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A feature that has been high on the wishlist of countless designers like us: the mighty "Trace Tool"! You know how essential it is to have all the right tools at our fingertips for unleashing our creative potential. Well, brace yourselves, because it's time to give the people what they want, and guess what? This tool is already rocking the design world in many other software, but it's time to bring it right here, into our beloved Affinity Designer!
As designers, we crave a seamless and efficient workflow, and the inclusion of a Trace Tool would be nothing short of a dream come true. Picture this: effortless conversion of raster images into smooth, editable vector graphics, right within Affinity Designer! No more fumbling around with external apps or manual tracing hassles. It's time to level up our game and bring ease and convenience to every step of our design journey.
Why settle for less when we can have more? A Trace Tool opens up a world of possibilities – from breathing new life into existing artwork to transforming hand-drawn sketches into stunning vector masterpieces. And here's the best part: we can take full control! Imagine fine-tuning the details, smoothness, and accuracy of the traced output to match our unique design styles. It's an invaluable addition to our creative arsenal that we just can't ignore.
So, let's unite our voices and make sure the Affinity team hears us loud and clear. We know what we want, and we're well aware that the design community is already benefiting from this fantastic feature in other software. It's time to bring it home – right here to Affinity Designer, where we belong!
Join me in rallying for the Trace Tool that we deserve. Let's show the world that our passion for design knows no bounds, and when it comes to fulfilling our creative needs, Affinity Designer is the place to be!
 

Suggestion for default file naming for improved workflow: - for focus merge, panorama, HDR stacking etc.  use the filename of the first image of the sequence and append an appropriate sub-string.  E.g.  <1st-file-name>_fmerge<.jpg>,  <1st-file-name>_stitch<.jpg>, etc - when exporting an edited image, set the default filename to e.g.  <org-file-name>_af<.jpg>.  If the filename already ends with '_af' append  '1' and increment on each subsequent export for that same image. This saves the time of having to search through the list of images for the first file in the sequence.
- after an export, rename document/image to that of the just exported image   (Note: when focus stacking images, the filenames in the 'sources' window have underscore characters removed    

Greetings Affinity team,
My Improvement ask for Designer (and possibly the other programs as well? I have the Universal license, but almost exclusively work with Designer) would be as follows:
Context: Designer (all builds) Export Persona
In the Slice export naming box, there is a box for setting "User Variables".
 
At present, creating a user variable and setting the value does not seem to do anything. The variable does not appear to be available to any other Slice path, meaning having a value in it is more cumbersome than simply filling out the Path Components field by hand. I searched the documentation and asked about this behaviour here, but it appears that it's a long-standing incomplete feature.
 
Request: to make User Variables behave conceptually more like a variable in programming (or akin to the Symbols behavior), where once created it can be applied as a Patch Component in as many slice outputs as desired, and then updating the Value of the variable will update all future exports that draw on it. 
My "that'd be cool!"-level request would additionally include adding a Studio block for the Export Persona to allow viewing and updating of User Variables. 
Benefit: improving export workflows for people who are exporting several variations of the same slice, eg. when making product mockups with multiple colour variations for the outputs.
 
Thanks,
flobnoit
 

The Affinity package has great paste functions: Paste Style, Paste FX, Paste Inside and Paste Without Format. I suggest going a step further and taking the cool and powerful paste functions from Inkscape 1.3: Paste length, Paste width, Paste size. These are small but very cool features: the ability to take the size of the copied object and apply that size to others.
PasteSize_Inkscape.mp4

The new Inkscape 1.3 has a very nice feature called «Quick zoom» (temporary "zoom to selection" on long shortcut press). It would be great to have it in Affinity Suite products as well, especially since it seems to fit the new paradigm with the "long press tool shortcuts" feature introduced in Beta 2.2. The way it works is simple: while the button is pressed the selected object is enlarged to the screen size, as soon as the button is released — returns to original scale.
 
 
 
QuickZoom_inkscape.mp4

Hey @BRlombardi,
It's looks like you have 'Allow selection to consider items inside a group' enabled, if you uncheck this option along the context toolbar (Highlighted on your screenshot below in red) this then should behave as before with the whole group being selected instead of the individual objects.

