abarkalo

Guys - happy that you identified and fixed the flickering issue in Beta 9.  Just experiencing on my end as well.  Seems to affect a document with a lot of white in it.  

Just a slight cosmetic issue:  "Right out of the box" beta settings have an issue with the shortcut for hide studio settings.   I seem to not be able to assign a keyboard shortcut here - and as you can see in the image the default setting is indicating a conflict error.

Not a bad idea :-) 

In Photoshop sometimes I do color code layers to bookmark or call to attention something, for organization/highlight purposes.  I don't do this often but sometimes if there is an important layer I need to bring up then it is helpful.  I notice that I can't do this in Photo.  In light of other important things going on here, I just want to throw this into the suggestion box for you guys to decide.  

In Photoshop sometimes I do color code layers to bookmark or call to attention something, for organization/highlight purposes.  I don't do this often but sometimes if there is an important layer I need to bring up then it is helpful.  I notice that I can't do this in Photo.  In light of other important things going on here, I just want to throw this into the suggestion box for you guys to decide.  

I have an iMac 2015 i7 5K 32GB 1867 RAM, Radeon R9 4GB and a MacBook Pro 2016 i7 Radeon Pro 460 4GB GPU and I don't have these issues.  As Matt knows, I try to break things here What I was getting yesterday though was some weird shadow/garbage/pixellation whenever I moved text frames (containing lot of text) around.  That's gone now and I don't know why but glad it is.
 
Since Matt can't reproduce and I can't on my end (I have a document with a LOT of embedded docs and a 50 artboards) perhaps reinstall both MAS and beta versions entirely, reinstall and reboot.   If that doesn't work then there is something specific in your doc - I have some quirky issues like that with specific docs, not overall, I just reserve or copy info over and all is well. 
 

Status: Beta Release
Purpose: New features, fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
This Beta has been updated to fix a translation issue as of 2pm (BST), Thursday 24th August. Aside from the translations, the application remains the same so you only need to download it again if you had a problem. Sorry for the inconvenience.
 
This beta version represents 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 may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.6 may not open in 1.5 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.6 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.5 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 incorrect grid behaviour with isometric grid in Metal view mode, also Triangular grid misbehaviour Fix for incorrect document background area being drawn when zoomed in on an Artboard document in pixel view mode (fixed for Metal view only) Fix for text frame resize via double-clicking handle causing crash Fix for crash on EPS import Fixed some PDF import issues Added ability to rotate the selected nodes in the Node Tool - via the Transform panel Fix for studio panels not correctly restoring their hidden/visible state between application sessions Path text now allows baseline editing when text is multi-line Further tweaked Expand Stroke results to not be so aggressive Miscellaneous other fixes and tweaks

Yeah you got me there.  Photoshop's UI is really dated, and something more like hue vs hue in Resolve, or Resolve's highly precise eyedropper, ramp and matte refinement would be great.  Still, if Photo can make incremental improvements here then I would be happy for now. 
 
 
 
 

I'd much rather see implementations like Resolve or Baselight.

I would like to have an easy way to change ALL the specific hues in the photo, not just in a given area using the HSL adjustment layer.  
 
In Photo as in Photoshop I can use the HSL adjustment layer (Hue/Saturation in Photoshop).  In Photoshop I can pick from 6 colors but I can extend or restrict the color range, or use the eyedropper tool to pick the correct starting point.  In Photo, I can only manipulate the six set colors, and no eyedropper tool and seemingly no ability to extent/restrict the range.  What I can do in Photo is select Select Sampled Color and then apply an HSL adjustment - but I just can't seem to fine tune as easily.
 
In your Black and White adjustment layer you have a Picker.  I would like something like that in Photo, or at least a method to duplicate what I do in Photoshop - see attached photo.
 
 
 

It's not just in a Dropbox folder - it's in any folder, including the Desktop.  I've uninstalled AD (beta and MAS) and reinstalled to see if this fixed anything.  It used to happen in Betas 5-6 but now again.  Will report back if I see this again.  

Hey guys, I am constantly getting these failed to save document messages.  It happens whenever I convert a document (such as a PDF).  I thought it might be corrupt read/write settings on my drive but that's not the issue (I did a terminal fix user settings just to be sure).  If I quit AD and restart and do the same thing then I'm OK but then it the fail to save message shows up after about the third time (I'm converting a batch of PDF files).   Very annoying! Sorry but true   But wondering if you are getting the same error messages on your end?  There's just some quirks when opening up PDFs which are saved from other programs - such as at the font issue corruption that I reported a few days ago (that hasn't come up again - but I still can't figure out why that happened) or the spell checker indicating misspelling on correct words.  Anyway, other than the spelling thing, I'm able to do some workarounds but wanted to bring these problems up.  

