 'Persona' (one of the main buttons along the top left of the window) so that it can have its own UI and tools. We have a fair few ideas for this - not just the obvious... :)  It's not coming any time soon though, I'm afraid to say...

Hi bobsagun,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
This is coming in version 1.5 available as a Beta before the end of this month.

Just bought mine with PayPal.  No problems.  Great brushes, Paulo.  And a great price.
 
Edit:      Oh man!  Just been playing with the brushes. These things are great!  I expected them to be good, based on the freebies you've shared with us, but these are fantastic.  

Great Kevin, it is exactly the effect I meant to reproduce.
This is the perfect assist for the tip of the week!
 

 
Pigmento Sponge is something between a chalk and a sponge, with a slow build-up effect for overlapping tones.
You can use it tapping with your nib or stroke as you did.
 
Nozzle is nothing special here, but there are custom ramps for HSL and you can notice a luminosity variation with pressure too.
The painterly effect is a bit digital, but very pleasant.
I use it as a concept tool, to roughly add volume to shapes.
 
There is a small surprise too...
If you double click it and go to Texture, you'll find a canvas texture embedded that is None by default.
Turn it to Nozzle and you have a further variation of this preset on a cloth canvas!  ;)

Good evening everyone!

I'd like to propose the following feature:
"Derived colors" --> "Derived color is a color that dynamically depends on another color (a Global Color in Affinity case). It is derived from the parent color using some of the built-in color operations"

• change opacity
• change hue
• change brightness
• change saturation
• apply shadow
• apply highlight
• copy

You can watch Derived Color in action in a software like PaintCode here on YouTube

I hope you'll agree how great and efficient for productivity this is :)
This concept was far before used into the amazing Opacity.app which still yet, provide some unbeaten feature anywhere else.
 
Cheers,

Hi gfrank,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
No, there's no way to dim the display area outside the crop. I'm moving this thread to the Feature Requests section.

Is there a way to have a type of "lights-out" function in the crop tool? Specifically, to turn on a function that dims or entirely blacks out the area of a photo that is outside of the crop window? So when moving the crop window, only the area inside the crop window can be seen.

Of course it is? What did you not understand? for example is there a pressing need for a raw develop module in Affinity Designer?  I'd say not but perhaps you can see an advantage in complicating designer to include this function.  There is no need to preload every possible thing you might need at some point , maybe 1 day this month. Lean and fast beats bloated and slow.  

What I think would help a lot is if the grid could be implemented as a layer, one that could be shown or hidden like any other layer type & set to various blend modes so that for example the exclusion or difference modes could be used to improve visibility as needed.

It would help if when starting a new thread I'd have to click 'AP / AD / both' - this would allow filtering the threads and the search results.
 
Same for 'Mac / Windows / both' later.

Ah, that's encouraging.  I don't mind being patient if there's something to be patient for.

DEPRECATED THREAD
The Photo tutorials listed below have been refreshed and moved. Please see this new thread or use the Affinity site Photo Desktop tutorials webpage
 
In support of our fantastic photo editing app, please use this comprehensive and structured set of videos for accelerated learning!
The video tutorials are available on Vimeo and YouTube via these links:
 
Vimeo - http://affin.co/PhotoVids
YouTube - http://affin.co/photoyt

We now have a specific Beginners Series of videos tailored to absolute beginners, with a more manageable pacing and focus on concepts and straightforward procedures. They all include subtitles to aid understanding.

The tutorial set includes:

