Bartelmy

A thumbnail manager is, in effect, a digital photograph album. It collects all the available images into one place and presents them tidily and visibly using thumbnails of a size chosen by the user: this is much better than the miserable, slow, clunky options available through the Windows Explorer. The thumbnail viewer will often offer a window in which to preview images and some basic image manipulation routines - eg colour temperature, rotation and simple effects such as 'oil paint'.This facility is very useful to obtain a sense of what needs to be done before passing an image to Photo to be adjusted in detail. It is essential for such a program to work efficiently with both dng and webp formats - so many programs struggle with one or both of these. I have used FastStone for years to accomplish these tasks but it struggles with webp; it would be good to have this facility within the Affinity suite so as to have a simplified work flow in which the different parts speak natively to each other. Bart

Many thanks - this works fine. Bart

I currently use two external thumbnail managers (one is better with dng format and the other is better with webp format) but it would be very helpful if Affinity could build a thumbnail manager to work with Photo 2. One of my current thumbnail managers uses an intermediate Windows facility to get hold of webp files: this is slow and bumpy so, ideally, any Affinity thumbnail manager would work natively with webp format as well as dng format. Thanks. Bart.

Thanks. Unfortunately (as others have noted) this path is flagged as inaccessible when I attempt to locate it in my thumbnail viewer. I have to say that this does seem to be a strange limitation in what I have purchased as an upgrade from version 1...I hope that the path to the various exe files can be made available in a future maintenance release.

My thumbnail manager for images (FastStone) will automatically send an image to Photo provided that I know the path to the exe file. For Photo 1, this was easy enough. However, I am struggling to find a usable path for Photo 2 (and Publisher 2 for that matter). When I track through the file system from the User folder on the C: drive, I eventually hit a dead end because an accessible path appears to be unavailable. Can someone enlighted me on this - otherwise I have to keep using copy and paste to get images into Photo 2 - or use File, Open. I agree that this is not a huge problem but it is an inconvenience. Thanks. Chris Smith

I agree - I can think of no other plausible explanation. However, it still leaves me with the problem of matching screen white to media white! That said, the soft proofing is close enough that I can live with the differences.

I no longer use the profile and do not have a record of the precise values I was using. However, I always use normal sRGB settings as the device profile (generally sRGB IEC61996-2.1 with the WCS profile for sRGB conditions). I use Relative Colorimetric as my default rendering intent and set all proofing choices to paper/media colour. The difference here was small but significant: I used sRGB with with display hardware configuration and used the Windows calibration tool to tweak one value: I reduced slightly the setting for the weakest grey value shown in the colour chart. This was an attempt to get screen white closer to paper white since I am finding that the white of the card I use is slightly different from the white of the screen, and this is affecting perceptual output when I invoke soft proofing: the screen value is just sufficiently different from the output to create frustration. When I ditched the screen calibration and went back to the simple values outlined above, the crawling stopped immediately in both Photo and Publisher - all loading times are normal again. This might be a peculiarity of my rather elderly and strange graphics card - supposedly a Radeon RX 580 but, in fact, the AMD drivers are hopeless for this card and Windows has automatically loaded the drivers for the Radeon RX 480, with a manufacturer update for this card (the update has worked). If RX 580 drivers are used, the mouse jumps around with a life of its own - the computer becomes unusable. Sorry if this is not very helpful but it is the best I can do - and I assure you that the problem emerged only with calibration and disappeared when calibration was ditched (I have not tried again since changing to the 480 drivers). Bart

Updates: 1 - I inadvertently posted my original observation in the Designer forum - I meant to put it in the Publisher forum (sorry). 2 - I seem to have fixed the issue in both Photo and Publisher: I had calibrated my screen using the normal Windows 10 tool and, in the process, had made small changes by weakening the lightest grey value shown on the screen. This improved what I was seeing (to my eyes) but I think that the Affinity programs were struggling to process the calibration settings because, having reverted to standard SRGB settings as my screen default (as opposed to SRGB with calibration), everything has re-normalised - load times have improved considerably. I am relieved to have removed the crawl when opening files but it is a pity that using screen calibration seems to have unwanted effects - it makes it harder for me to get soft proof settings to generate reliable output simulations for my printers since screen white and paper/card white are more different than they were with the calibration. Bart

I reported this the other day - it applies equally to Publisher - and has been occurring only for the last few days. Loading of a photo from Faststone (my default image management program) has slowed to a crawl: the container window for Photo opens soon enough but then everything goes to sleep. After a while, the title bar shows the message that Photo has crashed as in the image below. If I click in the empty window, Photo eventually loads up - though very slowly. This is weird - but, more to the point, both Photo and Publisher have become a real pain to get started. As usual, I point the finger at some recent 'improvement' supplied by Microsoft - but freely admit that I really don't know. I should emphasise that both programs have been running well on my Windows 10 setup until the last few days. Bart

