Arba

In this Affinity Photo tutorial, I will show you, How to improve photo quality in just a minute.
 
 

Regarding my InAffinity YouTube Channel, I've just had the below in email from YouTube. There's now around 350 total videos uploaded on Affinity Photo...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOnLUmyPHr2rayOHVHWsHVw
See update video for update, plans and subscriber comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apgypHgxcmA
Dave
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InAffinity for Affinity Photo Your 2019
Year in Review You uploaded 218 videos and gained 2371 subscribers, which goes without saying, you rule. Thanks for making this year one for the books. 13,349 Total Watch Hours Fans can’t take their eyes off you! In grams, that would be like eating the recommended serving size of 16 bags of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. 10,703 Total Likes 203 Liked Selecting the Sky Using Channels in Affinity Ph... 236,681 Views

Some of what I read here remind me somehow that client I just had.
Since I moved completely to Affinity I am mostly using PDFs now. Client called me and said
- I need it in AI format
- But you can import PDF perfectly well to illustrator..
- No, I need it in AI format, I have a pipeline I use for years now! Please deliver AI!
So I just renamed PDF extension to AI and resent the same file (yup, it does work).
- You see what I mean? - client replied - now it works perfectly! You dont change proven, professional pipeline for no good reason!

Yeah man, I can see that alright... Slightest change of what people used to and drama starts. Something isnt named the same, shortcut is different, format - whatever. People start to freak out, totally unable to change even trivial things. And if some option they used to is not there? Uffff Forget it - looking for workaround is completely out of question. Even if sometimes - many times - it is a non-issue and you can keep on working happily after showing tiny bit of flexibility.
Most common thing:
"In Adobe it is certain way and here it is different!"
Yeah, so?
There is more than one way skin a cat. Affinity is not a Photoshop. It can replace it but its not a Photoshop or Illustrator reskinned with different name and priced differently. It has its own strengths. I wouldn't bloody use it if it was simply cheaper but I could not work professionally on it. Thats what I do for living, I cant afford not being able to do the job.
But I am and I am loving the Affinity way. Yeah you heard me - and I was using Photoshop professionally since version 4. Thats 23 years already. OK, minus last 3 because I have switched to Affinity immediately when it became available on Windows.
"ow, so you are Affinity fanboy then!"
I guess I am. I am loving it. Thats why I am here on Affinity forum. Meeting some Adobe fanboys.

Listen sweetheart, your new girlfriend is not your ex, ok? It will never be the same. I know you miss Jenny. Maybe you should go back to her? Yeah, she was with you just for your money, but if you are happy with that... Maybe you should never try to have a new girlfriend? Because telling Lucy constantly about how good you had it with Jenny will not make things any better...
 

Learn how to create as many Gradients for your Mask as you want. Super quick and easy. You can add and subtract from your mask. And the best thing: You can always change it later on.
In this Tutorial is will show you a sweet little Workaround on how to create Mask-Gradients, using rectangles and Layer Blend modes to add or subtract from the Mask area. 
My FREE* Skillshare Course: https://skl.sh/2MvIqDm
*2 Months Free Premium for new Members. 
Awesome Deals for Affinity Photo:
https://gumroad.com/sarikasat
Support me on Patreon: 
https://www.patreon.com/sarikas
Follow me on:
https://www.facebook.com/sarikastutorials
https://www.instagram.com/sarikasat/
Join us on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AffinityPhotoTuts/

Hello designers, long time no talk, just wanted to share with you my latest tutorial of a badge illustration. Hope you like it, enjoy:
 

Hey creative people !
A bit over a week ago I uploaded my first beginner tutorial on how to create a composition in AP. (I will post my second tutorial in a separate Topic)
Since the goal for my YT channel is to help everybody struggling with photo compositing/manipulation, it would be awesome if you could answer this one question: 
What are your pain points regarding photo manipulation/compositing?
Thanks in advance for sharing, so I know where to put my focus !
Alright, now enjoy the tutorial
 
P.S. I bought a nice mic already so sound will be better in future tutorials. However, if you have any other tips/tricks on how I could improve my tutorials, feel free to let me know! 
Cheers and I hope you learn something new today !
Rens

Here are a few wood styles:
 
The compressed styles file:
Knock_on_Wood.afstyles.zip

I've recently started making tutorial videos for Affinity Photo, putting them up on YouTube. The channel is 'InAffinity'. There's already nine videos there.
The focus is mostly on short, specific 'how to's, including 'How to do X in N different ways'. Mostly because that's what I like. I'm an old engineer, photographer and educator, and have a tendency to seek detail and then share it. Once I get going, I'm usually pretty persistent. My 'other site' is ChangingMinds.org, which I've been writing for over 15 years.
For the technically curious, I'm using Camtasia as a recording/editing system, capturing at 1920 HD.

Here you will find some calendar templates for Affinity Publisher in DIN A2, DIN A3 and DIN A4 format (portrait or landscape). All templates have a bleed of 3 mm.
You can change the colors of background, weekdays, weekends and months with the custom color palette (Kalender | Calendar) in the swatches studio.

