Sven Kalkschmidt

Please make "Find in Layer Panel" available in Preferences/Keyboard Shortcuts. At the moment it's only available by right clicking on an object and choosing it from the context menu. I would love to have this exposed in order to up operating speed on files with lots of objects, going through the right-click menu gets tedious rather quickly.
 
thanks,
Sven

And, here is a video glimpse of some of the improvements coming to the Node tool.
 
NodeTool.mov
 

Thought I'd give you a glimpse of some of the features that will be coming in 1.7.
 
Please note - this thread is only for discussing the features detailed here.  Postings related to other feature requests should be posted on their own thread (else they will get deleted from this thread).
 
We have spent considerable time overhauling the internals of some of our main tools.  It's been a labour of love, but it's going to open up greater possibilities for our core tool set.
 
The core tools are:
- Move tool
- Pen tool
- Node tool
- Shape creation tools
- Text tools
- Fill and Transparency tools
- Place Image tool
- Vector Crop tool
 
So, what improvements can be expected?
 
- Advanced grid editing on spread (move the grid origin and edit it's axis with a handy new widget, with full snapping of course)
- Guides can be created and moved in all the core tools, plus a toggle to turn guide editing off
- Move the artboard ruler origin (with editing toggle)
- Create objects and shapes into an arbitrary grid
- Rotate and flip objects in grid planes (great for people working in isometric), plus an option to rotate shapes in plane using the Move tool
- The Move tool will now allow you to cycle though selection boxes, including regular boxes and grid plane aligned boxes
- Snapping performance improvements
 

Click here to download the latest beta
 
Status: Customer Beta
Purpose: Stability
Requirements: A valid product key, issued when Affinity Designer was purchased.

As this is a beta it is 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, including the total loss of any documents. 

We hope you enjoy the latest build, and as always, if you've got any problems, please don't hesitate to post here and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks once again for your continued feedback.

If you have a general question about the software, please head over to the Questions Forum, or if you have any suggestions, please head over to the Feature Requests forum.

Fixes
[Partial] Fixed failure to close down due to incremented load count from (failed) abandoned documents (still needs 1 further fix for corrupt abandoned files) Fixed Text Styles panel to show the document defaults when no text is selected  Changed Layers panel to add more distinction between clipped and nested layers  Fixed document DPI showing a decimal place in some situations Fixed reset of user workspace when new panels have been added Fixed newly created Text Styles being applied twice to a text frame on creation Fixed vector export (including PDF) taking a long time due to large clip areas Fixed Fit/Shrink to printable does not fit to printer margins  Fixed 2nd Print has a zero size document in printer dialog  Fixed adjustments being ignored when outside of an artboard even though they may have an effect on the document Fixed being unable to move the Greyness node in Layer Effects > Colour Overlay Fixed colour node appearing on the Colour panel  Fixed hit testing on floating window edges to make it easier to resize windows Fixed closing a floating window through the taskbar closing the application (a side-effect of this change is that Alt+F4 on a floating window will now just close that window, not the app)

@Chris B glad to hear that. I am running into lots of problems with symbols — will send you more stuff, when/if I can document/reproduce it.

@Chris B glad to hear that. I am running into lots of problems with symbols — will send you more stuff, when/if I can document/reproduce it.

Hi Sven,
 
Right I think I know what the issue is.

Basically, for some reason that I wasn't expecting, from the Arrange menu, when you send the symbol to the back it is sending all the symbols to the back. Then the document is failing to redraw. If you zoom in/out it redraws correctly.

The issue for me, is the fact that all symbols are being arranged to the back (below the purple Rectangle layer). I can easily reproduce this on a new document. Let me query this with development. 

The bug is file-specific. I got a Designer file and companion explanation video ready to go.

@Chris B Sorry for the late reply, just saw this. I sent the bug report and files via email last Friday - haven't heard anything back yet, so I suppose everything's fine so far.
@AlfredYeah, thanks — I suspected that as well and corrected for the typo.

@Chris B Sorry for the late reply, just saw this. I sent the bug report and files via email last Friday - haven't heard anything back yet, so I suppose everything's fine so far.
@AlfredYeah, thanks — I suspected that as well and corrected for the typo.

You can email private files to us at afftnitysupport@serif.com or request a dropbox link (on our dropbox account) when you make the report here on the forums.

Click here to download the latest beta
 
Status: Customer Beta
Purpose: Stability
Requirements: A valid product key, issued when Windows Affinity Photo version 1.5 was purchased.

