MattP

I opened up the Publisher Beta just now and noticed that the other two Personas had activated for me. Not going to spoil it, but you developers are absolute mad lads. No wonder the development took so long. Not regretting pre-ordering this program. Can't wait till the 19th!

Hi there guys! 
My son wanted a cake-topper and his birthday decoration of Pikachu (he just saw Detective Pikachu Movie) so, I tried my best, I found an image in google, I started working on it. Here is the final result. 
I will appreciate any recommendation or suggestion.
Thank you so much!
 

Ah... I knew there'd be a catch! ;)  At the moment, I don't think it can export untrimmed - I'll add this to the list of sensible suggestions to implement! Also, power fields in the slice name (that expand to document name, for example) would be very cool, so I'll add that to the list too!  Sorry that there's no workaround there in the meantime though :(
 
Thanks,
Matt

Having a simple document and trying to export it as PNG file:
 
(1) Selecting "File > Export..." from the menu and Export Window opens
(2) Selecting "PNG" and clicking the "Export" button…
(3) a Mac OS X "Save As" panel opens
(4) I click "Save" in this panel
(5) a new Window opens "Confirm access to export folder"
(6) I click the "Confirm" button 
(7) error alert pops up that it couldn't save/export the file.
 
I'm not entirely sure what triggers it. It failed 3 times like that in a row, but then suddenly started working normally (w/o the strange confirm access window). This is on a Yosemite machine (with all the "latest" updates: 10.10.5 (14F2511)).
 
System Log reported this:
05/06/19 6:23:00,679 PM com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService[51214]: *** Assertion failure in -[NSOpenPanelServicePanel _reactToPanelDismissalWithReturnCode:], /SourceCache/AppKit/AppKit-1348.17/Nav.subproj/NSSavePanel.m:5277
05/06/19 6:23:00,680 PM com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService[51214]: -[NSSavePanel _reactToPanelDismissalWithReturnCode:] : unexpected nil URL value while handling NSFileHandlingPanelOKButton result!
05/06/19 6:23:00,686 PM com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService[51214]: (
    0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8fb7f03c __exceptionPreprocess + 172
    1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff9656476e objc_exception_throw + 43
    2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8fb7ee1a +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 106
    3   Foundation                          0x00007fff9111a97b -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 195
    4   AppKit                              0x00007fff9492bf3f -[NSSavePanel _reactToPanelDismissalWithReturnCode:] + 225
    5   AppKit                              0x00007fff9492c131 -[NSSavePanel _dismissWindowWithReturnCode:willRunSeamlessOpening:] + 26
    6   com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService 0x000000010907328a com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService + 21130
    7   AppKit                              0x00007fff9492c565 -[NSSavePanel ok:] + 342
    8   com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService 0x00000001090732c0 com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService + 21184
    9   libsystem_trace.dylib               0x00007fff97ffecd7 _os_activity_initiate + 75
    10  AppKit                              0x00007fff944deeb1 -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 452
    11  AppKit                              0x00007fff944f4946 -[NSControl sendAction:to:] + 86
    12  AppKit                              0x00007fff944f4862 __26-[NSCell _sendActionFrom:]_block_invoke + 131
    13  libsystem_trace.dylib               0x00007fff97ffecd7 _os_activity_initiate + 75
    14  AppKit                              0x00007fff944f47bf -[NSCell _sendActionFrom:] + 144
    15  libsystem_trace.dylib               0x00007fff97ffecd7 _os_activity_initiate + 75
    16  AppKit                              0x00007fff944f2cb3 -[NSCell trackMouse:inRect:ofView:untilMouseUp:] + 2821
    17  AppKit                              0x00007fff9454b34f -[NSButtonCell trackMouse:inRect:ofView:untilMouseUp:] + 770
    18  AppKit                              0x00007fff944f1366 -[NSControl mouseDown:] + 714
    19  AppKit                              0x00007fff94a5b2dc -[NSWindow _reallySendEvent:isDelayedEvent:] + 14125
    20  AppKit                              0x00007fff943eac86 -[NSWindow sendEvent:] + 470
    21  AppKit                              0x00007fff943e7212 -[NSApplication sendEvent:] + 2504
    22  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff8dd58e7b -[NSViewServiceApplication sendEventWithoutCatch:withForwarding:] + 652
    23  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff8dd5958d -[NSViewServiceApplication sendEvent:withForwarding:] + 29
    24  AppKit                              0x00007fff94310b68 -[NSApplication run] + 711
    25  AppKit                              0x00007fff9428d244 NSApplicationMain + 1832
    26  libxpc.dylib                        0x00007fff8cd90928 _xpc_objc_main + 793
    27  libxpc.dylib                        0x00007fff8cd92030 _parse_sysctl_once + 0
    28  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff8dda7ba5 xpc_connection_handler + 0
    29  ViewBridge                          0x00007fff8dd5c656 NSViewServiceApplicationMain + 2035
    30  com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService 0x0000000109074035 main + 208
    31  libdyld.dylib                       0x00007fff936e45c9 start + 1
    32  ???                                 0x0000000000000001 0x0 + 1
)
 
In fact the 'com.apple.appkit.xpc.openAndSavePanelService' crashed silently (only to be noticed by the generated User Diagnostic Report):
"Application Specific Information:
Crashing on exception: -[NSSavePanel _reactToPanelDismissalWithReturnCode:] : unexpected nil URL value while handling NSFileHandlingPanelOKButton result!"
 
