Ron P.

Glad it helped

I've watched that video numerous times, in fact just finished watching it again. The only take away I'm getting is the Live Band Pass Mask is for Sharpening. In that video he does use a Brightness/Contrast Live Adjustment, then adds a Band Pass Mask. Again the only thing I can see, experimenting on my photos, is Sharpening. I've tried using the differrent adjustment layers, to target colors, HSL, ect. The end result is a subtle application of Sharpening. Well ok then.. It's doing what it's suppose to, help with Sharpening. Quote from Affinity Photo Online Help for Live Band Pass Mask: Live Layer Masks

I think the Triple Circles you're seeing is due to the Spacing setting for the brush. Generally, for the Clone brush there should be zero spacing. Press the More button in the context toolbar at the top. In the dialog that opens, locate the Spacing and move the slider all the way to the left so there's no spacing.

After trying for a couple of hours I finally was able to replicate it. However in the Settings>Performance, I had to disable H/A, and set the Retina Rendering to Low Quality (Faster). I was not able to repeat the problem continuously or consecutively, just random. It seems to be a re-draw issue, which generally is corrected by updating the drivers. I know my GPU drivers are the most current, since I just updated 3 days ago.

Welcome to the forums @LisicaSooyoung Have you recently updated the drivers for your GPU? What Brush Menu popup are you using? Sometimes Affinity apps don't play well with them.

I'm not sure where RC-R came up with his answer about being able to Export directly from the Develop Persona. You can not export from the Develop Persona. You must first Develop your RAW file. This would produce a Raster image. It also closes the Develop Persona, and opens the Photo Persona. Affinity Photo is not Moving your RAW file anywhere. While Developing does provide us with the options of Developing to a Pixel image, RAW (Embedded) or RAW (Linked), nothing is done to a RAW file, nothing. It remains unaltered. RAW files are just data, that must be demosaiced, developed, so we can see the image that data produces. Matters not if we're talking about Affinity, Photoshop, On1, Dark Table, whatever, RAW files created by digital cameras are not altered. Once you Develop your RAW file, and you are in the Photo Persona, you then have some choices. Save the File (File menu >Save or Save as). This is doing nothing to your RAW file. It's creating, saving, what I call a working file, a proprietary Affinity file. This file will have an Affinity extension, afphoto, or afdesign, or afpub. Not to confuse you, but regardless of the Affinity file extension, they can be opened in any of the Affinity apps. Export a File (File menu > Export. This opens a dialog window providing you with several File Type options. (png, jpg, tiff, ect). Again this does nothing to your RAW file. It will create a file, using all the data from your camera and the adjustments you made in the Develop Persona. You can choose where on your PC you want this Raster (Pixel) file to be, and you can provide a name. Unless you move your RAW file, which must happen outside of the Affinity apps, it will remain where ever you saved, placed, it from your camera or card. I recommend you spend some time learning the product. Affinity Photo Tutorials Section of this forum. Affinity Photo Tutorials (YouTube)

I'm going to add my experience / opinion to this conversation. I'm one that purchased a pen tablet years ago and struggled big time using it. I purchased a Wacom Intuos 3 PTZ-431W. This is a small tablet, that I sits on my desk, and I still use it. It works great!! I think I paid roughly $300. The mantra back then, was of course you just need to stick with it. I did, however not all at once. I'd try using it, get frustrated, put it down for a while, then later try again. Finally I mastered it. I beat it, instead of letting it defeat me. Just because others can not use them, should not be you're excuse to not keep trying.

Seems like you're basing your decision on prices. IF that's the case you're logic makes no sense. Adobe Package for Photoshop & Lightroom: $ 19.99 mo x 12 mo = $239.88 Serif Affinity Universal License (1x perpetual): $164.99. The Serif Affinity apps is like purchasing licenses for 9 apps. That can be used on an unlimited number of computers, simultaneously (so long as you own and control those computers). Broken down looks like this. IF each app is purchased separately, $69.99 ea , iPad $18.99. For Mac and Windows: $69.99ea x 6 = $419.94, iPad $18.99 x 3 = $56.97. That's $476.91 one time cost. On average the lifespan of an Affinity version before Serif releases the next upgrade, not update, is 5 yrs. PS & LR bundle cost for 5 yrs = $1,199.40 Affinity Universal License for 5 yrs = $164.99 FWIW, my main interest is with Designer & Photo. However it was clear that I save more money by purchasing the Universal License, even though I don't really use Publisher. You're not saving any money with those other apps that you think are providing a fantastic bargain. Do you really think they would allow you to use their product, on multiple platforms if it weren't for the subscriptions?

