bmuessig
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Posts posted by bmuessig
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I'd also like to see an option to increase the size of the noise.
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Honestly, the old icons did fit a lot better as they also used transparency. Just look:
The new 3D icons would look nice though.
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Indeed they do.
Though, having seen the new 3D square icons, I must say they look alright - unlike the flat ones.
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I love Affinity Designer and Photo and I use them on Mac and Windows alike. The current icons fit both OSes very well. But the new, blocks Publisher icon just does not fit them and does not look good in general. I would much prefer an icon in the style of the other two apps.
Cheers,
Benedikt -
Just now, toltec said:
I agree with that.
Trying to run it on a laptop is a joke. I took my laptop into an office where it logged on to the internet via wi-fi and downloaded one of it's many pointless "upgrades". It was four hours before it would switch off !!! I am using windows 7. Much better.
The problem with Serif porting Affinity to Linux is that everybody would almost certainly end up with an inferior product. On Windows and Mac the resources would stretch Serif so that the bug fixes and upgrades would certainly take longer, making it harder for them to compete with Adobe and satisfy Photoshop users who want to switch, losing sales.. On Linux, professional photographers would miss out on the many Windows or Mac add-ons. Like green-screen (chromakey) software and plug-ins, DAMs and many drivers. I have three printers, including a photographic dye-sub that just wont run on Linux. I don't know what the situation would be with RAW files and cameras.
I am sure Serif have looked at the possibility of taking on more staff but this sort of thing is not easy. Only they know the feasibility.
If you are that desperate to run Affinity, buy a second-hand Windows 7 PC and run it alongside a Linux machine. It works fine. You can even get a keyboard / monitor / mouse switcher. The best of all worlds.
Thanks for your kind answer.
I agree with you that it's hard for Serif to push out updates for all three. The good thing with Linux is that the unixoid nature of both OSes would make porting the core very easy. On the other hand, the GUI would be a lot more problematic.
I am currently just running Windows 7 in a VM on Ubuntu (Linux) which works very well. I don't have to give up much harddisk space for Windows, don't have to give up my privacy since Windows only runs when I choose to (and I can disable the VM's internet if I choose to) and use the shared folders to exchange data. In fact, it's running extremely well. The Windows VM is booting in a few seconds and in Windows, I have configured My Documents and My Pictures to be hardlinked to that shared folder, so all data created on Linux is useable in Windows and vice-versa.
This means I can do Web-development on Linux and do the graphics editing in another Windows VM window. It's not very inconveniant but it could be better.
Driver support in Linux is great, but especially for scanners and printers it can be varying. Getting completely rid of Windows is not possible, but restricting it to a VM is certainly possible. Once support for Windows 7 and 8.1 run out, I will be off that sinking ship and I will only run Windows 7 in an isolated VM, where it most likely won't catch any viruses but still run my Windows-only programs.
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I second that Windows 10 is the worst OS to date. Even if I wished to have privacy I simply couldn't get it, updates are usually either breaking or removing existing stuff that worked well or just rendering computers useless. I had two machines with Windows 10 die because of updates that failed and I am the guy who usually fixes these machines. I ended up just installing Windows 7 one one where I just couldn't live with just Linux and on the other one (my main laptop computer) I ended up installing Ubuntu and Windows 7 in a VM. And it's working perfectly. LibreOffice is working great with Office formats, Firefox handles the Web just fine. There is a native Telegram client, VMWare just works with Windows 7 and Ubuntu to get my PCB CAD programs and Affinity working, but it's only half a success. Affinity would run a lot smoother natively so would the PCB CAD tools.
Linux has, finally reached a point, where all my drivers are detected automatically and are just working. I am typing this on that very ThinkPad and everything is working. Cellular, WiFi, the trackpoint, the camera, the NVidia graphics chip (with the proper driver), battery, keyboard, DVD, SSD, Ethernet, USB3. It's amazing what the open source community (paid or unpaid) created and they are certainly part of a future where people take care about keeping hardware for more than two years and start caring about their privacy again. I would be happy to pay 150€ for a license of Ubuntu (if applicable) for what I get and for the freedom I enjoy. And in fact, I have donated to them for using Ubuntu as my main OS (still an experiment for me) on my main machine.