I am running Windows 10 Home, version 1909, patched up to date (OS build 18363.1139). Over the last couple of days, the open times for both Photo and Publisher have slowed to a crawl. Other programs are opening at their normal speed. I have run the fixing option from the instal exe file but this has made no difference. I have 16 GB RAM and an 8-core AMD Ryzen cpu + a rather mediocre AMD graphics card - but this combination has run both Photo and Publisher well until very recently. For reasons that escape me, Windows has recently stabilised my graphics card by loading a Radeon RX480 driver even though I have a Radeon RX580 graphics card - any attempt to load AMD's own signed driver is doomed to disaster since, inter alia, it messes up the mouse - I have to stick with whatever Microsoft decides is right for my system. I don't know if Photo and Publisher have a problem but I thought that I should report the issue. Any thoughts received gratefully.

Thanks for this - weirdly, I had forgotten about it. I am making the adjustments you suggest - and am working on rgb-cmyk background conversions of my images to see how this helps.

Thanks - but the colour profile for the document was the same as the program default - that is, the same as in the screenshot I supplied. I did some test prints yesterday, and they are as disappointing as I feared: sharp and well saturated screen images printed dull and rather washed out. Interestingly, the output improves (though not to the level I require) if I set the printer to manage colour output (as opposed to leaving this to Publisher). It's almost as if Publisher is using the wrong lookup table to populate the parameters for colour values (I am betraying my background in relational databasing where tying functions to the wrong lookup table necessarily results in wrong values being passed to a parameter). If I set the rgb colour parameter to the correct paper type (Epson Presentation matte), the screen colours become very dark and, as I mentioned, I cannot edit them...In PagePlus the effect of setting this value is much gentler (and more accurate) - and the image can be tweaked from within the program. In brief, in PagePlus what I see is what I get. Crucially, the printed image is almost indistinguishable from the screen image - setting the paper type to determine screen representation of the colour model is the best solution (for me). Like many PagePlus users, I am waiting for the day when a Windows 'upgrade' renders the program finally unusable but, until that day happens, PagePlus is more useful than Affinity Publisher in certain respects (though I freely admit that I know PagePlus much better than I know Publisher - my ignorance could well be the real problem - please correct me!). I will persevere with Affinity Publisher because I know that I must - but it is rather dispiriting when hard work will not print accurately and when in-program image-tweaking is imossible. Bart

Apologies - I have placed this in the Beta forum - but it is probably still valid. I have set Publisher and Photo to identical values for colour management; as in this screenshot: This is the same as my default monitor profile. However, when I place a photo in Publisher (making cards) the image is much duller than the same image when it opens in Photo: the images have been pre-edited in Photo and then saved - so it is the Photo version of the image that I am placing in Publisher. I cannot pass the placed image back to Photo for tweaking (the facility is offered but does not yet work) - and if I simply use copy and paste, the same problem occurs (essentially, colour temperature, saturation and sharpening level are not the same when viewing the same image in the two programs). I have managed to tweak output colour profiles so that the screen image is close to the printer image but I would like Publisher and Photo to display the same image identically. As you can see, I am no expert on colour management - I feel that I am rather blundering around. Any help gratefully received. Bart

Publisher is not saving my assigned colour profiles unless I change the default from within 'Preferences'; that is, if I assign a colour profile from the Document Setup tab, it holds it only while the document is open in the current session: if I save and close then, next time, it reassigns the default colour profile. It would be easier if it simply held on to assigned profiles. Bart

Thanks I posted this as a bug only on the grounds that it might be: I have had a few incidents after Microsoft's upgrades to Windows 10 (perhaps 'upgrades' belongs in inverted commas) - drivers breaking, folders going missing, programs not saving etc. So it may be that this unpredictable crashing is related to Windows rather than to Affinity Photo. If it happens again, I will try and rescue as much info as possible and report back. It would not surprise me in the least to find that the real culprit is my graphics driver - AMD are pretty good with driver updates but do tend to release them rather slowly. I will report the crash to Microsoft as part of my normal feedback to them. Bart

I am using Build 1.7.3.481 on the most recent stable update for 64-bit Windows 10. I have had occasional problems when trying to apply adjustments to a marquee area of an image. Most recently, I marqueed an area of hazy cliffs in the background of a harbour picture and applied the Sharpen-Clarity filter (at its default setting). I did this after previously adjusting the whole image using Sharpen-Unsharp Mask (Radius 1.5; factor 2; threshold 0). The whole program immediately seized up: the screen went a translucent milky colour and all control was lost: I had to go to Task Manager to shut the program down.

