kirk23

Wonder if those betas are still available? I miss the feature very much. I recall Creation House Expression which is not working on Mac anymore and I can't find Windows version too. It was a super cool feature there where you could do not only simple edge feather but even feather + noise giving a lot of interesting effects. Microsoft then killed it when turned the soft into their "Design" version.

Thanks a lot Dave, I missed Cmd feature somehow. As of linked layers I actually hoped for something like layer transform links in Photoshop for the start. So I could scale/move a selected group container together with a certain mask layer in a certain mask stack inside other independent group to subtract something in sync there. It's possible to do in Photoshop for example with its clipping groups and link chains. Or maybe even an ability for a mask or a layer to be a live sum (or any other math formula with a special text based interface) of certain arbitrary composition of any chosen layers residing within different group containers or attached to different parents and still being scaled/moved in sync.

Or almost live like in Photoline. Don't think it's too complex thing to do since we always could do same manually . Still would be much easier to have an automatic solution

Would love such a feature working as effect, in both Design and Photo, probably as one more checkbox in Blur effect blurring only alpha of an object. Would be much more helpful than Photoshop styled mask feather which annoys me with doing redundant mask first. You could see an example in Photoline where you can choose on what channel the blur effect works exactly . Not that I couldn't do same manually with blurring mask things, same as in Photoshop but it takes me annoying amount of extra manipulations. I'd like it to be just a part of same live effect.

There is a free "Scan" app for Windows https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/windows-scan/9wzdncrfj3pv

It's request of course. Still hope we will see them soon.

I am patiently waiting when a few promised before features would appear. But times have come and pass and no more even mentioning about them anywhere 1. linked layers or any other way we could link a layer appearance and transforms to a sum of certain other layers independently. 2. Scaling around a center of transforms like in Photoshop/ Photoline etc By the way Photoline did a cool "match color" adjusting layer , Would be cool to have same as "live" effect .

I am patiently waiting when a few promised before features would appear. But times have come and pass and no more even mentioning about them anywhere 1. linked layers or any other way we could link a layer appearance and transforms to a sum of certain other layers independently. 2. Scaling around a center of transforms like in Photoshop/ Photoline etc By the way Photoline did a cool "match color" adjusting layer , Would be cool to have same as "live" effect .

1,. feathering edges of bitmap objects as effect 2. multi repeating parts in image brush dialog. Those were two cool features of Draw Plus. Why they didn't make their way into Designer?

ok, Thanks a lot Alfred

Thanks Alfred. Does it work with and able to export 16 bit images? Or perhaps I could compose the document in Draw plus using feather with bitmap objects and then open it in Affinity Design, then replace with original 16 bit source keeping all the transforms intact to be then saved as 16 bit image? Does Design read Draw plus files with full editability?

Does Draw Plus have similar multiple blending modes and 16 bit support? I want paired vector soft for Windows but not sure Design is what I need since it's lacking "feather" option and If I am not wrong it was in Draw plus. Can I still download Draw plus trial version or something?

Imo It's a main feature of Affinity Photo. I mean an ability to update embedded "smart" objects immediately and not waiting forever saving them as in Photoshop . It works more or less ok in released version ( after you zoom in or out a bit) but in customer beta nothing helps , some embedded docs are updated , other copy of them are not at all whatever I do. It kind of erodes the very case I moved to AP from Photoshop. Hope it's just a bug to be fixed . ps. It's not a file specific problem.

I am a huge fan of Xara too. Would it has 16bit grayscale image support and a bit more blending modes I would never look at AD probably. Everything is so easy and super quick in Xara. Here is my list of things from Xara I miss very much when open Designer: 1. Feather slider 2. An ability to instantly work with bitmaps as it would be a bitmap fill , scale, rotate , tile ,shift the pixels within vector borders without any masks or other head aches 3. Names. A kind of inheritable tags you can do for every object and then quickly select, find, sort , switch on and off multiple objects by its tags/names. it's almost Photoshop layer comps kind of functionality

Please add an option to Gaussian Blur effect to blur only layer /group transparency . in both Design and Photo. For Design blurring the vector borders of image, not filling image alpha itself. Much like "feather" option works in Xara and I saw something similar in older Serif soft too. It's actually very convenient thing to work with and a great time saver. I am missing it a lot.

Please make at least 5-10 different repeating parts, much like old Serif Draw does and make an order of those parts truly random for each new stroke or drivable by pressure. It was so cool feature I don't understand how could it be missing. I love it since Creative house Expression time

Smart objects in Photoshop have much more options to do with than embedded docs in AP. Offset wrap for example. Besides they could keep links to outer files . Still I love how AP embedded docs updates instantly. It's a greatest feature of AP.