Having more tools available cross-platform would be amazing. Being a developer myself, I tend to use intermediate languages to keep my software working on the major three. There are tools that can't be free such as a decent CAD/photo/video editor. They could optionally be open source though. In any way should they work on the major three platforms. I don't like Inkscape or KiCad too much. They have bugs, the UI is horrible and hard to get the head wrapped around, because so many people have different beliefs in what works the best and there is a lack of structure. Gimp is at the edge of being a nice tool. On the other hand, Blender does a good job for what it is.
Even the game development industry is starting to take Linux seriously with more and more titles being released for all three platforms (which is happening because the major engines are developed to support all three).
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I would also greatly benefit of a Linux version of AD and AP.
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47 minutes ago, taharvey said:
I think most people in the MacOS ecosystem are pretty judgmental about design issues. I believe with good reason. I have found in my 20 years of using a broad array of software tools* that design and UI/UX is a harbinger of the overall application quality and software architecture. And that has lots of implications. Features are important, but if they are quirky or buggy, its not much help. More importantly, software that has messy architecture is slow to evolve and slow add new features in the future. I have found that teams that value clear clean design also value clear clean architecture.
So yes, when I see poor icon design for a graphics application, I question if I should buy it. I'm not alone. I think it should be noted in the 200 application on my system, I can't think of a icon until Affinity that bothered me so much I'd look around for a forum to discuss it.
*I keep active software on my system covering the fields of illustration, graphics, CAD, electrical engineering, structural engineering, software development, web development, data science, and even chemistry).
You may be right with that. I do use Mac OS a bit, albeit not very often and prefer working on Linux and Windows, so I don't quite fit into Apple's style of doing things.
I have an old 2009 MacBook Pro that I rarely use for anything. I have bought the Affinity suite for Windows alone.
Many of the tools used professionally are an absolute mess, internally and visibily. Just have a look at SolidWorks, Altium, etc.
These gigantic apps have been receiving updates for decades now and while they do have a steep learning curve, you get used to them and start to like working with them.
Their UI usually is not even nearly as refined as for instance Serif's software is and the UX often requires professional training and a lot of time to get used to it.
In my perspective, Affinity's UI and UX are great. The UX is not too basic to be worthless doing productive work, but it is rather easy to get used to.
Surely, for a graphics application a good logo is one factor, but the experience is a lot more important.
As with all art, this logo has it's fans, but also a few people who don't quite like it.
There is always the possibility (in Windows at least) to just change the icon of the shortcut to one's own preference
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2 hours ago, voitek said:
I don't really understand why people don't like Affinity programs logos. They have their own style and are easily recognizable. People keep complaining how everything starts to look the same, but when something stands out they say it should look like everything else.
Very well said.
But in all seriousness, I would rather like Serif to implement a bunch of new features over a new logo. Features is what will finally get people interested. Not the logo.
I have never bought a program because of it's cover. As long as it feels and operates well - i.e. the UX is good - I am sold to the program.
And for the Affinity programs, this is true to me.
In fact, most programs I use daily look absolutely horrible and have an outdated logo. It does not matter. They work and they work well. This is what matters.
The Affinity programs are the most fancy looking ones I am using and I am glad they nailed the UI and UX on them that well.
Programs are there to help you get the job done at the end of the day, not to win a design contest, unless you are developing at Apple.
This generally reflects my opinion on mobile apps. They usually all look great. They all have a great icon. But so much time was spent on the looks, that they have barely any functionality. Most apps just don't do much. The apps that actually do a bunch on their own and don't upload to the cloud, mostly look terrible, because they actually cared more for what it does and not how it looks.
1 hour ago, MikeW said:I can hardly read (some) German. When I am immersed in setting French I can more or less make myself understand if I think hard enough. Russian? Nope. Czech? Nope.
It's not knowing a language that makes anyone a racist, or a ...phobe of one race or another. It's painting "them" with a broad and stereotypical brush.
I'll go crawl away now as is befitting of a 'murican that has been so thoroughly dressed down.
I am active in a lot of international forums. Usually, if they are in a foreigin language like Russian, I tend to just write in English and provide an automated translation to Russian.
I would do the same here. Write the post in your own language to make sure that there will not be any missunderstanding later and then use automated translation software to translate it to the forum's main language and append it to your post. This helps these, who don't speak your language and prevents missunderstandings.