Hello there. I don't know if it is really a bug or if I did something accidently... 
The situation is: I select some itens and group them. When I try to move the group clicking it Designer select just the item I've clicked on instead of selecting all the group (example image below). Thiw way if I try to move the group just an specific item moves whats is driving me crazy.
Maybe I've accidently have activate some tool or function but I can't find what is doing it.
Appreciate any help.

Can paths to files be relative? For example, something like "..\images\mypic.tiff", meaning going up one level from the AfPub document, and opening the "images" folder?
Paolo
 

This set is based on schemes from https://carto.com/carto-colors/

Download palette: Data Driven Color Schemes.afpalette
Download AD sample: data driven color schemes.afdesign

Affinity Publisher 2.0.3
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4440 CPU @ 3.10GHz   3.10 GHz
Installed RAM    8.00 GB (7.89 GB usable)
Graphics card    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Edition        Windows 10 Pro
Version        22H2
Installed on    ‎27/‎11/‎2022
OS build    19045.2486
Experience    Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0
I’m using 2 monitors, one of which is a Wacom Cintiq22
 
steps to reproduce:
* copy an image from web browser. I use firefox.
* open Publisher
* create a document. uncheck "facing pages"
* using the "pages" panel, select the page in publisher where you wish for the image to be pasted
* paste
expected result:
* the image is pasted on the active page of the publisher document
actual result:
* The image ends up way outside and below the active page.
* Trying to reproduce this has given me inconsistent placement. It can be the equivalent of 1, 2, 6 or even 11 pages further down.
* If there are no pages after the active page, the image is pasted far below active page.
* copying and pasting an image from within the publisher document itself places the image on the active page, as expected.
* selecting the page by clicking of the page (not using the "pages" panel) seems to paste the image correctly sometimes.
* on page 1, the image is pasted correctly.
* Hardware acceleration ON and OFF produce these same results as far as I can tell.
* I can detect no correlation between placement of the pasted image and placement on the website it was copied from.

Is it possible to convert Artistic text to Frame text?
I've a lot of Artistic text in a file, but I want to use them as Frame Texts.
 
How to do this??
 

It's this kind of stuff that makes me feel some regret at jumping all in with Affinity. Aside from the endless frustrations I feel with the UI (particularly with colour swatches), there are some essential features for professionals (like support for 1-bit images and turning off anti-aliasing) that are simply missing. Years go by, with users requesting the same features over and over, and there seems to be little evidence that these features are even on the roadmap.
It makes me wonder if Affinity just doesn't have any print professionals on their team, if they think these things aren't essential.

Add the ability to resize multiple objects to a single size.
For example, when the "Transform Objects Separately" option is enabled, add the checkbox «[ ] Each», to make all selected objects take a single size from the «Transform» panel.

So far, in the current versions, objects resize relative to the selected object.

Thanks everyone for replying.
I think the original question was answered so maybe it'd be better to close the topic.
For the people that was making advices I just want to point out that the life and world is not black and white. I really excited watching for professionals around the world, I have friends in many countries all over the world. Also just to point out I'm Ukrainian by father (my father was born in Ukraine and I used to live in Ukraine 1/4 of my childhood). I love Ukraine as much as I love Russia. I study reasons of this conflict for more than 10 years, I was watching it with my eyes more than you think, I saw how it escalated, saw how it did grow. My grandmother lives in Ukraine, 4 years ago my grandfather from Ukraine passed away, many relatives (cousins, uncles), friends live in Ukraine, some of my cousins are now at war from Ukrainian side and some of my friends are from Russian side.
I didn't want to tell you anything about it because I started topic for another reason... But these comments... Many of commenters don't understand what really is happening here! This is a tragedy for all our people regardless of which side of the border one is on. So before judging please... at least please check out the history.
Not to offend anyone. Just... Just please know that we are suffering from this conflict alltogether. Russia and Ukraine for many Russians and Ukrainians are united. Some of us even don't see the difference, just artificial borders made someday by the politics.
I wish everyone to live in peace and stay safe. I'm grateful for your responses.
With love

1. 300 DPI image (4,37 MB) placed (same colour space as document).
2. Rasterise Image.
3. Menu Layer > Convert to Image Resource. Resource Manager reports now a file size of 29,14 MB of the embedded image. Document file size is 4,92 MB.
4. Make embedded image linked. Image has now 2,31 MB and DPI was lowered to 96.
 