This is a beta of a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it is 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 1.6 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.

We hope you enjoy the latest build, and as always, if you've got any problems, please don't hesitate to post here and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks once again for your continued feedback.

If you have a general question about the software, please head over to the Questions Forum, or if you have any suggestions, please head over to the Feature Requests forum.

Fixes
Fixed batch processing failing to complete parallel jobs  Fixed Swatches 'Set as default for' not working properly Fixed Quick Mask 'Show as Transparent' not showing the mask Fixed Slices Panel not updating when ticking/unticking slices Fixed missing Copy cursor when dragging Macro between categories  Fixed anchor point box moves when clicking Flip Vertical  Added SVG import of CDATA text Fixed Focus Merge discarding images and producing poor results Fixed Text nodes clipping against its curves when output to PDF if it has a live filter applied to it Fixed raster brush nozzle being barely visible in preview from a tablet device  Fixed live filters not printing flattened when applied to vector objects Fixed Refine Selection  undo then brushing results in lag Fixed Refine Selection undo doesn't work when used for a second time Fixed Selection Refinement preview for when the reference image is an image (not a pixel layer) Fixed Selection Refinement preview to be more like the result of applying Fixed brush dynamic for Direction being inverted  Fixed pixel layers copy/paste pasting to the top-left of the node, rather than any active selection area  Fixed incorrect background colour after closing a document Improved performance of waterfall colour choosers Fixed sporadic crash in tone mapping (affects HDR Merge, etc) Fixed Develop Persona Chromatic aberration interfering with noise reduction Fixed crash creating 1 x ( > 1024) pixel document  Fixed Hard edges appearing in Depth of Field filter Fixed RAF images opening distorted and cropped Fixed Develop Persona presets not working for non-basic panels 

Hi everyone. 

This is something that has been requested before and maybe included in a future update, but at the moment the file won't save to original folder. the destination folder will need to be selected manually. 

I'll move this post to the Feature Requests section. 

Click here to download the latest beta
 
Status: Customer Beta
Purpose: New features
Requirements: A valid product key, issued when Windows Affinity Designer version 1.5 was purchased.

This is a beta of a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it is 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 1.6 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.

We hope you enjoy the latest build, and as always, if you've got any problems, please don't hesitate to post here and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks once again for your continued feedback.

If you have a general question about the software, please head over to the Questions Forum, or if you have any suggestions, please head over to the Feature Requests forum.
 
Fixes
Fixed Gradient flyout incorrectly showing previously applied gradient Added keyline added around main window and dialogs Added Radial Controller support option into preferences Fixed ghost text objects shown in the view after creating text and moving it Fixed lines shooting out when drawing with the Surface Pen Changed pen tilt to be mirrored around vertical Fixed selection refinement in CMYK documents Fixed vector export of corner tool and filter effects on vector clips Changed Path Text to use the same icon as Artistic Text Added blacklisting of broken colour profiles (if loading them causes a crash, the next time the application runs, it will skip that profile) Changed Find in Layers Panel to switch to the Layers Panel if it's not visible Fixed FX Symbol failing to show on clipped objects Fixed being unable to change font of multi-font selection Fixed ICC profile combo boxes being too wide Fixed more Light UI issues Fixed missing Arrow Ends icons on context toolbar Fixed Assets category text size is too small Fixed a number of the fields in Adjustments are clipped Fixed HSL Adjust able to enter invalid values for Hue Shift Fixed exporting of clipped text frames Fixed OpenType MarkToLigature rule, which fixes accents on certain font glyphs Fixed import of Russian RTF text with "Language for non-Unicode programs" in Windows set to Russian Fixed SVG export to export radial and elliptical fills as vector regardless of transform Fixed PDF export to export radial and elliptical gradients as vector even if sheared Fixed uncommitted nudge transforms getting reverted when the user hits Escape Fixed crash when closing document Fixed blank documents prompting to save on close Fixed memory leak in Export dialog Fixed crash when changing export options then attempting to export on a new document Fixed sporadic crash when panning a document Fixed sporadic crash when attempting to open files via Explorer Fixed crash when the user right clicks in the open file dialog, when they have bad shell extensions installed (e.g. AMD drivers) Fixed some objects failing to invalidate properly Fixed more Russian UI issues Fixed untranslated Hintline items Fixed pressing the X on the close dialog closing the document without saving Fixed crash loading EPS files Fixed black rectangle around shape when exporting due to Outline FX Fixed crash with massive filter nodes Fixed Path Text handle dragging Fixed selection brush size not being remembered Fixed sporadic crash when editing memory intensive images

EDIT: I have updated the beta to version 1.6 Beta 2.1 - it's exactly the same as the last build apart from some fixes for High Sierra and Metal. If you weren't using High Sierra or Metal, there is no difference, so don't feel compelled to download it again!...
 
