Frozen Death Knight

What an absolutely absurd statement. I bought the softwares as well as some additional things beyond that and I am ready to buy 2.0 whenever that comes out, assuming it has features I want on launch. Who are you to decide who is a good customer or not? Ever since 1.6 when I bought Photo on Windows I have been actively Beta testing all of Affinity's major releases, including minor patches, and written pages upon pages of feedback on how to improve them. If I wanted a stagnant product, I wouldn't have done any of this in the first place.

At least we both agree on that. I already bought all three. Your argument really doesn't work here when we started off with the premise that Affinity should become more expensive than their current price points, specifically Photo by making it a DAM as well. I like the current pricing model, which is why I decided to buy them all and is also why I am arguing against such a push. I have no doubt that eventually prices will go up just as economy inflation eventually kicks in, but that wasn't what was talked about, wasn't it? We were discussing making Photo more expensive by making it a DAM program as well, which is not something I want to happen. Making each program more expensive for the sake of it when it is a major selling point that there is a low bar of entry for getting into the Affinity ecosystem is not what I consider wise. Heck, if it wasn't for the pricing I might not have been using Affinity right now, but something else. I think that's the case for a lot of people. I think there are other ways to monetise a product besides the intitial price point. For instance, I have already checked out the Affinity shop and bought a couple of brush packs I liked because I didn't break bank when I began using Photo. I am also considering buying Photo for my Macbook Air since I have been using a bunch lately and my current versions are Windows only. I would frankly never consider double dipping like this if Affinity had a higher price point.

Why not make this a separate program with the StudioLink feature instead of cramming a DAM into Photo? Last I checked Photoshop is not Lightroom and to me it sounds a bit absurd to increase the pricing of Photo by forcing it to become Lightroom as well, especially since I am not a photographer who would be the only ones that benefit from such a system. By all means, Serif should make a DAM program eventually after they have developed their current three programs some more, but please don't cram all of these things into Photo and up the pricing.

Tried testing super fast brush strokes performance and from my own perspective it seems to have improved a bit. Not completely fixed, but it seems harder to reproduce the unresponsive UI performance issue I reported last time (still a bit laggy sometimes, but at least the UI can be clicked on after a second or two unlike the previous Beta). What hasn't been fixed is some brush strokes being considered as one history state, since I was able to create 2+ strokes = 1 history state when making super fast strokes in the current Beta. It is going in the right direction, so keep tinkering some more there and we should be golden eventually. One aspect that can however be slow still is when painting/drawing while using some adjustment/live filter layers on top of that layer, especially in larger projects. However, I don't think there is any true solution to this by improving GPU acceleration, but instead adding more tools for layer management. I.e. adding a global disable/enable all adjustments/live filters that you can toggle on and off to optimise your project. I know we have alt clicking thumbnails, but that method only works for individual layers. For larger projects it gets more complicated, especially since you can't alt click groups and then work on the contents within said group by clicking on one of those layers (the isolation resets). Alternatively you add the ability to create embedded documents directly from the Layers panel like how Photoshop does it with smart objects. Since performance is also related to the amount of layers you have inside a single document, being able to divide up your project into different documents would be a good solution for dealing with these types of slowdowns. Ideally I would like to see both of these features to deal with this performance problem, but the latter would honestly be my top priority because of how useful creating embedded documents/smart objects from the Layers panel actually is other than just performance boosts.

Here's an example of how I use the current version of the curves. Easy to get very exact values on a percentage basis. No need to type "0.5" or the like, just ".5", ".35", ",76". etc., etc. A perfectly reasonable approach to using curves if you ask me. Adding more options for how to type in curve values would of course be a nice plus. Desktop 2020.10.14 - 22.49.00.02.mp4 Anyway, speaking of this feature, I think I might have found some bugs regarding it, @Chris J. Apparently you can type a value smaller or larger than the current range 0-1,000. Got some wonky results with the curve which could only be fixed with Reset, since I couldn't access the actual handles for moving the curve values with certain settings. Maybe change it so that if you type in a value larger than 1 or smaller than 0, the curve handle resets back with the value 1 and 0 respectively? That way the value can never go beyond the current range set in place. Desktop_2020_10.14_-_23_00_17_03.mp4

