tariq

Thanks Dan - the OS is 13.4 and we'll try the 6.4.0-5 driver. Have you had others reporting similar issues?

Aahh - re-opening this one. It seems my wife has been suffering in silence since my last update as the issue was not resolved by a Wacom driver update. Because it is intermittent, it felt like the problem was fixed but it wasn't, and she didn't say anything. She says that since that last update 3 weeks ago, the issue has been persistent and intermittent. Today I observed a bad phase with the pointer freezing and jumping in Chrome and on the desktop (Finder) with Affinity Photo running in the background. As soon as it was killed, the problem stopped. I manually checked the Wacom driver was the latest, and the Affinity Photo is the latest 2.1 Is there anything I can do to help diagnose this?

hi Dan It turns out the Wacom driver was the latest but one. Upgrading seems to have fixed the problem - we'll keep an eye on it for a few days before finally being content. It is odd that the problem only occurred when Photo was open (even when not the foreground app). Thanks for your help.

Hi Dan thanks for the suggestions. 1. I checked and Open Using Rosetta is not enabled. I know that there were some issues with some apps misreporting this flag (eg Cubase) so I also checked the process monitor to ensure the Apple Silicon native app was running and not "Intel". 2. I'd like to keep the Metal acceleration if that's ok. If the solution is to downgrade from Metal than that's not a solution to the bug. 3. For now I'll keep the App Store version and hope the issue is Wacom driver related - as you say, their release notes suggest there is a known issue but they're pretty vague. If this doesn't go away in the next two Wacom driver updates, I'll bring this back here. Thanks again!

Summary: Affinity Photo running, even in the background, causes the Wacom pen to glitch intermittently. Is this a known issue? Detail: The Wacom Intuos Pro Small PTH-460 (2019) pen glitches intermittently - it either doesn't register clicks, or there are gaps in its movement. This happens in all apps - Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Word, MacOS Finder .. not just Affinity apps. If Affinity is NOT running, then there is no issue. Initially we thought this was a Wacom driver issue (they are notorious for driver quality compared to 20 years ago, yes we've been using Wacom that long). However testing with Wacom tech support has led us to conclude that the issue only happens when Affinity is running, even if it isn't the foreground app. Specifically this is on an M1 iMac with MacOS Ventura 13.3.1(a) and Wacom driver 6.4.2-1 with the latest Apple Store version 2.0.4 of Affinity V2. A range of tests we already did include: not using the Caldigit Thunderbolt Element Hub for its USB connection, connecting directly wiping the disk properly (disk utility format) and reinstalling the macOS afresh with minimal apps (only chrome and Affinity plus the Wacom driver) watching the Activity Monitor for CPU and Memory issues - result is no problem is observed with this semi-scientific test It is difficult to film the issue as it is subtle, intermittent, and also hard to predict. We've been using Wacom tablets for 20 years on Mac and Windows so we're pretty sure we know how they are supposed to work - and this ain't it. Additional Info: I haven't noticed the issue on a MacBook Pro M1 nor an MacBook Pro M2. This might be because the pen is used all the time with the iMac as its only pointer device (no mouse, no trackpad) and only for some work on the MBPros.

Hi Dan How does Adobe avoid this? They have large application file sizes too. Mathematica. Cubase. .. none of them are small? Also yes - do publish architecture specific binaries for those that want them - give people a choice, nothing is going to stop them using the Apple App Store. Also please revisit the decision around the embedded user-profile stuff - it isn' needed, it is bloatware, it adds complexity and technical and security risk, and users are 100% happy to work with their profiles on the web.

yep - that's the one. I think 3 years is long enough to have given Affinity's own processes to succeed - time for some openness and transparency - and if it is the terrible idea of embedding a web component, then carve it back out.

bump for 2023

Affinity apps, all of them, have suffered a very long startup delay in MacOS. On a 32GB M2 Max MacBook Pro this can take 30 seconds. This bug has been reported for approx 2 years if not longer. This is not what anyone would expect of software that wants to be seen as professional. Affinity has not been transparent and open about the bug and work to resolve it. This impacts on our confidence in the software development and quality assurance processes supporting the software many rely on professionally. We've had long enough for Affinity's own process to work - it hasn't. It is now time for Affinity to do what some of us have asked for: Confirm the actual cause definitely - it was stated somewhere (here, twitter?) that the embedding of a web component to support online user profiles within the app caused this issue. This is bad software design - keep the complex and security burden of a web component out of the app - let users log in via a browser to manage their profiles and accounts. Be open about the actual work going on to fix this issue - be technical, don't be shy. The open source development model is a great success story - Affinity clearly could do with some outside expertise and advice here. Some of the many many examples of software, small and large, that does NOT suffer this startup delay issue: Chrome, Firefox, Sublime Text, Mathematica, Adobe, Microsoft Office, Transmission, Cubase, ...

In Designer, there are several options for PDF export. What is the detailed difference between Print and Press Ready options? Eg PDF conformance level? Embedded fonts? Colour spaces? I've noticed that press ready converts to CMYK even if the source document is RGB. This caused me problems with book printing ....

hi @walt.farrell what's the difference?

Thanks @loukash and @walt.farrell - I will look up "global colours" I wonder why Affinity on Twitter seemed to think it was not possible? https://twitter.com/affinitybyserif/status/1612382283796717571

It would be very useful to have the idea of "named colours". The idea is that colours are used throughout a project (or separate projects?) and when the named colour is changed, all the uses of the that colour are updated. Think of "styles" but for colours. This would really help with professional / non-simple workflows.

Hi Both Windows and MacOS come with a basic selection of quality typefaces. Installing software like MS Office can also add additional well-designed typefaces. When doing design projects, often you want to experiment with typefaces that are not in that basic set. To be clear, experimenting means trying to find the right one, where you don't already know what you want (and can purchase from a font site). Are there recommended starter packs of typefaces which are (1) diverse in style, and (2) properly designed, (3) not too expensive? What do other designers do?

thanks @loukash hopefully this report adds additional useful information eg it works on Ventura but not Monterey which might help locate the bug.