You can change the the fonts via the custom font styles in the font studio.
MONATSTITEL = Month title
Wochenende = weekend
Wochentage = weekend

The template have a master for each month and a background.
You can download the templates here:
German: https://mensch-mesch.com/download/affinity-publisher-kalender-vorlagen-2020/
English: https://mensch-mesch.com/download/affinity-publisher-calendar-templates-2020/
Other languages:
For other languages please use the find and replace text function in Affinity Publisher.
If you don't know how to use this function watch this tutorial: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/publisher/desktop/video/337309804/
Keep on drawin'
Norbert

Hi Julie,
Unfortunately, I do not have good news for you ...
I tried with your photo without result. Then I tried to reproduce the issue with one of my lenses that does not appear in the lensfun database, a Nikkor 28-105 AFD zoom. I get exactly the same problem as you (with darktable using the same lensfun file, I could recognize it)!
I deduce that this procedure is inoperative on Windows, the video being made with Mac OS.
At this point, only a developer can trace the problem.
It should also be known that the maintainer of the lensfun base has big problems of disponibility and because of this, lensfun is updated with big delays and the procedure is quite forbidding. 
In addition, in lensfun, your Sigma lens has been tested with a Sony and not a Canon. The APSC crop factor for Canon is 1.6 while it is 1.5 for other brands. As a result, the distortion values would be a bit distorted. There is also a conflict in your image at the level of the exifs and the maker notes, in these last appears the zoom 75-300 Canon while it is the Sigma which appears in the exifs ...
Sorry for not being able to help you ... the hand is to the developers.

I've probably been one of the annoying critics of Affinity products in the past ...  but since it's always easy to talk about negative things I feel it's time for some positive feedback as well.
The new drag and drop feature for layers in the beta is excellent! Very long looked after and now working very well! Makes things just a lot easier. Thanks for implementing it!

Hi. Hope you're having a great day. I finally finished this video!! Wow! I doidn't realize it's been two weeks since my last visit. I've added a bit of fun to what can be a typically boring tutorial. Please let me know what you think. Thanks so much for watching and don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more Affinity Designer tutorials!! 
 
 

This is stupid, but just group the raster (yes, only this one object) and the transparency tool will work.

You can customize the toolbar and place it wherever you want.

A week or so back I thought it was high time I applied myself to making use of Publisher. Here's a spoof magazine cover (you'll have to wait a l-o-n-g time for the articles!). I left it a while before I went back to see if it was good to go, or needed any changes. I decided to add the apps' logos -- which I had to make myself in AD; they're vectors, so I can rescale them for future use.
Anyway, see what you make of this. Any helpful criticism is welcome!

This Saturday the Tour De France starts in Brussels and races trough my hometown (Overijse, Belgium).
I made a huge banner (20 meter x 2,5 meter) completely in Designer.
More of the designs and details can be seen on my website: https://www.willempirquin.be/portfolio/tour-de-france-druivenstreek/
(Also, 90% of all work on my website is made in Designer).

Before the announcement I thought the idea to switch between apps was a great idea, but now we see how we really can work in the same workflow instantly is much better than I could imagine. Actually a very briljant idea!
I say; Adobe eat your heart out! Next year 3 milion Affinity users.
Thanks Serif for this Studiolink idea! This is indeed a great timesaver and makes everything even more fun to work with!! I'm so glad I once made the switch to use products made by this enthousiastic and clearly passionate team with a great vision!

Indeed. It's in fact a bargain, even if you're poor. Some people seem to have forgotten the real price of software and just don't understand the crazy amount of time, effort and passion developers, ui-designers, testers, consultants and what not put on software to create it so you can work faster and make more money with these tools.
Great professional software could easily cost hundreds to thousands of euros in a shop. And it used to be like that too for a long time. It has years of experience put inside it making you work so much faster you earn the money back in no time on the job. But some people in the age of 'open source', free apps (actually making money by using or selling your data) and dollar-apps for your iPhone or Android device, seem to have forgotten the real cost and value production software and compare real value software with buggy, but free, open source tools.
I think it's amazing Affinity makes this stable, performant and highly productive and professional software for only 50 euros and I'm very surprised if people are really this picky about this price to be honoust. To me that's a lack of understanding what it takes to create it and what makes it stand out above the 'just not right'-software out there.

