Ecifircas

We are pleased to make available the next update to the 2.1 beta (2.1.0.1730) This should now be available for you on auto-update.
Below are some of the main changes:
Dashed line / stroke panel improvements
The big new feature here is that you can now choose to set dashed lines to be "balanced", meaning spacing is automatically adjusted so cusps (e.g. corners of a rectangle) look correct. Additionally available dash lined patterns have been extended to 3 dashes and 3 gaps and there is a new "Clear arrow heads" button.
Running headers
You can now add running headers to your document in Publisher using the new running header field.
Adjusted mask behaviour
From customer feedback the drop down menu when hitting the mask button in layers panel has been removed, and logic for how the assistant determines if a mask should be added as a new layer or a child altered.
Some file management changes to iPad versions
New option to "Find in files" added to document burger menu iPadOS default Photos browser now used when opening a photo. Redesigned Edit menu on iPad
Taking on board various feedback regarding readability and loss of icons for Isometric options
Crop tool 
Problem with the hit area when dragging a corner has been fixed
Auto clean in paint mixer
Setting is now remembered
Special characters view in Designer and Photo
This has now now been added to the iPad versions of Designer and Photo
Additional select options added to iPad shortcuts / quick menu
Select next, previous, top and bottom now available in iPad shortcuts and quick menu
Brush Panel improvements
You can now optionally decide to turn the new auto scroll / switch category functionality when you change brush tool on or off
Auto-select
Auto-select is now it's own checkable toggle separate to the drop down options of selecting group or objects. Position of auto select options has moved to be after any context options based on selection Guides
Mouse wheel / arrow keys can now be used to nudge values that have focus in guides manager. Option to lock margin and spread original values added to guides manager dialog. Vector flood tool
Various changes to behind the scenes logic to try to do a better job at combining fills together.  A new scaling option of "None" when tool has a bitmap or gradient fill. Migrate your release version content to beta
A new option has been added to preferences in the desktop versions where you can transfer any content you have in your retail versions over to the beta versions at anytime.
 
Plus various bug fixes as listed in the fix list thread.
 

Below is the list of all new features and improvements included in the 2.1 beta. This new functionality is in addition to the many bug fixes and stability improvements in this version (currently 2.1.0.1790).
Depending on how the beta goes / how many issues there are to fix it's possible some more items will be added to this list before 2.1 is officially released - follow this topic if you want to be notified if that happens.

To learn more about these features please click on the link to go to each feature's dedicated post. To give feedback or report bugs against any of these features please reply to that same post (also check out bug reporting and feedback tips).
Features and improvements affecting all platforms
Balanced dashed lines and other stroke improvements (new in build 1730) Running headers in Affinity Publisher (new in build 1730) Show special characters added to Designer and Photo (added to iPad too in 1730) Adjusted Mask Behaviour (new in build 1730) Auto-select options in move tool (new in build 1713/1714) Square bracket stroke width adjustment expanded functionality Blend mode keyboard shortcuts Alt / Option - drag to duplicate in Layers panel Alt / Option click to expand / collapse all in Layers panel Crop tool improvements Auto clean added to paint mixer brush Paste inside picture frame Vector Flood Fill Guides improvements Vector warp nodes now obey snapping Brush panel improvements Raster perspective and mesh warp live filters added to Designer Search bar added to your add-ons (new in build 1713/1714) Analytics Windows and macOS features and improvements
WebP and JPEG XL now available in batch export (new in build 1736) Migrate retail version content and settings to beta version (new in build 1730) Cross references available in Affinity Publisher (this has now been pushed back to 2.2 as announced here) "Close All" added to File menu Asset panel reordering improvements Rename... added to Layer menu & tab behaviour Mask to below... added to Layer menu Measure tool now available in Photo and Publisher Place tool now available in Affinity Photo Drag / Drop bitmap fill to colour and swatch panel Zoom tool context options in Develop persona iPad features and improvements
New left swipe options on iPad layers panel (new in build 1736) Redesigned edit menu (new in build 1730) Some file management changes to iPad (new in build 1730) Style picker added to iPad apps (new in build 1713/1714) Drop down menus with checkable options no longer auto close New keyboard shortcut options added Reset rotation in navigator with double tap Pencil double tap option to open quick menu Long press geometry operation to create compound Tapping warp group thumbnail now selects node tool PDF options now exposed when opening Modifiers now available for Select Object Hide Layer type icon now available Main view rulers added  
If you have not enrolled into the beta program yet and would like to take part, you can do so here. This will immediately give you access to the latest 2.1 beta builds to try for yourself.