Beginners Series
Opening & Saving -  YouTube / Vimeo Layers - YouTube / Vimeo Adjustments - YouTube / Vimeo Filters - YouTube / Vimeo Exporting - YouTube / Vimeo  
Introduction
Discover Affinity Photo Getting Started Technical Benefits  
Basics
Document Setup Layer Concepts Layers Overview Live Filter Layers Scaling and Transforming Cutting Out Understanding DPI Accessing Help  
Transforming
Document/Image Resizing Canvas Resizing Cropping: Practical Cropping: Aesthetic Straightening Images Cropping: Golden Spiral Cropping: Options Aligning Images  
Selections and Masking
Making Selections Refining Selections Pixel Selections from Layers Quick Masks Mask Layers Exposure Merging Clipping vs Masking Vector Masking Using Adjustment Layers on Masks - YouTube / Vimeo  
Correction
Adjustment Layers Levels Curves Shadows/Highlights Split Toning and Selective Colour LAB Colour Mode Defringing and Chromatic Aberration Live Perspective Haze Removal FFT Denoise Removing Lens Flares Changing Eye Colour Graduated ND Filter Effect Salvaging Underexposed Images Dual Perspective Correction Perspective Skew Correction - YouTube / Vimeo (New: 20th April)  
Retouching
Cloning Inpainting Frequency Separation Liquify: Retouching Vector-Based Retouching Enhancing Landscapes/Architecture Vector Architecture: Worked Example Enhancing Camera Phone Photography Making Images Pop Revealing Sky Detail Bringing Out Water Detail Quick Inpainting Crooked Horizons - YouTube / Vimeo  
RAW Development
Raw: Discover Develop Raw: Developing Images Raw: Overlays Raw: Redeveloping Images Raw: Noise Reduction Maximising Raw Latitude Custom Tone Curve Raw Development Quality 32-bit Raw Development - YouTube / Vimeo Raw Colour Quality Automatic Lens Corrections Raw: Recovering Overexposed Highlights Raw: Exposure Bias  
Getting Creative
Lighting Creative Gradients Creative Black & White Sepia Images Brushes Blend Modes Blend Ranges Liquify Persona Sky Replacement Adding Borders Text: Branding/Watermarking Diffuse Glow Displacement Circular Bokeh Swirling Bokeh Simulating Ambient Occlusion Texturing with Blend Modes Creating Atmosphere Creating Light Beams Vector Lighting Simple Gradients Technicolor Emulation - YouTube / Vimeo Creative Painting Colour toning with shapes Infrared Emulation Radial Blur Regular Tone Mapping Compositing Landscapes Adding Extended Borders Creating Photo Collages Abstract Ideas #01 Abstract Ideas #02 Enhancing Low Light Trails Light Painting Compositing Tone Mapping Portraits HSL Tonal Separation - YouTube / Vimeo Orton Effect - YouTube / Vimeo  
Design Aids
Snapshots Modifiers Designer/Photo Interworking Pixel Accurate Design Placing Documents Useful Keyboard Shortcuts Non Destructive Inpainting and Cloning Layer Creation Behaviour Layer Nesting Exporting 3D LUTs LUTs for Tonal Adjustments View Points Global Cloning Subtle Toning Multiple Colour Formats Scopes Curves Picker Non-Destructive Dodge & Burn Flexible Defringing Edge Detection for Masking Split & Mirror View Batch Processing Clone Sources Pixel Art Resize Direct PSD write-back (round tripping) Freehand Selection Tool Undo History Importing .abr Brushes Undo Brush with Snapshots Quick Toggling Panels - YouTube / Vimeo Light UI - YouTube / Vimeo Brush Stabilisation - YouTube / Vimeo  
Channels
Channels Channels for Alpha Masking Channels: Creating/Storing Selections Editing Single Channels Channels: Greyscale Blending Channel Packing  
Filters
Live Filter Layers (Also in Basics) Apply Image Apply Image: Equations Equations Filter Dust & Scratches Filter Halftone Scanlines Effect Mirror filter Diffuse Glow Filter Defeating Filter Limits  
Panoramas
Panoramas Tricky Panoramas Panorama Distortion Correction  
HDR (High Dynamic Range)
HDR: Merging & Tone Mapping HDR from one exposure - YouTube / Vimeo HDR: Tone Map Presets HDR: Panoramas HDR: Preprocessing HDR: Advanced Editing HDR: Ghosts Removal HDR: 32-bit Editing  
Focus Merging (Focus Stacking)
Focus Merging Focus Merge Retouching Focus Merging Bracketed Exposures  
Live Stacking
Maximum Stacking Big Stopper Effect Light Painting Blending Stacking: Long Exposure Simulation Stacking: Noise Reduction Stacking: Object Removal Stacking: Exposure Merging Stacking: Star Trail Effect  
Live Projections (360 editing, perspective projection)
360 Live Editing - YouTube / Vimeo 360 Advanced Editing 360 Retouching 360 Multiple Views 360 Roll Correction - YouTube / Vimeo Live Perspective Projection  
 OpenEXR/32-bit
OpenEXR Multichannel Import/Export OpenEXR Import Options Editing 32-bit 3D Renders OpenEXR: Using Alpha Channels & Association  
3D Render/Texture Work
Seamless Textures Clone Sources: Texture Creation Enhancing 3D Renders #01 Enhancing 3D Renders #02 Tone Mapping 3D Renders 3D Relighting with Normal Map Passes - YouTube / Vimeo  
Colour Management
OpenColorIO Setup OpenColorIO Adjustment Soft Proofing Printing on Mac Printing on Windows Wide Colour Profiles vs sRGB - YouTube / Vimeo  
Macros
Macros Macros: Equations Macros: Layer Behaviour Batch Processing with Macros  
Finishing Off
Sharpening Selective Sharpening Exporting Export Compression Efficiency  
Plugins
Installing Nik Plugins (macOS) Installing Nik Plugins (Windows) Installing & Using Nik Dfine  
Projects
Nature Portrait Supermoon Product Shot Retouching #01 Nighttime Architecture Workflow - YouTube / Vimeo Portrait Retouching Workflow - YouTube / Vimeo  
Bonus Content
Uplift Epic Skies (1.6 Bonus Content) - YouTube / Vimeo  
Windows Workflow videos
 