Then please, enlighten me. I am not a photographer, so I am naturally not going approach the way you expect to be using curves. I like the current version of the range as 0-1,000 since it works for me when working on my art and my thought process of working with percentage type values. Unless you explain why it is important to have it from 0-255, I will not understand you. Besides, I didn't say that I was against adding that as an option if it was just that, an option. Doesn't Photoshop have something similar as well? That GIF you posted earlier shows two different options for the range, one being labelled as 0-255 and the other as %. Seems to me like a reasonable thing to request for Affinity as well.

I mean, x and y aren't that complicated to understand. Understanding the x and y-axes and reading graphs are taught to children in grade school. Just dragging the curve will show this relation in a couple of seconds. I can agree that the Photoshop method is solid, but the Affinity version is hardly that confusing. One advantage of reading the values from 0 - 1,000 with x and y values is that it can be calculated more in terms of percentages rather than the 0-255 Input/Output values that Photoshop deals with. For instance, try finding the 50% value of 255 just off the top of your head compared to just typing 0,5. Why not let the user choose between the two methods if there is a use for having the value range as 255 with Input/Output labels? Would at least be a decent compromise.

Indeed, but to be fair, it is going to be hard to test if people don't know how it works yet. Some pointers are always appreciated. ^-^

Jowday, you may leave good feedback regarding Affinity most of the time, but this comment to me is one of the reasons you can leave a bad impression on people from time to time. Photoshop is expensive. That price point sure may look cheap, but the cost of handing over your professional future of never being able to truly own anything you produce in the Adobe Suite is the exact reason that people have moved away from the company. We honestly don't care if you can afford it or not, since at this point it is not where the problem lies. It is the very concept of subscription only that some people will never consider Adobe as an option ever again. Besides, if Adobe is so affordable and you have so few complaints about their softwares, why are you even here? To me it seems like you are here because despite the flaws Affinity has, not having to pay that monthly fee was a compelling enough reason to keep coming here and write admittedly useful feedback. To me it looks like you do have a problem with Adobe's prices or you wouldn't have bothered with any of this in the first place. Or am I wrong in my assessment?

Would love to have this. Man, those are some fast gradients for painting! : )

I really don't see how removing the current placement and moving those settings there would improve the UI in the slightest. The upper toolbar has always been a standard used for showing specific custom settings that are relevant to the selected tool in question. You completely undermine the very idea of having this bar by doing this change. I can also have my gripes with certain aspects of the Affinity UI, but this part is in fact very consistent across not just Affinity, but other similar programs as well. To be perfectly frank, your idea is "all over the place".

You've been able to copy paste from Illustrator into Photoshop and vice versa for a long time. Problem is that Photoshop doesn't actually have true vector support, so whatever you do you aren't able to properly view them as vectors inside Photoshop (as I recall they are ported in as smart objects which open up Illustrator if you want to edit them), and the Pen Tool in Photoshop can't really edit any vectors you paste into the program (unlike Photo). This is in stark contrast with Affinity where you can not only copy paste between different Affinity programs, but also work on a single file as previously mentioned, while being able to preview raster and vector simultaneously. Either way, it is still working with both vectors and raster regardless of how you spin it. Well, I hope that gets added then! Just because I said that doesn't mean I don't want to see more fixes being done to issues that hinder productivity. I personally wish they worked more on brush management, layer management as well as improved the Colour Picker Tool for Photo. I hope that last one especially gets addressed in 1.9, since having to switch to the tool instead of using alt on all the brushes to access colour picking from a selected layer can get really old every time you open Affinity.