Hi All,
We're happy to make the second build of the 2.1 beta available today - 2.1.0.1709. This should now be available for you on auto update.
Here's some of the main changes in this build:
Guides
Had a lot of great feedback on guides - thank you. In this build we have:
Added Alt-Click to delete a guide Made Alt-Shift while dragging snap to delta. We had already made holding shift snap to ruler units from page origin. What this new option gives is if you have a guide placed at, say, 35.3mm from the page origin and you want to move it 10mm - you can now drag while holding Alt-Shift to snap to that difference. Of course this also works if you have alt or cmd dragged a duplicate of the guide If guides are currently set to not visible, then dragging out a new guide from ruler (or moving an existing guide from indicator on ruler) will automatically turn guide visibility on in all OSs Crop Tool
Enter as well as return now commits a crop Escape now resets the crop Brush Panel
Generally tightened panel up somewhat so less vertical space was being used. Brush names if you have chosen to show them are now justified to left Light UI should now hopefully look correct Modifying a brush using drag shortcuts (e.g. ctrl+alt+click drag left and right) keeps brush selection in panel (and shown as modified as appropriate). Raster mesh and perspective live filters in pixel persona
Now added correctly in Windows version so the live versions of these filters are available Have now added to pixel persona in the iPad version of Designer. You will have two new options under the + button in Layers panel where you can choose to add either of these live filter layers. Vector flood fill
New icon has been added for tool to distinguish between the raster flood fill tool in Affinity Photo When you are in tool you can now drag and drop swatches directly from the swatches panel into any area the fill tool recognises from your selection If you are in "In Between" mode the additional shapes / fills which are created are automatically added to your selection so if you subsequently change the fill of them again additional shapes are not created. Bitmap fills are now supported. This means you can pick a bitmap fill swatch from swatches to use as your fill colour (or drag and drop a bitmap fill swatch into the appropriate area). Few notes on this: Currently if the bitmap fill has transparency this will be added as an additional fill (in appearance panel), so can be added as a texture over an existing colour fill. It's a cool feature, but we probably need to add a modifier / option in context toolbar about whether you want that to do that vs. replace the fill altogether.  You will notice in the context toolbar some new options for min, max and stretch to fit. These options are only relevant for bitmap and gradient fills and determines how the gradient or bitmap are scaled within the new fill being created.  A nice thing to try is when you are in fill tool you can drag from assets into your active colour on the toolbar to automatically create a bitmap fill to use - as shown in the video below.   Texture Fills.mov  
Blend mode shortcuts
Erase bend mode now available to configure on macOS and iPad Ordering of blend mode list and default keys should now be consistent between operating systems Close All
Apply to all check box now been added to macOS dialog if you have currently open unsaved / modified documents.
Various bug fixes
Of course there are also various bug fixes - you can find the list of these on the second post in the fix list thread.
Thanks again for all your help.
Ash
 

Hi! I tried importing an .ase  as programm or document color palette. It does create a palette in the list called "Navigator Exported Colours", but when i choose that palette only one color of it comes up.

Can somebody help me?
 
Thanks

Hello,
Designer crashes every time when I try to open Resource Manager for a specific file.
I can upload the file if you provide the upload link.
Log in attachments.
affinity-crash-log.txt

I agree, I'm working on a document which is over 150 pages, clicking and dragging is not an ideal solution imagine dragging 7 pages from page 125 to page 3, there should be a way to just select "move after x page " or "move after x page" dialog, I'd like to see this feature and perhaps testing the software with large projects in mind. 

It would be very nice if you could collapse all layers at once in the layers panel. Layers become very difficult to work with when you have many of them since selecting objects expands the parent layer, so you have to scroll back up and manually collapse them yourself.
Perhaps you could have it so that layers are only expanded for as long as the item within it is selected? That way, after deselecting an object, the layer expansion goes back to its previous state, which is ether expanded or collapsed. Am I making any sense?

