8BitCerberus

I would be keen to see Serif put out a survey to determine who would buy a linux version. Affinity is the last bastion that keeps me locked into either Mac or Windows, everything else I use runs in Linux. And I love Affinity so much that I would buy it again on Linux. The work Wanesty and others have done is so incredible — I'm so grateful — but a native port of the software would be something I would pay for in a flash. I understand it's likely not commercially viable (but maybe it is, there is likely no data to make a determination at the moment).

ugh.. if only a distro agnostic way of distributing packages existed :(
(it does. https://flatpak.org/ https://flathub.org/en)

My understanding is that flatpak combines all the parts and dependencies into one package that can then be easily installed and run on most linux flavors. It does not however deal with making a windows or mac file run on Linux.

For Android and iPad, sure. Not much choice in the matter. As a general rule for my desktops and laptops, however? No.

For Android and iPad, sure. Not much choice in the matter. As a general rule for my desktops and laptops, however? No.

For Android and iPad, sure. Not much choice in the matter. As a general rule for my desktops and laptops, however? No.

I can't stand it when applications can't be installed in definable paths.
I want full control where what is installed.
Please provide the usual installers again (EXE or MSI).
Thanks

The... uhh... artboard/page. Seems someone with allegedly 3 decades of experience and knows Quark and InDesign inside and out would, you know... know this. The blue line is the margin indicator, same way it's done in InDesign.
Yeah it's a bit annoying but it's not showing by default, you have to go to View > Show Bleed. Not "Show Guides" they're two separate options.
Add a mask to the image.
This one plagued me for awhile. And it certainly works very different from Adobe. But it's just a different way of thinking about it, make sure your leading is set in BOTH the character and paragraph panel.
Couldn't find the Pantone color palette in ... the color palette picker? Ok.I realize it's different from InDesign but come on, it's not that difficult. I don't remember if the Swatches panel is active by default, it's been a minute since I set my workspace up, but once it's active, I find it far easier/more intuitive to change palettes in Designer than in InDesign (it's been about 20 years since I've used Quark so I have no idea how it's done currently). Does this person, of allegedly 30 years of design experience... not change their default workspace in InDesign/Quark to better match their workflow and personal preferences? That's straight up bizarre to me, if they don't, I've never met anyone that does this professionally that doesn't in my 20+ years in the field.

Adobe always does their own thing to break standard/open formats and make them only work with their programs. They do the same with svg and even tiff. It’s been a source of great frustration for me the past couple decades as a graphic designer and web designer working with them and trying to integrate standards compliant software/technology.

Pariah73: Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Serif and Affinity. I use their products daily to produce work. I even bought products (Publisher, iPad Designer and Photo) that I can't/don't use just to support the company and its wonderful efforts. Here's the concern: When we bring up these basic features that are missing, there is no feedback or response. Will they be added at some point or not? Is the company hearing daily users? Do they realize that while we can work around or live with missing features for a while, it would be nice to know that someone is listening and perhaps if and when they might be coming. Just that would make all the difference. In any relationship, communication is the key 🙂. BTW, the snarky comments from Affinity preview version testers — I am not referring to you — who seem to regard themselves as our betters, don't help and just turn people off. Just FYI. 

I think that it's less "kids acting like spoiled brats" and more like the parents knowing that their kids are capable of so much, yet disappointed when they refuse to grow up and be great.

I would use APu with AP, but I recommend buying AD also. The more experienced you get, the more options you would possibly need. All three applications with the Studio Link feature are a powerful package.

Why don't you just Export a PSD if you need to share something with Adobe users?
(Some things, such as editable text, won't work, but that would be true if Affinity saved PSD information into a TIFF, too.)
In any case, I doubt that Serif would do that, as the format of the PSD data in TIFF is probably even less documented than the format of PSD data itself. But I don't know that for sure; it's just a guess.
But if you want that function, you should request it in the Feature Requests forum, where the Developers will see it.

The TIFF format does not really support layers. However, it allows an application to provide additional, application-specific proprietary data that other applications will ignore.
If you choose to export a TIFF file with "Affinity Layers" that's what you get. A normal TIFF with everything flattened, plus the Affinity-specific data that only Affinity can understand. It's not quite, but almost like, having a TIFF file with a .afphoto file embedded in it.
That's exactly what Photoshop does to create a layered TIFF. It's a standard TIFF with (approximately) a PSD file in it. And because Affinity knows how to import PSD files it can provide access to the special Photoshop data.
Only Affinity can read .afphoto files, so Photoshop only sees the flattened image if you ask it to read a TIFF that contains Affinity Layers.
 

I know the original post was from 2017 when this option wasn’t available, but if you want to avoid cloud services and using iTunes, now it’s possible with the Files app to connect to a local network share or NAS, and you can copy files that way. Affinity’s file browser currently doesn’t see them yet, hopefully in an update we’ll get the full Files app functionality, so you can’t directly save to a network share (nor open files from a network share). But as a workaround for the time being, you can save them to any location on you iPad, then switch over to the Files app and copy it to the network share you have mounted.
Edit: Another option that again wasn’t available in 2017, is to use a USB stick or HDD/SSD. And again, the Affinity file browser doesn’t see these when mounted, so you’ll have to use the same workaround above, just copying to the mounted drive instead of a network share.

Hi Asyle,
Welcome to the forums
Unfortunately the EPS format doesn't support any kind of transparency. Illustrator is only able to do it because Adobe embeds an Ai file inside the EPS which retains the transparency. 
I recommend using another format that supports transparency, such as PDF. I hope this helps!

It’s doing that because you used the gradient overlay, instead of using the gradient tool to fill the color as a gradient. I’m not sure why, specifically, they would be treated differently, but I just tested with both and when I use the gradient tool it works as you are expecting, but using the gradient overlay fx it works as you are currently experiencing.

