cadobir

I need this feature so bad!

I know to some this may seem to be going too deep, but one feature that would be tremendously helpful in Affinity Designer for UI work is the ability to rename multiple layers or find and replace in a selection of multiple layers. When creating a lot of different similar layers, it's great to make a selection and be able to add or change a folder prefix, for instance. Adding the ability to create a shortcut for renaming a current layer also helps make things just a bit faster in heavy workflows. I use these in plugin form elsewhere and it saves tons of time.

+1
Also, it was important to batch rename slices in Export Persona
 
 

My layer names are more complex, but I need the same functionality. I have to do a fair amount of FPO photography of may items in a single shot, then separate the items to their own layers. But I still need to refer back to the original photo for every one of them, and I want iterative names like "Red dots 1",  "Red dots 32", and so on. Batch renaming would make my life much easier and enable me to move more of my workflow to Affinity software.
 

Hello,
I have a situation where I have ~650 layers, all well named that I need to search through quickly to hide/show for different permutations of an image. Is there a way I can either sort the layers alphabetically to find them more easily or search for them.
Thanks.

However, I realise that using my own argument in another thread (view here), I shouldn't actually be using Designer to do a flyer layout – I should be using Publisher, so creating advanced guide layouts shouldn't really be a feature request at this stage.
 
Of course, if Publisher doesn't deliver advanced guides like I need, I'll repost my feature request.
 
;)

It would be great to be able to designate layers as non-printing, as you can in InDesign and some other advanced graphics programs.
 

It would be great to be able to designate layers as non-printing, as you can in InDesign and some other advanced graphics programs.
 

It would be great to be able to designate layers as non-printing, as you can in InDesign and some other advanced graphics programs.
 

This a very important feature for me too. Handling the guides as an extra layer would be nice, Just move a shape to that layer and it is a guide.

+1
 
Before doing any layout job, I always create very detailed guides grid that margins and columns just don't allow. A simple example is a DL leaflet. Using strokes, I create:
Fold guides page margins panel margins top of paragraph guides  
I select all and paste them onto a second, third fourth artboards for consistancy
 
I then select them all and convert to guides.
 
I can't leave them as strokes because as guides they are:
Non-printing Easy to hide/reveal with keyboard shortcuts Snappable (Is that a word? I can snap to them)  
 
If I try do this with regular ruler guides, the guides only display on the selected artboard. TIt's a fight to get them nicely positioned since I find when I drag them onto the artboard, they snap to guides on other artboards – even though I can't see them.
 
Attached is a screenshot showing my preferred set up versus what I currently have to do.
 
Even if my workflow is rare, the addition of this feature allows for creating diagonal guides, curved guides, short guides and a general ability to copy-n-paste guides onto other artboards and even other documents. All are super useful.
 
 

I agree with Hokusai. The pasteboard is essential in my opinion. I store many things on the pasteboard including printing instructions and notes to myself. And it should be separated from the  canvas by some line of demarcation in the event you want to have a white background. The Clip to Canvas feature would be nice to have with the pasteboard (to make all of the pasteboard items invisible). It doesn't work for me in its current incarnation though. It can make items to disappear, but only because it sets their fill to None. It also tends to be greyed out in the View > View Mode menu, so maybe I have something else going on...
 
I would also like to have a way to designate non-printing objects. I use this capability frequently in Illustrator. For instance to show where the window is on an envelope I am designing. I want to see the window on the canvas while designing, but not have it print when the file goes to a printer.
 
Great job with Affinity Designer so far. Looking forward to continued improvements.

I'm trying to set up a file management system for a very prolific artist who likes to change teh titles of his works often. One of the ways to embed and protect the data so that I can find images when he requests them is to embed the data in the description field of EXIF. 
 
I'm sorry to say that it looks as though this feature has barely been given even glancing attention in Affinity Photo. The EXIF panel is not particularly easy to find. The data it contains may not be editable. The Description field is editable, but has no "undo" functionality. 
 
This is a very serious shortcoming for a professional imaging program.
 
May we expect an improvement in this area soon?

I see that bleed area guides have been on the feature roadmap for Design since summer of 2014. When might we expect to see this feature?

Thanks, carl123
 
I've tried to learn a bit more about AP and how it handles metadata embedded in files.
 
It looks like the EXIF panel in AP shows only a subset of the metadata in the NEF file (even in the "All" setting). No headlines, keywords, titles etc. No legacy IPTC, maker notes or other relevant data.
To me It seems that AP ignores the associated XMP metadata record (in a standard XMP sidecar file) when I imports a NEF RAW file.
 
And when I later export the NEF to JPEG after editing in AP, only a subset of the metadata embedded in the NEF makes it into the JPEG. Keywords etc. are lost.
 
I use Photoshop and Lr for editing (just giving AP a try because I like Affinity Designer a lot) but proper metadata handling is a key feature for any photo editor / RAW developer.

…also it would be nice if the position of the cursor was shown in the ruler as a small dotted line.
It's usually all you need when working with curves - dragging a guide onto the page can be OTT and cause a lot of clutter.
Another small feature that miss. 
 
GUIDES LAYER would be another  welcome addition.