I agree being able to collapse all layers and groups would be a useful feature. However I think it would get annoying if layers were popping opened and closed as you are selecting things. 

I usually disable the "Show Selection in Layers Panel" option in the User Interface section under Preferences when I don't want to deal with many many layers and groups in the layer panel. 
If I then want to find a selected object I can just right click and "Find in Layers Panel"

Hello all, we're proud to announce that alongside the V2 launch of the Affinity apps, we've produced a completely new set of video tutorials to compliment the apps. These tutorials are all produced in-house by our Product Experts team.
We've worked incredibly hard on these videos, and feel they represent a huge jump in both technical and presentational quality. Hopefully you all agree! The old V1 videos—now considered legacy—are still available on YouTube, consolidated into one playlist. The link for this playlist is available at the bottom of this post.
Hope you all find the new tutorials useful!
What's New (Overview of V2)
What's New in Affinity Designer 2 What's New in V2 for iPad Basics
Interface Overview (New: 22/03/24) Transforming Layers Adjustment Layers Layer Effects Placing and Scaling Images Colour Panel Undo, Redo and Undo History Copy, Paste and Duplicate Blend Modes Assets Navigator Panel View Modes Styles Panel Clipping and Masking Aligning, Distributing and Unifying Objects (New: 28/02/24) Advanced
Expand Stroke Artboards DWG/DXF Import & Export (Updated: 28/02/24) Placed Layer Visibility Stock Panel Ruler and Column Guides Style Picker Symbols Pixel Grid Layer States (New: 28/02/24) Vector Tools
Stroke Panel Vector Warp Vector Flood Fill Pen Tool and Node Tool Shape Builder Knife and Scissor Tools Pencil Tool Corner Tool Shape Tools Artistic & Frame Text Tools Booleans and Compounds Data Entry Spiral Tool Raster Tools
Flood Fill Tool Smudge Brush Tool Paint Brush and Erase Brush Tools Symmetry and Mirroring Live Perspective & Mesh Warp Text Tools
Text on a Path Workflows & Techniques
Vector Flood Fill with Bitmap Patterns Vector Mandalas  
iPad Tutorials
Exporting Layers Panel Navigator Panel Assets Shape Builder Vector Flood Fill Tool Smudge Brush Tool Symmetry and Mirroring Pen & Node Tools Paint Brush & Erase Brush Tools Knife & Scissor Tools Pencil Tool Command Controller Rulers and Column Guides Style Picker  
Legacy V1 Tutorials
Desktop iPad

Hi @JacekSwierczek,
I have done some further testing.
AutoCAD does open the drawing with the model's units set to unitless (not mm). This is expected.
Illustrator imports the drawing with the units set to pts.
From your posts above, it sounds like Inkscape and and CorelDRAW default to mm.
To remove any further confusion, I have added a units combo to the import options when importing the model, to simulate the AutoDesk application setting described above.  It is not present for paper space layouts (the "pages" in the import option) because they can only be in inches, mm or pixels, and shouldn't be overridden.
The change will be available in the next update.

will affinity designer 2 add DWG export? 
Ive noticed the DWG import feature.  which is nice. but DWG export would be a game changer for many out there.  
the ability to design in affinity designer 2 and export DWG would be huge.  then I could easily import that into Shapr 3d app on my ipad. and extrude and use those designs in a 3d context.  please make this feature available soon. or an alternative that would allow direct import into Shapr 3d.   thanks

Hi Designer 2 Users, 
I have a .dwg file created in 2020 that opens properly in DWG TrueView 2023, but Designer 2 just hangs forever trying to open it. Some other .dwgs that I have open properly in Designer 2, but many just hang with the status reading Loading document 1 and nothing happens other than the cooling fan spinning-up to high speed. 
Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks in advance. 
Kevin

The same here. People so outraged by the lack of features should start developing them themselves.
Paolo
 

I don't support the tone voiced by the OP, but I do like to have DXF export too.