I seriously doubt Illustrator+Fresco on iPad would fill that niche as well as Affinity unless the switching between programs are near seamless with little delay. It still means needing two programs to go back and forth to work instead of just one program like Designer or Publisher (if you own all 3). You've been able to mix vector shapes and raster painting with Illustrator and Photoshop for years on PC and I was never a big fan of the workflow until I started using Affinity, especially after Publisher got released. The one aspect that should be absolutely commended regarding Serif is that they invested into one shared file format across all softwares as well as the Studio Link technology so that under the hood you are basically using the same program even though the tools and features are altered to fill different functions. Unless Adobe decide to create their own version of that I think Affinity will keep that niche as their own for a long time. While I agree that it is important not to drag your feet in an industry such as this one, I don't think that the devs have been doing that too much considering what they have delivered on in the last 1-2 years. The fixes that they have done to improve the software in terms of performance and usability have been really solid, especially with 1.8.5 adding better quality tablet APIs for Windows and the OS finally getting GPU acceleration (while buggy and a work in progress, the performance improvements I have experienced have been immense). They may not be a bunch of fancy new tools which I do agree are lacking in Designer, but unlike when I bought Affinity back in the 1.6 days, I can actually say that I can use their later versions. That said, I do hope we get to see more tools and highly requested features once Publisher for iPad is finally released and the more underlying problems have been fixed (i.e. GPU acceleration). Personally I can't wait for a raster to vector converter and a shape builder tool.

Was able to find some time to send it over now. Good luck! ^-^

I can send it over later since I am busy right now, but sure. Where do I drop it? The file is an 1.8 file as well, since I only tried to open it in 1.9.

I got the same problem with one of my older files and I am using the latest Beta.

Well, I am finally done posting the final version of the thread now! Again, thanks to @Dan C for all the help during the review process as well as the Affinity team for making this happen! I hope people will find it useful!

I felt like wanting to give something back to the community, so I created a free to use starter pack for artists who want to get into Affinity but don't know where to start. This brush pack contains a mixture of hand made brushes as well as brushes I like to use from Affinity's own collection. FDK's Artist Brushes Starter Pack.afbrushes A bunch of them are standard bread and butter brushes that are expected from a typical art program. Since I have been a long time Photoshop user I have done my best to recreate the typical round brushes that are used for painting, whether they are hard or soft brushes (also including a couple of square brushes). There are also some other custom brushes I have made to speed certain things up while working on concepts and such, like a chain brush, multiple hair brushes, and more. It also contains Affinity specific brushes I particularly like and are there primarily to add some extra texture to your work in the various stages of a production, whether it is sketching, painting in textures, or specific tools like the Smudge Brush Tool and Sponge Brush Tool. Here are some examples of what you can do with the brush pack: I hope you enjoy! Happy brushing! --- This brush pack has been approved and endorsed by the original owners of the brushes I picked out from their hand tailored collections. Credit for these brushes go to the Serif team behind the Affinity Suite and Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB), the artist behind the brushes. Thanks for your support!

Speaking of ctrl+alt+shift+R, I had the same problem of the shortcut not existing since I had my own custom shortcuts, but I was able to add it manually. However, I noticed as well that the shortcut didn't work in other Personas like the Liquify Persona unless you added it manually there as well or used the Apply to All feature. Just something to bear in mind if someone needs to add it manually like I did. Pretty cool that these new rotation shortcuts work elsewhere besides the main Persona. Pretty sure that functionality doesn't exist in Photoshop. The new canvas rotation shortcuts as I mentioned in the Photo Beta thread work well and behave as they should. However, since my mouse scroll wheel is half-broken it makes rotating the canvas a bit wonky when scrolling, but that is a problem with my hardware rather than the software. As I also said in that other thread, I would love to have these rotation shortcuts directly available for my Wacom tablet, especially since I don't have a tablet that allows scrolling up or down since all the built in buttons on the screen are just that, buttons. Either way, if you decide to add a tablet friendlier version of these shortcuts, there is no need to remove what you have already added. When working with a mouse it is very convenient to rotate with the scroll wheel (as long as your hardware hasn't broken down like mine, hehe).

