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Hi, "personas"!
I am new to Affinity, but I am learning fast and now I need help. After learning how to use gradient tool, I was working on perspective and noticed that the gradient effect won't follow the changes (see image). 
I am using Affinity Design and the gradient was applied to simple shapes. I don't want to rasterise them.
Does anyone know how to make the gradient follow the changes? 
Thanks. Love, from Brazil

With the pixel layer selected...
1) Select Sampled Color... so that the background color is selected. Click the Apply button.
2) Invert Selection. Everything BUT the background color is selected.
3) In the Channels panel, right click the Pixel selection and choose Create Spare Channel.
4) Right click on the thumbnail of the newly created Spare Channel. Choose Load to Pixel Alpha.
This should make the background color transparent.

I want to be loved forever too!! 
Still want to see firstD's trapezoid example!
But, I think you just need to select all on the nodes you want to effect.... and pick an action center. No need to add the objects if udon't want.

Hello.
Is there an option in Photo and/or Designer to convert text to curves during opening of PDF file instead of finding substitute font? I have this kind of option in Canvas X but I cannot find similar feature in Affinity... maybe I am just blind...
 

With your ladder example: are you aware that AD's ability to snap to gaps and distances already makes this possible?
 
As a workaround for your illustrated example…
Draw a line from your blob to the 1sr node on the target shape. Select the line and the blob. Snap the line to the 2nd node of the target shape using the node tool. Delete the line.
 
NOTE: If you use the move tool the line will not snap to nodes but only the bounding box of the target.
 
Also ensure that Snap to Geometry is turned on.

Hi everyone,
 
Just to let you know I released my latest course. It's called Affinity Photo: Beginner to Pro via Reference and Workflow and is designed to answer one question: 'I've learned some of the tools with Affinity Photo, but how do I actually enhance an image, start to finish?'
 
I take you through the development of a series of photos using a variety of workflows. We start with a simple workflow that's just right for beginners then move on to more advanced workflows as the course progresses.
But there's a problem. Learning the when and why of an effective workflow is all well and good. But it's hard to learn the tools when you're learning about the workflow and it's near impossible to learn about the workflow when you're learning about the tools.
 
So I've done both. This course is divided into two sections. You get hours of tutorials which cover various workflows and approaches to developing photos. But you also get a huge reference section which covers the various tools that Affinity Photo has to offer. If there's a tool I'm using in the workflow videos, there's a video explaining just that tool in the reference videos. Two ways to learn Affinity Photo. Reference and workflow.
 
The course comes with a special introductory price. If you enter the coupon AP_BEGINNER_PRO  right under the video on the landing page where it says 'Have a coupon?' you can get the course for $11.99, which is even cheaper than the sale price Udemy is offering it for.
 
By the end of the course you will have seen and followed along with various effective workflows, start to finish. You will gain the confidence to tackle your own images, be able to select which workflow suits the photo best, and one day soon you may well be looking at one of your own photos which you've enhanced, and thinking 'That looks fantastic! I did that...'
 
I think it's only fair to say why this course is different to some of my other courses. For starters it's the longest Affinity Photo course I offer, but there's more to it than that. Affinity Photo: Solid Foundations is the original comprehensive introduction course that I created. It was designed to be the general purpose course that I'm sure people are familiar with - explain how to use the tools, give people exercises to consolidate their knowledge, talk a little around technical matters like how an image gets into your camera and so on.
 
Then there were courses like the RAW course and the Little Box of Tricks course which focussed on particular areas of image editing such as creating special effects.
But it was after a conversation I had with someone on the Affinity Photo forums who really wanted tutorials that concentrated on how to enhance a photo from start to finish. His field of interest was landscape photography so I released Affinity Photo: Developing Landscapes. It was different to the other courses in that it concentrated on the workflow. I was unsure about how it would be received because it was different to anything I'd done before. I was pleased that it got good ratings and comments at Udemy, so then I decided to do a longer and more general course which had workflow at it's center and so we now have Affinity Photo: Beginner to Pro via Reference and Workflow.
 