----
Currently the problem seems to have disappeared and I can not reproduce it anymore. I'll will investigate further, if it might pop up again.
 

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Here
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the beta of Affinity Designer 1.7 for macOS.
Designer 1.7 is a significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version. Files edited in this version will not be backwards-compatible with the shipping 1.6 version. As such, we would not recommend using this 1.7 version for critical or production work at this stage. It is inevitable that there were will be a number of issues with 1.7 but we hope these will be minor and aim to resolve any issues very quickly, so please use it and explore the new features, but also do keep in mind that you may find snags and we would appreciate your help with finding and reporting these to us.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7.
With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this initial release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.
Many thanks,
Matt
 
Affinity Designer 1.7 - Changes since last Beta release
- Fix for crash in Export dialog when only one Artboard is present
- Fix for occasional crash when using Construction points
- Improved Freehand import slightly - failing to read all of a file shouldn't force it to produce a 'failed to load' response, instead we just load the bits that we *could* read
- Improvements to HSL adjustment
- PDF import and export improvements
- Fix for very poorly named Styles (oops)
- Sub-brush editing improvements
- New splash screen and Persona icons
 

Affinity Designer 1.7 - Changes Since Last 1.6 Release
 
Tools
- We've overhauled most of the core tools, adding subtle new features to make you more productive:
   - Node tool has a new 'Transform Mode' which provides a containing box for the selected nodes and allows for more freeform editing of the nodes.
   - Node and Pen tools have an utterly amazing Construction mode which gives easy access to common construction features to help you build complicated shapes or intersections accurately and easily, giving you simple access to parallels, right angles, reflected and mirrored angles, in addition to circular construction snaps and all construction intersections. This really needs a video to show how to use it - but it's awesome.
   - Pen tool now has a 'rubber band' mode and also a mode to allow future curves to be added to the current object's curves (for example, the character 'a' is constructed of two curves in a single 'curve object' and this mode makes that construction simpler).
   - Node tool can now auto-snap nodes if you drag a node from one curve over the top of a node from another (selected) curve and pause, it will offer to snap to the same geometry as the node you're hovering over (ie,  modify the on and off-curve nodes to match). This is really useful for trying to reconstruct areas of one curve from another curve.
   - Node tool now allows for lasso selection of nodes by holding the Alt/Option key and dragging a selection lasso.
   - Pencil tool now offers a 'sculpt' mode that allows for extending or manipulating curves in a more natural way. More to come in this area soon.
   - Many tools now allow for 'Alignment widgets' which you can toggle the visibility of in the context toolbar. When enabled you can visually adjust the alignment or even, for example, 'align to centre, snapped to the left edge of this object' by simply click/dragging.
   - Fill tool correctly allows editing of skewed fill handles and newly-created skewed fills draw much nicer now.
   - Ruler origin can be edited by simply dragging the area where the rulers intersect each other - it can even be snapped onto objects in the document.
   - Guides can be edited in most tools by simply dragging a guide in the ruler area.
   - Grid setup is now more interactive: origin can be dragged, axis scale adjusted and angle adjusted on-document, complete with snapping to objects and angles in the document to help you reconstruct useful grids from finished artworks or sketches.
   - By enabling 'Edit in Plane' on the new Isometric Studio, tools can edit objects and appear to make those edits along the currently active plane - extremely useful for artists who enjoy working with any axonometric projections.
   - You can now drag the rotation centre point (when enabled on the context toolbar) while holding Ctrl and it will translate the object - this is actually very useful for positioning and snapping objects relative to others.
   - Shapes tools now have presets so you can create your own favourite shape setups and more easily use them again.
   - There are just far too many subtle tool changes to mention here, but hopefully you'll find the tools much improved 
 
General
- New brushes, styles and assets are now shipped with the product.
- Visible bleed (accessed from the View menu) so you can more easily design into the bleed area - a common feature request.
- “Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Designer will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done.
- New 'Isometric' Studio makes it easy to setup and work with various axonometric projections within the application.
- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Designer. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed.
- Designer now supports custom document presets - a popular feature request.
- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.
- New “Move inside / outside” commands have been added - useful for quickly clipping/unclipping.
- New "Merge curves/Separate curves" commands.
- Grids now have an editable number of angle subdivisions.
- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.
- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features such as bullets and numbering.
- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.
 
