Mithferion

Both of them are thrilled, @dmstraker 😄

Just kidding, the feature itself looks interesting. It is just not my field of photography.

I really liked the last example. Thanks for the update.
Best regards!

We really aren't. In the last 4 years we have never stopped advertising for new Developers, and have taken a few on but not enough. If you know any encourage them to join us rather than bashing the ones we have got. 

With huge surprise, I found the Astrophotography stacking feature. Immediately tried it out with my latest stack of lights and darks, and I must say I'm totally blown away! What took me hours before, using DSS and TheGIMP, I managed to achieve within minutes with AP 1.9.
Extremely pleased! Many thanks!

**WOW**. Have been disconnected as terribly busy lately (happily)... The list of improvements since latest stable !!!  😮    😎😎🤑 And actually I was hoping for exactly those improvements! Huge Kudos... But I need greater adjectives to describe it, in this, my second language...

Me too, making tutorial videos during lockdown has been a challenge, but we have a great team here.

Awesome! Ignore me i'm just a PDF passing through 

I didn't realise in the beta thread discussions (I wasn't paying much attention to be honest) that Data Merge here means something different from Data Merge in InDesign.
In InDesign doing a data merge means a one time import of data, meaning if the data source is modified later, tough luck to you. This mostly renders InDesign data merge as a useless function, everyone just uses XML linking instead.
Turns out Data Merge in Publisher works much more like XML linking, meaning that if you change the data sources, you can update/sync the Publisher contents with a click of a button. This is quite amazing. This type of data linking is really hard to do, and you need some sort of masters degree to use the InDesign version (I know I spent almost a year perfecting this function for a client catalogue). That Serif was able to pull this off in such short notice is pretty amazing. Congratulations to the devs, well done and impressive work!

Installed and registered without any problem.
Best regards!

Installed and registered without any problem.
Best regards!

Installed and registered without any problem.
Best regards!

Thanks for the "learn more" links, they are very helpful.

In the same way that Adobe (pantomime boooooooooo) does their acredited certification for Photoshop/Illustrator etc, does Affinity have any plans in the future to do their own 'Affinity Certified' certificate? You could have a foundation, intermediate and advanced level. I would most definitely be interested!

We are pleased to announce an update for the Windows release of Affinity Photo, version 1.9.0
Changes in this build
A highlights explanation can be found here: 5 things you should know about Affinity Photo 1.9
The changes in Affinity Photo for Windows 1.9.0 (made since the last release Affinity Photo for Windows 1.8.5) are as follows:
New Features:
Live liquify layers (learn more) Linked layers (learn more) Pattern layers (learn more) Stacking for astrophotography (see tutorials here) Divide blend mode (learn more) Path text added (learn more) Windows hardware (GPU) acceleration (for users running Windows 10 (April 2020 update or later) with a Direct3D feature level 12.0 capable card) (learn more) Studio Presets for the UI layout to save your favourite workspace setups for different tasks, explained here Studio panel combinations (also learn more) Create brushes from current pixel selection (learn more) Linked images and Resource Manager (learn more) Use filters on masks Edit spare channels as layers Added per-layer antialiasing controls in the advanced blending menu Added export preview panel (for raster types) Support PDF passthrough to ensure perfect representation of original PDF when exporting, without the need to have embedded fonts installed Benchmarking option to measure speed of your device Content sync of store purchases (requires registration)
This feature is explained in more detail here Sync your Affinity Store resources with your Affinity 1.9 apps Fixes & Improvements:
Improved “Serif Labs” RAW engine including native CR3 support Elliptical marquee automatically creates from centre Hierarchical view (learn more) Configurable bleed and margin guide colours Import multiple LUTS (learn more) Placed scale for all placed files, which allows scaling to be reset to 100% Snap to pixel selection bounds Added curves adjustment to the tone mapping persona Added JPEG-XR 101010 import support (useful for screen captures from Xbox, etc.) Added support for 12bit grayscale TIFF files Added “Duplicate spare channel” to right click menu Blend modes now work on “alpha only” layers (masks, adjustments, live filters, etc.) Gradient map adjustments now support global colours Filter effects now work properly with global colours The Curves adjustment now has numeric field controls for precise positioning Unable to use CMYK/LAB/GREY equations in a Live Procedural Texture More filters now work on masks / adjustments / spare channels (Add Noise, Perlin Noise, etc.) LUT adjustments can be exported directly from the adjustments panel, and batch imported from files Added Canvas Rotation option to Preferences Fixed Changing between RGB and CMYK sliders in Colour Chooser panel gives incorrect values Fixed Moving a mask from a layer to the live stack group crashes the app Unable to open .heic if there is a special character in the file path Original file name no longer saved as "Title" in PDF, after renaming the file TIFF file handling improvements Fixed Tools getting stuck in the hand tool cursor after using spacebar + alt and click to zoom out Hue shift slider background should not move with the slider Creating or adding pixel selections from other layers to a selection also selects the respective layers Various stability improvements Help and Localisation improvements  
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in Help > About Affinity Photo).
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the Affinity Store software it will check for updates and offer any available update. The latest update will install over the top of any earlier version, with no need to uninstall. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "Download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Photo for Windows) can be downloaded from this link. (that installer is NOT for Windows Store purchases and needs a product key).
If you’ve purchased from the Microsoft Store— Microsoft Store updates are done automatically by the operating system (each time you start the application). If this does not happen for you, open the Windows Store app and click the three dots in the top right corner of the app and then go to Downloads and Updates. Click Get Updates. This should hopefully force the update to show.

