Kuttyjoe

The funny thing is, I was begging Adobe to implement the level of image based brushes that were in Serif DrawPlus.  Adobe implemented a very basic level of image brushes a few years back that is practically unusable and they've never revisited it.  I keep DrawPlus around just for the image brushes.  Both image and true vector brushes have advantages, but one big disadvantage of the true vector brush is that they can be so complicated that they are too slow to use.  If I convert one of those to an image based brush for use in DrawPlus, it is able to work smoothly.  Affinity Designer of course also has a lot of catching up to do to match the brushes in DrawPlus but that's not even on a roadmap so I don't expect that to happen.  For now, the best image brush game in town is sadly in two discontinued programs!  DrawPlus and Microsoft's Expression Design.

Yep, even for $500.00, you don't necessarily get what might seems like such a necessary feature.  People have been wishing Corel would add it, and making macros for decades.  Corel still hasn't implemented. Meanwhile they're doing all sorts of other things, including creating the entirely new Mac version of Coreldraw.  That feature is never going to come to Coreldraw.  There's no reason to think that it will after all this time.  The same is true with Affinity Designer.  People begged for it in the days of DrawPlus, then continued begging for it in Affinity Designer.  Anything is possible, but there's no reason to think that it's ever going to happen.  Or maybe, you'll be retired before it happens.
 
I've used that feature for decades and I've never felt that it was meager.  People are begging Serif for it for 10 years.  People were begging Corel for it for much longer.  I don't know or care how long it takes to create the feature.  I just know how useful it is, and that it's not meager in Illustrator.  We may all hate the subscription model but we all must still be thankful that Adobe exists since they're the only company offering the features that everybody else is begging for!  So what happens if Adobe goes away?  Many people will go from getting their work done with expensive tools, to not being able to get it done at all because there are no other tools that can do the work.  

For me, they both take the same amount of time.  If you're using keyboard shortcuts all the time, then your free hand is always at the ready.  Pressing the X on the keyboard to switch fill/Stroke takes no time, unless you're having to look down at the keyboard over and over to find the X key and press it.  That's not the case for me.  My free hand is always in position so I can do it instantly.  This one is not an issue for me. Either way is good.
 

Yep, even for $500.00, you don't necessarily get what might seems like such a necessary feature.  People have been wishing Corel would add it, and making macros for decades.  Corel still hasn't implemented. Meanwhile they're doing all sorts of other things, including creating the entirely new Mac version of Coreldraw.  That feature is never going to come to Coreldraw.  There's no reason to think that it will after all this time.  The same is true with Affinity Designer.  People begged for it in the days of DrawPlus, then continued begging for it in Affinity Designer.  Anything is possible, but there's no reason to think that it's ever going to happen.  Or maybe, you'll be retired before it happens.
 
I've used that feature for decades and I've never felt that it was meager.  People are begging Serif for it for 10 years.  People were begging Corel for it for much longer.  I don't know or care how long it takes to create the feature.  I just know how useful it is, and that it's not meager in Illustrator.  We may all hate the subscription model but we all must still be thankful that Adobe exists since they're the only company offering the features that everybody else is begging for!  So what happens if Adobe goes away?  Many people will go from getting their work done with expensive tools, to not being able to get it done at all because there are no other tools that can do the work.  

Coreldraw also doesn't have it.  It has a Find and replace that is extremely complex and time consuming to use.  There are a couple 3rd party macros that attempt to plug this gaping hole but they're never as elegant as a built-in solution.

I agree with you on this.  Muscle memory depends on consistency and muscle memory is what allows us to work smoothly and quickly.   Inconsistency causes a lot of wrong first attempts, then corrections which is distracting, aggravating, and probably a little bit wasteful of time.

I agree with you on this.  Muscle memory depends on consistency and muscle memory is what allows us to work smoothly and quickly.   Inconsistency causes a lot of wrong first attempts, then corrections which is distracting, aggravating, and probably a little bit wasteful of time.

I disagree.  The current implementation of some features in Illustrator is a perfectly good goal to set sights on.  I suppose you just hate Adobe, or hate subscription or whatever you hate, but this comment makes no sense. Designer is skeletal.  Serif's marketing is largely based on getting away from the subscription model (read Adobe) so that's logically what should be reflected in the software.  But it's not.

