Frankentoon

Hello there,
As much as I'm loving the new Brush Editor features, there's a bug that's been around since the current stable Designer and Photo versions. I've reported it a couple of times already and I hope this issue gets addressed, because it really ruins the experience when using advanced features from the brush panel.
When you add the Wet Edges option to a brush (from the editor), this option gets deactivated or non-recognized back when switching tools using the brush command key (B) and many times, when selecting the brush manually from the brushes panel. Let's say I need to erase something; I switch to the Eraser using (E), then I want to go back to my brush using (B) and when I do that, Wet Edges are switched off automatically, unless I double-select that brush... then, Wet Edges are back on. It totally ignores the stored brush settings.
This affects dramatically the way brushes were originally designed.

 

 
 Thank you!
 
 

Hello there,
As much as I'm loving the new Brush Editor features, there's a bug that's been around since the current stable Designer and Photo versions. I've reported it a couple of times already and I hope this issue gets addressed, because it really ruins the experience when using advanced features from the brush panel.
When you add the Wet Edges option to a brush (from the editor), this option gets deactivated or non-recognized back when switching tools using the brush command key (B) and many times, when selecting the brush manually from the brushes panel. Let's say I need to erase something; I switch to the Eraser using (E), then I want to go back to my brush using (B) and when I do that, Wet Edges are switched off automatically, unless I double-select that brush... then, Wet Edges are back on. It totally ignores the stored brush settings.
This affects dramatically the way brushes were originally designed.

 

 
 Thank you!
 
 

Hello guys!
 
Just wanted to let you know that today I've released a FREE eBook for Affinity Designer: Creating a Stylish Jungle Scene
 
For $0.00 you'll get:
22 Pages PDF eBook FREE Assets Library  Color Palette Original .afdesign file  Click on the image to subscribe and get your download link. If you don't want to receive further emails from Frankentoon, just un-subscribe after downloading the eBook, no hard feelings :)
 
Enjoy!
 

Hello guys!
 
Just wanted to let you know that today I've released a FREE eBook for Affinity Designer: Creating a Stylish Jungle Scene
 
For $0.00 you'll get:
22 Pages PDF eBook FREE Assets Library  Color Palette Original .afdesign file  Click on the image to subscribe and get your download link. If you don't want to receive further emails from Frankentoon, just un-subscribe after downloading the eBook, no hard feelings :)
 
Enjoy!
 

Hello there! I can confirm the app gets unbearably unstable (freezing, unable to zoom/move) when using specifically the Clone Tool too much. I mean, if you’re just going to clone certain part of a photo, it makes no difference; but, if you’re doing some serious cloning for more than 5-10 minutes, the app just freezes and prevents you from selecting other tools. It also affects panning and zooming using gestures.
It happens 95% of the times to me. I’m using a 12” iPad Pro 2018.
- Enrique 

Oh, silly me, haven't seen the updates

I'm getting this pop up in Publisher saying Designer and Photo aren't installed for the link up. They are both installed and both are the 1.7 versions, not betas.
What's the workaround for this?

Hello everybody!
 
I just wanted to let you know that FX Monkey's second free pack for Affinity Photo is out! Faux 96: 8 Color presets and 4 Overlay Textures. Click the image below for more info (the website looks pretty cool though, so check it out! It has some hints on whats coming next too...ohh)
 
P.S.: The previous Monkey Pack - Faux 77 is no longer available for download. A thousand thanks to all the people who grabbed a copy! Faux 77 was a teaser for a soon to come premium Monkey Pack: Faux 77 pro (more than 20 macros + Textures), so get your hands on Faux 96 while it's still available :)
 
Enjoy guys!
 

 
 

Hi! Sorry for the delayed reply. As Madame points out, this was offered as a free pack back in 2017, to FX Monkey email subscribers. Now this pack it's $2.99 USD. You can find it at the FX Monkey Store.
However, we're offering a new eBook/Macros combo for free, if you subscribe to the FX Monkey mailing list (you can opt out immediately after getting the free files if you wish): FX Monkey 
You'll find the subscription form at the bottom of the page.
 
Cheers,
Enrique

Hi! Sorry for the delayed reply. As Madame points out, this was offered as a free pack back in 2017, to FX Monkey email subscribers. Now this pack it's $2.99 USD. You can find it at the FX Monkey Store.
However, we're offering a new eBook/Macros combo for free, if you subscribe to the FX Monkey mailing list (you can opt out immediately after getting the free files if you wish): FX Monkey 
You'll find the subscription form at the bottom of the page.
 
