smallreflection

@smallreflection,
You must set the background to Transparent background in File ▹ Document Setup... in the color section.
Then import the EPS into InDesign. It should have a transparent background.

:D
 
The team are still tweaking it (although I think it's already awesome!) but hopefully they'll be done soon. I think there's a very good chance the update will go live next Thursday (Apple tends to do things on a Thursday, and we've not been approved yet today, so I imagine it'll be next week) - that's my best guess at the moment and the video will probably go live as soon as we spot the update is available. I feel like we've been waiting for a very long time to see this arrive in the App Store and I can't wait! :D

Hi andyajon,
 
We submitted it last week, so we're just waiting for the approval process... We've not had any update on it so far, but I'm hoping it'll be any day now :)  We're super-excited too (plus, I've just seen the new video for the update and it's really good - I've played it about 50 times so far, hehe!)
 
Thanks,
Matt

Hi MattP,
 
Speaking of caches… What's the legality and feasability of fetching the glyph information embedded inside a .PDF exported by Illustrator or InDesign and using it to render all the corresponding text strings present in said file, even if the font isn't installed and activated in the system (at least until the user tries to edit it, not unlike smallreflection proposed for .afdesign files and .PDF readers already manage to do by design)?
 
Also, while I'm at it, do you reckon that those glyphs could be convertable to outlines? Or… would that veer off too much into the “downright illegal” camp?
 
I am posing both questions not because I might wish to pirate fonts (as I said before, I am enrolled on a typography-related master, so I am very much against that as a matter of principle; and, besides, even if I did want to do that, that would be the stupidest way of going about it, as not only the glyph sets are incredibly limited for all but the largest documents – say, multilingual or reference editions like encyclopedias –, you are also certain to lose the kerning tables and OpenType features in the process), but because of the odd logo I sometimes have to rebuild or extract in vector form at my day job. I am pretty sure that many colleagues around here can relate to that. :\

Hi Smallreflection,
 
That's a nice request and one that's hopefully fairly simple to achieve - just cache the outlines of the text in the file until such time as you edit them...
 
I'll put it to our text guru when he gets back from his holidays and see what he thinks :)
Matt

One tiny request as well—is there a way to maintain the appearance of fonts for those who don't have them on their system, unless a user attempted to edit the font? Or is that less doable in Designer because we're living in both raster and vector worlds?
 
Just thinking, for instance, of working with developers who may want to see the appearance of type in a mockup and not want to install all fonts used. They likely would need to install fonts to pull out copy, though, so it may not be that much of an issue. :)

A little slightly Tycho-inspired desktop for you, from Affinity Photo. LOVE the gradient control.

Hi everybody,
interesting thread ... personally I *hope* that Affinity Publisher will develop into a full-fledged desktop publishing application providing not only smart typographic options, but giving us the means to produce long structured documents as well ... and I am talking about multiline composition, footnotes, endnotes, a *fast* cross-references system, smart options for structured indices, intelligent pagination features and so on ... I am well aware that Indesign has added cross-reference support only in version 4 or so (and everyone who has ever had the pleasure of preparing scientific texts for print will know what missing this feature means for a typographer), but I hope we won’t have to wait this long in the development of Publisher, before we get the options I mentioned ... I hope these are planned at all ...  :huh:
Before considering features like the ones Ronny was talking about (no offense, Ronny: I would *love* to see them in Publisher as well), I would rather suggest thinking about those *bread and butter* features needed for serious book typography ... 
Best, Alex 

Another MUST read for typography is The Elements of Typographic Style... I actually think that this is a coveted Killer Feature Affinity can deliver to the design community. Let me explain:
 
Delivering an intelligent software and UI model to apply what are the timeless principles of proper/classic typography seamlessly to users — not the typographic compromises imposed by obsolete technologies like typewriters, word processors, and others— will essentially leapfrog Adobe in this area of functionality. I think the granularity offered by Adobe is great, but 80% of the time, 90% of users want to simply lay out great looking type. In order to do this, there are some inter-relationships which must be honored and dynamically adjusted by the user and/or the software's logic for intelligently typesetting copy. This AI typesetting engine can offer an order of magnitude better functionality, and really is not that hard to set up. The principles are open source, it's just a matter of applying a set of rules and links between font, character and paragraph attributes.
 
I would be more than happy to help the Affinity team develop this if they wanted any ideas...

We wil not have multiline composition for 1.0. It will be aimed at companies like ourselves that produce a lot of marketing material, retail box design, electronic publications etc. We don't produce very long documents that are predominantly text but we do need to produce high quality press ready output.

Quick and dirty concept for a sci-fi landscape... Hope to find time and finish it... 
 

Self portrait done in Affinity Photo, with default drawing brushes, a bit of Daub's gouache brushes, and a smattering of fine texture on top. Currently using AP for a big client illustration project—it's been a joy to use.

It does appear my webdav server save crash issue was nicely fixed up. Working like a gem so far. Bless you! :D

Purpose: Improvements, Features, Fixes
Status: Release Candidate
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: https://s3.amazonaws...stomer Beta.dmg
 
This is our intended final release candidate. We intend to update the currently available Mac App Store product in the very near future. It would be particularly helpful if any interested testers could take a look at the Spanish translations to ensure that they are acceptable as these have come back very recently and we have not yet had them validated. As before, we would appreciate it greatly if you are able to spend some time looking at this release candidate version and thoroughly testing it, letting us know any issues that you are having with it so we can prioritise our time to tend to as much as possible.
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it.
 