Hi Lenogre,
 
I also have a wish list of items - I've made several posts about them.  Illustrator has a certain look - it's evolved but it's strictly vector.  What I love about AD is that it's a different kind of tool altogether, a hybrid between vector and raster.  Tell me, do you enjoy shading in Illustrator?  Can you make a more realistic look with Gaussian blurs that make shadows and light sources realistic? Yes Illustrator can do a lot of things, but there are a lot of things that AD can only do, or do better.
 
But here's the real clincher - speed, performance.  Especially with the Metal update (Mac), AD just flies. I don't mean 2x or even 5x but somewhere like 10x+. Illustrator and InDesign stall.  I had to stop a project in InDesign because it wouldn't allow me to edit with a linked AI files - it was choking performance.  I ended up doing the whole thing in AD in several artboards even faking some page "templates."  Whatever time I lost doing that I saved more time at how fast everything was.  I'm utterly impressed at how fast it performed. 
 
I find myself using AD for vectors 99% of the time. 

Hi Lenogre,
 
I also have a wish list of items - I've made several posts about them.  Illustrator has a certain look - it's evolved but it's strictly vector.  What I love about AD is that it's a different kind of tool altogether, a hybrid between vector and raster.  Tell me, do you enjoy shading in Illustrator?  Can you make a more realistic look with Gaussian blurs that make shadows and light sources realistic? Yes Illustrator can do a lot of things, but there are a lot of things that AD can only do, or do better.
 
But here's the real clincher - speed, performance.  Especially with the Metal update (Mac), AD just flies. I don't mean 2x or even 5x but somewhere like 10x+. Illustrator and InDesign stall.  I had to stop a project in InDesign because it wouldn't allow me to edit with a linked AI files - it was choking performance.  I ended up doing the whole thing in AD in several artboards even faking some page "templates."  Whatever time I lost doing that I saved more time at how fast everything was.  I'm utterly impressed at how fast it performed. 
 
I find myself using AD for vectors 99% of the time. 

@Oval A genuine question, have we done something to offend/upset you - many of your posts tend towards a more-than-normal level of negativity towards how you perceive the company thinks/feels/operates. It’s not the industry-standard for devs at a software company to engage directly with customers so I’m beginning to wonder if this is ultimately breeding a false view of our company based on the language and thoughts of those individuals that you would not hold had you simply always spoken to support personnel and received ‘I’ll pass that on to development’ as a stock answer? I get that you’re waiting for features (isn’t everyone?) but negativity towards the company/individuals will do nothing to expedite them...
 
edited to say: perhaps it’s just a language barrier thing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_4_compression
 
 
 

My typical experience with a company (another one that begins with a letter A, but not only that one) when reporting an issue is that they either tell me my hardware is too old (no it's not, and they are just told to say that) or that "it will be forwarded to the engineering team" and then it just goes to Stephen Hawking's black hole.  They also tell me that I should not be using an AMD GPU, as if I had a choice with Apple. Or, my favorite - this one came from another company - "we have diagnosed the issue and have determined that the software is performing as it should" - really now...
 
So I couldn't be happier with the immediate response and the great feeling/reality that we are all being listened to.  Serif is the most customer attentive company... ever. 
 
 

My typical experience with a company (another one that begins with a letter A, but not only that one) when reporting an issue is that they either tell me my hardware is too old (no it's not, and they are just told to say that) or that "it will be forwarded to the engineering team" and then it just goes to Stephen Hawking's black hole.  They also tell me that I should not be using an AMD GPU, as if I had a choice with Apple. Or, my favorite - this one came from another company - "we have diagnosed the issue and have determined that the software is performing as it should" - really now...
 
So I couldn't be happier with the immediate response and the great feeling/reality that we are all being listened to.  Serif is the most customer attentive company... ever. 
 
 

Status: Beta Release
Purpose: New features, fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
This beta version represents 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 may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.6 may not open in 1.5 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.6 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.5 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:
Fixed a number of PDF import issues. Fix for Corner Tool error introduced in the last Beta (sorry...)  Fix for embedded documents not updating the host document properly when modified Fix for artboard labels not updating correctly when the names are changed in the layers panel (Metal view mode only) Tweak to the Metal view to improve performance further

Here's my own review of RightFont, how I made it work for me, and my opinions of others including Mac's own Font Book - and why I think Font Book is lacking.  Also writing here because it works great in Affinity products.
 
First of all, as a designer like many of us here, I have thousands of fonts, and also I sometimes use Google Fonts, and since I have Adobe's Creative Cloud installed I also have TypeKit fonts.  That's a lot of stuff to manage.  Then I also have a desktop and a laptop, and organizing everything across different machines is a bit of a pain.
 
The issue with Font Book is that I had a mess with duplicate fonts, or in one machine I may not have had a font installed, and there is no cloud sync - each machine is on its own.  Also Google offers 1443 fonts (733 families) of fonts which is offers for free!  Granted not all of them are great but some are widely used like for web like Roboto, Open Sans etc.  If I wanted to install ALL of these Google fonts it would be a pain.  If I wanted to deactivate all except a few after I activated them all, it would seem like a lot of work.
 