@tekwrite, I use Canon CR2 files all day long, and have done so for almost 10 yrs now. I've never had a problem with the Affinity apps loading them. I think what Hangman is suggesting should fix it for you, especially disabling Hardware Acceleration. Are you using one of Nvidia's RX50 series GPUs ? They seem to be buggy.

I think there's a bug with the Tools Panel. I have a couple of Studio presets using Dual Monitors. I also have a Preset of the AP Default studio setup. Using a dual monitor studio preset, I have the Tools Panel on my second monitor. When I change to another preset, like the default, the Tools Panel does not snap back to the default location, on the left side. I must double-click it to get it to snap back into place. Also, since I placed the Tools Panel on my second monitor, anytime I Double-click it to undock, it goes to my second monitor, regardless of which Studio Preset I'm using, even if the Tools Panel is not to be on my second monitor. There is a Menu Command, Reset Studio, which resets to the Default AP setup. However the Tools Panel ignores this. I also when testing this again, noticed that the Tools Panel does not do exactly what I pointed out above. It uses the Last Position placed. I can move it to a position on my primary monitor, and it will not snap back to the default position, and will move to the last position placed, when I double-click it to undock. I think Serif's developer just went to lunch when they were designing the Studio Presets part of the apps. 😄 FWIW, it makes no difference on which version of Windows. I first noticed this running Win10, I'm now using Win11.

What I'm seeing in the OP's video appears to be the problem with the Line Fill not sticking when turned off/disabled. It's been reported as Bug #5967

Well, Serif says it should. It's been a thing with Affinity apps since inception. It's not a bug, so nothing to fix. Childish? Your opinion.

I agree with @toonman00. In V1 you could use the Shift key to constrain a straight line. However in V2 that's not happening. See the attached video. You can't see when I'm pressing and holding the Shift key, but I do the same in both versions. 2025-06-10_13-49-54.mp4

Oops, thanks for catching that. Corrected in my post.

@pmcabinet, Sorry my video confused you. What I done: Cut out the dog. Then Masked it. (This was from one of my RAW images, so I duplicated it before doing a destructive cut out. Just something I do as a layer of protection against goof-ups.) I grabbed a Stock Image from Pixabay, prior to starting the recording. This was open in a second tab in Affinity Photo. So I changed to that 2nd tab. Done a simple Copy (Edit>Copy). Switched back to the 1st tab, where I cut out my dog. Done a simple Paste (Edit>Paste). Dragged that to the Bottom Layer or just Below the Masked Dog Layer The rest is just my personal dressing up the image, moving the dog to left side so she's not sitting in the stream, and flip-horizontal, resizing it. Here's about the same, however simplifying it, to where I just placed the grabbed stock image into the same document image as the dog. Hopefully it's easier to follow. 2025-06-09_03-06-06.mp4

Instead of Exporting your cut-out dog, just place the background image into the document image of your dog. 2025-06-06_22-48-00.mp4

I can confirm the crashing.

Some additional tidbits I just discovered thanks to this thread. If you Place an Image file into AP, and it is an Image Layer, AP does not see or read any Metadata. When you Rasterize an Image (layer) file, AP still does not see the Metadata. You have to open, or drag and drop, the image into AP for it to see the Metadata. Of course RAW files opened into the Develop Persona, then Developed into the Photo Persona, the Metadata is preserved.

As komatos stated, V2 Affinity apps do not require a license key. So you purchasing one raises a couple of questions. Are you using V1 Affinity apps? Where did you purchase the app(s)? Serif store, MS or Apple? If you're needing to reinstall, simply go to the store where you purchased, login, locate the record of your purchase. In Serif's store, there's a record of your Product Key, and you should be able to download the app. Where did you purchase the Product Key? If it's not from MicroSoft or Apple, the product key may not work. It might be some form of piracy. If so you've been duped. Why would you go outside Serif's store to purchase a product key? A Serif staff member might be able to check your purchased product key and tell if it's a legitimate one.

Welcome to the forums @MXXXXXS, I think this is the same bug as reported earlier

Designer would not crash for me, but did hang. Task Manager showed it was using %90 of my RAM. I also noted a huge PersonalBackstore.dat file, 64 GB. I may have added to this size by continuous "poking the bear" trying to get a crash.

The Studio Presets work for me with the Exception of the Tools bar. In my Dual Monitor preset, I have the Tools bar on my second monitor. Switching to another preset, for example the default setting, or where I'm not using my second monitor, the Tools bar does not return to it's docked/default position.

The keyboard modifier for the Hand tool is H.

This modifier is somewhat kludgy on Windows. (Actually it's downright asinine, since Windows uses the Right-mouse button for a menu). I have my top pen button set for using the modifier Alt + Click. This is still not very good, but the best I could find. You can just press and hold the Alt key while clicking with your pen to obtain the same result, which is changing from creating a Curve to Sharp node.

I can confirm this. Good Catch