jhmdigital

One of there things I have always admired about Affinity Forums is the helpful, friendly, positive way in which they work. It would be a sad day if they deteriorated with unnecessary personal comments. I am looking forward to the availability of Affinity Publisher which I will be using in a modest way. I understand that the initial version will not have all the features that everybody would like and those will be introduced over time as the programme develops. I haven't a clue what GREP is but see no harm if somebody feels it important for it to be requested as a feature. At the same time if it does involve complicated scripting which would delay the introduction of the software then surely it is sensible for the basic programme to proceed first as quickly as possible [it was initially promised a good time ago] to satisfy the majority. GREP and other features to be added in line with the majority requests. I endorse CartoonMike's comments.

Many thanks Chris_K; I'm getting a glimmer now.

i have been using Photoshop for some thirty years and switched to Affinity Photo when it was available. I also bought Affinity Designer, basically I suppose, to play around with and see what it could offer that wasn't available in AP. I must confess that the use of Art Boards has me puzzled. I've watched the tutorials, read the Help notes and see the broad aspects of how they work. But why do you use them? What is the benefit over Layers? OK, I'm not a designer; just someone playing around with the software; Doodling, if you like. Obviously they are an important part of a designer's tools and I would be grateful if someone could explain what I am failing to understand. Please set me wise.

Does anyone use the Adobe dng universal raw file? As I understand it Adobe developed this to get around the problems discussed above. You can download the free Adobe DNG convertor and use it to import files from SD card / camera and save them in the dng file format to whichever folder you choose on your hard drive. From there you can open them with Affinity Photo.

Sorry to mention that name 'Adobe' but you could download the free Adobe DNG convertor which would import files from your card reader and place them in any folder you nominate on your hard drive. These would be in a universal raw file named dng which Affinity Photo can open. Hope this helps.

Aged 75 I've been using versions of Photoshop for some 30 years as a serious amateur photographer. During that period I've watched numerous tutorials from a variety of presenters. Some were impossible to follow because they were far too fast and / or the sound track was unintelligible due to poor quality, fast speech, or accent. I think that Affinity tutorials are among the top of the best tutorials I've seen, well paced and clearly articulated. The problem, as already stated, is that it is impossible to create a tutorial suitable for both beginners, intermediate and advanced / professional users. They have to be 'stepped' starting with a set for basic use for beginners and then building up with are complex tasks for intermediate and advanced users. Another problem is that Affinity users have varying learning abilities and differing goals. All I say folks is give Affinity a chance. They have made an excellent start and are building on what is fantastic support when you consider the software costs against Photoshop many of whose tutorials are produced by third parties.

Can we check beta release date for Publisher please. At one time it was quoted as end 2015 / early 2016. Now according to Seneca it has been put back virtually 12 months until late 2016? Hope this is not correct as, like many others, was looking forward app.

These tutorials are excellent. Instructions are clearly spoken and well paced so that it is easy follow. They are broken down into appropriate sections with the length just right so that you don't forget what was demonstrated at the beginning. Full marks to Affinity again. Yes, I would like a manual at some stage but appreciate that as Andy wrote above that whilst the programmes are in their infancy it is too early to produce them. In the meantime I would be very happy with the tutorials,especially if they are added to. Online training courses sounds very interesting indeed; look forward to reading more about them

After watching an extremely helpful video on the forum I have finally been able to load the Nik filters plugin which appeared to be functional. When I tried to use a filter though I got the message shown in attached file. Any suggestions please?

Bought Affinity Photo a few days ago and used it today for printing for first time. Opened a PSD file previously created in Photoshop Elements to find that picture showed an even heavy blue caste. Investigation showed that one layer, created in Elements as a 'Photo Filter Warm' was now opening in AP as a 'Recolour layer' with hue settings for the blue showing. This was easily corrected and I can understand the renaming of the layer but why was the colour hue changed from 'Warm' in Elements to Blue in AF? NB attached file is shown as it should be; you need to open it in AP to see change. 0131 Two mauve peonies.psd

