LilleG

I’d love it if panel menus popped in the direction in which they have adequate space to display themselves, rather than only popping down, forcing the user to scroll, as seen in the pic. In this case, popping up, instead of down.
 
http://d.pr/i/15X8N
 
:)

Why dumb it down?  "Normal" users will either figure it out, or ask.  

Affinity Photo is exactly what I have been waiting for. With the demise of Aperture what was I going to do? Endure Photoshop and Lightroom?? Not for my mind set, because the app best for me has a transparent interface i.e. natural as possible, with nothing obstructing creativity. Hence, my delight when discovering Affinity Photo. A major accompanying benefit is the most excellent set of on-line tutorials I have ever seen: they are actually inspiring!! They make you want to dive straight in. Clear and easy as can be. I even just learned how to get my NIK SilverEfexPro2 working in Affinity. I envision many years of usefulness with this app.

Another one here from the "I just set up an account on this forum specifically to make this request " wagon!
The system (Yosemite) light gray is very pleasing and calm and has a perfect contrast with the black text.
Please add a "light UI" option (a la photoshop).
This is a very important ergonomic issue and in my opinion a major flaw in the UI.

Thank you, stokerg!  We've been begging for a PDF version of the Help for a while now.  I was beginning to think that no one was listening or if they were, could not see the benefits of being able to read it someplace besides within the program.  

I can understand your frustrations of getting to grips with new software.  The good thing is we do have a Dev team that listens to and cares about our users, so if you can think of anyway we can improve the way we do things, please pop a post on the feature suggestions section.  
 
Custom keyboard shortcuts are on the road map for both Designer and Photo, so shortly that will resolve one of your issues.

Thanks for bringing this up about the Help file, i'll raise this with the Devs tomorrow and see about getting a PDF file of the help.  I can see the benefits, esp if you have one monitor, at least then you could load the PDF help on a iPad/tablet which would make it easier to follow.
 
If you can replicate the issue with the brushes, please do pop a post in the bugs section and then the Devs will get to see it

Glad i could help.
 
I speed read help files so often find myself in the same situation as yourself a lot of the time.  I'll see if we can get a PDF file of the help produced as a separate download, as i can see it would be a big help  to people coming into the Affinity world.
 
With the MAS version you shouldn't lose anything when you update.  With the Beta version, it might clear them out when you update to the next Beta, but i'll need to get that confirmed when i get into the office tomorrow and will post an update here.  But for now, exporting them would be the best idea, as my mum says, 'Better to be safe than sorry.'  :)

Thank you, Mark!  I did not know exactly how Mesh Warp worked and was muttering to myself that it wasn't as precise as the one in Photoshop.  Ha!  Was I ever wrong.  Guess I need to do more reading in the Help.  Wish the Help was a bit more "readable" (as in a PDF that one could just read at leisure.)

Hi CartoonMike
I'm new at this myself and I know what you mean about wrestling with the software at times!
Any way, back to the Distortion grid tool (I'm assuming you mean the one in the Photo Pasona)
Once activated, if you double click anywhere in the photo, even if you are zoomed right in, horizontal & vertical lines will be added. Keep doing this until you have a suitably dens mesh around the area you want to distort.
You can now push and pull the control nodes even while still zoomed in.
Also having the Navigator View window open can help judge the effect to the overall image as you work.
Hope this helps.

Whenever I make a suggestion its always one that I could 'use right now'.
I wonder if anyone ever thinks up a feature that they don't need?

Had a little fun trying out some new styles!
 

 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c289kkpvnipx110/Assortment%20Styles%20Vol%201.afstyles?dl=0

Hi Shmoo, 
 
why not use the Pie Tool, a conical gradient, some layer tricks and Matt’s Corner Tool … would that be an option? See my quick sketch below …
 
Cheers, Alex  :)
Activity.afdesign

Hi imacken,
Have you tried entering a value in the next field after tabbing?
I have found that it does work, it's just the visual appearance of the field gives the impression it's not ready for your input.
Paul.

And there’s another great (though hidden) option: you can click the label of the input field instead of double clicking the value to highlight the input value … just learned about that last week …  :)

One of the few annoying things about Designer and Photo is that when you tab between input boxes, the values are not highlighted.  This means having to move from keyboard to trackpad when inputting.
For example, if I want to change the width, height, x and y values of an object, I double tap on the first box then hit tab to move to the next expecting to just be able to input the next value, but no, I have to go back to the trackpad, double tap on the value field and proceed. This becomes very tedious after a while, and is not the behaviour that is common in other apps.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong here.

As with Photoshop and other programs, I am completely baffled at the idea of taking a superpowered GRAPHICS program and wrapping it in the dreariest, least contrasty, and least readable interface possible.