I disagree.  The current implementation of some features in Illustrator is a perfectly good goal to set sights on.  I suppose you just hate Adobe, or hate subscription or whatever you hate, but this comment makes no sense. Designer is skeletal.  Serif's marketing is largely based on getting away from the subscription model (read Adobe) so that's logically what should be reflected in the software.  But it's not.

I disagree.  The current implementation of some features in Illustrator is a perfectly good goal to set sights on.  I suppose you just hate Adobe, or hate subscription or whatever you hate, but this comment makes no sense. Designer is skeletal.  Serif's marketing is largely based on getting away from the subscription model (read Adobe) so that's logically what should be reflected in the software.  But it's not.

I disagree.  The current implementation of some features in Illustrator is a perfectly good goal to set sights on.  I suppose you just hate Adobe, or hate subscription or whatever you hate, but this comment makes no sense. Designer is skeletal.  Serif's marketing is largely based on getting away from the subscription model (read Adobe) so that's logically what should be reflected in the software.  But it's not.

This comment is interesting.  Creators vs artworkers, or production artists.  I agree with everything you've said here because I'm a production artist.  Affinity software is not geared for that kind of work.  It's exactly as you described it.  It's good for built a design yourself, but it lacks the tools needed for edting any random art that you might receive from someone else.  Even Coreldraw falls short of that kind of work.  Only Adobe truly gets it done.  Regarding the smoothing tools though, it's ironic that Serif's older product DrawPlus actually had not 1 but 2 smoothing tools, both brilliant and uniquely implemented.  It's so sad that those tools are now lost forever along with quite a few other good things that were in DrawPlus.

I posted these same problems earlier today as bugs. So, yeah I'm having the same problem(s)

I’ve been a Mac user since 1993, and I remember some applications having this exploded layout and still do, but frankly none of the programs I’ve used were like this.  Adobe had this mode as an option, but always alllowed to have a background.  That would have driven me crazy if I had to work with programs while looking at my desktop and folders, windows, etc in the background.

I’ve been a Mac user since 1993, and I remember some applications having this exploded layout and still do, but frankly none of the programs I’ve used were like this.  Adobe had this mode as an option, but always alllowed to have a background.  That would have driven me crazy if I had to work with programs while looking at my desktop and folders, windows, etc in the background.

I’ve been a Mac user since 1993, and I remember some applications having this exploded layout and still do, but frankly none of the programs I’ve used were like this.  Adobe had this mode as an option, but always alllowed to have a background.  That would have driven me crazy if I had to work with programs while looking at my desktop and folders, windows, etc in the background.

Yep, this is a big one. Critically important to me.

Before iOS 11, I felt that the iPad Pro represented a huge lost opportunity.  The iPad could be so much more than it is. iOS 11 signals that Apple has suddenly began to see what I was saying.  The iPad Pro has been ANTI productivity for all of it's existence.  The Apple Pencil was the first sign that Apple needed to make this device much more useful.  iOS 11 really seems to be about productivity.  Apple basically robbed Samsung's Note series blind.  I have the Note Pro 12 and an iPad Pro.  I had imagined that maybe the iPad Pro could actually replace the Note Pro but that didn't happen at all.  The only productive thing I did with the iPad Pro was use Procreate.  For everything else, I continued to use the Note Pro 12 because it had all these wonderful productivity functions.  Now Apple has copied a good chunk of them.  The iPad Pro is finally looking like it's on a path to general productivity.  It already has a lot of power.  It's super smooth.  All that was missing was the scope of what it was "allowed" to do.  Apple may be removing the artificial barriers to productivity. They risk greater loss of sales if they don't.