I have a Dropbox folder called Installed Fonts.  I have deleted all User fonts from Font Book - don't need to add anything in there.  This sounds scary, I know, but be assured that when RightFont then activates your fonts, they will be in your system to use in all apps - but RightFont is taking the place of FontBook to manage.  All my fonts, whether in folders or just tons of fonts out of folders, is only in the Dropbox folder.  Thousands.  Since it's Dropbox it syncs across machines.  I created an alias of this folder and designed a cool ICNS font and the alias sits on my desktop.  OK so now when I download fonts to the desktop I just drag and drop to this alias desktop folder.  If I am dragging a font folder, into the fonts folder, I make sure to clean it up first.  If there are duplicate fonts - typically you get TTF and OTF types - I only keep OTF (it's better).  I take out any TXT info etc.
 
In RightFont, I have added the Dropbox font folder as a live folder.  I have also set the preferences to instantly activate all fonts as soon as they are added in.  You can also just go to the folder within RightFont, select all, activate all or deactivate all if you want to do things manually.  Next, in preferences you can add in Google fonts, either sort by name or font popularity.  They have already done all the integration - you don't need to go to Google Fonts itself.  Next, go to the Google Fonts folder, select all, activate all.  Presto done. 1433 fonts just added and activated.  If you have Creative Cloud installed, it will also list the Typekit folder. 
 
Activation/deactivation is super fast.  It took 3 minutes to activate over 3000 fonts and about two minutes for the entire Google library.  Try doing that with Font Book. 
 
Next what I do is start favoriting all fonts, and even create list folders - for one project or another, or perhaps lists like sketch fonts, handwritten, other very specific styles, etc.  Right now RightFont doesn't offer syncing of those non-live lists across multiple machines, although I emailed the developer and they said that it's probably coming in a future release.  Also I asked them about the ability to scan a JPEG/PNG or doc and identify fonts and also they don't do this now but are working on it for an upcoming release - that would be great. Right now, RightFont allows you to search between serif, sans, slab and then font weights, condensed type, to aid in your search. I found that feature ok, but could use some refinement. It certainly did filter the list but not accurately on occasion - maybe the font metadata was corrupt on some of my fonts, who knows. Good enough for now.  As for icon fonts that it offers, I find that less useful.  I subscribe to the Noun Project - and everyone here should ($40/year) and you have gazillions of icons that you can customize color and export as SVG or PNG - really useful for design work.
 
Which brings me to font identification:  Nothing does that really well.  Photoshop is so-so and I tested it with documents that I created from fonts I have installed - it wasn't very accurate most of the time. Affinity really needs to build that in because Suitcase Extensis (and I haven't tried FontExplorer so I can't comment on that here) and Font Genius (which is non-retina and really bad so don't try that!) are not so great.  Like many here, I use MyFonts.com's What the Font and, while that gives the results in MyFonts and fonts they want you to buy, it is really the best identifier and then you can search in RightFont to see if you have that font installed.  If you don't, you can get some hints for what you're trying to match, and then put in custom text in RightFont and start exploring away.   Also I have the WhatFont extension installed in Chrome.  If you're trying to match fonts on a web page then this extension is perfect, not even good, just perfect.  It identifies everything on the page (reading from HTML) and gives you the font name, size, leading and HEX code for the color used.  Just amazing.
 
Lastly... getting back to Affinity Designer, I am able to just select text and then go through RightFont and test all the lists, favorites or general list of fonts.  You can either select text or just the text layer and either way RightFont will quickly change the font.  Highly recommend.
 
 

Hi Farbenfeuer, those are optional MacOS system fonts.   You have to download them only from Font Book. I tried downloading a few and then uninstalled - they seem to be language support fonts, which is useful if you want to access those specific character sets.   Please read more here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206872#download

+1 for this feature.

Hello,
may I ask you to add Hyperlinks.
 
Because it's important for invitations, route descriptions, product datasheets, etc on every pdf that was prepared by Designer.
 
Even this forum allows to insert links, https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/windows/

 
Regards.

Hi Egor Komarov,
Thanks for your report. I'm also having trouble here. Issue logged to be looked at.

I would like to have an easy way to change ALL the specific hues in the photo, not just in a given area using the HSL adjustment layer.  
 
In Photo as in Photoshop I can use the HSL adjustment layer (Hue/Saturation in Photoshop).  In Photoshop I can pick from 6 colors but I can extend or restrict the color range, or use the eyedropper tool to pick the correct starting point.  In Photo, I can only manipulate the six set colors, and no eyedropper tool and seemingly no ability to extent/restrict the range.  What I can do in Photo is select Select Sampled Color and then apply an HSL adjustment - but I just can't seem to fine tune as easily.
 
In your Black and White adjustment layer you have a Picker.  I would like something like that in Photo, or at least a method to duplicate what I do in Photoshop - see attached photo.