Many thanks for the further information and files provided!
I can confirm I've since been able to replicate this issue, though the resource manager continues to report 300DPI, the new TIFF file created & linked is incorrectly at 96DPI - therefore I have logged this as a bug with our developers now.
Thanks for your report once again

Hi
 
I'm using Affinity Designer to create icons.
 
I a single layer, I have an icon with 7 sizes.
 
My slices names as like this:
 
_16x16
_32x32
_64x64
 
etc.
 
When I'm in the Export Persona, I select "Slices" and clicks "Export slices", then I enter a name like "MyIcon".
 
Is there a way to tell Affinity Designer to merge the exported filename "MyIcon" into the slicename, så the slice names will end up as...
 
MyIcon_16x16
MyIcon_32x32
MyIcon_64x64
 
...?
 
That way I can reuse the layer, change the icons and export it with a new name like "MyNewIcon" and it will automatically export slices as ..
 
MyNewIcon_16x16
MyNewIcon_32x32
MyNewIcon_64x64
 
I would like to call the slice names something like...
 
{filename}_16x16
{filename}_32x32
{filename}_64x64
 
etc.
 
Thanks

I have a document with 13 pages, on each page there is a linked and quite large Designer file (~300mb).
Case A: When I doubleclick it to edit it inside Publisher, do my changes and save it, Publisher crashes with no error message. When I open the document again, I see that changed file is saved, not refreshed in the document and I can refresh the file with the resource manager manually. Switching the persona to Designer makes no difference.
Case B: When I open the Designer file externally with Designer, do my changes and save it, no crash occurs, Publisher still not alerting about a changed resource, but showing the file as changed in resource manager. So here I also have to refresh it manually.
My Environment: Windows 11 Pro 21H2, Publisher 1.10.5.1342, Designer 1.10.5.1342
It would be nice to be able to choose if I want to edit the resource file internally or externally.

Hi!
 
I am new to Affinity Designer and already have searched the internet to find an answer. The Info I found is that the measurement tool was planned years ago, but nothing to measurements in the newest release.
 
Is there any way to measure the length of a (curved) line in the newest version? I am interested in an exact measurement in physical units (mm).
 
Thanks!

@Che
As a result of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine we are not currently selling software within Russia.

- Create an object and apply a layer style (i.e. some bevel or embossing). Press CTRL+C.
- Create a new object at a different size (make it much bigger to best see the effect)
- Select the new object and press ALT+SHIFT+V (Paste FX) or CTRL+SHIFT+V (Paste Style) and see how the effects are scaled wrongly.
 
This is a inconsistent:
- When you duplicate the object and scale it manually, then let's say change the radius of the bevel and then press ALT/CTRL+SHIFT+V, the styles are applied correctly.
 
This bug was already reported over and over since v1.7 by numerous other users and I did not get tired to report it for all the releases since then. Is there any chance this will ever be fixed?

Hi.

Previously there are request about symbol management here https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/45462-assetsymbol-management/
 
Well, it might be harder/ takes longer to implement. But for next update, can you guys at least making a way to delete multiple symbols at once (from symbol library).
 
Currently doing right-click -> delete -> confirm is very tedious for me as I can have like 100 - 150 symbols at once.

Thanks.

3D pie chart, the poorest possible chart type for any type of information. 😀

Add the ability to resize multiple objects to a single size.
For example, when the "Transform Objects Separately" option is enabled, add the checkbox «[ ] Each», to make all selected objects take a single size from the «Transform» panel.

So far, in the current versions, objects resize relative to the selected object.

Would be nice if Affinity team could incorporate them into Designer. At least the vector pen tools.