Garish

May not want to hold your breath while waiting. Look at the feature road map . . . it's not even on the horizon. You'll likely have line-end arrowheads and 'pages' in before the useful, relevant (i.e., required for actual, daily, high-volume production) stuff comes along. Will be happy if proven wrong, though. ---

What feature am I missing in Designer that would permit me to align an item to the last-selected object? For example: In the case of these two objects: |-----------| | | <-- box on left | | line on right --> || |-----------| || I want this: |-----------| | || | (i.e., line gets centered into box, and box doesn't move) | || | |-----------| Not this: |-----------| | || | (i.e., line and box both to move to the center of the space that had separated them) | || | |-----------| In other software, this is usually accomplished by activating a 'align to last selected item' option setting. How can this (i.e., 'align to last selected item') be done in Designer? ~

Amazing to find that there's no warp or envelope tool. Came to realize this in the heat of trying to complete a rush project that needed a simple warp in the text. The vocabulary used to express said realization wasn't fit for reprinting here, except to say that I'd reckon a warp/envelope feature might be a priority for any serious design tool. Hope it shows up soon.

@teadog: Maybe you're right. Might have went over-the-top. Revised it several times to flatten the assumptive and conspiratorial edge, but I reckon it might still be a bit rough.

Again, as has been stated so many times in this thread, this feature (i.e., ability to link an eternal image) is no mere nicety, but rather an imperative. Inkscape is a fine example of a design tool that has implemented this feature quite well. Please add it to Affinity Designer. ~ That this feature remains missing - even after all the betas and an actual public release - might mean that the feature is being 'saved' for implementation elsewhere. It's been stated in this very thread that Publisher will 'need' an Embed/Link feature, which seemingly implies that Designer doesn't 'need' it. I'd argue that both programs 'need' it. My suspicion here is that a certain sales tactic is being used, where certain key features are withheld from one title - and implemented in another - to ensure that anyone wanting said feature shall need to purchase an additional design tool to obtain said feature. Tactics like this may please your accountant, but do little to engender loyalty or support from a user base. I'm certain - given the value you've already provided with Designer and Photo - that Publisher will likely have many features that make it a good buy on it's own, even without selectively including or restricting features in Designer to ensure the sales viability of Publisher. As noted, the 'selective inclusion of features' tactic may please your accountant, but your users will recognize it for what it is, given that most of us have already been introduced to such tactics by the other 'A' place. Given that many arrive here looking for an alternative to the other 'A', you might consider avoiding the temptation to follow its lead. Or something. ~

No, I didn't. Once I did, however, the tools (mesh and perspective) worked. Didn't realize I needed to 'rasterize' something in a raster-based editing program. Thanks for the insight.

Image file is included below. floor_stand_black_s_curved_11x17.afphoto

A feature to consider might be the following: Resizing the document should not affect any preexisting artwork within the document. As of now, adjusting the size of the document in Affinity Designer (am using version 1.5.0.36) via 'File->Document Setup' will also affect (warp/stretch/skew) any artwork that may already be placed on the document stage. The document size should be able to be adjusted up or down without affecting anything else in the file. Inkscape is an excellent example of a program which allows for document resizing without affecting any placed artwork. It seems Affinity Designer might wish to take a cue from them. Or not.

Yes, it also works for me with some images as well, but as you can see in the video, it's not working in that instance. I suppose the question then is this: What is it that I did to that layer which made it not work? All I did was 'place' the poster image into the frame image (which created a new layer for the poster), and then resized the poster to make it smaller (to fit into the frame area). It's after the poster image was resized down that I attempted to apply the perspective tool to it . . . and you can see the result. Apparently something happened while resizing the layer that triggered a setting which turned off the perspective tool? I don't rightly know. Suffice to say it never worked regardless of how many times I tried (yes, restarted the program and all that) . . . so it was GIMP to the rescue.

Any ideas on why this tool (these tools) won't work? I've mostly ruled out User Error. Using version 1.5.43 (beta). Machine is Windows 7. For what it's worth, these features did work in earlier versions. example.wmv

If this here post counts as one of those "the more times people ask for it" instances, then let it be known that I'd definitely encourage - and ask for - incorporating support for CorelDraw files as a priority feature. My CorelDraw 8 subscription sits idle while I interview AD as a replacement candidate, and the ability to open my cache of .cdr files would definitely go a long way towards making a full transition.

For anyone else who might have the same problem (i.e., restoring the 'Layers' panel after closing it), you can re-open the Layers panel by going to: View->Studio, then select 'layers' in the fly-out menu. That should reopen the panel again. I can only hope that UI/UX development on this software improves over time. Burying so basic and simple a feature as restoring the Layers panel beneath such convoluted abstraction is - as best - unacceptable. It's a well-understood norm of app development that - while wickedly-good software developers can indeed program wickedly-well - they often fail miserably in the delicate art of User Interaction and User Experience design.

I'm either incredibly dense, or, there's no provision to open (or reopen) the Layers panel. For example, under the 'Text' menu we see 'Show Character', 'Show Typography', 'Show Paragraph', etc. Selecting any aforementioned menu item opens - with miraculous efficiency - the corresponding options panel, as one might expect. It appears there's no such option available to open (or reopen) the Layers panel when looking under the 'Layers' menu. Am I overlooking the 'Show Layers' option that should be in the Layers (or some other) menu?

Can't seem to get letter spacing (kerning) to become active regardless of font used. The drop-down menu shows either 'auto' or '0%' as active, with all other available spacing options (i.e., -5% etc) greyed out. To replicate, type some text, then select Text->Show Character (or CTRL+T), and try to enter a value to adjust kerning (top left box under 'Positioning and Transform').

There are issues with text styles that may (or may not) warrant looking into. Several attributes (paragraph spacing, font sizes, font styles, etc) do not remain once they've been set. Recreate the issue by creating several new styles, and apply them to a paragraph. Once applied, return to the style style panel(s) to alter the settings. You may (or may not) see that your values previously set have changed dramatically, without user input. Am using version 1.5.0.29 (RC5).