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:
Light UI improvements Metal accelerated view (available in Sierra or High Sierra - defaulted 'on' for High Sierra) and hardware grid * Artboards are created pixel-aligned Images are pasted pixel-aligned Items are copied to the same relative position between artboards Fixed guide/margin visibility Fixed Select-all (pixels) on artboard documents Numerous bug fixes and other improvements  
* please note that macOS Sierra has a bug in Metal with AMD graphics cards which means colour correction will not function perfectly, hence why it is disabled by default. If you have an Intel or Nvidia card then feel free to try it. This bug was fixed in High Sierra so all cards should work as expected :)

Here is a list of many of the fixes and improvements included in Affinity Designer for Windows 1.5.3.69 (changes since 1.5.2.58).
 
These are from our bugs database so are phrased in the negative, but are nevertheless fixed.
Fixed colour profile conversion being wrong Internal to screen colour profile conversion corrected Fixed: (User specific) crash opening app on 2nd monitor Fixed: Some Pantone Palettes show spot icon Fixed: Ctrl runup doesn't restore deleted Tone Mapping presets or the Blend Mode dropdown for Adjustments Text blend gamma default set at 1 Fixed: App crashing on run up due to window settings Fixed: Can't load LUT file from folder with Chinese characters ASE Swatch Exchange Palettes import with correct name Fixed: Crash after clicking away from input field in Layer Effects Fixed: Moving asset sub category is slow with lots of assets Files saved with selections are now reflected correctly when reopened. Fixed: Unable to undo changes made in the Curves Adjustment Fixed: Unable to type certain Characters on a Polish Keyboard Fixed: Unable to change Input minimum/maximum for Curves Adjustment Vibrance presets differ to Mac and should match Character tab font type dropdown is remembered when docked Path text baseline control has correct ranges Shift Click layers tab: Improved multiple selections Copied swatch automatically appears in palette Input fields: Shift + up/down keys increments value 0.1 units instead of 10 units Fixed: Spot colour spot not outlined Crash fixed when unhiding UI after closing document Can reset more text style values Removed 'Affinity Files' from the Save As dialog Welcome screen fails gracefully when no internet connection is found Fixed: Anchor point box moves when clicking Flip Vertical 'Icon and Text' option remembered when restarting app Fixed: App regularly freezes [file specific] Fixed: Customer crash when saving keyboard profile Crashing on custom keyboard shortcuts (primarily Pixel Persona) It is now possible to set Language: None in the Edit Text Style dialog Uninstalling one Affinity app disables the 'Edit in... ' option in the other app more reliably Fixed: Colour picker loupe dies not display pixels on second monitor on high DPI setup Fixed: Dust & Scratches Live filter is not functioning correctly. Fixed: Slice doesn't export at the correct size when exporting single slices Fixed Added Snapshots are not showing 'Set undo brush source' Fixed 'Alternate' dropdown missing from Pixel Tool context toolbar Symbols snap immediately when you drag them from the Symbols panel Invalid scaling sizes immediately reverted in Slices Panel Can import if no asset categories Fixed: Open > Recent isn't displaying saved documents until the app is restarted Improved: Panels can be hidden by double clicking the header not just the panel label Shadows/Highlights: The effect look same as on Mac Fixed: Dragging the Radius slider to the far right initially knocks the effect off Crash after opening a large amount of PDF's Improved: Free hand Selection Tool is incredibly laggy on a complex document Fixed: Brush Tool leaves marks while we press Space bar key (panning) Fixed: UI locks up when clicking Fill on the context toolbar while holding Space Fixed: Currently enabled Effects expand when adding a new Effect Fixed: Crash when dragging/clicking a node while holding Shift+A Fixed: Moving Gradient Map node using Position slider can change node selection. Tools are no longer drawn over rulers Fixed: Swatches Panel - Colour swatches get cut off at 125% with no scrollbar Redraw issue when using Windows key + arrow key to dock the app Fixed: Panning with a Wacom pen only allows a vertical scroll Improved: Drawing brush strokes in quick succession results in a huge lag Fixed: CMYK values can exceed 100% if you use Shift to scale the colour values Fixed: Aspect ratio is disabled for a curve Help window responds to Windows Key snap shortcuts Fixed: App not appearing in correct position on second monitor Fixed: Stroke width on context toolbar is cut off with to many decimal places Fixed: Eyedropper in colour chooser dialog is cut off on small screens Tool handles move around slightly when resizing File Extensions list was too long Fixed: Mouse Brush painting fails after using Wacom Intuos3 Fixed: Stroke with the Fill Tool will cause a crash on Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 Fixed: Brush tip lose their cursor preview after selecting different brushes Fixed: No warning message for being unable to export PDF Export dialog now shows what format is being 'exported as' with File Extensions disabled 'Retina PNG-24' preset adds both 1x and 2x files to the list of files Sharpen Tool - 'Alt' now switches to blurring Erase Brush Tool - Drag + Alt does now displays colour picker Crash dragging Fill tool control point fixed Fixed: Can't right-click with specific tools Fixed: Trying to draw after changing context toolbar setting requires extra click Fixed: [File Specific] PDF Unable to open, slows app down to a standstill Fixed: Switching between objects creates extra transform history steps Help: Workspace Modes should have the Seperated Mode references removed. Help: System Requirements still list Mac requirements Now returns to pan when zoom shortcut is used Improved: Slow editing text from an imported PDF Fixed: Changing font size of selected text does not stick and causes tabbing issue Fixed: Colour wheel on flyout does not look correct on specific laptops Multiple translation improvements Multiple UI tweaks, like clipping and tooltips A number of file specific stability issues fixed Auto recovery fix, restore the stream position when scanning for FAT tags. Remember to load the “write thumbnails” preference. Fixed Z Order problem when re-showing welcome screen if modal dialog was active. Fix for welcome screen DPI Swatches: fix for create palette from image being greyed out if accessed before a document is created or opened. Fixed 'Edit Macro' doesn't enable after opening an image if you've right clicked a Macro with no image open Potential fix for crash with multiple files open Fixed clicking on Fill Popup button on context toolbar changes fill on selection