Personally, I speak English and German. I am also able to read some French, but as soon as it comes to writing it, I just resort to the translator.
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5 minutes ago, Mithferion said:
My options here. Theses names will show the true potential the apps have:
- Affinity Vectors with Pixels
- Affinity Bitmaps with Lines
- Affinity for making Books and Whatnot
Best regards!
Nice naming ideas
But in all seriousness, I am pretty sure the software (except for maybe Publisher) is not going to be renamed.
AD and AP have now been out in the public for 2 to 3 years under their respective names. They have gained name recognition by now.
Generally, I can really only restate what I have said earlier:
QuoteI think that would end up in a complete mess.
Renaming it would just really hurt the name recognition and to be fair, what's so wrong with "Designer" and "Photo" anyhow?
There are already hundreds of tutorials and reviews out there that all use "Affinity Designer" and "Affinity Photo" as their name.
Imagine if Adobe now renamed Photoshop or Illustrator? Nobody would get the new names and link them to the old software.
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9 hours ago, Fixx said:
This is rather OT, but I really hate icons that have a hole in the center (Opera, ImgBurn). I try to drag&drop but nothing happens. Yep, I did hit the desktop part of the icon's center...
This is rather strange. I have just tried moving the opera icon by clicking into the transparent center of it and it moved fine in Windows 10.
EDIT:
Tried it with Windows 8.1 and moving the Opera icon by grabbing it in the center also just works fine. -
18 hours ago, taharvey said:
I got here from the google search "affinity designer icon ugly"
It is stand out bad icon design. It is not about flat or complex. It is down right the worst icon i've seen on a Mac application... Which is saying something.
Very amateurish. Mostly evokes messy graffiti, but not in a good way. It made me question the quality of the application. Yes, I like most people judge the book by its cover. Get a better cover, please!
I think the logos work just well. Look how well they blend in with the logos of other applications.
Also, I am not entirely sure what you are referring to as "graffiti"?
The logos are also flat and modern looking. I think you may be referring to the initial ones, which have been replaced since.
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5 hours ago, Petar Petrenko said:
Suggestion for names:
Affinity Vector or Affinity Lines
Affinity Bitmap or Affinity Pixels
Affinity Layout or Affinity Frames
EDITED
or maybe better to shorten the Affinity to "a" like in iMac so:
aVector / aLines
aBitmap / aPixels
aLayout / aFrames
I think that would end up in a complete mess.
Renaming it would just really hurt the name recognition and to be fair, what's so wrong with "Designer" and "Photo" anyhow?
There are already hundreds of tutorials and reviews out there that all use "Affinity Designer" and "Affinity Photo" as their name.
Imagine if Adobe now renamed Photoshop or Illustrator? Nobody would get the new names and link them to the old software.
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11 minutes ago, Fixx said:
HyperDither for mac is also quite good.
The normal problem with dither 1-bit images is that with small dot sizes it is hard to estimate dot growth when printing.
I will give it a try. However, I am only using Affinity on Windows.
Affinity having good control over the output file's DPI settings, should be able to handle dot sizes quite well, as long as you use correct DPI values.
It would really be great if such fine tuning of the already present function could be archived. I am sure they have the functionality there and just using predetermined values right now.
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I especially like the configuration options present in Brother's Qtouch Label Maker Software.
It has options for RGB-Filtering, Gamma-Correction and allows choosing between Raster, Error-Distribution, Corner and Binary for the conversion to black and white.
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Good evening and merry christmas!
I have just purchased Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, the latter during the End Of Year Sale and I am very statisfied, moving over from Adobe software that I have given up on, due to their new subscription-only business model that I was not happy with.
This request is primarily releated to Affinity Photo, but it would surely make a nice addition to Affinity Design too.
Having to use monochrome images for certain processes that can only print monochrome, I like dithering a lot. I was pleased to see that Affinity Photo comes with a monochrome dithering filter.
However, I am a bit disappointed that there is no configuration options for said filter, such as changing the type of dithering and adjusting other parameters associated with monochrome dithering.
I would be very pleased if a few more settings could be added with a future release.
Best regards,
Benedikt
Banding / Posterization on 10 bit test ramp image
in Feedback for Affinity Photo V1 on Desktop
Posted
I'd also love to see 16 bits per color rendered correctly on Mac.