Frozen Death Knight

Glad to hear that there are people out there taking the initiative to push development forward. You have my respect. Yeah, I agree with your assessment regarding the communities for these FOSS tools being more on the cheap side. I use Blender and I can't really afford spending money on the Blender Foundation every month, but I've bought a few add-ons that I thought would help my modelling workflow and done what I can reporting bugs during the 2.8 Beta as well as provided as much feedback as possible on how to improve various aspects of the software. If I had a job and a decent income I would donate some to the Foundation since they have done such a good job working on Blender since I started using the software for the first time in December last year. Until then, I will do what little I can to improve the software, since I vastly prefer its UI and workflow over Maya which I actually started off learning (although Maya does have some really great tools). Photopea actually looks pretty promising for giving Linux some needed love in that department. It's not really good for painting or drawing because of how slow it is on large canvases (tried opening an old artwork file and drawing on it was super slow, not to mention the extremely primitive brush engine), but it has lot of the essentials for photo editing and manipulation (non-destructive adjustment layers ftw!), which would work pretty well with a painting program like Krita. As an old Photoshop user it was pretty much identical to the software and far less cumbersome than Gimp. I just hope the developer gets enough funding to be able to employ more people so he can keep working on the project for a very long time. Yeah, I kind of figured that would become a problem. The game platforms I am the most concerned with being supported on Linux would be Battle.Net and Steam, since I rarely if ever use any other platform for gaming. As for the PSDs locking me in, I am not so concerned about that anymore since my files can be opened and converted to the Affinity file format.

Question about Knoll Light Factory. I checked it out on the RedGiant website, but it didn't say that it supported Photoshop, only AE and Premiere (link to webpage). How well does it work in Photo for you? Follow-up question, do the other RedGiant plug-ins work as well for Affinity and/or Photoshop, like VFX Optical Glow? If so, I might actually buy that one at some point. ^^

Coolorus plug-in support would be nice as well. Really miss having that Photoshop plug-in while painting.

Resetted the Studio and it seems to work now. I copied my UI from 1.7.1 since I needed a bunch of assets I had made without having to import them all again. Thanks! However, there is one small thing I would like to bring attention to as well, but this time it's regarding the width of the panels. Even after the reset I found out that the minimum width of a couple of panels are inconsistent with the rest of the UI (the Stock and Transform panels to be precise). I hope these inconsistencies could be ironed out as well to make it a bit easier and cleaner to align all your panels together. Here's a video demonstration showing what I mean, as well as some weird interactions where it is possible to make the width of these two panels align correctly with other panels when they are stacked together as tabs inside one panel: Desktop 2019.07.08 - 19.34.46.01.mp4

That's all well and good, but that is only one half of the equation. Does the Linux community as a whole actually financially support these programs or provide big enough support such as human resources, i.e. programers? A follow up question, do you support any of these programs financially or code for them? It sure would help convincing other companies to start porting over their own software if they saw a huge amount of support from the Linux community already existing on the platform for their open source software like Gimp and others. The way I see it, the Linux community is barking up the wrong tree if they want Linux to have the type of software support Windows and Macs have. Companies go where the money goes, and there has to be Linux driven companies and organisations with deep pockets that could help finance other open source projects already supporting Linux to help drive progress forward for more wide commercial appeal. Heck, said companies/organisations could even reach out to the likes of Adobe or Serif to incentivice them to port over to the platform as well. I think a lot could be done on this front to help make Linux a more popular platform, especially for creatives. As for my own stance regarding Linux, I like working on Windows, but I wouldn't mind trying out Linux if I was able to do proper creative work with it (I do use Blender, so that at least should transition well) and was able to play all the games I want on my machine. I understand the frustration of not having your preferred platform supported, but I don't think Serif or Adobe will change their minds any time soon unless the Linux community as a whole starts pushing hard on their own home turf that they crave these types of programs, and they clearly show its members are more than willing to support these programs financially. I do not doubt that Linux has the potential to be a good platform for creatives if some effort was put in, but first the general perception of the platform has to change.