Hi Andy,
 
What does that mean/do?
 
cheers,
Sven

Hi Andy,
 
What does that mean/do?
 
cheers,
Sven

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 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:
First and foremost, the 1.6 version is mainly about: Light UI! (go to Preferences->User Interface) Improved view pan/zoom performance and new pixel-differencing pixel shader Improved performance with large documents New font chooser dropdown with recents, used fonts and favourites New Glyph browser Stroke stabiliser for all pencil and brush tools Align to key items (first/last selected) Text frame vertical alignment options Fit frame to text (double-click on bottom centre handle). Transform panel uses the rotation centre Scale/shear can now be performed about rotation centre Double-click now resets shape handles and rotate/shear handles Many PDF export improvements including vector export of multi-stop gradients Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements

Hi DarkClown and others,
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion and we certainly don't mind users express them in the forums as long as we all respect each other while doing so. I believe at this point everyone already made their points clear, so I'm closing this thread as I think there's nothing more to add.
 
Regarding the issues with the Windows version, we are aware that some users are having problems with it. As stated before the dev team is quite small and is doing their best to fix all reported issues and improve the performance of the program.
 
We did have a Beta phase for Affinity apps on Windows where we corrected/fixed most critical issues/problems that were reported at the time the best we could before the release, but due to the huge Windows userbase and infinite number of hardware and software configurations out there, a considerable number of new issues/conflicts/problems were reported after Affinity's release. Since then we have been fixing bugs and solving those issues and are still doing so as they are reported.
This is somewhat expected as it's the first time the Windows code is running on a high number of hardware configs beyond the beta test phase. Things should get better as we stabilise the code and fix/look at these new reports. This takes time - specially for a relatively small team - but there's no other way to do it other than releasing the code in the wild (we must do it at some point), facing the new issues reported and work to move the application through this first/initial phase until it starts to stabilize. The Mac version is more mature because we started this same process two years ago. So please bear with us while we work on it. 
 
For those participating in the forums it may look there's a large number of users having issues but remember there's no other place where they can report them. There's certainly more that are not experiencing any issues at all. 

Click here to download the latest beta

Status: Customer Beta
Purpose: Stability
Requirements: A valid product key, issued when Windows Affinity Designer version 1.5 was purchased.

As this is a beta release, it is 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.

We hope you enjoy the latest build, and as always, if you've got any problems, please don't hesitate to post here and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks once again for your continued feedback.

If you have a general question about the software, please head over to the Questions Forum, or if you have any suggestions, please head over to the Feature Requests forum.