Cheers,
Enrique

The offer is ended. 
It's now $ 2.99.

https://www.thefxmonkey.com/product-page/faux-96-macro-pack-for-affinity-photo

Was about to post a serious drawing lag using my Wacom tablet, but apparently has now been fixed on this release. You're on fire! 

Was about to post a serious drawing lag using my Wacom tablet, but apparently has now been fixed on this release. You're on fire! 

Was about to post a serious drawing lag using my Wacom tablet, but apparently has now been fixed on this release. You're on fire! 

Was about to post a serious drawing lag using my Wacom tablet, but apparently has now been fixed on this release. You're on fire! 

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download DMG: Download
Auto-update: Available.
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the latest beta of Affinity Photo 1.7 for macOS.
Photo 1.7 is a (very) significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version, so, as ever, I would strongly urge users to avoid the 1.7 beta for critical work. This is a pre-release build of 1.7 - we will release more builds before 1.7 ships. Things will be broken in this build - please use it to explore the new features and not for real work.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7. To be notified when there is a new beta please press follow on this announcment thread
With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.
Many thanks (as always),
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes This Build
 
- General Metal performance improvements on discreet GPUs.
- Added an option to Tone Mapping to clamp to SDR values.
- Further metadata mining improvements.
- Fixed some EDR clamping bugs.
- Improved accuracy of LAB colour sliders.
- Improved EDR headroom / maximum readout.
- Improved Metal compute performance on complicated documents.
- Inserting fill stops in 32bit documents now correctly interpolates intensity.
- Added preferences option to allow automatic enabling of EDR in 32bit views.
- Fixed lighting filter in 32bit documents.
- Improved colour picking in 32bit documents.
- Stock panel improvements.
- Fixed Core Image RAW crash on older version of macOS.
- Support TIFF files with old-style JPEG compression.
- Fixed channels preview when Metal is enabled.
- Improve rendering performance with multi-GPU systems containing a mixture of integrated and discreet GPUs.
- Fixed missing macro arguments on recorded adjustment commands.
- Fixed occasional flickering when using Metal view.
- Fixed crop tool “Reveal” mode.
- Fixed numerous masking issues.
- Assorted other small fixes.
- Localisation improvements. 
- Help improvements.
 
Changes Since 1.6 Release
 
EDR
- Added support for EDR displays to Photo. When editing a 32bit document, enabling EDR will switch macOS into a mode whereby it will increase the backlight intensity and darken screen content - increasing the dynamic range available when rendering content.
Performance
- The core processing engine in Affinity Photo has been rewritten to take advantage of the powerful discrete AMD GPUs in modern Mac hardware. It will now automatically use any compatible discrete GPU, alongside the Intel GPU support present in 1.6. Typically this improves compositing / editing performance by at least 1000%. Performance when using integrated Intel GPUs has also been massively improved.
- External GPUs (eGPU) are also supported - including hot-plug-and-unplug support.
- Multiple GPUs are supported - if you have more than 1 GPU (ie. Intel + AMD in MacBook Pro, or Intel + eGPU in other Macs) Photo will use them all, at the same time, to improve performance. There is no limit to the number of GPUs which can be used.
Brushes
- Photo 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time. Each sub-brush has a fully separate and customisable set of dynamics. You can control when the sub-brushes are drawn and how they blend with the main brush.
- The brush engine in Photo has been rewritten to use the new GPU architecture described above. With GPU support, even huge brushes with 1% spacing will perform well. All brushes / brush tools are accelerated.
- Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring. We have more symmetry features on the way - so stay tuned during the beta process.
- Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance.
- Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control.
- All brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request.
- Allow Ctrl key to be held when typing numbers in a brush tool (will change flow instead of opacity).
RAW
- The RAW processing engine in Photo has been rewritten - producing better results and improved performance. It also takes advantage of the GPU architecture changes described above.
- RAW files now load much more quickly - especially if you have a compatible GPU.
- Reimplemented support for XTrans sensors.
- The denoise algorithm has been rewritten. It produces better results and takes advantage of the new GPU architecture.
- Hot pixel removal is now automatically performed by the Serif Labs engine.
- Profiled lens correction are more stable, apply more quickly, and can be toggled in the Develop UI.
- The histogram in the Develop persona is now presented in the output colour space - as opposed to always being linear.
- Develop now respects the output profile when previewing.
- Added support for CR3 RAW when using the Core Image engine.
- Show which autofocus rectangles were in focus and which were selected by the camera (yellow, green respectively).
- A large number of new cameras are supported for RAW development (we will provide a list of the new supported cameras as soon as possible!).
- Automatically fall back to Core Image for cameras which are not supported by Serif Labs.
Filters
- New “Procedural Texture” filter with advanced presets support.
- New “Voronoi” filter.
- Denoise, Clarity and Shadows / Highlights filters have been rewritten (using technology from the Develop Persona).
- More filters are now available as Live Filters - including the new Procedural Texture filter.
- Live filters have been rewritten to improve performance - especially when multiple filters are used in a document.
- Improved Polar to Rectangular and Rectangular to Polar filters.
- Added round dot type to the halftone filter.
- Bilateral blur accuracy improvements.
Adjustments
- The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls.
- The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request.
- The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved.
- The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider.
Layers
- Layers page - added option for transparent background for thumbnails.
- Layers page - added multiple thumbnail size options.
- Layers page - added ability to tag layers with a colour - including PSD round-trip.
- Allow adding an empty group from the Layer menu.
- New “Duplicate Selection” item in Layer menu (old behaviour). Duplicate now duplicate the whole layer ignoring pixel selection.
- Alt / Option is now used to make a pixel selection from layer luminance. You can now also hold shift to add the result to the current selection.
- Hide / Show / Show All Layers options in layers menu.
- Ability to either rasterise or rasterise and trim a layer. Previously recorded macros will trim.
 