Imagine that a new smart device hits the market, better than anything you’ve seen before, hooked up to all the music you could dream of…but the volume is limited to 4 out of 10. Would you be happy with it? Would you accept all the reviewers raving about all the great music you can get with this new device, and ignoring the end user experience?

Just because Adobe pioneered the grayest and least readable interface and controls in history does not mean you have to emulate them.

There is a reason books and magazines have white pages with dark lettering.

There is a reason Apple has white web pages with dark lettering.

There is a reason that the easiest signs to read, and the ones your eyes gravitate toward the fastest have white backgrounds with dark lettering.

There is a reason THIS VERY FORUM has a light background with heavy dark lettering.

Brain science for years has proven that the brain reacts fastest and experiences the most comfort with the highest contrast; the worse the contrast, the longer it takes the brain to comprehend what it’s seeing, and the least comfortable the experience is.

If books and magazines had dreary gray backgrounds with dreary gray lettering or icons, not only would your head hurt trying to read them for more than a minute, you would simply not accept it.

Yet here we are with the ironic design of a really, really remarkable editing program with one of the most visually difficult interfaces available.

We work in an office with lots of windows and lights. We also have computers and devices with glass screens. Often we have reflections we have to work with, and when we do, the programs that work best are the ones with the best contrast. A set of icons on a dreary gray background with a difference in luminosity of maybe 10% is going to die under a reflection on the screen. So will dreary lettering. If it doesn’t, we are going to have to work that much harder to see what’s there.

How can you not know this?

How can you know this and design it this way anyway?

It’s the visual equivalent of your music device being locked at low volume. If you put yourself in the right environment you’ll be able to enjoy your music just fine. But go outside, or get on a train, or have people talking around you… I think you get my point.

This is not to take away from the brilliant work you’ve done with this app. Not at all. But working with a very low contrast interface takes away from our efficiency significantly, whatever program we’re using.

Might there be a clearer, brighter interface for Affinity in the future?

-R T Thomsen
 

Our work process is resulting in more and more layers in a document and scrolling through them can be confusing – especially if you're on a laptop instead of a 27" iMac. Grouping is one way to control the clutter, but imagine this...
 
What if we could open a group into its own layers palette?
 
For example, instead of 3 groups of 30 layers each (totalling 90 layers to navigate through), we could have 3 floating layer palettes each with only 30 layers in each.
 
It would be the same concept as opening a new window/tab as a new view, but with palettes. (in fact, this idea could be extended to colour swatch palettes as well)
 
Keep up the good work guys.
This is the most exciting movement in design software since Adobe bought out Macromedia. A real breath of fresh air.

Hi Kaffeepause
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
I see what you mean. You can use a vector shape (Ellipse Tool) to get a clean stroke, but using an Outer Shadow and an Outline FX (which is what i believe you're doing) should really give a better result than this. I will investigate it further and fill a bug report if needed.
 
Meanwhile here's a quick workaround that should give you a clean result:
- draw an ellipse with the Ellipse Tool and give it a width, covering the area you want
- duplicate your screenshot layer: right-click on it on the Layers panel and select duplicate or simply select it and press ⌘ (cmd) + J
- drag the duplicated screenshot over the ellipse shape layer (we are using the vector shape as a clipping mask) in the Layers panel
- select the ellipse layer and enlarge it to the size you wish if needed (the clipped screenshot will also scale with it). If you want to enlarge only the clipped screenshot, select it from the Layers panel and scale it as you usually do.
- add an Outer Shadow to the ellipse.
 

 
The advantage of this is that you can resize the shape and the screenshot inside independently from each other to suit your needs.
Check the attached file for a sample.
focus.afphoto.zip

+1 for black and white as defaults with a shortcut.  It's just way too handy to ignore.  Or even better, let the user specify his/her choice for default colors.  That way, it could be tailored for individual projects.  

Thanks, I'm accustomed to using the X-swap and found that right away. Do give some thought to including a 1-click restore of the foreground/background colors to B/W since it would save a bit of tedium and time.

Only if Auto-Crop is an option that can be turned OFF in Preferences.  I quite often use Clone to extend a small area of cropped sky, etc. in a straightened photo. 

Madame, hey that looks fantastic.  Processes like this adds to the fun of AD.  I could see the developers adding this as an extension to the fx features.  Enjoy.

Ouch re. 25k of duplicates! Much as I am loving Apple, there are times....................!

Hi, MSG,
I, too came from CorelDraw & Corel Photopaint.
I'm one of the users who requested the incorporation of the zero point feature.
I hope and trust MEB when he says it'll be coming soon, but in the mean time it's sorely missed.
Other than that, I've had hardly any major problems migrating to AFD and AFP,
and I think you'll find that the developers, moderators and users are doing their utmost to help everyone,
in a manner that's seldom seen in any software forum.
Always quick in answering the questions,  always to the point and always nice.