I realised from the Developing Landscape course that it needed a reference video section in a one tool/one video format as well as the workflow videos. If I didn't then I'd spend far too much time going into detail about what a tool does while I was also trying to explain a workflow. It would just get too confusing. So the new course is split into two sections. The workflow at the beginning, which is the primary intent of the course, and the reference section which is intended to supplement the workflow.
 
Now, if you already have the Solid Foundations course, you will already have seen most of the tools covered in the reference section and I wouldn't advise you to get the new course if a tool reference was all you wanted. But what I would say is that around 6.5 hours of the new course is devoted to various different workflows and I take a series of pictures from start to finish so you can see how the various different tools in Affinity Photo fit together to improve a picture. There are other courses about Affinity Photo at Udemy for the same asking price that are shorter than just the workflow section of my new course. So I believe I'm offering good value for money.
 
I hope that clears up any questions, but click on the link at the top of this post and go to the landing page for the course. There is an introductory video that explains what the course is about. That may help you further to decide whether to use your coupon to take advantage of the introductory price. Now, one last thing - Udemy are offering their own introductory price for the course. With the coupon you can get it for cheaper. Just enter BEGINNER_PRO_INTRO into the coupon field for the better price.
 
Thanks for your time,
Simon Foster
 
 

Thank you @Aammppaa

But you can change the colour of an artboard?!

 
Perhaps I misunderstood the request?

Why not? I'll pay for ADesigner and you'll pay for APhoto, then we can go testing beta version of APublisher afterwards. 100 quid spent in the pub and all sorted. :-)

I'd like to see the option to change a colour of an artboard when working in Designer.
At the moment I'm using extra colour-filled layer to work on design when artwork is in white. It works, but it's not ideal.
 
Thanks.

In vino veritas :-D
Cuivis dolori remedium est patientia* - it should be a motto for beta's splash screen.
--
* Patience is the cure for all suffer

£49 is only ~12 pints in the pub. Worth it!  

It's a pity some people push all the wrong buttons for their own agenda.
While you sit out for a while, Patrick, just remember that the vast majority of your customers, those who participate and those that don't, have no such agenda and likely, like myself, believe in Serif both as a company and as individuals such as yourself. I know I always have.
So thanks to you and the rest of the Serif people.
Mike

I'd like to see the option to change a colour of an artboard when working in Designer.
At the moment I'm using extra colour-filled layer to work on design when artwork is in white. It works, but it's not ideal.
 
Thanks.

Just want to add my voice to those asking for a true Hairline stroke weight. It's not just for vertical-market needs like cutting on NC devices. In the FreeHand days, Hairline was my default working stroke weight whenever drawing paths. It's absence in Illustrator is a pain in the neck to former FreeHand users, and I was delighted to find it in DrawPlus. It really needs to be added to Affinity Designer.
For those not familiar, the Hairline stroke weight always renders the finest line possible on whatever the output device is (be it the monitor or a printer). This is different from simply setting a small stroke weight because a Hairline setting does not scale as you zoom. So when you are trying to draw paths precisely, the path you're working on is always displayed at the same minimal weight that can be displayed as you zoom in and out. It effectively enables you to work in what Illustrator treats as a separate "outline" view mode just on the path you're currently working on, without losing the reference of all the already existing artwork styling.
I also routinely used it for special printer marks (fold marks, etc.) in the bleed areas.
Hairline stroke weight is also excellent for use in illustrating step-by-step procedures with screen captures because it lets you use color-coded construction and demo paths while capturing at any zoom.
This feature is yet another competitive opportunity to reveal to Illustrator-only users just how cumbersome that program has always been.
JET

1/4 divisions (giving us so the 22.5) should be already great for us.
In attachment some samples to show you why the 22.5° is so crucial for the Origami Designer community
Examples angle 2.5.afdesign

A question about the online Help files, and the newly added Google Search ability.
Suppose we open the online Designer help, and search for the word scrubby. Doing that, I get these search results from Google:
 
If I click on the Zoom Tool result, nowhere on that page can I find any of the preview text that Google provided for me.