Fixes
Added New Welcome Screen Fixed Blend Mode dropdown doesn't update on context toolbar when set via a brush Fixed crash when saving keyboard profile Fixed aspect ratio is disabled for a curve Fixed Erase Brush Tool Drag + Alt does not display colour picker   Removed Freehand Selection 'Close Line' Fixed Opacity is the default slider in the gradient fill dropdown menu Fixed Layer panel jumps/lags with a long layer name  Fixed Info panel loupe remains stuck to cursor if interrupted during use Fixed pasting text from Word is added as groups of Artistic Text objects Fixed being unable to set Language: None in the Edit Text Style dialog Fixed Corner type dropdown on context bar not updating when we select objects with different corner types Fixed Levels Dialog, Color channel reverts to master when altering sliders Fixed crashing on custom keyboard shortcuts (primarily Pixel Persona) Fixed Custom keyboard shortcut for Recolour Adjustment is broken Fixed DPI being shown as points for PDF & EPS export Fixed Pen Tool crash due to settings change in previous beta Fixed Adding, Renaming or Deleting an export preset doesn't update the UI straight away Removed 'Accumulation' from Erase Brush Tool context bar Fixed black area left when app is restarted after hiding the UI with floating panels Fixed Levels adjustment using alt modifier not working Fixed create palette from image being greyed out if accessed before a document is created or opened Fixed invalid scaling sizes not immediately reverted in Slices Panel Fixed Zoom tool unable to enter value above 500 on context toolbar Fixed changing document with a Layer Effects will apply it to the second image Fixed being unable to import if no asset categories Fixed Symbols not snapping immediately when you drag them from the Symbols panel Added remaining variables to input boxes in the transform panel Fixed JPG compression changes from 85 to 100 when changing file format Attempted fix for crash with multiple files open Fixed clicking on Fill Popup button on context toolbar changes fill on selection 

Click here to download the latest beta

Status: Customer Beta
Purpose: Stability
Requirements: A valid product key, issued when Windows Affinity Designer version 1.5 was purchased.

As this is a beta release, it is 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.

We hope you enjoy the latest build, and as always, if you've got any problems, please don't hesitate to post here and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks once again for your continued feedback.

If you have a general question about the software, please head over to the Questions Forum, or if you have any suggestions, please head over to the Feature Requests forum.

Fixes
Changed View ▸ Show Grid: new document view grid visibility is independent from the original document grid visibility setting Fixed AltGr so it can be used in place of Ctrl+Alt shortcuts Fixed cannot apply a colour picked swatch by clicking on the pipette Fixed Gradient Type not updating  Fixed Typography panel "Show all font features" includes features that the font doesn't support Fixed Add New Filter Assistant Option to default to child layer Fixed crash changing text background colour Fixed Paragraph panel letter spacing has wrong lower limit Fixed Pen/Pencil Tool's 'Use Fill' checkbox not being saved if the tool is not selected when the application is closed down Fixed adjusting colour opacity with scroll wheel does not update object Fixed slider revert to opacity then changing colour space in the colour flyout Fixed crash clicking on "no fill" on layer effects Fixed crash when opening a 32-bit Greyscale file Fixed changing the colour mode of the Levels adjustment doesn't refresh the component dropdown Fixed Crop Tool not showing currently selected preset  Performance improvement when panning Fixed 'Failed to reset brushes' error in Preferences Fixed Help not launching Fixed renaming a palette selects a different fill Fixed being unable to change Character Panel 'Positioning and Transform' values using keyboard Improved startup and shutdown performance Changed pixel display zoom to match physical pixels Fixed crash when clicking Properties for some Printers Fixed scrolling a value in the transform panel giving a different value if it has focus Fixed incorrect Export Brush dialog filter Allow selection of locked nodes in Wireframe view mode Fixed PDF Import of some bitmaps resulting in incorrect colours (wasn't using colour conversion) Changed OpenType to relax version check for "Coiny" Fixed OpenType applying of contextual rules,  we were advancing past the lookaheads too Added several performance improvements Improved application start time Fixed crash when using cursor keys to feather a selection Fixed Selection Brush resize shortcuts not updating the context toolbar values Fixed mouse wheel on opacity edit not applying Fixed Retina Rendering Performance Preference (it was always doing a two-pass render for the high quality only option) Fixed Layers panel not updating when switching documents with a live filter open Fixed Unlinked / Separate Grid line and Subdivision line colours are not remembered Fixed being unable to re-apply the last applied snapshot Changed "Save With History" to prevent silent save back to JPEG, etc Fixed crash when clicking the swatch in Edit > Matte Fixed crashes when opening SVGs with no bounding boxes Fixed Help search results not displaying if temp path contains non-ASCII characters Distinguish between beta and normal builds in Explorer's "Open With" menu Fixed failing to select a word when right-clicking on the text caret Fixed being unable to interact with Transform panel when you draw out a marquee Fixed Colour Chooser not retaining the last type you were on Fixed Grid and Axis Manager not reflecting the currently selected artboard Improved support for badly formed PSD files Fixed crash when embedding a rotated document Fixed Help window covering the taskbar when maximised Fixed status bar to always be visible if any UI is visible when toggling studio UI Fixed Create palette from image when changing number of colours and then creating a palette without first previewing Fixed wrong History item icon Fixed PDF export overprinting on fills and lines Fixed crash in Xara Designer Pro when copying EMFs then pasting into Affinity Designer Fixed Tolerance on flood select tool does not update when dragging Fixed hang when clicking and dragging a font in the font list Fixed application not appearing in Explorer's "Open With" menu Fixed Alignment tools breaking after customizing the toolbar Fixed loading TIFF files as RAW from OnOne Fixed PSD 32-bit mask Changed HSL based adjustments to use more precision Fixed releasing Alt when dragging a Levels Adjustment slider doesn't revert the image Fixed performance problems when creating multiple views of the same document Fixed Outer shadow rendering Added missing Colour picker from Bevel / Emboss layer effect Fixed Increase/Decrease Brush Size shortcuts are not retained when the application is restarted Fixed loading images with EXIF DPI set to 1 Added Create Palette from Image Fixed Save is not initially disabled with an unmodified file Improved handling of Type 3 fonts (which still aren't supported) Installer
Added supported file types to Explorer's "Open With" menu