Before iOS 11, I felt that the iPad Pro represented a huge lost opportunity.  The iPad could be so much more than it is. iOS 11 signals that Apple has suddenly began to see what I was saying.  The iPad Pro has been ANTI productivity for all of it's existence.  The Apple Pencil was the first sign that Apple needed to make this device much more useful.  iOS 11 really seems to be about productivity.  Apple basically robbed Samsung's Note series blind.  I have the Note Pro 12 and an iPad Pro.  I had imagined that maybe the iPad Pro could actually replace the Note Pro but that didn't happen at all.  The only productive thing I did with the iPad Pro was use Procreate.  For everything else, I continued to use the Note Pro 12 because it had all these wonderful productivity functions.  Now Apple has copied a good chunk of them.  The iPad Pro is finally looking like it's on a path to general productivity.  It already has a lot of power.  It's super smooth.  All that was missing was the scope of what it was "allowed" to do.  Apple may be removing the artificial barriers to productivity. They risk greater loss of sales if they don't.

I've gotten some of those calls and I actually thought they were always pleasant to talk to.  Not anything I could call bullying, or even troublesome.  They're not Americans who hang up in your face if you don't buy what they're selling.  But I agree with the rest of what you're saying.  At some point it became clear that they had no intention of further developing the Plus line, or even fixing the myriad of bugs in them, that remain in those products to this day.
 
I don't think it's realistic that Affinity Photo/Designer will ever challenge Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator.  Adobe is just too impossibly far ahead, and also developing faster than Serif.  Affinity software will grab consumers who don't need the kind of power that Adobe brings to the table.  Or people like myself who will buy a product if it has a few really unique features and the cost is cheap enough.

In DrawPlus, if you have the brush tool selected, and you've made a bunch of different strokes, different sizes, colors, characteristics, etc, you can click on one of the existing strokes in the document, then the brush acquires all those characteristics and new strokes are immediately painted with those characteristics.  It's a killer feature that lets you work very quickly.  This seems to be completely missing from Affinity Designer.  Not only does it acquire characteristics of other strokes, it also struggles to just change the brush stroke.  If you have the brush tool selected, you can hold the option key (I think it's the option key) select a brush stroke, which high lights that stroke, but if you take your finger off the option key, the high light goes away.  If you put your finger back on the option key, the high light comes back.  It seems that the stroke is still selected.  Here's where it gets more weird.  If you click on a different brush stroke, nothing happens.  If the stroke is still selected, it should change to the new brush stroke, but it doesn't.  However, if you keep holding that option key while clicking on a new brush stroke, it will indeed change to the new brush stroke!  So, is the brush stroke remaining selected, or is it not?  Whatever is happening there, it makes for a much less user friendly way of dealing with brush strokes.
 
DrawPlus seems to have really nailed working with brush strokes.  It's one of quite a few reasons I prefer it over Adobe Illustrator for brush work.  I've converted some Illustrator vector brushes to DrawPlus raster brushes so I can do work that looks like vector.  If it needs to be vector, I can vectorize it (Also missing from Designer), but the workflow is a far better experience than in Illustrator.  But not with Affinity DrawPlus.
 
Other killer features are also missing from Affinity Designer.  The option to keep the brush stroke selected immediately after drawing it, and to use the smoothing slider right on the toolbar.  This was great stuff.  And I'm sure there's plenty more missing, including the hyper custom interface which makes it better for drawing on small screens.  Even the option to show just the brushes used in the document in the brush panel is missing from Designer.  It's really unfortunate.

Those are features that I also depend on in screen printing work.  Illustrator does it very nicely.

Photoshop has a range of options for selecting and adjusting color. Like Selective Color and Replace Color. These things are missing from Affinity apps. Even Color Range is missing a bunch of options. Photoshop allows you to select Reds, greens, blues, cyans, Yellow etc, plus the tones. Plus all the other options for dealing with color. Affinity Allows only Red, Yellow I think, and then the high lights, shadows, and midtones. I don't know how you're supposed to pull out the other hues accurately. And the way it makes the selections makes it hard to know what you've selected. Looking at the marching ants I have no idea what I've got selected. It also requires multiple pop up windows and more clicking to close them. I don't know why these things are implemented this way when some of the other features are impressively clever. Like the layer effects. That's a pretty smooth process other than that the palettes can't dock in two columns and can't minimize in the clever way that Adobe palettes do. I guess it's fair to compare to Photoshop since Serif does plenty of comparing to Photoshop.
 