Selections
- Significant improvements to selection refinement.
- When using selection tools with no pixel selection, default to New / Add as appropriate.
- Added “Alpha Similarity” to Select Sampled Colour tool.
Tools
- Grouped tool shortcuts now default to needing the shift key held to cycle (option in preferences).
- The Crop tool has been rewritten - it now supports resolution changes, absolute pixel size and has a much improved preset mechanism.
- The Sponge Brush tool now gives more correct / pleasant results.
- Allow brush rotate / size key changes while dragging.
- Added a “Reveal Canvas” checkbox to the crop tool - defaults to off.
- Added new “Transform object separately” mode into Move tool.
- A general tools overhaul has been performed - providing editing of grids, guides, page origin, across multiple tools (not just in the Move tool)
- Patch tool now supports arrow keys for rotate / scale.
- All brush tools can now be axis constrained once brush has started - not just the pixel tool.
History
- “Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Photo will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done.
- The History page now has an “advanced” mode - which shows thumbnails and time info.
I/O
- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Photo. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed.
- TIFF export now has user selectable compression method.
- Added support for 12bit TIFF files.
- Introduced new metadata mining - completely rewritten to improve performance, flexibility and correctness.
- Metadata is now dynamically synchronised with your document - so if you resize then export, the values will be correct.
- Added Focal Length to metadata summary view.
- Added a button in general preferences to open a folder from which Photo will read LensFun-style XML files - if users wish to add / experiment with their own lens profiles.
- Support 16bit CMYK TIFF import.
General
- New ability to control how macros are scaled / aligned when playing back.
- Added an “Assets” panel to Photo.
- New cube setup mode for grids.
- Add “Fill with Primary / Secondary” to the Edit menu for fast access.
- The batch process dialog now fully supports expressions for height and width - available constants are “w”, “h” and “dpi”.
- “Lock guides” added to menus.
- Support for drag dropping .afstyles into Photo.
- Support for drag dropping .afpalette into Photo.
- Photo now supports custom document presets - a popular feature request.
- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.
- New “Move inside / outside” commands have been added - useful for quick operations on clipping masks etc.
- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.
- New provider options have been added to the stock panel - support for Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay. All of these providers offer full-resolution stock imagery which is free to use.
- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features.
- Significant stability improvements when working on non-local files (network shares, USB drives, etc.).
- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.
 - Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list!

Apparently this is more difficult to sort out than expected. Hopefully Matt and the guys look up on this, since it's really defeating the purpose of having such a great feature as custom wet edges. 

Apparently this is more difficult to sort out than expected. Hopefully Matt and the guys look up on this, since it's really defeating the purpose of having such a great feature as custom wet edges. 

Yes, this has been around for a long time, very annoying. I also reported it here: 
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/81651-improvements-to-raster-brusheraser/&tab=comments#comment-430509
Sadly I have had no response from the raster brush developers, but this really needs to be fixed!

