smallreflection

Thank you, these are cool!

In my opinion it would be nice to have tooltips on the various constraint options.

Those icons control aspect scaling..
 
One of them will keep the object scaled in aspect - whilst always fitting inside the container (Min fit).
 
The other will keep the object scaled in aspect but allow it to get bigger than its container (Max fit).
 
Hope this helps,
 
Andy.

Measurement tool is amazing!!

Measurement tool is amazing!!

Status: Beta Release
Purpose: New features, fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
This is the second beta of a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it should be considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity that you may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.5 cannot be opened in 1.4 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.5 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.4 version.
 
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.
 
Fixes/Improvements:
- Fix for screen flicker issues on certain Mac systems (2015 Retina MacBook Pro 13", in particular)
- Numerous Text Styles improvements and fixes
- Fix for Embedded documents which aren't the same colour format or profile as the parent document
- Assets and symbols now work correctly with documents in different colour formats
- Updated assets that make use of constraints
- Fix for 'Lock Children' on the Move Tool's context toolbar causing all kinds of havoc with Constraints
- Fix for Symbols crashing with text
- Added live measurement tool. Select an object then hold Alt/Option and move your mouse over other objects to measure how far away they are. Measurements will also show when holding Alt/Option and nudging with the arrow keys
- Fix for strange behaviour when creating a curve in the Pen Tool if you had snapping enabled (it would draw a very cool-looking but completely crazy magenta 'waveform' as you moved the mouse around!?!)
- Fix for Pen/Node Tools not being able to reduce a node down to being coincident with both off-curve handles by Alt/Option-click
- Fix issues with editing global colours sometimes making many undo steps rather than one
- Miscellaneous small fixes

This one is fixed.  Will be in next Beta update.

Simply amazing—fantastic, fantastic work guys. I've just been playing with it for a few minutes so I haven't run into any bugs yet, but by appearances you've already solved problems that I haven't seen Sketch address after years of requests. Paragraph styles + symbols + constraints is an absolute Godsend for UI design. If you guys can form some kind of integration with the likes of Zeplin, I'd never have to leave. :) Think that could ever be a possibility?
 
Seriously, guys, this is almost a shameful amount of goodness to sell for a mere $50. :)

Yeah, there's a good reason for that - and it's hiding in the Affinity Photo 1.5 update - which is hopefully due out soon :)
 
Obviously, Designer needs to be compatible with everything you can achieve in Photo, so the size of the two apps will always mirror each other as they grow or shrink :)

Matt didn't listed above but it's now possible to change Grid lines and Subdivision lines colours and opacity (menu View ▸ Grid and Axis Manager).
The Fill and Transparency Tools also have a new option in the context toolbar (Maintain Fill Aspect Ratio).
Pen and Node Tools have a new local snapping option: Snap to geometry of selected curves (path and node aware snapping).
Frame Text Tool has a new snapping feature: baseline snapping for the first line.
 
There's also a few new options in Preferences:
- General: 
- Enable “Save” over imported PSD files (intended to use as an interchange format with DAM applications) - Perfromance: - Retina Rendering:  Single Pass | Retina Multi Pass - User Interface: - Artboard Background Grey Level

ooh am I first :) YES YES YES YES YES! There  goes my weekend :) 

Status: Beta Release
Purpose: New features, fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
This is the first beta of a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it should be considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity that you may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.5 cannot be opened in 1.4 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.5 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.4 version.
 
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.
 
 
I am hoping for a brief video overview of the new headline features from Ash very soon and I'll add a link here when it arrives, but here's a quick summary in the interim...
 
Summary:
Symbols - Objects can be made into symbols and remain editable on document at all times - instantly updating other instances. The 'Sync' button on the Symbols panel controls whether changes will be made to all instances, or just the current instance. Found on 'View'->'Studio'->'Symbols'
Constraints - Objects can be made to constrain in certain ways when their parents change. For example, an object could be anchored to a corner of its parent and told to not scale when the parent is scaled. This is powerful for UI mockups and allows you to see in realtime how dialogs may scale, for example. Found on 'View'->'Studio'->'Constraints'
Assets - We now have an Assets panel that you can use to drag any documents into from your document. Dragging items back out creates new objects from them. You can also add Symbols to your Assets if you wish. Found on 'View'->'Studio'->'Assets'
Text Styles - We've added support for text styles - and it's really very powerful... It probably needs a video tutorial all to itself to describe how to use it properly! Found on 'View'->'Studio'->'Text Styles'
Export Persona - The Export Persona has much greater functionality, allowing you to specify many export sizes and formats from each slice area/object. It also has presets for creating common icons, making Xcode asset JSON and even for creating JSON export for Spine (2D animation software by esotericsoftware.com - we're not affiliated with them in any way, but they suggested they'd like to use Designer for content creation so we tried to enable it)
Snapping - This has been greatly improved, as has the 'candidate' snapping system (there are options for this in the snapping setup). We now also support 'gaps and spans' to aid with object construction and object geometry snapping. We will soon add 'measuring'
Colour Picker Tool - We've added a colour picker as a dedicated tool. I'm open to suggestions on your favourite shortcut key for this one and we'll add it next time :)
Styles - Now has a 'spotlight' style search box.
Tool shortcut fixes for International keyboards.
You can now drop colours from programs like Chroma (by softpress.com - again, no affiliation but they mentioned they'd like to do it, so we tried) directly onto objects on the document.
Embedded documents should now usually export as vector elements rather than being rasterised.
Many PDF/PSD import/export improvements.
You can now choose which artboard to display for an embedded document (if it contained artboards) rather than being forced to see the whole document.
Selection has been improved to hopefully stop people getting frustrated about not being able to click to select the things they can see!
New Beta Icon - Perhaps the biggest change, we've finally thrown out the old Beta icon and its terrible, terrible 'chain' hanging the beta sign off the icon! Hurrah!
 