I was trying to import DWG files exported from Rhino 7, with export settings set to the AutoCAD R14 Version, but when I try to import the files into Designer they are greyed out in the iPadOS file browser that comes up after long-pressing the New Document button>Import Document. I’ve reexported from AutoCAD itself, from Rhino in R12, and in both DWG and DXF but it seems as though Designer doesn’t even read them as compatible to import at all. Dragging from the Files app in slide-over and trying to place instead yields the same inaction, so this may be a case of where they didn’t tell iPadOS that it was possible to import DWG/DXF? I was under the impression it was an error on my side but after little resolution on my last post on the Questions board I am led to believe this is just a bug. I’ve attached an image of the described issue here, if anyone else is having this issue or if you have files that are working feel free to comment below!

Hi @Ivan C,
The fix has gone in for beta testing.  If there are no issues found, it will be available in the next update.  Your imported file now looks like this:

Hi @Dampsquid,
I've taken a look and the problem stems from a dodgy linetype.  I'm guessing it's present in all files from the same project, which is why they've all been misbehaving.  I've fixed the problem this causes in Designer and the fix will be present in the next update.
Once you've got an updated version, you may want to turn on the Hairline view mode when you import the file.  With it disabled, we render lines with the correct line weight, which is often sub-mm in thickness.  Your model is quite big, so having a zoom level where it fits on the screen means your lines will be very thin / invisible.  Enabling Hairline mode will render them the same as Autocad and you will see them regardless of zoom level.  Alternatively you could enable "Fit model to page" and/or "Override line weights" when importing.

Hi All,
Well, it’s been a pretty crazy week since the launch of V2!
This has been a real labour of love for us over the last year or so, and I can’t even begin to describe how hard the development team have worked on it. Not only getting the V2 apps launched, but also of course finally bringing Publisher to iPad. 
With this being our first paid-for upgrade there has understandably been a lot of feedback / questions around future updates and our pricing policies. I thought it was worth addressing / clarifying our position on some of these personally...
Updates to V2 moving forward
Buying V2 not only gets you all the new features you have seen, but we have various updates planned – including many more new features and improvements – which you will get for free. This will continue until such a time that V3 is released. We’re not sure exactly when V3 will be, but I can confirm we are not going to move to anything as regular as an annual upgrade cycle as has been speculated.
It’s worth saying too that V2 does include many under-the-hood changes to our underlying technology, and we have also been investing in several new areas of research recently. Some of these haven’t manifested themselves into new features yet, but overall V2 does give us a better platform to develop on moving forward and I’m sure you will be pleased with the updates V2 will receive.
Updates to V1 moving forward
While we did say on the FAQ that V1 would no longer receive any updates, I want to clarify that was about new feature updates. We will be updating V1 to fix any critical problems caused by operating system updates in the future. So if the next version of macOS breaks V1 we will endeavour to fix it. There will be a point in time when continuing to maintain V1 in this way will not be tenable, but certainly for the foreseeable future we will continue to patch. In fact, we have an update to V1 queued up for release very shortly with some fixes for Ventura and issues caused by a recent Windows security / quality update. 
We will update our FAQ shortly to make that clearer for everyone.
Offer period
In case you didn’t see, I’m pleased to confirm we have decided to run this initial launch offer until 14th December to give everyone the best chance possible to get it if they wish / have a decent amount of time to trial it. 
Upgrade pricing
It’s been really hard to see some of the comments about us not looking after our existing customers – we’re pretty devasted that anyone feels like that to be honest. But the fact is we felt our hands were tied somewhat with being able to offer upgrade pricing in a fair way. The main reason for this was App Store customers (which make up around 35% of our userbase). The problems with that are two-fold: firstly, we didn’t have a way from within V1 to validate an App Store purchase receipt to reliably ensure customers who were entitled to an upgrade could get one; and secondly, we could not find a good way for people to get that discount via the App Store. Us pushing upgrade customers to go exclusively via our own site (including customers who were previously acquired via the app stores) may also have put us in violation of App Store Ts & Cs which we were obviously concerned about.
I’m not saying that these issues were completely insurmountable, but any solutions we came up with would be messy, and most importantly could have resulted in some bona fide V1 customers struggling to get validated and claim their discount. We certainly don’t have the support resource here if we ended up needing to manually validate tens of thousands of receipts for example.
The only option we felt was safe to move forward with was a general launch offer, which would guarantee that every V1 customer could get the discount, whether they purchased directly through us or the App Stores. We knew a side effect of that would mean some new customers would end up receiving that same discount – but we felt that was a better option than V1 customers missing out. It’s also worth saying that while there has been some good press about V2, all our main marketing has been via email and through social media to our followers. In other words, we felt ok about it because we knew the vast majority of people who would find out about it or take advantage of the offer would be existing customers. I would be surprised if over the offer period customers upgrading from V1 didn’t make up more than 90% of our sales.
Overall I do believe us giving a 40% discount, along with the addition of the new Universal Licence of course, is offering fantastic value for money for those who want to upgrade. 
However, taking on board some of the feedback there is something extra we can do – we will offer a new free bundle of content exclusively for V1 customers upgrading to V2 as an extra thank you for your support. I’ve seen this suggested by a number of customers and it’s a great idea as it does remove the App Store conflict entirely. 
We’ll need a little time to put something together, but all customers who previously registered or purchased V1 and have since upgraded to V2 will receive a voucher code for this via email as soon as we can.
A comment on no subscription
I do want to say that some of the points above are exactly the reason why software companies move to subscription. Whatever you do with upgrade pricing, you still have the issue of customers who bought the previous version 3 months ago vs. those who have had it 2+ years. Offering perpetual licences also gives the additional overhead of needing to maintain the previous version longer than you would if everyone was on subscription / generally always on the latest version.
We are a small team so some of these complications are not ideal — all we really want to do is focus on developing our latest codebase, push out regular updates and continue with our mission to make great creative software accessible to everyone. 
But it does need to be funded somehow. We know you love our no-subscription model, but there also needs to be a level of appreciation that the alternative is having paid-for upgrades from time to time. That unfortunately comes with its own problems.
All of that said, I have to say we have been blown away with the response to V2 - around 3 times as many people have upgraded in the last week than we expected - and we really can't thank you enough for the support you have shown. More than anything the success of this upgrade puts us in a great place to continue investing heavily in development which is ultimately what it's all about, and we’re super excited to crack on with some great updates coming next year!
All the best,
Ash
This is a duplicate post of a thread that is now locked and moved to the questions forum