Hi BrianHermelijn,
You can press Spacebar to temporarily hide them or the Hide Selection while Dragging button in the context toolbar  (the icon is an eye inside a square) to hide them while you move an object.

For more information about the launch and how to buy go here. 
 
Here's a recap of the new features in Photo 1.5, along with tutorial videos which will accompany the features...
  Focus Merge Support   Focus merging allows you to generate a detailed composite image from a number of images focused at differing lengths. Use File -> New Focus Merge to get started.   Video tutorials: Focus Merging Focus Merge Retouching Focus Merging Bracketed Images   HDR Merge Support   HDR merging lets you create a deep, unbounded 32-bit image from a number of exposure bracketed source images. Use File -> New HDR Merge to get started.   Video tutorials: HDR: Merging and Tone Mapping HDR: Tone Map Presets HDR: Panoramas HDR: Preprocessing HDR: Advanced Editing HDR: Ghosts Removal   New 32bit RGB Editing Mode   Photo now offers a full compositing / editing environment for 32bit unbounded images.   Video tutorials: HDR: 32-bit Editing   32bit Develop   Photo can now Develop RAW files directly into a 32bit document - so all highlights / shadows are preserved and recoverable at any time.   Video tutorials: 32-bit Raw Development   OCIO (OpenColorIO) Support   Photo now support end-to-end OCIO colour workflows.   Video tutorials: OpenColorIO Setup OpenColorIO Adjustment   Tone Mapping Persona   Full tone mapping Persona for both HDR and LDR images. This is obviously best used with an image merged by HDR merge - although you can use it on any image.   Video tutorials: Regular Tone Mapping   OpenEXR / HDR (Radiance) / 32bit TIFF Import / Export   Photo can now import and export .hdr (Radiance, RGBE) and .exr (OpenEXR) images. It correctly deals with 0-alpha cases (as per the OpenEXR spec) and generally operates in linear space. It support multi-layer EXR files and offers control (through Preferences) over alpha association and premultiplication.   Video tutorials: OpenEXR Multichannel Import/Export OpenEXR Import Options   Macros   Using the View -> Studio -> Macro and View -> Studio -> Library menu items, you can access new panels which will allow you to record actions, save them, then play them back later. You can also store them in a handy gallery.   Video tutorials: Macros Macros: Equations   Batch Processing   Using File -> New Batch job, you can queue up processing on a large number of files. You can resize, convert format and apply any number of macros to each file. The batch processing happens in the background - so you can continue working whilst the jobs are processed.   Video tutorials: Batch Processing   Live Projections   Photo 1.5 contains a new mechanism which allows you to edit an image in different spatial domains - we currently support the “Equirectangular” domain (360 pano - Ricoh Theta, etc.). You can use all tools when editing - and you can convert back once you have edited. This is especially useful for cleaning up stitching artefacts, or artefacts at the zenith / nadir of the image. Use the options in Layer -> Live Projection to get started.   Video tutorials: 360 Live Editing 360 Advanced Editing 360 Retouching 360 Multiple Views Live Perspective Projection    Improved Pixel Tool   The pixel tool is improved in 1.5 - you can hold shift when dragging to constrain the direction of painting (sorry we did not get this working sooner!). You can also select what happens when you hold Alt and drag - erase to transparent, erase to background colour, or erase to whatever the nominated snapshot / history location is (like in the Clone tool).   New “Pixel Art” Document Resizing   Photo now contains an alternative way to resize a document - using well known pixel-art resampling algorithms. If you work with pixel art and want to use this feature, it’s located under the Document menu.   Video tutorials: Pixel Art Resize    New “Accumulation” Brush Dynamics   Many users have asked for “Opacity Jitter”. For us, opacity is a constant thing and will remain constant. However, we have added a new property to brushes - “Accumulation” - which should allow you to get what you need         Text Styles   Affinity Photo now has the same Text Styles support as Designer - it’s all shared code so it should work right out of the box         New Marquee Modes (Polygonal, Magnetic)   Photo now has 3 modes for the freehand selection tool - Freehand, Polygonal and Magnetic.   