@MdmMTL, from looking at the images you posted, it seems like you would rather need Affinity Designer than Affinity Photo, because all of this looks more like vector art. Photoshop is often “misused” as general graphic design tool just because people are used to it (and has therefore als evolved into a bloated “jack of all trades”) where other tools, like Illustrator, would actually be the better tool for the job. Likewise, if you are creating graphic art, Affinity Designer is the tool that is more suited for the job.
And regarding this:
This can only be true if you compare one monthly installment for AI and PS with the price for an eternal license of AP and AD. Historically, Photoshop alone has cost around $800 per eternal license, if I remember correctly. That’s way more than the $50–$60 you’d pay for Affinity Photo, for an eternal license. And given that you’d now “rent” PS you’d pay more over time than for owning AP.

Hi MdmMTL,
Welcome to the forums
The app is a one time purchase until the next full version at which point you will have the option to keep the version you have or purchase again for future updates. This means you will get all updates for free until version 2.0, to give perspective on this Affinity Designer came out 5 years ago and is currently on version 1.7 which means anyone who purchased on day one has had free updates for 5 years.
Thanks
Callum

Having both the iPad and Desktop versions, sometimes it would be nice to have consistency between them, but so far I haven’t had much trouble finding my way around the iPad versions. 
However this just blew my mind:
 How do you not? Do you start from scratch for everything, with each new piece? Do you not have recurring clients that have things like logos and common graphics like social media icons or UI elements you need to use over and over in other designs and mockups? Do you just keep cluttered files of common symbols to copy and paste from?
As a working designer, the symbols and assets are a godsend. I’ve been using them since they were first introduced into Illustrator so many years ago, and they’ve become a sort of bare minimum requirement for my consideration of alternate programs. I used to keep those cluttered files of symbols and logos, UI elements, social media icons, etc. It’s so much better having them built in and available right from the program, even if just to save the hassle of having to navigate through my file system to open them.

This is something we are aware of. It will get addressed.

Not only that, you don't have to come up with passwords either, it is automatically generated with given specifications.

Dear Andy,
 
Since barely no one actually replied to the requirements that you asked for I will do my best to answer them:
1 - The obvious distro that you would have to target/develop for is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is Debian-based but there's plenty of other distros based on it. The most popular distros besides Ubuntu are usually based on Ubuntu (ex. Mint). So if you develop for Ubuntu, your software would automatically be compatible with the vast majority of Linux distros.
This brings other advantages because Ubuntu offers something that no other Linux distro does: predictability. Every two years there's a Long-Term-Support release. This LTS release is then installed in servers, end-user PCs, etc. It is THE base for two years for the majority of Linux distros and it offers stability. Also, the second most popular Linux distro - Linux Mint - is based on Ubuntu LTS releases and they don't change their base for those two years. Effectively, Ubuntu LTS releases are the core for most Linux users.
2 - With desktop topology, I assume you are mentioning Desktop Environment? Well, if so you are in luck. Canonical has discarded their Unity desktop environment and is again using the main-line Gnome desktop environment. Therefore, you should support the Gnome Desktop Environment.
This is the obvious choice since it is the base desktop environment of Ubuntu 18.04, but its development is heavily funded by Red Hat (now belongs to IBM). The only other alternative would be Plasma (based on Qt) but they are not supported by the two biggest open-source companies in the world (Canonical and Red Hat).
3 - Deployment (paid) platform where we would recoup our development costs. Someone else already mentioned this but you should definitely use the Snapcraft platform. Snaps are a package format which is a bundle of your app and dependencies that works without modification across Linux. Snaps are discoverable and installable from the Snap Store, an app store with an audience of millions. You can create snaps from apps you’ve already built and zipped, or your preferred programming language or framework (this includes C/c++, Java, Electron, Go, Rust, etc...).
The Snap package format is accessible by default in all Ubuntu installations starting from the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and directly available from the Ubuntu software store. Also, Snaps can be easily accessed even by non-Ubuntu based distros and you don't have to do anything to make it compatible to other distros since the dependencies required are bundled with the app, so no conflicts arise.
Also Snaps auto-update and work like app formats for other platforms (ex. .apks for Android).
Here's an infographic from Snaps

Canonical's Snap Store has apps - this includes paid proprietary apps - from major publishers. Examples include Plex Media Server, Windows Powershell (!), Visual Studio Code and Android Studio, Only Office, Slack, Mailspring, Spotify.
Proprietary graphics software is also being released as Snaps. This includes Polarr. As you can see their developers followed a strategy similar to what I outlined for you.
It also includes Gravit Designer.
 
Ofcourse, there'll be challenges and I cannot guarantee you that if you invest 500.000$ into this that you'll be able to recoup your investment. I don't know your financial health, nor your budget or 3-year business plan.
There's always a degree of risk in every investment. However, be aware that plenty of companies that launched their proprietary software in Linux thought it was a worthy investment. Namely, Valve launched Steam and they keep investing and improving the Linux graphics stack including OpenGL support, Vulkan support and D3D to Vulkan support. Many gaming companies still release numerous ports for Linux (the Total War strategy games from Creative Assembly, the Tomb Raider series, etc).
I cannot run your company but if you were truly interested, a solid strategy plan would have to be outlined. However, I am certain that if you approached Canonical they would support you on this endeavour since they would also be interested in having professional proprietary software in their Snap store. They would probably collaborate in marketing your software and spread awareness about Affinity in social media and websites with enormous following like OMGUbuntu! would advertise Affinity software endlessly. If you consider this investment not only as a product launch but as integrating your marketing strategy then it would probably justify the investment.
 
Hopefully my reply is enough to convince that this might be a worthy endeavour.
Pedro Rosmaninho