As shown in the comparison images, the old interface looked a bit outdated. The new interface seems to me much more sober and more visible. Of course, it requires a [short] learning curve.

I hate the new UI and icons - like something from a 1980's kids game based on a MSDos application - a real step backwards if you ask me.
Also miffed that Separated view mode appears to be gone.

This portion reads clearer, imo, from the Layers panel. They grab attention in an appropriate way. Though somehow the icons read taller. That might be bothersome for some.
 

vs


 
Top toolbar is fine. The Persona icons are even fine, but they're not as easily recognizeable and might be subjective. I think just takes getting used to. They look more cohesive with each other though.

Main toolbar is the one that is less cohesive and has a lot going on. Most of the problems go away with monochromatic, but I prefer the color actually because there's more variance.

Contour & Corner Tool stand out like a sore thumb.

I like the new icons because they are more vibrant and colorful. But they still are in the new flat design way that f* up the entire UI and I understand your point of view.
v1 made me think I was using a robust app :
While v2 make me feel I'm using a badly designed app with no Human Interface in mind. I don't know, that's the flat design that gives me the creeps...
 
 

I have to agree, I'm not a fan. Personally, I also dislike the new icons' aesthetic (the tool icons especially feel very childish and cheap to me), but that's entirely subjective. However, I also find certain things looking a lot less clear. For example, dropdowns stand out less, and what used to be a visibility checkmark is now a dot. Even an eye icon would have been better there.
I will admit, this is based purely on screenshots and video; I haven't purchased V2 yet, but just throwing in my $0.02 so far.

Hi. I was excited by v2.0 but I really don't like the new UI design. The flat design feels like a multiplatform wobbly app that the Adobe suite had become...
I felt like the v1.0 UI design felt more robust.
What do you think?

Affinity Website today.
 
Now if you can't buy ver 1 today does that mean you can buy ver 2 tomorrow?