Brushes
- Designer 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time. Each sub-brush has a fully separate and customisable set of dynamics. You can control when the sub-brushes are drawn and how they blend with the main brush.
- Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring.
- Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance.
- Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control.
- All pixel brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request.

Adjustments
- The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls.
- The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request.
- The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved.
- The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider.

 
Misc
- Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list!

Just to remind anyone asking 'how can this be RC1 when 'insert feature here' is still broken?!?' ... well, the reality is that the rest of the product is greatly improved and those specific things were also present in the last version - which was itself a released product - so it's not a blocker... it's admittedly not what we'd hope for, but as I said, the rest of the product it vastly improved and is very stable, so why would we not want to release at this point? It's not like we're now going to all give up or something, and it's also not like there isn't going to be a 1.7.1 version along shortly after release, so all these things will get sorted out along the road. They're a priority and I feel bad they're not right yet, but all things will be sorted in time...

Arrived back from holiday about 30 minutes ago...

Just to remind anyone asking 'how can this be RC1 when 'insert feature here' is still broken?!?' ... well, the reality is that the rest of the product is greatly improved and those specific things were also present in the last version - which was itself a released product - so it's not a blocker... it's admittedly not what we'd hope for, but as I said, the rest of the product it vastly improved and is very stable, so why would we not want to release at this point? It's not like we're now going to all give up or something, and it's also not like there isn't going to be a 1.7.1 version along shortly after release, so all these things will get sorted out along the road. They're a priority and I feel bad they're not right yet, but all things will be sorted in time...

Arrived back from holiday about 30 minutes ago...

Awesome! I look forward to it.

Matt said, when talking about the lack of such tools, during the first Beta release: "now the iPad version has been written, I should be able to dedicate more time to those long-requested features". And we have the prospect of faster development, since he added: "it might mean you get a 1.7.1/.2/.whatever that has more features in it?"
So, I would say it's not impossible to have it during the 1.7.x cycle. My expectation is within two years from now, though.
Best regards!

Sorry about this - its definitely always been like this though - but we have a plan that can make it all better - hopefully will implement that very soon!

Arrived back from holiday about 30 minutes ago...

Arrived back from holiday about 30 minutes ago...

Welcome back! Hope, you had a nice time off. 

Arrived back from holiday about 30 minutes ago...

Arrived back from holiday about 30 minutes ago...

Hi everyone,
First of all, congrats on the first release candidate of Affinity Designer. Secondly, I've been facing a bug, and I think I finally identified the cause of it. The bug was that newly created strokes made with the Pencil Tool would drag, and it would take a long time for the stroke to match the mouse action. This is caused on complex files after a stroke is deleted. Then the next stroke made with the Pencil Tool will drag. Here is a video example.
 

Drag on Stroke.mp4

Oh, Noooooo! How could Serif be so generous as to grant holidays to @MattP when Designer is not GM yet ?   Wake up MattP.  It's time to code and not to sleep.   We need Designer and Publisher GM so badly.  You can do it, MattP. 

Don't worry he'll do it first thing when he returns.

Ok, so this means is OFF by default, right? And if I need this option, I simply turn it ON. I think I like it better like it is now. Thanks for the reply!

Just to remind anyone asking 'how can this be RC1 when 'insert feature here' is still broken?!?' ... well, the reality is that the rest of the product is greatly improved and those specific things were also present in the last version - which was itself a released product - so it's not a blocker... it's admittedly not what we'd hope for, but as I said, the rest of the product it vastly improved and is very stable, so why would we not want to release at this point? It's not like we're now going to all give up or something, and it's also not like there isn't going to be a 1.7.1 version along shortly after release, so all these things will get sorted out along the road. They're a priority and I feel bad they're not right yet, but all things will be sorted in time...

Just to remind anyone asking 'how can this be RC1 when 'insert feature here' is still broken?!?' ... well, the reality is that the rest of the product is greatly improved and those specific things were also present in the last version - which was itself a released product - so it's not a blocker... it's admittedly not what we'd hope for, but as I said, the rest of the product it vastly improved and is very stable, so why would we not want to release at this point? It's not like we're now going to all give up or something, and it's also not like there isn't going to be a 1.7.1 version along shortly after release, so all these things will get sorted out along the road. They're a priority and I feel bad they're not right yet, but all things will be sorted in time...

Just to remind anyone asking 'how can this be RC1 when 'insert feature here' is still broken?!?' ... well, the reality is that the rest of the product is greatly improved and those specific things were also present in the last version - which was itself a released product - so it's not a blocker... it's admittedly not what we'd hope for, but as I said, the rest of the product it vastly improved and is very stable, so why would we not want to release at this point? It's not like we're now going to all give up or something, and it's also not like there isn't going to be a 1.7.1 version along shortly after release, so all these things will get sorted out along the road. They're a priority and I feel bad they're not right yet, but all things will be sorted in time...

Hi damian - could you see if it is more stable if you turn off 'hardware compute' in the Preferences and restart the app? Thanks!