In addition to the regular tutorials, we've also got some workflow videos shot on the Windows version of Photo that cover using a variety of features to edit an image to completion. These tend to be released on a more informal basis.
Hadrian's Wall Tiled Building Portrait Retouching Monochromatic Architecture Canary Wharf Banded Demoiselle  
 
Please let us know about areas you think need covering, have problems with, don’t understand, or just tell us if we’re on the right or wrong track. Simply reply to this pinned topic.

Have fun with Affinity Photo!

Best wishes from the Affinity Documentation Team!

I have a copy that you can pick up here:
 
Edit:
 
Link removed after jeffkovitz posted a link to the newer 1.4.2.  Thanks again, jeffkovitz for your work on it.

The Macro persona will not be included - but Macro support will be included in 1.5..
 
We decided that macros did not need a full persona - they will be made available as a dockable panel in the main Photo persona :)
 
Hope this helps,
 
Andy.

+1
 
I would also appreciate a light bright Mac-like UI.
 
Examples: Keynote, Xcode, Sketch, etc.

Add me to the list for a light UI option.

Right now, I can't use Affinity Designer.  I want to, but every time I switch to it, the stark UI hurts my brain, and I go back to Sketch. Affinity Designer is a real strain on the eyes.

The gamma controls are nowhere near enough. Ideally, we need a complete light UI with properly contrasted UI elements. (i.e. black on light grey.)

(As for those people who like the dark UI, more power to you. But I'm not you. Every designer is different, and we need a choice in this matter, especially when the UI impacts on us so heavily.)

Another supporter for this request. I'm an older guy, and my vision isn't as great as it used to be (although I rarely wear glasses). I'm guessing your interface designers are all under 30. The option for larger icons and type (and more contrast) would be most welcome.
 
I am also an Adobe refugee. I've used Adobe products since Photoshop 1, but do not like the subscription model (and have retired, so don't have as much need for their software. Affinity Photo and Designer are the FIRST non-Adobe products I have tried that actually feel like they might serve my needs. Congratulations on achieving this level of functionality so quickly!

The dark UI definitely makes for a stunning sales presentation in the showroom, but many of us spending 3-6 hours every day in our design apps end up with considerable eye strain by the end of the day, regardless of age. IMO, Adobe Bridge CS6.0 got it right. (I will forever use CS6.0 in militant resistance to the unreliable, money-sucking CC). I can use those sliders on the fly to make the UI as light or dark as I need it at any given moment. Unfortunately the gamma slider in AD decreases the contrast, making the icons and text even harder to read than they already are.
 
The long-term damage from computer screen eye strain is still unknown, but I sure as heck don't want to be almost blind by the time I retire. I want to at least be able to see that I have soup dribbling down my chin in the communal dining room at my nursing home!

Sounds like a big improvement.  The current eyedropper is needlessly cumbersome.  3 basic steps are all you need.   Click on eyedropper, click on desired color, click on placement area.  Doesn't the current eyedropper already act as a loupe? Or am I misunderstanding that part of your request?