We are pleased to announce an update for the Windows release of Affinity Designer, version 1.9.0
Changes in this Build
A highlights explanation can be found here: 5 things you should know about Affinity Designer 1.9
The detailed changes in Affinity Designer for Windows 1.9.0 (over the last release Affinity Designer for Windows 1.8.5) are as follows:
New Features:
Powerful contour tool to create abstract objects or increase the width of single open curves (learn more) Select Same to efficiently match attributes such as fill colour, stroke colour, stroke weight, transparency, blend mode or shape type (learn more) Select Object to select all objects of a certain type within your document to make editing even easier (learn more) Windows hardware (GPU) acceleration (for users running Windows 10 (April 2020 update or later) with a Direct3D feature level 12.0 capable card) Studio presets for the UI layout to save your favourite workspace setups for different tasks, explained here Studio panel combinations (also learn more) Linked images and Resource Manager (learn more) PDF passthrough option added Save As Package feature to collate your document alongside all used image and font resources into a folder (learn more) Divide blend mode added Placed scale for all placed files, which allows scaling to be reset to 100% (learn more) Added hierarchical antialiasing control - accessed from the Blend Ranges dialog in the Layers Panel Curves numeric field controls Blend modes for mask layers Added export preview to export dialog (for raster types) Create brushes from current pixel selection (learn more) Content sync of store purchases (requires registration).
This feature is explained in more detail here Sync your Affinity Store resources with your Affinity 1.9 apps Fixes & Improvements:
Elliptical marquee automatically creates from centre Added option for Designer to be able to show/hide overflow text - particularly useful for text on a path Snap to pixel selection bounds Configurable bleed and margin guide colours When creating a global colour from an object also apply it Filter effects now work properly with global colours Original file name no longer saved as "Title" in PDF, after renaming the file Fixed inability to change document dimensions while aspect ratio was unlocked When items copied as SVG they could not be pasted as text Fixed Tools getting stuck in the hand tool cursor after using spacebar + alt and click to zoom out Added Canvas Rotation option to Preferences New Samples Various stability improvements Help and Localisation improvements Performance improvements  
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (free for existing customers)
The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in Help > About Affinity Designer).
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the Affinity Store software it will check for updates and offer any available update. The latest update will install over the top of any earlier version, with no need to uninstall. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "Download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Designer for Windows) can be downloaded from this link (that installer is NOT for Windows Store purchases and needs a product key).
If you’ve purchased from the Microsoft Store— Microsoft Store updates are done automatically by the operating system (each time you start the application). If this does not happen for you, open the Windows Store app and click the three dots in the top right corner of the app and then go to Downloads and Updates. Click Get Updates. This should hopefully force the update to show.