As my local search of the Windows help for Designer does not include the word scrubby at all, I suspect that is only a Mac setting, which leads me to wonder if the online Help is perhaps based on the Windows help file, but the index is based on the Mac help file? Or is something else going on?
I can say that the online Help bears a strong resemblance to my local Designer help for Zoom Tool, but it is not identical:
My Help file has a box with the text "Tool shortcut: Z key". The online help has "Tool shortcut key: Z". Below that box, my local help has a box with the text "If you have a trackpad, you can use 'pinch to zoom' to zoom in and out at any time, regardless of tool selection." but that box/text is missing from the online help. So the online help seems to be missing parts of what may be Mac-specific info, but also seems to be missing part of the Windows info.
(I'm not sure why the Mac and Windows versions would have different capabilities for the Zoom Tool, but that would be a separate question.  )

Just recently completed another fun project using Designer exclusively.
I had this concept for a Madame Butterfly opera poster for awhile but really didn't feel like my previous app was up to it so I put it on the shelf until a few months back when I decided to tackle it in Designer. The look and feel I was shooting for was sort of like those rich coloured album cover airbrushed illustrations from the 70's and 80's. Where everything is soft and saturated. I was really pleased with the outcome and glad that I waited to do this in Designer.
Below are some screenshots, with more on my Behance site and there's also a short tutorial just uploaded by Affinity's Andy Capstick on the new Affinity Spotlight blog specifically on the creation of the eyes for this piece. Hope you like!
https://affinityspotlight.com/article/the-eyes-of-a-butterfly-with-kevin-house/
 

Thank you @retrograde for the tutorial. It's great!
And I like Spotlight – it's a good idea and I'm looking for more content there. 

I've attached two AD files containing templates:
[1] for creating icon/tile assets for a UWP app (if you can't use the Asset Generator of Visual Studio 2017);
[2] for creating Microsoft Store art.
Even if you use the Asset Generator you can still use the templates to see how your icon will look in various tile sizes/shapes.
(The attached image is just there so you can see what you get with the first set of templates.)
Basic instructions for each set of templates are included in the AD files themselves.
Both sets of templates were used for my own - very simple - little app...
* on the web: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/pipagen/9p44qw5l4vm8?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
* in the store: ms-windows-store://pdp/?productid=9P44QW5L4VM8
...so I know they work (at least as far as I've been able to see in normal usage).
Neither set of templates is comprehensive but they give you the basics for most general projects.

UWP Tiles Templates.afdesign
Microsoft Store Art Templates.afdesign

#3 What can be done, when a font doesn’t support polish (foreign) chars
 

Hello folks, three more tutorials this week for you, enjoy!
 
Curves Picker - https://vimeo.com/154293467
Vector Lighting - https://vimeo.com/152576339
Simple Gradients - https://vimeo.com/152558498
 
Thanks,
James

Hey guys and gals, checkout my short tutorial "The Eyes of a Butterfly" just uploaded to the blog! 
https://affinityspotlight.com/article/the-eyes-of-a-butterfly-with-kevin-house/

Sure. 
I start by creating a solid basic shape ( rectangle, circle ). Next, I mask it to fit the portion I need to colour. I always use blending modes, soft light being the most used. I usually work on just one layer of colour per "basic" parts (like the book, background, dress) and about 10 different layers for skin, with different opacity and different colours, trying to mimic the "SSS - subsurface scattering" of the skin. 
SSS is mainly a 3D rendering technique, but we still need to make the character to look "alive" rather than Waxy. ( Reddish skin on the ears, yellowish/reddish close to the bones, more desaturated for "shadows" areas, etc)

Hand detail:

My subscription expires in September, but I have decided to cancel it now. A***e gave me 3 last months for free to change my mind. I won't. :-)