Yeah. Layer comps are very much missed . They are one of the greatest thing in Photoshop. Could be just layer tags with ability to show only certain tag or something. Would be also nice if those comps could be savable as a chosen channels within output file or a certain side files in export persona

I think "embedded" layers already behave that way. What I meant is rather an ability to make live masks based on some formula computations /expressions like layerA*layerB/layerC without necessity to keep them visible or be all in a same stack and having their own transform relations through a whole document. Could perfectly work without nodes. Pretty much same way as 3d objects in Blender could be set any time as unique, or instanced to another object with whatever parent/child or deform relations I would want. Wonder why such a basic idea in any 3d soft have never made its way into image editors.

Well, perhaps you meant something specifically for photographers, I am not sure. I work for CG industry, not photography. And form my point of view anything precious PS introduced during last decade was available elsewhere first. For example content aware fill first appeared as a gimp plugin done by Paul Harrison years before. Seamless panorama stitching was also a few sets of open source tools. I used one done by a guy from Ukraine when PS was around number 7. And regarding non existent functionality, it actually exists in Maya,3ds max ,Blender. Substance Designer/Painter, Fusion, After effect, Mari and so on and on, In fact any 3d soft could be an incredible image editor with limitless possibilities, just lacking a few important traditional "2d" conveniences. I still use Blender whenever I need complicated image "mesh' deform and needless to say that any Photoshop filter is pathetic comparing to what is available with shader node network. Why we still don't have node based filter constructors built within every image editor or simply some programmable dependencies in between layers is beyond me. Looks like Houdini, Clarissa or even Blender have a good chance to be a next big "image editor" rather than what Adobe would do with Photoshop.

I just think being a cheaper clone of Photoshop is not enough. Photoshop itself is IMO hardly innovative during last decade. Too stubborn,conservative of afraid of anything new. Way behind of what I currently need for image editing. It's why I bought AP + AD , in the hope and support of something more modern and innovative. But looks like my expectations are never going to meet with reality. My hope now is that Adobe would probably feel the threat and wake up. Like it happened few years ago with Autodesk when Blender became somehow more advanced and easy to work with than both 3d max and Maya. We see non stop fountain of new ideas and advancements since that in 3d software.

I am also curious why we don't hear anything about linked layers? Would it be like linked smart objects in Photoshop, or linked means some advanced dependencies in between layers within same document? I have to say I am gradually losing my interest and hope to Affinity Photo. It definitely has a few advantages but I still feel more comfortable in Photoshop. Those advanced features that could truly rival Photoshop look like never coming.

Xara has super cool feature " names" . In fact it's tags you can give any object and then, if you copy or crop a part of that object , the copy inherits the tags. A special panel allow to select all objects having specific tag "name" . I love that system and very much prefer it to Photoshop pretty limited color coding . Please Affinity, do something like that. It would allow to make a certain "Layer comps" in terms of Photoshop

Discovered one more super cool APhoto advantage over Photoshop. Embedded images being replaced with equal form factor but higher ress images stay same size. So helpful when you do a composition of quickly rendered elements, done in smaller resolution, and then want to replace them with final hi-ress ones. Inability to keep the size of smart objects is what have always drove me crazy in Photoshop. Photoline has same problem too. Please Affinity, do that "layers linking" or any way to make special transform links in between layers. It's only thing that keeps AP from being a great image composer. Do it in Designer if your prefer and I will buy Designer windows version.

A great advantage of AP over Photoshop is how quickly it works with 16 bit embedded images to make resolution independent compositions within more or less non-destructive workflow. At least on Mac. With Windows version I am not that happy. Updating 16-32 bit hi-res enough smart/linked objects in Photoshop may take forever, even with compression off. In fact it's a pure torture to work that way there. And now, when every single image in CG industry must have depth channel stored within 16 bit at least, Photoshop looks like something really slow and ancient. Photoshop is so much behind current necessities of modern CG industry I puzzled it's still so widely used. What they tried to do with 3d painting mode and timeline is absolutely ridiculous as if they never see how armies of artists work for game or movie productions. Well, there are a plenty of dedicated tools for those tasks so let's just focus on image composing , not video composing, just image one. Imo it's what any image editing soft should do best so why lacking basic tools directly influencing this main task . In fact I am still keeping my hopes on AP with promised "advanced layer linking" Just gradually getting suspicious we would never see it or it never be anything advanced.