 
Known Problems:
I've accidentally left the Links panel available in the UI and also the option to mirror the document to iOS is still there too... I'd encourage everyone not to delve into any of this... The Links panel allows you to specify for any object which artboard it will transition to and in what way it will transition when it is touched. It's only of any use to you if you have the iOS Mirror application (which we aren't ready to release yet) and by enabling the links on your objects, you may well be left with a document which will not open again in the future if the developer decides to change anything... Also, the Artboard Tool's context toolbar includes Header and Footer controls - this is also related to previewing on the iOS Mirror application and is to enable scrolling website mockups. So there you go, you know what we're up to a little ahead of time, but it would take me too long to build the whole application again without it all! ;)
 
Embedded documents in colour formats/profiles which are different to the parent document might draw strangely - this will be fixed for the next beta, sorry.
 
Assets and Symbols are all currently assumed to be in the current document format and colour space - again, this will be fixed for the next beta, sorry. They also don't currently get snapped as you drop them onto the document - this will be fixed shortly, too.
 
 
The Future:
We'll try to update the beta a lot more regularly again, hopefully weekly but it will depend on whether enough is ready to warrant a new beta. Expect this first beta to have a few snags, but we'll try to get them turned around and a new beta out very quickly when they are identified. We have a number of other smaller things to tweak that will hopefully improve the whole experience subtly and these will also appear in the coming weeks.

Actually based on the speed with which some competitors have been working on similar features, this is actually really impressive. Good work, guys.

Hi andyajon,
Sorry the delay replying. There will be various improvements for those working with UI/UX: Contraints & Symbols (symbols sneak peek), improvements to Export Persona, and quite a few improvements in various areas. There's still a few more things but i'm not the most suited person to disclose them.

Hi andyajon,
It should be out by the end of this month if everything goes well.

Please add noise texture. Very useful to get more realistic results. Noise in color is not enough.
(screen shot of cinema4d)

I just want to say : I love you, guys !
Every day, I congratulate myself for leaving Illustrator. Mixing vectors, effects and color adjustment layers is really a must have. Having in the same app Illustrator and Photoshop is an incredible gain of time. And the result is really better !
 
Thanks.

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!

Well... (update...)
 

 
A set of 6 simple stupid tools to vent your obsessive-compulsive disorder  :lol:
These brushes offer a ramp shaped to jitter hues and luminosity of the colour you're painting with.
Download here
 
Happy mosaic!

Hi!
 
I want to share with you this small set of pencils.
Some of these tools feature Angle (Tilt) variance but you need a tablet that support it.
Don't have so much inspiration today to add some samples, but will do it for sure later 
 
This set doesn't work on iPad because required settings are not yet there.
It will work with proper textures once the matching of iOS/Desktop version has been completed. 
 

 
Hope you'll enjoy it!
Happy sketching!
 
UPDATE
 
Just uploaded a v1.1 with these two new pieces 
 
 

 
 
Some things to know...
 
This new release works with MAS versions of Affinity range, but to have proper tilt dynamic latest Beta of AP or AD is needed.
Special thanks to Andy Somerfield for custom ramps...
DAUB Pencils.afbrushes.zip
DAUB Pencils v1.1.zip

Purpose: Fixes
Status: Release Candidate
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Submitted
Download: Here
 
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.
 
This is a release candidate build. It has been submitted to the App Store for review and we will make it available as the current App Store version when we are confident there are no unexpected problems. This build should be considered more stable than the current MAS version (1.4.1) and should be used in preference to that build.
 
Fixes
 
- Fix for converting between wide-gamut RGB and sRGB profiles causing incorrect colours
- Fix for converting colour profile/colour model not undoing correctly for inner glow effects
- Fix for occasional crash with arrow shape
- Fix for Rasterise causing layer effects to appear the wrong size if they were present on a scaled object
- Fix for A1 (Press Ready) preset having the wrong dimensions for an A1 sheet (*sigh*)
- Fix for tool shortcut keys on international keyboards
- Updated help file
 

A procedural noise generator will be very useful for textures in brush panels too...
Or maybe the Perlin Noise as Live Filter...

So I found myself wanting to come up with a basic stipple brush, of a more vector-style and less painterly variety. Going for that more retro-modern shading look inside of vectors that's quite popular these days. Pretty basic, but I think this is what I was going for! Works best sticking to applying with straight paths, no vector handles. The nice thing shading this way is you can vary the opacity and get quite a nice buildup on top of gradients. I threw together this trippy abstract to give them a go.   :)
 
Edit: Sorry, this post seems to have gotten mysteriously duplicated, and the attachment isn't showing up here consistently.

Basic-Stipple-Brushes.afbrushes.zip

Eeeeeeexcellent

I am posting a third set of custom Textured brushes for Affinity Designer:
Textured pack 03 Intensity brushes (zip file - big - 30+mb)
 
These are more remakes of custom brushes I created for Expression3 back in 2004-2007. Plus quite a few new custom brushes and variants.
This set is also a continuation of the previous sets posted. Strokes developed with a moderately organic, mostly (un)natural media, water or oil based pigment like art approach in mind. There is a big variety of brush "looks" included. None of these are strict emulations of traditional media effects. Each is a little "digital" in its own way. There are quite a few wash stroke variations in this set and a few wild cards.
There are quite a few additional rugged drawing/wet inking brushes as well.
There are also several brushes with raged, dashed or random textures.
 
Example images of the strokes are attached here.
Hope the user base here finds this third set interesting and useful.