This build has been superseded by the release of 1.7.1 announced here
We are pleased to announce a major update for the Windows release of Affinity Designer, version 1.7.0
The changes in Affinity Designer for Windows 1.7.0 over the last Affinity Designer patch 1.6.5 are as follows:
CHANGES SINCE LAST VERSION
Tools
We've overhauled most of the core tools, adding subtle new features to make you more productive. New Point Transform Tool allows you to scale and rotate objects from any node. The Node Tool now contains a 'Transform Node' option which provides a containing box for the selected nodes and allows for more freeform editing of the nodes. New 'Cube' grid setup mode (take a look in 'View' -> 'Grid and Axis Manager...'). 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 Panel, 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
Arrowheads are now available in the Stroke Panel. New Appearance Panel allows for multiple strokes and fills on a single shape. HDR / EDR monitor support 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 Panel' 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. Layers Panel now allows you to tag individual layers with a colour and display thumbnails with transparent backgrounds and at different sizes. 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. 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 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 raster 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
 There is currently new free content available to claim in the Welcome Screen This thread is for commenting on this announcement. Please do not post bugs or problems that you find when using this version of the software in this thread, instead make a new thread in the Designer Bugs on Windows section and questions about usage go in the Desktop Questions forum.
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
For purchases from the Affinity Store the software:  Each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer any available update, or it can be downloaded from here. The new build will install over the top of any earlier version, with no need to uninstall. Alternatively you can log into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the download button in there.
For purchases from the Microsoft Store: These are done automatically by the operating system (next time you start the application)

This build has been superseded by the release of 1.7.1 announced here
We are pleased to announce a major update for the Windows release of Affinity Photo, version 1.7.0
The changes in Affinity Photo for Windows 1.7.0 over the last Affinity Photo patch 1.6.5 (1.6.5 PK) are as follows:
CHANGES SINCE LAST VERSION
EDR
Added support for EDR displays to Photo. When editing a 32bit document. 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 improved. 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 brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request. Fixed ABR brush import (would ignore "random" controllers). RAW
The RAW processing engine in Photo has been rewritten - producing better results and improved performance. RAW files now load much more quickly. 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. 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!). 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. New “Lens Correction” filter - apply lens correction from the built-in lens database. 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 Panel - added option for transparent background for thumbnails. Layers Panel - added multiple thumbnail size options. Layers Panel- 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. Huge macro and batch processing improvements. New welcome screen layout and all new samples.  Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list! This thread is for commenting on this announcement. Please do not post bugs or problems that you find when using this version of the software in this thread, instead make a new thread in the Photo Bugs on Windows section and questions about usage go in the Desktop Questions forum.
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
For purchases from the Affinity Store the software: Each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer any available update, or it can be downloaded from here. The new build will install over the top of any earlier version, with no need to uninstall. Alternatively you can log into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the download button in there.
For purchases from the Microsoft Store: These are done automatically by the operating system (next time you start the application)

Not too long ago, in a land not very far away, I came across the concept of focus merges to dramatically increase depth-of-field of photos, especially macro ones. This was one of the reasons I bought Affinity Photo, as having learned the technique I had a requirement for affordable software the could do a good job of a focus merge. The focus merges I have done thus far have typically been hand-held and of fairly large 'macro' subjects such as mushrooms and flowers. Generally, these consist of 10-30 shots that Affinity Photo churns through and merges in very short order. Due to the hand-holding, there are often a few ghosting artefacts around some edges, but nothing that a bit of AffinityPhotoShopping can't sort out.
Yesterday, I came across an unfortunately-demised beetle which seemed to be a perfect opportunity to try a more technical, tripod based, photo merge. One of the reasons for this post is to showcase the ability of Affinity Photo which coped with a quite staggering amount of data (the other reason is a desire to share what I think is a quite stonking photo!).
To achieve the focus merge, I took 270 20-megapixel raw photos, totalling 7.8 GB of data. These I then processed into 16 bit/channel PNGs using RawTherapee which came to 24.7 GB. I then fed them into Affinity Photo's Focus Merge and let it churn away. It took just over 1.5 hours to complete the merge, and I'm very pleased with the results:

In case anyone is interested in the hardware involved, here's the list:
Camera: Panasonic DC-G9
Lens: Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro
Images shot at: 0.5 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200
CPU: AMD Ryzen 1500X
RAM: 16 GB DDR4 2666
GPU: nVidia Geforce GTX 970 
I largely seemed to be CPU-bound during the various processing stages. Memory usage from RawTherapee and Affinity Photo pottered around the 2-3 GB mark; RawTherapee thrashed all 4 cores / 8 threads in the Raw -> PNG conversion (but still took ages; I left it going over night, so I don't know quite how long...) , whilst Affinity Photo used 1 core / 2 threads for the stack. A lower core count / faster GHz processor would therefore seem to be an advantage during the stacking process in Affinity Photo, whilst RawTherapee clearly liked all the cores it could get it's sticky little paws on. I included my GPU in the list as Affinity Photo does seem to use it a bit: 5-8% GPU activity shows up in Task Manager during Focus Merges; I've no idea if it makes a difference though.
In conclusion, I'm very impressed with the ability of Affinity Photo to deal with huge amounts of data without choking. A few more threads might be nice though

and a rest from brushes....
All vector in 1.7 AD

Attached is my complete set of notes about blend modes, now spread across 52 pages of A4.
These are significantly updated from the previous revision, with lots more 'recipes' and organisation of these under main topics, hopefully to make them more usable.
Enjoy.
Blend modes notes V5.pdf

Is it set to zoom in Edit > Preferences > Tools?