Hello to all Affinity users. I live in Worcestershire UK and am a keen amateur photographer [mainly landscape and natural history] and my main use of computer is for digital photography and converting photographs into digital watercolours. When my desktop Windows XP PC went on the blink last year I took the plunge and switched to a MacBook Pro 13" Retina. Now I wonder why I did not do it years ago. Of course there are problems, all my software was Windows only including Photoshop; I also missed my Serif PagePlus and DrawPlus. Despite using Photoshop for some twenty years I refused to use Adobe subscription for new software so bought Lightroom and Elements as standalone programmes. Then, fortunately, Affinity arrived on the scene and I bought Designer and Photo and am looking forward to Publisher. Nowadays my time on the computer is limited as my wife has dementia which takes up a lot of time. Besides learning the new Affinity programmes I am rebuilding my web site www.jhmdigital.co.uk and redoing many of the pictures which were originally on the old Windows site [serif WebPlus]. At 74 I am one of those who find it easier to have a printed manual to hand to learn the fine details of new programmes and hope that it will not be long before we see the equivalent of Martin Evenings Photoshop manuals. Well done to all the Affinity team. John

Still downloading after an hour and a half. I have fibre optic so 195 Mb should be a doddle. Telephoned Mac Apple store help and was told they would stop download and refund so I could repurchase and start again. However original download is still running {showing another hour to go] and I cannot find how to stop it. Any suggestions please? Panic over. I went shopping and left download running when I came back it was finally complete. Reckon it took at least three hours.

Trying to download from UK App Store. So far twenty minutes elapsed and only a fraction of download completed. Anyone advise regarding this; never had a download take so long before.

Thought I would upload this as an example of the work I like to do in the future in Affinity. This was done in Photoshop. Basically I like combining parts of various photographs and then rework the resultant image using a 'painterly effect'. Although this can be done with various filters I prefer to 'paint' the image using brushes, my favourites being watercolour. In this image I added a cut out swan to a photograph of reflections of trees in Derwentwater. I then duplicate the swan and inverted that to create its reflection. After various adjustments I combined the layers and then painted onto a new layer with soft watercolour brush.

My initial thoughts were that I preferred the old logos but after comparing the two sets for a while the new ones grew on me and now I think I prefer them. Certainly their introduction will not upset me. As many others have written it is the quality of the software that is paramount but there is also a need for logos that indicate the high quality of the product.

Thanks LilleG, found and downloaded it, excellent.

Yes, I'm another user of both AD and AP beta who would find a paper user manual a godsend. It may be a failing on my part but I find it totally frustrating switching back and to between app and online help. I see that LilliG above says "Leigh converted the Affinity Photo Beta help files to an epub version". Please, where can I download this? I'm sure that if the Affinity Apps become as successful as they currently indicate to be there will be plenty of paper user manuals in the years to come. Problem is at 74 I need them now!

Hello, As I wrote above you fixed the problem for me. However, having read about Sandbox problems, in your reply to Clint, I would like the following clarified. When you issue the full app, which I intend buying, does it mean the sandbox problem will persist and I will have to follow the above procedures again?

Files have been sent to Andy for inspection. I realised afterwards I had not made it clear that the files could be opened directly in Affinity Photo. It was only when I was in Lightroom and tried to use Affinity Photo as external editor [Photo > Edit In > Affinity Photo] that I got the message 'Failed to open file'. 'File could not be parsed'.

I have only just started experimenting with Affinity Photo Beta but am allowed impressed. However have just hit a problem with a number of files that it would not open. The first few were PSD files with several layers which had been worked on in various editions of Photoshop. The layers included cut outs, filters such as Nik Viveza and other third party. So I was not unduly surprised that the beta version of AP could not open them. But today I tried to open a JPEG file which was a commercial scan of a 35mm transparency and which I had only just made a few adjustments in Lightroom immediately before trying to open it, via Lightroom, in AP. I tried with several JPEG scans, no success. Any suggestions please?

This may seem a stupid question but how do I draw a straight line in AD? In other programmes it can be done by holding down a key and dragging but this does seem to be an option in AD. What am I missing?

Thanks for the schedule. Had hoped it would be sooner but good things are worth waiting for!

Designer is great and you are working on Photo which looks to be as good. Any news though on Publisher? Having just switched from Windows to Mac I'm missing Serif PagePlus.

Hello Matt, Sorry for the delay in responding. Yes, it is the Mac App Store version (1.1.2) I'm using. As suggested I ran Disk Utility > Repair Permissions and that seems to have done the trick. I've tried creating a few test files to both 'Save' and also 'Export' and all seems fine. Many thanks for your prompt and helpful reply. jhm digital

When I try to save a file I get a window with the message: "Failed to Save Document" "Save failed because the file could not be created. Does the file already exist and is it marked as read only." This happens both when I create a new file and when I try saving an altered existing file. Anyone advise please?