I appreciate your vote of confidence @peter but I think it's not up to me to disclose when or what features will be available on unreleased software. I know it's a crappy answer (it really is), and I wish I could do better but it's at least an honest answer. I hope you understand.
Hello preppyhippy,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
I can understand your frustration with the lack of some basic features, but I also think it's not fair to judge the program and call it a "beta" from just what's missing. Affinity Designer is available as a trial, both in its commercial version (MAS) as well as in its beta counterpart, so everyone can try it, see what's already included and if it fulfills their needs or not.
It is intended to be an alternative to Adobe Illustrator, but it was also launched just half an year ago. It can't be compared to more than two decades of development Illustrator has over its shoulders yet. We are still building its foundations, and some features weren't ready for its first release. This doesn't mean we don't recognize their importance. If you check our roadmap, you can see that both text on a path and a corner tool are already there to be implemented as soon as time permits. Both will also be provided as free updates along a host of other features and improvements you can see there.
With that said I hope you can still find value in your purchase . Beyond what's missing, there's also many great features already available that you can take advantage of if you give it a try. If you find something else missing that you think should be included, just add it to the Feature Requests section on the forum. All suggestions are checked and taken in consideration for future improvements.
I genuinely am really sorry that you're not having a great time with the program so far... It's obviously disappointing to hear your frustrations, particularly about tools which are nearly finished and are due to be added to a beta version within the very near future, but I just don't share your sentiments about the 'beta' status of our Mac App Store released product - it is fulfilling the needs of many professionals already in their day jobs: They find it to be a solid, dependable and reliable tool that they actually enjoy using. Many of these professionals still have Illustrator and choose to use Designer in preference. This isn't some made up claim or an aspiration - it is their experience and their real world choice. Check out some of Jonathan Ball's work or even look at this car by Philip Meinertz if you want proof that the application is more than capable of producing truly stunning results. Philip even has text on a path on his car's tyres - done by hand because he hasn't got the tool yet, but it's possible if you have the inclination... I'm not saying that it's ideal, but it's possible. We had to choose an order in which to implement things, and the number of real professionals choosing to use the product is enough to make me think we got the order just about right (not perfect) that it lets you achieve what you want - but with a few sore points along the way until we get to the toolset we are working towards.
I'm sorry it's not offering you everything you expected at this point - but don't give up - it's just that the feature set you need isn't quite there yet, but it doesn't mean that everyone else is finding the same. The tools that you view as fundamental are actually being worked around by quite a few people, but I know that still doesn't detract from the fact that you view them as fundamental and that they are missing is a blocker for you - we will make these tools happen as soon as possible and I can only offer my apologies in the meantime. I think it's not unreasonable to suggest that right now you can do things in Designer that you just cannot achieve in other programs on the App Store at present... and the same in reverse is probably true of those other apps with respect to Designer... I would not try to call any of those other applications a 'beta' version simply because they have faults or omissions that take me to their forums...
I don't expect to magically change your mood, and my comments above aren't intended to make you feel that your points aren't valid - they are your thoughts and feelings so they are completely valid and very important - I simply wanted to try to offer you some insight, some inspiration and some balance. Hope you'll revisit Designer in a bit and those tools will be available to you and you'll find things much more enjoyable :)
Matt
SeerUK reacted to MEB in Affinity Photo for digital painting?