Fantoga

They are aware and...now that Publisher is out the door...actively working to resolve these issues.

Hey Larry. We use Designer alongside Adobe suite. For precise logos and technical illustration, we use AI with Astute Graphics plugs to avoid the issues discussed in this thread. For more whimsical illustrations and for final finesse and layout I already prefer Designer, Photo and Publisher. The toolsets are so well integrated. Plus, Designer supports copy and paste from AI. Affinity suite is still at 1.x. These things take time, particularly for a smaller company with limited resources. Prioritizing Publisher will likely keep the lights on for the foreseeable future and let them focus on resolving these issues.

I doubt Publisher would be here and production-ready if all hands had not been on deck for development. Designer provides great value...but the Affinity suite as a whole is astonishingly cost effective for small businesses that rely on design software. I am eager for a few tools too but it is all well worth the wait.

Affinity image layers already behave like "smart objects" in that they don't lose resolution when scaling down. Which Adobe smart object feature are you missing most?

Strange. Works amazingly well here on 2 systems. Did have to start Designer and Photo up to get the link to work the first time. I'd Email support directly.

Open Designer. Open Photo. Open Publisher. In Publisher click the Photo link and then the Designer link to test.

Whatever the technical reasons for the limitation, such functionality is useful and, frankly, common in compositing programs. The lack of non-destructive FX and adjustments to image masks is IMO especially counterintuitive considering we can paint on and erase image masks with the Pixel persona brushes. The "Rasterize to Mask" workflow is cumbersome but certainly better than nothing.

Full discussion and test file related to the subject can be found at the link below. If I can help in any way let me know. Thanks for your consideration.

Is there any reason why an Alpha should not be composed of pixels? Alphas can be composed of pixels and non-destructively inverted, feathered, blurred etc. in Photoshop and other programs. This is a surprising limitation that diverges from the generally non-destructive nature of the Affinity line. It will not keep me from continuing to test and learn Affinity products but I hope they revisit this workflow...especially with Publisher on the horizon. This is something that should be resolved in the core code that affects the full suite IMO. Keeping an extra copy is a messy workaround for a variety of reasons. But thank you! I am just starting out and appreciate you taking the time to confirm that this is not user error after all.

So then how do we non-destructively blur (or add other FX or adjustments) an image mask? I have never used any compositor that did not allow this and am thinking there must be a way in AD or AP.

Test scene attached. Top hidden layer contains the simple test image for more convenient trouble-shooting. If you select the mask layer you can see an FX Blur is applied but has no influence. Am I doing something wrong here? Mask_Test.afdesign

Exact same settings here. It is not working in my tests here on Windows. Tiff image converted to a mask cannot be blurred or altered with any nondestructive FX or Adjustments. Vector items work fine. If I add the blur before converting to mask it works but then there is no way to tweak the blur. Can anyone on Windows confirm? Thanks.

Is there no way to nondestructively blur or feather an image mask in Designer or Photo?

Related. Can anyone confirm that, once an image is converted to a pixel mask with "Rasterize to Mask", we can no longer nondestructively add FX or Adjustments? Follow Method B outlined above then select the grunge layer and add a Gaussian Blur from FX. Same goes with adjustments Invert. Does not seem to work and seems it should. Again, I feel like I must be missing something.

Considering moving some projects over from AI & PS. Trying to distress some text using the method described by DWright. Can anyone please explain why Method A outlined below does not work? I feel I must be missing something...probably an obvious something. Method A (not working): 1) Placed a grunge image in a layer above the vector text 2) Right click and select "Mask to Below" 3) Fail. No masking is applied based on the grunge gray values BUT the text will be "Clipped" by the boundaries of the image Method B (working): 1) Placed a grunge image in a layer above the vector text 2) Right click and select "Mask to Below" 3) With the Mask layer still selected, go the menu: Layer > Rasterize to Mask 4) Success! Any input greatly appreciated. Thanks.