4dimage

Thanks for the report, I've logged this

This was reported on 27 November 2022, it is now 02 December 2022.  Six (6) days have passed.
What is the current status?
Is there a fix? 
Is there a software update?
What has been accomplished so far?
This software remains unusable!!

I never modify the permissions for the WindowsApps folder, as doing so will likely allow privilege escalation.  So the answer is yes, they will work when users have not modified the permissions of the WindowsApps folder
If a user tries to navigate to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps through Windows File Explorer, then they will see a warning saying "You don't currently have permission to access this folder".
What the OP is doing though is pasting the path to the Affinity folder in the Windows File Explorer address bar, which is launched by the Windows Security app when clicking the "Add an allowed app" button.  I.E. When pasting one of the below in the address bar, it will navigate directly to that folder location without displaying the permissions warning and will allow selecting the required exe to add to the allow list (assuming the app is installed).
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPublisher2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App Adding allowed applications using PowerShell or Group Policy will also work fine with default folder permissions.
 

Maybe this tutorial helps to understand the data merge
 

Hi @erchdk, @4dimage,
I've reproduced the issue here and filling a bug report.
Thanks for your feedback/support.

Thanks @AlainP@4dimage for pointing out it's file format specific on Windows, I've now logged this with the developers for resolution.

Difficult to get a clue without further infos🤔
Maybe here is some hint:
 
Does any App splash screen appear when trying to start or don't you see anything at all.

 
Can you try to open the windows event log and check if any errors or warnings are loged in one of the lists after you tried to start one of the apps:


 
And: what is your Windows version and hardware configuration?
 
 

Hi Rene. FYI this has been reported by many others so it's already on Serif's list. The workaround for now is to convert the warp group to curves before exporting to PDF. I tested this with your document and it worked fine.
If you may need to edit the text again in the future, don't save the document after converting to curves, or better yet, duplicate the layer and hide one copy.
Cheers

Erste Schritte > Ändern der Zoomstufe | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/GetStarted/zoom.html
Seiten, Layoutseiten und Sektionen > Hinzufügen, Anordnen und Entfernen von Seiten | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/Pages/addDeletePages.html
Seiten, Layoutseiten und Sektionen > Master-Seiten - Erweitert > Anwenden von Master-Seiten | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/Pages/applyMasterPages.html
Zeichnen von Kurven und Formen > Zeichnen von Kurven und Formen | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/draw_linesAndShapes.html
Zeichnen von Kurven und Formen > Bearbeiten von Kurven und Formen | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/edit_linesAndShapes.html
Zeichnen von Kurven und Formen > Auswählen und Ausrichten von Knoten | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/select_align_nodes.html
Farbe > Bearbeiten von Verläufen | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/Clr/gradientEditor.html | In the online help file this is called "Verlaufs- und Bitmapfüllungen
Arbeiten mit Objekten > Verbinden von Objekten | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/ObjectControl/join.html
Arbeiten mit Objekten > Isolieren von Objekten | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/ObjectControl/isolating.html
Arbeiten mit Objekten > Wiederholen von Objekten in einem Raster | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/ObjectControl/objectGrids.html  |  In the online help this is called "Schnelle Raster"
Text > Text auf Pfaden | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/Text/pathText.html
Text > Textrahmen > Textfluss in Rahmen | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/Text/flowingText.html
Text > Features für Zeichen > Zeichenabstand und Unterschneidung | https://affinity.help/publisher2/de.lproj/pages/Text/trackingKerning.html
Oh dear, this is enough for today. Rest still unchecked.

Hi,
there are some heavy bugs concerning compound pathes created from text (text to curves) that affect standard boolean operations as well as the new shape builder. Affinity seems to have recognized all the different posts concerning these bugs and is working on it.
Meanwhile i tried different workarounds to get shapes from artistic text in Affinity itself that can be used with boolean operations properly. Unfortunately didn't find any appropriate conversion workaround that maintained the original shape.
 
But i found this workaround - until Serif fix these bugs
I had installed Inkscape already - sometimes use this for preparing SVG drawings for web programming.
Inkscape is a free, open source vector drawing software: https://inkscape.org/
 
Now the trick:
1) Important: in your Affinity app prefs set clipboard -> copy elements as SVG !!!
2) Create artistic text in e.g. Affinity Designer. Convert text to curves. Copy curves to clipboard.
3) Open Inkscape with a new empty document. Paste clipboard to Inkscape document. The shape now apears unchanged in the Inkscape document workplane. Copy shape from Inkscape back to clipboard.