Video tutorials: Freehand Selection Tool   Even more RAW cameras supported   Over 70 new RAW cameras are supported.   Improved Metadata Mining   Our detection of RAW / JPEG / etc. metadata has been upgraded and some serious bugs have been fixed.   Massive Improvements to Export Persona   Our Export Persona has seen huge upgrades in this cycle - you now have total control of exactly what resolution sets get exported. You can also use our handy batch export builders to quickly generate content for external consumption - ie. Xcode .assets - even Spline compatible metadata can be generated!   Layered TIFF Interop   Users have constantly asked us to support “Layered TIFF”. Layered TIFF is not a thing. TIFF with embedded data is a thing - and I’m happy to report that we now import embedded PSD / Affinity data and can write TIFF with embedded Affinity data.   Halftone Filter   We have a marvellous new halftone pattern filter in 1.5 - it can approximate monochrome, colour, circular and line halftones.   Video tutorials: Halftone Scanlines Effect   Improved Apply Image Filter   Users can how use the current layer as the source for Apply Image - or drag any layer from the layers tab into the dialog to use that as thr source. We also offer handy equations in the filter to control how channels are transferred - in an arbitrary colour source.   Video tutorials: Apply Image Apply Image: Equations   Improved Select Sampled Colour Filter   You can now select by intensity in the select sampled colour tool.   Equations Filter   A new Equations Distortion filter allows users to create custom spatial filters.   Video tutorials: Equations filter Macros: Equations   Dust & Scratches Filter   Many user have asked us for a “Dust & Scratches” filter - so we have made one. It’s extremely useful for removing sporadic small defects in images. Please let us know if it works for you.   Video tutorials: Dust & Scratches Filter    “Edit in Affinity Photo” Photos extension   This is something which we didn’t think we could do - a Photos extension for Mac OS 10.9 and above which simply allows you to use the full Photo app to edit your images - and stores the changes you have made as a layered document.   New Colour Picker Tool   After literally thousands of requests, we have implemented a dedicated picker tool for colours.   New Clone Sources Panel   We now have a new studio panel which allows you to store up an unlimited number of global sources for the Clone / Healing brush - it even works across multiple documents.   Video tutorials: Clone Sources Clone Sources: Texture Creation   Direct PSD Write-Back   One of the most requested features - direct write-back to PSD. A number of 3rd party DAM applications will happily deal in PSD - but until now, Photo required you to File -> Export for PSD. No longer! You can now just hit File -> Save! You will need to turn this on - in File -> Preferences - please read the warning there carefully!   Video tutorials: Direct PSD write-back (round tripping)   No Thumbnails Option   This is more a Designer feature, but I promised it some time ago so here it is - you can choose (in Preferences) not to write out a thumbnail with your documents. This has the advantage of making your documents use less space - but obviously you won’t get Finder thumbnails, etc.   Improved Vectorscope   Our old HSL vectorscope is no more - replaced by a vastly more appropriate Rec.709 YUV scope with an improved graticule         Improved Photoshop Plugin Support   We have found a significant bug with our plugin code - it has been fixed       :) We are now finding the majority of plugins work properly.   Multi-monitor Colour Profile Support   Sorry it took so long to get this fixed - we now can profile different on different monitors.   Adjustment Performance Improvements   Found and fixed a simple issue which made changing adjustment parameters appear to be slow. Fixed.   Automatic Lens Corrections   Automatic lens corrections (distortion and vignetting) are now supported for a wide array of lens profiles. This option is available in the Develop Assistant (enabled by default).   Video tutorials: Automatic Lens Corrections  
Improved RAW Colour Handling
 