Fully agreed, OP. This issue is certainly not going to get better once a new Affinity software releases, so now is a good time to do it.

I hope that doesn't mean that we're never getting roadmaps in the future. Would be a real shame, even if some of the features would not end up being implemented of some reason. Does this also mean that all the features on the old roadmaps are scrapped, or will we still see some of them (i.e. Export Persona showing the results of the export based on settings, non-destructive Develop Persona for Photo, Knife tool for Designer, etc.)? As for Serif deciding to keep certain features exclusive to each software, I am personally fine with it after using StudioLink for the last few weeks, and I consider your pricing model to be reasonable enough that I don't feel ripped off for having to buy all programs to get a more complete experience while working (Publisher is great for worklfow efficiency). I can however understand people's frustrations after waiting so long for those roadmap features for their preferred software. I think it would have been better if you had made this announcement earlier and not on a random thread in the Beta forums, since it is actually a pretty big deal that the old roadmaps were scrapped. People have been quite confused about the decision, myself included, since it was done so unceremoniously. Just my two cents.

I've downloaded both the Publisher and Photo Betas and checked if it's solved. It seems like Photo works fine now, but Publisher does not. The results in Publisher are fairly inconsistent, with some panels working fine when trying to adjust height, while others do not function at all. It's an improvement over 1.7.1, but not by much. Here's a video demonstration of the Publisher Beta: Desktop 2019.07.07 - 17.07.05.01.mp4

Regarding the discussion on Gimp, Inkscape, and Krita. The way I see it, the Linux community as a whole could make the platform more attractive to creatives if a version of Linux got pre-packaged with those open source programs, and a significant effort was made to support and maintain them. As much praise as these open source alternatives have got over the years, the fact that programs like Gimp to this day lack features like non-destructive Adjustment layers among other things will ensure that they will rarely if ever be used in a professional setting. If a more unified effort was done across the open source communities, Linux could provide a decent base package for creatives to work on, which could in turn make it more attractive in the long run for other companies to consider porting to Linux. Blender is so far the only open source creative program I know that has successfully broken into the professional scene in any significant capacity, yet even Blender hasn't been able to get its foot through the door to the biggest studios for special effects. Based on my own observations, Blender is the most competently done open source project because of how it is organized as well as the easy access to open channels to communicate with the Foundation and community members. Gimp, Inkscape, and Krita on the other hand I have got the impression that they are not nearly as open and organized, and after briefly trying each a few years ago, it kind of shows.

Been experimenting a bit with some brushes in Photo and wanted to share. For my vector piece that I cleaned up I used Inkscape and Designer to clean up the raster sketch I originally made in Photo. Really digging the new sculpt mode for the Pencil tool. It was really useful for removing unnecessary nodes and adjusting shapes. The Kim Possible inspired characters are an old Photoshop file I decided to clean up and finalize in Photo.

Wanted to bring attention to a very problematic issue regarding the panels. I've got this problem several times in both Photo and Publisher, and believe I would get the same results in Designer. My entire workspace is built around undocked panels, but sometimes for some reason all the panels change to their absolute minimum height with no scrollbar. This can lead to stuff like your entire history panel stretching out to the same length as the amount of actions you've taken while working on your file. Strangely enough, when you dock the panels you are able to adjust their heights, but undocking them again will stop you from doing so. Here's a video demonstrating the issue: Desktop 2019.07.05 - 22.06.13.01.mp4

Probably there are some who would switch, but I really doubt that we're talking about a mass migration here. Apple and Microsoft have the most dominance in these fields because they've successfully attracted companies to develop for their platform and created an image of themselves that they are pro-creatives. I don't know the reasons why Linux hasn't been able to do the same, but the way I see it, it's really up to the platform itself to try and attract companies to develop for Linux, and change its own image. I fully understand Serif's reluctance towards porting over the Affinity Suite, since Linux just isn't a large platform, and it is in fact a bigger financial risk than sticking to the most popular platforms they currently support. There are plenty of companies, big and small, which are not supporting Linux, and unless the image of Linux changes that makes it look more attractive, this fact will not change. I don't know a good solution to this problem, but I don't think this topic here will really solve it.