Hey Frankentoon,
I myself an a little unsure of why this happens. I did log it with the developers a while back and I'm waiting to hear back from some new queries that I've just submitted with them.
If you enable 'Wet Edges' on the context toolbar, this should be retained when switching tools—I'm just not sure why changing the setting in the brush editor doesn't currently do this when the Help describes this as the default behaviour for that brush.

Hello there!
I want to share with you our latest tutorial for Affinity Designer: Emulating Retro Graphics.

Click on the image above or follow THIS LINK to read it. Hope you like it guys!
- Enrique

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Here
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the beta of Affinity Designer 1.7 for macOS.
Designer 1.7 is a significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version. Files edited in this version will not be backwards-compatible with the shipping 1.6 version. As such, we would not recommend using this 1.7 version for critical or production work at this stage. It is inevitable that there were will be a number of issues with 1.7 but we hope these will be minor and aim to resolve any issues very quickly, so please use it and explore the new features, but also do keep in mind that you may find snags and we would appreciate your help with finding and reporting these to us.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7.
With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this initial release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.
Many thanks,
Matt
 
Affinity Designer 1.7 - Changes since last Beta release
- New program and document icons.
- New 'Cube' grid setup mode (take a look in 'View' -> 'Grid and Axis Manager...').
- Sub-brush editing fixes and improvements.
- HSL adjustment UI fixes.
- TIFF import/export improvements.
- Fix for loading very large JPEGs
- Fix for rendering issue with edit controls on the context toolbar.
- Fix for default artboard names sometimes causing sub-folders to be created in Export Persona output.
- Memory management tweaks.
- Fix for sporadic OpenGL issues (black squares appearing at random).
- Rotation of brush tips using keyboard modifiers can now occur during drag.
- PDF export improvements.
- Fill Tool is now plane-aware and generates initial fill handles appropriate for the current plane.
- UI gamma change now functions correctly on Mojave.
- Font list tweaks.
- 'Create artboard' option in New Document dialog should be initialised correctly now.
- Vector brushes now allow for non-pixel-aligned head/tail offsets when dragging (just hold Alt/Option to avoid pixel-snapping).
- Symbol fixes.
- Pen and Node Tool improvements.
- EPS import improvements.

Affinity Designer 1.7 - Changes Since Last 1.6 Release
Tools
- We've overhauled most of the core tools, adding subtle new features to make you more productive:
   - Node tool has a new 'Transform Mode' which provides a containing box for the selected nodes and allows for more freeform editing of the nodes.
   - Node and Pen tools have an utterly amazing Construction mode which gives easy access to common construction features to help you build complicated shapes or intersections accurately and easily, giving you simple access to parallels, right angles, reflected and mirrored angles, in addition to circular construction snaps and all construction intersections. This really needs a video to show how to use it - but it's awesome.
   - Pen tool now has a 'rubber band' mode and also a mode to allow future curves to be added to the current object's curves (for example, the character 'a' is constructed of two curves in a single 'curve object' and this mode makes that construction simpler).
   - Node tool can now auto-snap nodes if you drag a node from one curve over the top of a node from another (selected) curve and pause, it will offer to snap to the same geometry as the node you're hovering over (ie,  modify the on and off-curve nodes to match). This is really useful for trying to reconstruct areas of one curve from another curve.
   - Node tool now allows for lasso selection of nodes by holding the Alt/Option key and dragging a selection lasso.
   - Pencil tool now offers a 'sculpt' mode that allows for extending or manipulating curves in a more natural way. More to come in this area soon.
   - Many tools now allow for 'Alignment widgets' which you can toggle the visibility of in the context toolbar. When enabled you can visually adjust the alignment or even, for example, 'align to centre, snapped to the left edge of this object' by simply click/dragging.
   - Fill tool correctly allows editing of skewed fill handles and newly-created skewed fills draw much nicer now.
   - Ruler origin can be edited by simply dragging the area where the rulers intersect each other - it can even be snapped onto objects in the document.
   - Guides can be edited in most tools by simply dragging a guide in the ruler area.
   - Grid setup is now more interactive: origin can be dragged, axis scale adjusted and angle adjusted on-document, complete with snapping to objects and angles in the document to help you reconstruct useful grids from finished artworks or sketches.
   - By enabling 'Edit in Plane' on the new Isometric Studio, tools can edit objects and appear to make those edits along the currently active plane - extremely useful for artists who enjoy working with any axonometric projections.
   - You can now drag the rotation centre point (when enabled on the context toolbar) while holding Ctrl and it will translate the object - this is actually very useful for positioning and snapping objects relative to others.
   - Shapes tools now have presets so you can create your own favourite shape setups and more easily use them again.
   - There are just far too many subtle tool changes to mention here, but hopefully you'll find the tools much improved 
 