Documents made in this version will not be openable in older versions of Affinity Designer. This change was necessary in order to ensure a consistent baseline for our file format for the Affinity Photo Beta. When we update the Mac App Store version it will upgrade to this new archive version number too so will not be an issue in the future.   Improvements, Features, Fixes   - Fix for slow startup experienced by users with many fonts
- Fix for 'baking' corners causing the start/end node of closed curves to show slightly strangely in the node tool
- Fix for selective colour adjustment not correctly saving itself with the document
- Fix for problems experienced with WebDav shared folders causing inability to save over existing files
- Fix for many clipped translated strings
- Fix for some PSD export issues - crashes caused with masked areas
- Improved EPS loader so that it tries to identify CMYK/RGB documents
- Show the modified document before asking if the user would like to save its changes
- Fix for some incorrect states shown in the Select Tool's context toolbar
- Fix for EPS export of CMYK JPEGs used in the document (they were becoming inverted)
- Failing to read DPI information from a PNG should default to 72 DPI
- Fix for Black & White adjustment not allowing slider changes
- Attempted fix for disappearing tab bar when multiple documents are opened
- Added a check next to the current view in the Views->View menu
- Fix for some issues seen in Path Text
 

Not 100% done, but this is a portion of a new art piece done by commission for an upcoming card game. All painting done in Affinity Photo Beta. So far it's been fantastic with few hiccups. The new beta does seem a bit friendlier to my Wacom as well. :)
 
More updates will pop up at SteamCourt.com soon!

smallreflection,
I've been able to reproduce the rotating drop-down flicker, but only when when i click very quickly and lightly and with the mouse still in movement. Can you replicate it with the mouse already in place over the arrow and simply by clicking on it?
 
I think this can be fine tuned.

Whoa! On-Canvas Brush resize is damn sweet now!

Not 100% done, but this is a portion of a new art piece done by commission for an upcoming card game. All painting done in Affinity Photo Beta. So far it's been fantastic with few hiccups. The new beta does seem a bit friendlier to my Wacom as well. :)
 
More updates will pop up at SteamCourt.com soon!

It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway.
 
WOW!
 
That deserves an Eggy. Pinned it!

Hi Serif team, 
 
I am currently in a middle of a transition from Sketch to Affinity Design. As much as I like Sketch, AD is quite superior and feels like a real proffesional tool. I mostly design apps and websites therefore my needs comes from UI design. Still there are some things I lack in Affinity Design and prevents me from using it as a main design tool.
 
1) Instant measuring distances - in Sketch I can always select any object, hold ALT and hover over any object and I instantly get distances from those objects in pixels. It also works for distances between layers, guides and borders. It works like magic and I really have trouble designing without it as it’s very addictive once you start using it. I know I can draw rectangles but it’s annoing compared to that. Please consider it.
 
2) duplicating objects with options - there is no easy way to rotate copies of an object in Affinity Designer. Say I have to put 50 copies of a rectangle with rounded edgest around a circle to create a tyre. Or a custom cog I can’t create with the shape preset. Or just simple "create 50 copies of this within selected area". 
 
3) Snapping to full pixels - Snapping to half pixels is usually useless for me in UI design (it results in blurry icons on mobile devices), I need to force snapping to full pixels.
 
4) Mirrored direction handles – couldn’t find any way to move the direction handles of a nod in a mirrored way. Maybe I am missing something or is this option missing? 
 
5) Eyedropper tool behavior - Whn using eyedropper tool first I have to drag it and once I am done I have to tap the small circle with the selected color to apply it. Why this unnecessary step? In Sketch I can instantly use the color when releasing the cursor. This behavior only slows me down.
 
6) Object style presets and smart objects - self-explainetory, it makes designing a UI with repeating elements a breeze. Any plans for that?
 
7) App for previews – you probably need to implement artboards first but it would be nice to preview designs instantly on iOS and/or Android devices. At least you can integrate Skala preview? Sketch app is killer for that.
 
Thank you for considering all this. Besides that AD is perfect app for design and looking forward to use it more. Sketch has so many bugs, limitations and it’s very slow compared to Affinity Designer.
 
Mike

Hi Mike,
 
Thanks for joining the forum and sharing your thoughts :)  I'm very interested to hear your experiences because our sights are about to squarely focus on UI designers in the near future by adding all the missing features required for this demographic to Designer. I don't know if you'd fancy trying the Affinity Designer Beta or not, but there have been a lot of tweaks and enhancements (Force Pixel Alignment button on the top toolbar in particular which will sort out your half-pixel snapping issues) and this may make you much more productive...
 
The beta is a stable, dependable product so don't be overly wary of it, just because it has the word Beta in the title - it's simply a means of allowing customers access to new features and bug-fixes without having to wait for the App Store submission process! ;)
 
You can often use Power Duplicate for tasks such as those described in number 2 in your list - although that's only an interim solution at present as we'll have proper control for this in the future...
 
You can add styles already if that would help? Just right-click your object and choose "Create Style" and it'll appear in the Styles panel. Select a new object and click the style to apply it.
 
We'll definitely refer back to your list as we make progress, thanks
Matt

Not 100% done, but this is a portion of a new art piece done by commission for an upcoming card game. All painting done in Affinity Photo Beta. So far it's been fantastic with few hiccups. The new beta does seem a bit friendlier to my Wacom as well. :)
 
More updates will pop up at SteamCourt.com soon!

Not 100% done, but this is a portion of a new art piece done by commission for an upcoming card game. All painting done in Affinity Photo Beta. So far it's been fantastic with few hiccups. The new beta does seem a bit friendlier to my Wacom as well. :)
 
More updates will pop up at SteamCourt.com soon!

This was all done with text, vectors, and layer efffects.
 

 

 

 
Watch the video here

Some quick editing with Affinity Photo, just for fun.