I made a thread about how to change the functionality of the modifiers to something that would work better overall and would be more useful for tablet users: I really want to see brush size, hardness, and rotation split up as separate modifier keys that you can adjust with R click dragging. Also made a couple of other suggestions as well, but the R click commands I laid out are to me top priority when it comes to fixing the current shortcuts.

I agree that removing it completely was not the best idea, but let's be fair here. That thread was massive, and was not a good place to get input from the community regarding feature requests. If someone wants to make a request or even multiple, it is far more manageable to post that in the Suggestions forums where that information can be more easily digestible. Would anyone here want to read through that Designer roadmap thread and catalogue all requests done for the last half decade while going through all the posts that were not feature requests? I sure wouldn't.

I think we're arguing semantics here considering OP's request. The type of tool OP wants looks to me like a more non-destructive way of transforming a shape by having a more freehand perspective tool rather than the isometric perspective tools that the devs added in 1.7. Porting over your Designer project to Photo to use the transform tools is not a good option when working with vectors. Right now in Affinity Photo the Perspective and Mesh Warp tools are actually destructive, meaning that they rasterize and merge all selected layers into a pixel layer when activating them. Photoshop has the ability to work with vectors and pixels non-destructively when doing these types of transformations, but only while working with Smart Objects. The Affinity Suite doesn't have that kind of solution to my knowledge, and I could see both Designer and Photo share these two tools if they were non-destructive and didn't rasterize layers into a single pixel layer.

Felt like having some fun, so I made this quick drawing by using the symmetry feature .

Was thinking of purchasing Publisher for my Macbook Air at some point, since it has the ability to have all three major Affinity Personas in one software. However, it really depends on if StudioLink actually recognizes purchases cross-platform. If not, I might just get Photo instead since that's what I use the most.

Okay, so I sat down and tried the Shadows/Highlights Live Filter and compared it to Photoshop's Adjustment version. From the looks of it, they are not really comparable. AP's version is non-destructive and have simpler controls, but at the cost of advanced settings that exist in Photoshop's version of Shadows/Highlights. Basically, the Photoshop version is basically 3 Adjustments rolled into one: Shadows/Highlights, Levels, and HSL (at least the desaturation aspect of it). To get similar results as the Photoshop version inside Affinity Photo in a non-destructive manner, you need to use the Shadows/Highlights, Levels, and HSL Adjustment layers together. I have no particular use of this Adjustment personally, but I am indeed curious what the design intentions are by the developers. Is it meant to produce the same results as the Photoshop version, or is it meant to cater to a different type of use? If it is the former, it is way, way off the mark.

@Guzzi From the looks of it, you are not using the Live Filter version of Highlights/Shadows, which from my understanding is the version they presumably changed/fixed in 1.7.1. As for the issue being actually fixed, I don't use that filter very often, so I can't confirm if it is still an issue or not. Can try it once I get the time though.

@Ace Manev If you are talking about the toolbar on the left side, you can customize it fully by going to View -> Customize Tools... and you will be able to move around all your tools the way you want them to be. To make the left toolbar float, you can just double click in an empty space around the tools to detach it, and reattach it by double clicking on it again.

Thanks for the reply and no worries! Luckily I haven't experienced this again since I am doing my best to avoid jumping between history states rapidly like I did to make this happen in the video. Sadly, I don't have the original file where the issue happened (had to start painting all that I had lost from scratch, since I apparently didn't save properly during my session X( ). I also didn't use the save history feature, so my save states are not in the finalized piece. I am however working on another project right now, so I will save my current progress with save states and see if I can reproduce the issue. If I do, I will send that file over to you.

You're welcome! Yeah, I am eagerly awaiting that feature myself. I can still paint with the Affinity Suite (I set stabilizer to 2.8 by default and add Lazy Nezumi Pro when I want some measurement tools), but better precision input will improve usability by a lot.

If you can't go lower than those settings, you're doing it wrong!

Have you tried a 1x1 px canvas yet?

I'm on PC, just like atefoto.