General
- New brushes, styles and assets are now shipped with the product.
- Visible bleed (accessed from the View menu) so you can more easily design into the bleed area - a common feature request.
- “Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Designer will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done.
- New 'Isometric' Studio makes it easy to setup and work with various axonometric projections within the application.
- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Designer. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed.
- Designer now supports custom document presets - a popular feature request.
- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.
- New “Move inside / outside” commands have been added - useful for quickly clipping/unclipping.
- New "Merge curves/Separate curves" commands.
- Grids now have an editable number of angle subdivisions.
- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.
- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features such as bullets and numbering.
- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.
- Fix for occasional crash when using Construction points
- Improved Freehand import slightly - failing to read all of a file shouldn't force it to produce a 'failed to load' response, instead we just load the bits that we *could* read
- Fix for very poorly named Styles (oops)
- New splash screen and Persona icons
 
Brushes
- Designer 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time. Each sub-brush has a fully separate and customisable set of dynamics. You can control when the sub-brushes are drawn and how they blend with the main brush.
- Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring.
- Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance.
- Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control.
- All pixel brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request.

Adjustments
- The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls.
- The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request.
- The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved.
- The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider.

 
Misc
- Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list!

Hello there!
I want to share with you our latest tutorial for Affinity Designer: Emulating Retro Graphics.

Click on the image above or follow THIS LINK to read it. Hope you like it guys!
- Enrique

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Here
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the beta of Affinity Designer 1.7 for macOS.
Designer 1.7 is a significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version. Files edited in this version will not be backwards-compatible with the shipping 1.6 version. As such, we would not recommend using this 1.7 version for critical or production work at this stage. It is inevitable that there were will be a number of issues with 1.7 but we hope these will be minor and aim to resolve any issues very quickly, so please use it and explore the new features, but also do keep in mind that you may find snags and we would appreciate your help with finding and reporting these to us.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7.
With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this initial release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.
Many thanks,
Matt
 
Affinity Designer 1.7 - Changes since last Beta release
- Fix for crash in Export dialog when only one Artboard is present
- Fix for occasional crash when using Construction points
- Improved Freehand import slightly - failing to read all of a file shouldn't force it to produce a 'failed to load' response, instead we just load the bits that we *could* read
- Improvements to HSL adjustment
- PDF import and export improvements
- Fix for very poorly named Styles (oops)
- Sub-brush editing improvements
- New splash screen and Persona icons
 

Affinity Designer 1.7 - Changes Since Last 1.6 Release
 
Tools
- We've overhauled most of the core tools, adding subtle new features to make you more productive:
   - Node tool has a new 'Transform Mode' which provides a containing box for the selected nodes and allows for more freeform editing of the nodes.
   - Node and Pen tools have an utterly amazing Construction mode which gives easy access to common construction features to help you build complicated shapes or intersections accurately and easily, giving you simple access to parallels, right angles, reflected and mirrored angles, in addition to circular construction snaps and all construction intersections. This really needs a video to show how to use it - but it's awesome.
   - Pen tool now has a 'rubber band' mode and also a mode to allow future curves to be added to the current object's curves (for example, the character 'a' is constructed of two curves in a single 'curve object' and this mode makes that construction simpler).
   - Node tool can now auto-snap nodes if you drag a node from one curve over the top of a node from another (selected) curve and pause, it will offer to snap to the same geometry as the node you're hovering over (ie,  modify the on and off-curve nodes to match). This is really useful for trying to reconstruct areas of one curve from another curve.
   - Node tool now allows for lasso selection of nodes by holding the Alt/Option key and dragging a selection lasso.
   - Pencil tool now offers a 'sculpt' mode that allows for extending or manipulating curves in a more natural way. More to come in this area soon.
   - Many tools now allow for 'Alignment widgets' which you can toggle the visibility of in the context toolbar. When enabled you can visually adjust the alignment or even, for example, 'align to centre, snapped to the left edge of this object' by simply click/dragging.
   - Fill tool correctly allows editing of skewed fill handles and newly-created skewed fills draw much nicer now.
   - Ruler origin can be edited by simply dragging the area where the rulers intersect each other - it can even be snapped onto objects in the document.
   - Guides can be edited in most tools by simply dragging a guide in the ruler area.
   - Grid setup is now more interactive: origin can be dragged, axis scale adjusted and angle adjusted on-document, complete with snapping to objects and angles in the document to help you reconstruct useful grids from finished artworks or sketches.
   - By enabling 'Edit in Plane' on the new Isometric Studio, tools can edit objects and appear to make those edits along the currently active plane - extremely useful for artists who enjoy working with any axonometric projections.
   - You can now drag the rotation centre point (when enabled on the context toolbar) while holding Ctrl and it will translate the object - this is actually very useful for positioning and snapping objects relative to others.
   - Shapes tools now have presets so you can create your own favourite shape setups and more easily use them again.
   - There are just far too many subtle tool changes to mention here, but hopefully you'll find the tools much improved 
 