Many thanks - that worked: I told the import engine to favour editable text over fidelity and to group text lines into text frames and now everything is behaving properly. Bart

I have exported a birthday card from PagePlus to Aff Pub (as a PDF). The result is quite good but there is one frustration: at several points, I have a text entry that spans several lines in a single text box in PagePlus. In Aff Pub, this is imported so that each line in the PDF is a separate text box in Publisher. I would like a simple way to tell Publisher that a given group of lines should be consecutive within a single text box. I have tried using the Group function but this still leaves the individual lines as separate text boxes within the group. Obviously, I can use cut and paste to put the text into a new text box - but this is time-consuming when there is a lot of text. Is there a simple way to tell Publisher: 'recast these text boxes as a single text box?' Thanks for any suggestions.

Many thanks - I hoped that there was a simple fix.

It would be handy to be able to move (or make) a text box in the blank area outside the page space and then work with the content. I often do this in other DTP software (especially PagePlus, of cherished memory): it is very useful to be able to experiment with content off the page and then use this to replace/supplement what is on the page. In Affinity Publisher, if I make/move a text box on the blank area outside the page, the box outline shows but content is invisible; selecting the invisible content with ctrl-A shows a blanked text area but not the content itself. I have tried changing the background colour to white, but this makes no difference to text visibility (as I drag a textbox outside the page edge, the content progressively disappears). Can anyone tell me how to do this? Alternatively, can this facility be added in a later release? Thanks. Bart.

For some reason, the layers panel is now showing only one layer at a time. In Aff Photo, all the layers are available for view by dragging down the bottom edge of the layers panel but this facility is not present in Publisher on my computer (Windows 10, version 1809 - version 1903 is still broken...). I can reach the layers one at a time by using the scroll arrows but I would like to be able to view all layers at the same time, as in Photo. I think that this facility was available previously but I am open to correction. Am I overlooking something or does this need fixing? Thanks. Bart

Hugh - thanks for this but I am running Windows 10...

Hilltop - thanks: I assure you that I am not being in any sense adversarial in my comments. I accepted a long time ago that there would be no import filter for PagePlus. If I am trying to suggest anything it is that Plan A for importing (using the PDF import engine) still needs some work - though I appreciate that it may be impossible to make it 100% responsive to every nuance in a source file. I am enjoying Publisher and readily accept your outline of its virtues. Alfred - thanks for the link. I could perhaps have chosen my words more carefully: what I intended to say is that PagePlus is no longer being updated (to the best of my knowledge). Thanks too for the note re shortcuts: I will explore the possibilities.

I am editing the calendar in PagePlus However, I am exploring ways of moving my PagePlus work into Publisher since PagePlus is no longer supported (to my sorrow...): it seems like a good idea to become independent of PagePlus if possible. This is also a way in which I can test Publisher - as a largely silent member of the Beta program, I know that it is still a work in progress and that raising issues about the way that Publisher handles PagePlus files may be helpful: for example, I am currently moving Church newsletter files from PagePlus to Publisher - an instructive process: often rewarding but sometimes frustrating. I sense that Publisher developers find the PagePlus user-base inconvenient... However, there are plenty of people like myself who have used PagePlus ever since it blinked into being and who want to be able to get PagePlus files to work properly in Publisher. By the way, the PagePlus shortcut for toggling guides and margins on and off is ctrl-backslash - a lot simpler than the Publisher shortcut (ctrl-alt-w). Bart

Thanks for the various replies. Using the tables option to create a calendar is one way forward but the great advantage of the pre-existing template is that it removes the need for messing around to create every date for a given calendar year - I can just pick a year and a month and the whole caboodle is presented to me, correctly dated, as an editable entity. I like my software to do the heavy lifting for me... The calendars I mentioned originally are my edited entities derived from a template (one month at a time for several consecutive years) - I have not actually tried outputting an unpopulated template as a PDF to see if that gives me an editable result (I will try this). When I populate calendars with information, there are colour-coded cells as well as text - I think that it is the detailed modification of the cells that is likely to present the problems when the PagePlus file is converted to a PDF: I think that the conversion procedure (whether from PagePlus or in Publisher) does not recognise the kinds of detail involved - that coloured cells with no text should still be text boxes (the dates themselves are correctly presented as editable text boxes - it is the empty part of each cell that is being mis-identified). I could, I suppose, expand each date text box to fill the cell and, thereby, gain the capacity to enter text - but this is a time-consuming kludge. I will generate a version of one of my calendars with the textual content removed but with the colour-coding present and will test this again. If - as I expect - this produces the same problem, I will send the file to you as an attachment. All ideas gratefully received.