As for the GPU acceleration improvements, I noticed that the bug I reported some days ago seems to have disappeared, which is really reassuring. The Brushes panel had a bunch of visual bugs regarding round brushes and using them were very buggy. Both of those issues have been fixed as well. Drawing and painting for the most part are feeling smoother and smoother for each Beta version. Large brushes work exceptionally well and are significantly faster and more responsive than in 1.8.5. However, I have been trying to push the Beta to its absolute limit to find potential issues and I happened to find three still which are all related to brush stroke speed. 1) The faster you draw with your brush, the more you will begin noticing start-up lag for every stroke. This does disappear if you keep pressuring the pen and all brush strokes become super responsive, but it is still a noticeable problem since fast strokes are quite common. The problem affects both larger and smaller brushes on large canvases. 2) At some point the program UI stops responding for a while after I had painted tons of lines in a very short time span. The brushes don't have to be large to notice the slowdown on larger canvases. 3) When I used one of my round brushes with pen pressure settings, the History panel started combining brush strokes as if they counted as one action on the timeline when drawing super fast. The video shown below shows just a brief taste of the problem in action, but I was at one point able to combine several brush strokes as one single history state, which is quite unusual since I have never seen this happen before in older versions of Affinity. Desktop 2020.10.04 - 17.20.06.05.mp4

Question. Are the rotation tools supposed to make the image grainy? Tried using it on a file and all the clean silhouettes became very grainy with very strange anti-aliasing. The problem became increasingly worse the further out you zoomed. Desktop 2020.10.04 - 17.06.57.04.mp4 Also, would it be possible to create a more tablet friendly version of these shortcuts as well? Sadly I can't scroll with my tablet pen nor do so with the buttons I have available. Same could be said about wanting to zoom with ctrl+scroll wheel. I only have access to Mid click and the modifiers. I know a lot of artists that would love to have direct access to these new rotation tools. Would you consider adding the ability to scroll up and down with mid click by dragging up and down on the canvas when using modifiers as to not interfere with Mid click to pan? Thanks!

Sure, but one thing that should also be considered is that unless the devs want to create another presets manager just to handle the toolbar and such, it would be more practical if down the line that the current Studio Presets is able to handle things like the main program window location and the toolbar location. Extra bonus points if it could even save what your toolbar looks like by having it specialised towards very specific types of work (i.e. painting tools only, photo retouching only, etc.). Then when the devs decide to ship Affinity with some presets already packaged in for convenience they can custom tailor whatever user experience they desire to cater to different types of users.

@Chris J Had some more time to test the Beta again and I think I found another bug, or at least an inconsistent element regarding Studio Presets. Studio Presets do not actually affect the placement of the toolbar with all the tool icons when it is undocked from its regular place on the left side of the Affinity window. I was trying to create two identical presets that would work on two separate screens; my main screen and my Cintiq screen. So far I have managed to get all the regular panels to move, but I still have to manually move the normal toolbar despite it having a lot of the same panel like qualities like being able to get docked and undocked. I don't really expect the toolbar contents to necessarily change if it is considered a "sticky setting" that was previously mentioned in this discussion, but I at least would appreciate if it was possible to take the toolbar position into account when finalising the design of Studio Presets. As a sidenote, would it be possible to add an option to have Studio Presets affect the entire Affinity window as well? For instance, going back to my previous example of my Cintiq and main screen when dual screening, it would be nice if you could add an option to take into account your entire window position for certain presets while ignoring it for others. This way your entire canvas moves to the screen you want to work with with zero needs to move anything in place. Might be wishful thinking, but I just wanted to throw the idea out there at least. ^^

Yeah! There is actually a lot of space in the UI next to the current Personas which you can customise at your leisure. I was actually kind of hoping that when Affinity got symmetry painting that that UI space would be used to expose symmetry up there just next to.the Snapping buttons. Would be nice if the presets were at least a bit more exposed considering how useful they are. ^-^

Okay, thanks for the heads up! Currently in the middle of studying for a course in programming, but I will post the brush pack eventually with these criteria as requested. Hopefully some time this weekend. Thanks again for taking the time to help with this! I appreciate it. ^-^ Btw, when I give credit, would this comment be all right with you? "This brush pack has been approved and endorsed by the original owners of the brushes I picked out from their hand tailored collections. Credit for these brushes go to the Serif team behind the Affinity Suite and Paolo Limoncelli who created the DAUB Brushes. Thanks for your support!" If you have any comments about something I should change with the bold text above, just give me a message and I'll change it for the final post. ^^