General
- New brushes, styles and assets are now shipped with the product.
- Visible bleed (accessed from the View menu) so you can more easily design into the bleed area - a common feature request.
- “Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Designer will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done.
- New 'Isometric' Studio makes it easy to setup and work with various axonometric projections within the application.
- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Designer. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed.
- Designer now supports custom document presets - a popular feature request.
- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.
- New “Move inside / outside” commands have been added - useful for quickly clipping/unclipping.
- New "Merge curves/Separate curves" commands.
- Grids now have an editable number of angle subdivisions.
- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.
- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features such as bullets and numbering.
- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.
 
Brushes
- Designer 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time. Each sub-brush has a fully separate and customisable set of dynamics. You can control when the sub-brushes are drawn and how they blend with the main brush.
- Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring.
- Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance.
- Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control.
- All pixel brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request.

Adjustments
- The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls.
- The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request.
- The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved.
- The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider.

 
Misc
- Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list!

This thread is locked, there is now a more recent beta available from the thread pinned to the top of this forum.
Click here to download the latest beta for macOS
Status: Public Beta
Purpose: General Testing
Requirements: None
As this is a beta it is considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity where you may be adversely affected by the application failing, including the total loss of any documents. 
We hope you enjoy the latest build, and as always, if you've got any problems installing or running up, please don't hesitate to post here.
Any problems actually using this version please post to post in this forum and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Many thanks for your continued feedback.
Please post any bug reports here. Please feel free to leave general suggestions and comments in the Discussion Forum.
Fix List
Document / Page Management
- Fixed crash opening some documents containing images on a Master Page
- Pages Panel updated to improve layout and performance
- Add Page buttons now enabled correctly after converting Artboard based document to Spread on Windows
- Removed bleed setup from Add Master Page dialog, it is a document setting
- Select Anchor to page should be selected by default for scaling in spread properties
- Fixed Page redraw after deleting artboards

General Tools and Menus
- Added Layer > Arrange, Alignment, Geometry, Transform, Insertion
- Added Layer > New Layer, Layer > New Adjustment
- Preferences options missing from dialog drop down menu
- Fixed marquee zoom when using the <Space>+<Ctrl>
- Fixed Find and Replace text field drop menus on Mac
- Fixed toolbar customisation - Distribute, Operations on Mac
- Fixed Guides editing default for Select Tool on Mac
- Updated minimum Zoom Out for view
- Fixed crash when assigning keyboard shortcut to File > Place on Windows

Text Tool
- Symbols indicating overflowing text added to text frames
- Fixed bug redrawing text flow after unlinking text frames
- Text wrap options dialog fixed for light UI on Windows

Text Panels / Text Style Editor
- Tidied Paragraph style dropdown drawing on Mac
- Fixed application of Kerning by dragging icon on Mac
- Text Styles Panel fixed to display description fully
- Fixed deselection of Stylistic Sets from Character Panel
- Fixed Initial Words not applying in Text Styles
- Fixed hyphenation Minimum Score not applying in Text Styles
- Fixed bullet character style for bullet not applying if tab stop value is 0 in Text Styles
- Fixed 'Ignore space if same style' not applying in Text Styles on Windows

Tables
- Icons added to table row / column extenders to advertise their purpose
- Table tool headers now reflect insets
- Frame settings now applied correctly to new tables
- Double-click on default format now edits that format rather than creating a duplicate

Resources / Resource Manager
- On File > Open, if linked resources are missing, request to locate

Assets
- Fixed Asset thumbnails when asset include image in CMYK document

Picture Frames
- Fixed Convert placed image to Picture Frame
- Custom zoom and placement maintained when Picture Frame is resized

Print / Export
- All formats now export with optional bleed
- Fixed export of Artboards in embedded afdesign files
- Print model not saved with pre-set on Windows
- Double sided prints flips on longest (wrong) side (on Windows)