The way colour operations are handled in the Develop persona has been improved - the difference is most noticeable in images with intense, saturated colours (think low light photography with lots of artificial lighting).
 
Video tutorials:
Raw Colour Quality     This update also includes literally hundreds of fixes and small improvements, some of which are listed below:   - User control over two pass rendering on Retina devices. - PSD import / export improvements. - PDF import / export improvements. - Snapping improvements - candidate-free snapping, gaps-and-spans (Alt key in Move Tool), so much more! - Performance and stability improvements for macOS Sierra.

Click here to download the latest beta

Status: Customer Beta
Purpose: Stability
Requirements: A valid product key, issues when Windows version was purchased.

As this is a beta release, it is 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 worth noting that files created in Affinity Designer 1.5 cannot be opened in Affinity Photo 1.4, which means that although files created with the Windows beta can be opened in the Mac AppStore version of Designer (currently on 1.5.4) they cannot be opened in the latest Mac App Store version of Affinity Photo, instead you will need the latest macOS 1.5 beta.

We hope you enjoy the latest build, and as always, if you've got any problems, please don't hesitate to post here and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks once again for your continued feedback.

If you have a general question about the software, please head over to the Questions Forum, or if you have any suggestions, please head over to the Feature Requests forum.

Fixes
Fixed sporadic problem with context toolbar changing to a tool in a different document Fixed CMYK swatch tooltips display with 8-bit values Fixed 32-bit Preview not changing colour profiles when document colour format changes Changed PDF Export to convert 32-bit images to 8-bit Fixed artifacts appearing with a 3D Layer Effect profile on an object with a Linear Gradient Fixed cursor not updating in Freehand Selection when move is available Fixed being unable to deselect by clicking with Freehand Selection tool Fixed sporadic crash when opening and closing documents after having an adjustment layer panel open Fixed memory leaks Character and Navigator panels Fixed Split view mirror mode Before/After slider remaining draggable Changed default EXR export to 32-bit (instead of 16 half) Fixed clicking while in Pan mode with the Zoom tool will still cause the app to Zoom Fixed being unable to paste Enhanced Metafiles Fixed for Paste from external clipboards being permanently disabled Fixed crash when pasting an object as an SVG Fixed memory leaks when the progress dialog is displayed Fixed exporting images to Dropbox / Google Drive / other file synchronisation services (would previously fail to write metadata) Fixed crash when using Logitech 510 wireless and using Logitech Options software, when scrolling horizontally (software was delivering invalid mouse coordinates) Added special paper sizes (from the printer) in the Print dialog if not already present Fixed Custom Paper Size not being remembered between Print dialog sessions Fixed borderless printing Fixed list of available keyboard shortcuts not updating when changing Persona Fixed potential crash when opening multiple documents Fixed potential crash when showing rulers Fixed Export Selection with background failing Fixed UI jumping around on some popups when Windows is set to left handedness Added a minimum size to the Help window Fixed resetting User Defaults causes app to be minimized to its smallest size on next start Removed invalid 'Reset Fill Context' shortcut Fixed clicking on flyout button a second time not closing the flyout Improved performance of Layers / Export controls when adding items Fixed Layer names not updating correctly Fixed right clicking on a layer only displaying the context menu for a split second when the Character panel is visible Fixed pressing the Character / Paragraph button on the context toolbar not expanding collapsed panels Fixed right clicking a node in a Curve Adjustment doesn't update the preview Updated more icons to look better on a dark background at 100% zoom Use higher precision pointer position for new Pointer API (Windows 8.1 and higher, Surface type devices) Use higher precision pointer position for Wacom devices Fixed 3D and Bevel Emboss filter effects Fixed angle dial displaying decimals Fixed Text > Character Traits > Underline will tick both Underline and Strikeout Fixed some fonts incorrectly appearing as Segoe UI in the dropdown Fixed crash when dragging a Bevel/Emboss Profile node via FX dialog Fixed Continuous Export being re-enabled after creating a slice