We are pleased to announce an update for the Windows release of Affinity Publisher, version 1.9.0
Changes in this build
A highlights explanation can be found here: 5 things you should know about Affinity Publisher 1.9
The detailed changes in Affinity Publisher for Windows 1.9.0 over the release build Affinity Publisher for Windows 1.8.5 are as follows:
New Features
Data Merge (learn more) Support PDF Passthrough to ensure perfect representation of original PDF when exporting, without the need to have embedded fonts installed Package feature to collate your document alongside all used image and font resources into a folder (learn more) Studio Presets for the UI layout to save your favourite workspace setups for different tasks, explained here Studio panel combinations  (also learn more) Content sync of store purchases (requires registration)
This feature is explained in more detail here Sync your Affinity Store resources with your Affinity 1.9 apps Windows hardware (GPU) acceleration (for users running Windows 10 (April 2020 update or later) with a Direct3D feature level 12.0 capable card) Flattened bitmap representation used for all PSD files  Path text improvements (learn more) Initial text baseline advance (learn more) Configurable bleed and margin guide colours (learn more) OpenAsset support for drag/drop from browser content PDF bookmarks (learn more) Convert pixel layer to image node (learn more) Divide blend mode  Fixes & Improvements:
General
Artboard conversion to spreads now optional Placed scale for all placed files, which allows scaling to be reset to 100% Pages panel loses the scroll position when switching between document tabs Document Merge - Added option to ignore unused incoming text styles Document profile PDX Export preflight tweak, falls back to CMYK profile for RGB / LAB documents Opening a template from File > Open or Drag and drop will now open it as untitled Filter Effect Dialog - Enabled the use of global colours When creating a global colour from an object also apply it Fixes various issues with mishandling of CJK fonts in the UI (Win) Various stability improvements Help and Localisation improvements Performance improvements Page/Spread
Resizing single page Master could change the size of dependent spreads incorrectly Deleting Master Page when editing detached could leave 'Editing Detached' notification open Fixed issue where re-applying master pages with text frames with pinned objects could cause document instability When modifying Adjustment Layers any bleed and pasteboard areas affected were not updating correctly Pinned objects from Master Pages were not showing in bleed  Resizing a single page master could cause spreads that used it to be resized incorrectly Guides lost from Master Page when changing from facing to single pages Fixes for margins setup on a Master Page (Win) Added option to 'Add Pages (from file) at end of document' Added option in Add Pages From File to 'Add Before / After / Replacing Section' Text
Text selection highlight across multiple spreads could display incorrectly  Hyperlink styling could accidentally be added to new text More consistent handling of mid-word punctuation Deleting a row with merged cells could cause a crash Text wrap settings on images could become distorted after a document save and load Fix for hang resizing table columns in certain circumstances Line widths around Drop Caps could be wrong /inconsistent Glyph Browser was missing glyphs under certain circumstances when sorting via Unicode Prevent application of Hyperlink Anchors to Layers / Master Page instances Prevent creation of blank Hyperlink Anchors that could case errors on PDF Export Multi-curve text wrap could be combined incorrectly resulting in unexpected wrapping around complex shapes Bookmarks created by TOC not in the correct order when exported to PDF Auto correct quotation marks for French Style changes not always picked up as out of date for TOC TOC Anchors were not being deleted when the TOC was deleted Fixed generation of wrap shapes for certain images with alpha Import
IDML Import - text import now always applies appropriate text styling to be used when appending to imported text IDML import - Speed and efficiency improvements PDF import - Filter Effects could be wrongly rasterised and cause export failures PDF import - placed PDF improvements PDF import - fix for tiling patterns SVG Import - stability improvement Resources
Many Resource Manager fixes and improvements Artboard and other settings could be lost when reconnecting missing Affinity resources Place linked files could be opened as <Embedded> under certain circumstances 'Size frame to content' for images imported from IDML could behave incorrectly Picture frame within a Picture Frame could cause crash Export
Export Pages field now clears when switching documents PDF Export - Improved export of Type 1 fonts, which could cause failure under certain circumstances TGA Export - Fix for 32bit export RTF export / copy paste was losing hyphens under certain circumstances  
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in Help > About Affinity Publisher).
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the Affinity Store software it will check for updates and offer any available update. The latest update will install over the top of any earlier version, with no need to uninstall. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "Download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Publisher for Windows) can be downloaded from this link (that installer is NOT for Windows Store purchases and needs a product key).
If you’ve purchased from the Microsoft Store— Microsoft Store updates are done automatically by the operating system (each time you start the application). If this does not happen for you, open the Windows Store app and click the three dots in the top right corner of the app and then go to Downloads and Updates. Click Get Updates. This should hopefully force the update to show.

I don't it's that simple. Starting that "comparing to Illustrator" is what users do, not what they per se do (at least, not directly). Obviously there are many good things that you can do in Illustrator that you can't in Designer, and those features are a must for most.
We'd need to be in their meetings to know the real answer, and whatever that is, the truth is that there is disappointment and bewilderment in a good deal of people for their workflows.
For me, I want 1.9 to be out there soon so that they can work on the next release.
 
If I'm not mistaken, the total number of developers is 12 (around that number is a good guess), and that'd be about an eight of the total number of employees at Serif.
 
Best regards!

Hi @Mithferion,
Thanks for this. It appears that the request sent twice for some reason, which is why it then worked when you reopened the dialog. Our devs are currently working to stop this happening in future.
Thanks again

This is a feature request. Perhaps there will be a new red button in future.

As a Mexico City born guy myself, I find this really well done.
Best regards!

Flawless and most impressive. You sure deserve the "Vector" part on your nickname. 👌
Best regards!

I fancied doing something shiny, not too easy but not too complicated either, 2 weeks max, so decided to see if I could get this done. Shame it turned out to be such a horrible movie. There was too much background on the photo I used so I cropped it to something a bit more interesting.
Who needs fancy pants gradient meshes when there’s the pen tool
Sorry about the equally horrible compression.

Thought I'd share a project that I have been working on. I have always been fascinated with Meso-American cultures and their art and after reading Jo-Jo's Bizarre Adventures I couldn't help but make my own version. Oddly Matt Groening's work reminds me a lot of Aztec art but maybe that's just me. I made it using Affinity Designer and all vectors. Thanks for taking the time to view my work and I hope that you enjoy it. 

Glorious AfPublisher

Example:


 
Hope that helps.
Best regards!