In some areas, Serif is really reinventing the wheel. Why is it necessary for the ordinary fill tool to be so complicated. The first time I tried to use it, I couldn't figure out why it just didn't seem to work. Of course, I could have read the manual before attempting to use the app but with over 2 decades of using that paint bucket in a whole range of programs, I can be forgiven for thinking that I know exactly what it is. Well, it's not as simple in Affinity apps and requires more clicking to achieve simply filling an area.
 
One last thing while I'm complaining. In CorelDraw, if I open a pdf document with missing fonts, it allows me to choose to convert the font's vector information to curves. This way I get the art. Which is what I'm afer most of the time. It would be great if Affinity apps could do the same. Photoshop does it. Illustrator does not. Neither Affinity apps can do this.

Just like in Illustrator. Select an object. Do key command to select objects with the same color or outline or appearance. The way Illustrator has this implemented is brilliant and simple. The way Corel did it is god awful. Don't do it like Corel which makes you click through pages of questions and forces you to first ungroup the art

I bought this app yesterday. Not blindly.  I've been looking at it for a long time and passing on it.  But I bought it yesterday.  I used it a lot at work yesterday to see how much of what I normally would do in Photoshop could be done with this app and how easily.  I think that if there's anything that has any possibility, or even intention of making inroads on Photoshop domination, this is probably it. But, using this app does leave me kind of amazed at how many of the details Adobe has managed to notice and cater to in Photoshop.  So many things that are just done right, only in Photoshop and nowhere else.
 
Affinity Photo manages to do somethings better than Photoshop.  Seems like the HSL filter achieves a better result when doing exactly the same thing, but it's really quirky.  Photoshop has that simple preview checkbox that you take for granted.  AF doesn't have it.  It's nice to click it over and over to see before/after/before/after.  I found that I could simulate this by going over to the layer and turning the checkbox on and off but it's not as smooth or smart.
 
Speaking of that layer checkbox.  Why put it on the far right of the layer?  Is the eye symbol used by many other programs not better than a checkbox.  The checkbox says to me that it's selected, not on or off.  After using it for a couple days, I still find that I don't know if a layer is on or off and suddenly realize, Oh, it's the checkbox that determines on or off.  And there's that blank space to the left of the layer that your mind tells you, something is supposed to be there.  LOL.  I'm sure that it's just a matter of time, but the current way really does seem to be unintuitive.
 
Pop up boxes and dialog boxes.  They pup up in the bottom right corner...and I don't even notice when they do.  Very strange.  And when I reposition it to where my eyes actually are, they continue to pop up in the bottom right corner later.  It would be good if they remembered where they were positioned.
 
Custom key commands is on the roadmap.  I remember now, that's one of the reasons I initially totally disregarded this app.  Without that, it's difficult to think it's for professionals.
 
The Select Color range tool is lacking some important options.  Photoshop and also Serif PhotoPlus I believe allows for selection of Yellow, Red, Green, Cyan, in addition to Sampled Color. For whatever reason, Affinity Photo only Reds, Greens, Blues.  I tried to use this app today for a complex color separation job and I needed that option.  So I ended up going back to Photoshop to do it.  Also, it's not possible to hold shift and select additional colors.
 
No right click options.  Right clicking on the document offers nothing.
 
Copy/Paste in Photoshop is a lot better.  If I copy art from Illustrator for example that has vectors, and a 300ppi image, I can flip over to Photoshop, create a new document.  Photoshop will notice the dimensions of the document, then allow me to decide all about the rest of the details.  In this example, I would make it 300ppi. I could choose rgb or CMYK, etc.  Afinity Photo just grabs whatever is on the clipboard and makes it into a 96ppi image.
 
There are no options for printing color separations or halftones.  I see that "halftone filter" or something is on the roadmap, but I don't think that will suffice for print work.
 
Pantone and spot color support is also on the roadmap.  Hopefully that means spot color and pantone channel separations.
 
 
 
It's a good program so far.  There's plenty missing that would be needed for print work but the roadmap is encouraging. 
 
Oh, and it crashed yesterday within an hour of first running it.  Actually, it crashed in the background while I wasn't using it.