 
4) Paste clipboard to Affinity Designer. Now you have a group in your layers panel containing the shape that was pasted into the document. Drag the relevant vectors out of the group. Now you have the visualy same shape back in Designer. But the internal path description seems somwhere to have changed during this cliboard copy/paste action.
The pasted shape from Inkscape can now be used with boolean operations (e.g. subtract rectangle, cogweel or cat from compound letter shapes).

 
Here is a little recipe:
boolean-operations-path-from-text-workaround_1-2.afdesign

 
By the way: Inkscape is an open source project. The software is free.
Anyway, you may decide to make some donation to this project - they deserve it.
I donated 50 EUR last week (not kidding!) because Inkscape manages to export a simple DIN A4 document (210 x 297 mm) to PDF with exact 210,00 x 297,00 mm document size. Without any hassle! Affinity has still (old v1 problem, now in v2 still the same) rounding bugs when exporting to PDF.
e.g. look this
 

Hi @MxHeppa,
Thanks for reporting this.
We are already aware of this issue and have it logged with the Dev team  

@Michael Tronn You have likely once activated the character background color:

Now this setting is likely saved as your Artistic Text tool defaults which is why it appears with every new text.
Here you can learn how to work with object defaults:
affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/pages/ObjectControl/objectDefaults.html

The Affinity file format is interoperable. You can open a file in all three apps - allthough of course not all tools are present in each app. If you have all three apps in some projects you may use Publisher as a kind of layout design central and either switch to Publisher or Photo persona. Or from each app choose the file -> open with… command.

Hi,
there are some heavy bugs concerning compound pathes created from text (text to curves) that affect standard boolean operations as well as the new shape builder. Affinity seems to have recognized all the different posts concerning these bugs and is working on it.
Meanwhile i tried different workarounds to get shapes from artistic text in Affinity itself that can be used with boolean operations properly. Unfortunately didn't find any appropriate conversion workaround that maintained the original shape.
 
But i found this workaround - until Serif fix these bugs
I had installed Inkscape already - sometimes use this for preparing SVG drawings for web programming.
Inkscape is a free, open source vector drawing software: https://inkscape.org/
 
Now the trick:
1) Important: in your Affinity app prefs set clipboard -> copy elements as SVG !!!
2) Create artistic text in e.g. Affinity Designer. Convert text to curves. Copy curves to clipboard.
3) Open Inkscape with a new empty document. Paste clipboard to Inkscape document. The shape now apears unchanged in the Inkscape document workplane. Copy shape from Inkscape back to clipboard.

 
4) Paste clipboard to Affinity Designer. Now you have a group in your layers panel containing the shape that was pasted into the document. Drag the relevant vectors out of the group. Now you have the visualy same shape back in Designer. But the internal path description seems somwhere to have changed during this cliboard copy/paste action.
The pasted shape from Inkscape can now be used with boolean operations (e.g. subtract rectangle, cogweel or cat from compound letter shapes).

 
Here is a little recipe:
boolean-operations-path-from-text-workaround_1-2.afdesign

 
By the way: Inkscape is an open source project. The software is free.
Anyway, you may decide to make some donation to this project - they deserve it.
I donated 50 EUR last week (not kidding!) because Inkscape manages to export a simple DIN A4 document (210 x 297 mm) to PDF with exact 210,00 x 297,00 mm document size. Without any hassle! Affinity has still (old v1 problem, now in v2 still the same) rounding bugs when exporting to PDF.
e.g. look this
 

Hi @JacekSwierczek,
I have done some further testing.
AutoCAD does open the drawing with the model's units set to unitless (not mm). This is expected.
Illustrator imports the drawing with the units set to pts.
From your posts above, it sounds like Inkscape and and CorelDRAW default to mm.
To remove any further confusion, I have added a units combo to the import options when importing the model, to simulate the AutoDesk application setting described above.  It is not present for paper space layouts (the "pages" in the import option) because they can only be in inches, mm or pixels, and shouldn't be overridden.
The change will be available in the next update.

Hi @4dimage,
Many thanks for linking your topic on this as i'm able to replicate this issue using your file and since my previous post on a new document using Arial Text converted to curves. This is currently logged with the developers, I've added both report(s) and additional details for consideration.