I agree https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/2244-guides/

+1
 
Pulling out guides should be one of those "tool-agnostic" operations. If I'm working on an drawing, using the pen tool, I may want to pull out some guides quickly. Currently I have to switch to the move tool and then pull out the guide and switch back to the pen. A bit disruptive in that it interrupts the workflow. 

I only seem to be able to pull a guide while I am using the move tool. Shouldn't you be able to do that no matter what tool you are using?

The ability to have text automatically wrap within the boundaries of a shape / close curve. 
 
I'm a ex-Photoshop and ex-Illustrator user, having switched almost entirely to Affinity Designer; big fan. Most of the time I create "infographics" to visually communicate business concepts and data points. The ability to have multi-line text automatically wrap within the boundaries of a shape would be amazing - doing this manually is a pain... and unless I'm certain I won't change the size, I avoid doing it manually. 

Is there an option to let text flow around an object like an imported image?
 
I use this very much in Corel DRAW on my old windows machine, when I create flyers. It would be helpful to have this feature in Affinity too.

I'm just starting to explore the Macro function in AP, and I'm very pleased to see it there. But one thing I use a lot in Photoshop is missing: the ability to pause for user input. For example, I have a Photoshop macro that calls for a Curves adjustment layer, and when that layer is introduced, the macro pauses to allow me to set the curves values; then the rest of the macro proceeds. If I can't pause for user input and then allow the macro to proceed with the following steps, the macro becomes useless because I then have to either run another, separate macro or do all the other steps by hand. I am sure you are thinking of this functionality, and I encourage you to bring it out soon. It's very important for the way I work.

There needs to be a way to export the history of changes into a Macro for use against other pics. It would be a HUGE time-saver to be able to grab the history of all applied edits, save to a Macro, and then re-apply those same "final" changes as a batch job to other pics. Example - I have 20 pics that were all taken at the same time (similar lighting, etc), so they need the same basic treatment at least to begin with. After I'm satisfied with the edits I make to picture #1, I can save, and batch run the other 19.  I get that I may be able to do some of this by just running a Macro at the beginning of my editing session, but that's clunky and also through testing doesn't quite allow me to do some things (such as set layer visibility as I work through changes, retain the "before" setting as in an Exposure change, etc).

I know this feature has been requested before (macros/actions), but it's not quite there yet for my needs. With the 1.5 update, Affinity Photo does have a basic macro recording function now, but it still does not eliminate the need for Photoshop from my workflow until I can assign custom keyboard shortcuts to the macros for rapid playback! I've been very impressed with Affinity Photo so far, and I really want to see it become a "Photoshop Killer"! I work in entertainment press photography, and we typically edit around 100-200 photos a night from an average movie premiere/event, or up to 1000 photos from a major awards show. We work at a rapid pace and on very tight deadlines, so speed is critical.
 
My typical workflow in Photoshop ...
 
- I need to be able to eyeball every single photo in a set and make rapid corrections with a series of keyboard shortcuts. Batch processing might work for some jobs, but looking at every single photo to make adjustments quickly is also frequently needed.
- I usually open 200 photos in Photoshop at a time (Photoshop's limit) in a cascading stack, then do corrections to levels, sharpness, and maybe slight color correction if needed.
- Save/close the file as JPEG 8, 300dpi at 3000x2000 px (Saved while closing the file with COMMAND-W on Mac)
- Repeat until I'm done with all 200, and then work on an addition 200 files if needed
- Then caption all the photos with the name of the person/people using Photo Mechanic
 
What I would love to see in Affinity Photo is the same rapid editing ability that Photoshop has.
For example, I would love to be able to assign a keyboard shortcut to macros/actions that do something like the following:
 
CTRL-SHIFT-F1 - Auto Brightness/Contrast
CTRL-SHIFT-F2 - Brighten 10%
CTRL-SHIFT-F3 - Brighten 20%
 
CTRL-SHIFT-F4 - Auto Color Temp
CTRL-SHIFT-F5 - De-Orange
CTRL-SHIFT-F6 - De-Blue
 
CTRL-SHIFT-F7 - Auto Sharpen
CTRL-SHIFT-F8 - Sharpen 10%
CTRL-SHIFT-F9 - Sharpen 20%
 
CTRL-ALT-L - Last Used Level Adjustment
CTRL-ALT-C - Last Used Color Correction
CTRL-ALT-U - Last Used Sharpness Adjustment
 
I think you get the idea :-)
 
Another feature I would love to see is IPTC data creation/editing (or even basic awareness, passthrough). It's not an absolute must for me, since I use Photo Mechanic, which does an amazing job. However, I would not like to have a situation pop up where maybe I need to go back and do a quick edit to a file that has already been captioned in Photo Mechanic, but Affinity Photo doesn't save the existing IPTC data that's already in the file (ie. strips that info out). That would be "no bueno"!
 
Thanks for listening!

Noticed that in the Macro Library pane/panel, if I close all the subs, when I restart the app they are all open again. 99% of the macros for styles, enhancements, etc. are seldom used. Really only want my own showing most of the time. The look of this pane/panel should stay sticky to however you last set it.