Hi Nathan,
i couldn't reproduce this crash since then. It seems there where some problems when changing the inital panel layout after install. I rearranged the layout in alle three apps anyway and until now had no similar crashes. Maybe some unhappy coincidence with the new UI system and hardware acceleration. I see this as solved 🙂

Please, before do your commentary, see the video til the end.
This is the very oldest Affinity BUG. Perhaps the first of hundreds. Outlived all Affinity updates since 2016. It was never fixed.
Unlike Photoshop, Affinity has no EDIT/PURGE menu. I know, because I've been working with Affinity since its launch in 2016. I've reported this BUG before, but nothing has been done.
Please, please, please, please, add a EDIT / PURGE menu in Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher, like Photoshop do.
What is the problem?
Create any file with Affinity Photo, with several objects (bitmaps and vectors), save the file, close Affinity. Then open Affinity again and try making changes to the file, like deleting bitmap objects, for example. You will notice that the file size does not decrease even after deleting all the objects. Watch the video until the end.
I mentioned it to a friend, and he recommended that I post the video on YouTube, so the people at Serif take action. But I decided to give the people at Serif one more chance, to see if this time they fix the first Affinity BUG, which has survived undefeated for seven years until today.
Affinity does not decrease file size after exclusion of objects.mp4 01 Original file.afphoto

Hello @Komatös,
thanks for your reply.
But in your video I can see the same bug. Look carefully and let's analyze it.
The first cut leaves behind some curves. It's the line outside the fonts. The left side of & isn't cut. You can check this with the Node tool (press CTRL+Y to see if you use Windows).

The second cut only works with the left side of B. The right side of B and & aren't cut, despite you have selected all three elements.

A correct cut is this:

Correct Cut.mp4 But I've noticed that it works correctly only with a straight fonts (A in the last video is totally straight). Instead, with the other shapes I haven't see any bugs for now.
Eventually sorry for my english and thanks for your attention.
 

Tried to find a workaround with several path conversions. Used the "old fashioned" montage group with boolean subtract for testing this.
boolean-operations-path-from-text-workaround_1-1.afdesign
The only workaround that produced "correct" pathes from text was to convert all vertices in the text -> path to "smart" vertices. Whatever "smart" means ?!
Then the boolean operation (subtract rectangle from letter shapes) works as expected. Unfortunately the original shape is terribly deformed and can not longer be used...
There must be something special with these vectors from text 🤔

 

I am not a graphical designer like most of you, but the founder and managing director of a rather big international industry, operating in IT and electronics.
I remained fascinated by the Affinity Forum atmosphere, from so many enthusiasts believing in a nice dream of an alternative to big brands, and from the help that many of you gave me promptly when I needed (we have a graphic team internally, but I create personally most of the many documents of my company).
So I decided to force a switch in my company from Ado to Affinity (few licenses, not a big deal for anybody), and was in some way proud of it, giving my microscopic help to a growing and "different" software house.
V2 changed deeply my attitude: trusting Serif, I jumped on it immediately, but I had to understand that there were very few improvements, albeit sold as extraordinary, a dramatic drop in stability, few euros to pay, and no way back.
It is a little sad: David didn't bring down Goliath, but has learnt something from him... 
Perhaps the reality is that software development is really expensive, and the Serif formula could not be sustained in long periods, without some tricks like the bigs. I can understand that even too well, and don't blame; many companies are forced to do that growing.
Certainly Serif hat dissipated a great deal of trust and empathy.

Unfortunately. In Windows 11, A2, A1, A0, DL, 2xDL are not present in the presets, and later selection is also not possible. In version V1 these options were present.

With a file opened, if you press the Document Setup button (or File > Document Setup), you'll find all presets there.

iPadOS:
Swipe down from top right of screen to display the Control centre and tap the Record button.
You may need to add the screen recording option to the Control centre first. To do this open Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls, then tap the + next to Screen Recording.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/ipad/ipaddf78ce08/ipados macOS:
See this Apple support article:
https://support.apple.com/HT208721 Windows 10:
You can use built in Windows 10 feature designed for recording gameplay.
To get started, simply press the Windows Key + G Key. Doing this will open the Windows 10 Game Bar. (If nothing happens, that means you need to go to the Windows Store and download the Game Bar app. If it still doesn’t load, click on Start – Settings – Gaming – Game Bar and make sure it’s turned On) To start recording, click the Start Recording button (the circle with the black dot). Alternatively, you can press Windows Key + Alt + R. You will now see a small recording icon in the top right hand of your screen. At any point you can click the Stop button to stop recording, or you can press Windows Key + Alt + R again to stop it. To access your new recording, go to This PC, Videos, then Captures. You’ll find all of your new saved recordings there. By default, your recordings will be named after whichever program you have open and in view at the time.
Windows 11:
Use the Snipping Tool built into Windows 11 to record your screen.
In the taskbar Search field, type Snipping Tool and click the search result. Select the Video camera icon (Record). Draw a selection over the entire screen or just the app. Click the Start button in the top center of the selection. Record your workflow and when finished click the Stop button. Click the Save icon in the top right or CTRL+S and specify your save location Close the Snipping Tool Now browse to the save location to retrieve the file to send.

affinity text vector boolean bug.mp4    
 
affinity typography proj.afdesign