KipV

Great release !
Another nail for the Illustrator coffin.

Yes, I agree now too. I think the original post was from three years ago before I tried good competitors like Capture One Pro and especially Capture One Pro 20.1. I still think they have a little ways to got in order to become a major player in with Desktop Publishing.

I have the opposite experience. The Develop extension will not save edits to raw photos but the Edit in Affinity extension does - most of the time. But since the Edit in Affinity extension cannot be relied upon to save edits every time, and since the Develop extension cannot fulfil its primary purpose which is to develop raw photos, I no longer use either within Apple Photos. 

Hard to say how much the issue is with Apple and how much with Affinity. That said, the On1 Photo Raw extension works flawlessly with Apple photos as does External Editors for Photos (dates back to High Sierra days but still works with Catalina ....not bad for a $1.50 app). 

My favorite Catalina feature is splitting iTunes apart into several different apps but if it means it will screw up my workflow then I can't update. Photoshop CS6 could run on Catalina with a work around. They were showing this off when Catalina first came out. I hope the newer Catalina point fixes have made comparability even better though.

In general my experience is that Catalina is not buggy (which does not exclude the existance of bugs). I switched from Mojave’s and did not experience special problems. It is necessary to keep an eye on the settings for each app, but this is usually solved the first time it pops up. On the other hand I really like features that have come with Catalina like unlocking the Mac with my Watch, using my iPad with Sidecar etc.
If on wants to run THE special 32bit app under Catalina, it is generally possible to install Mojave (or another 10.X-OS) in a virtual machine. One can use Parallels desktop, or another VM running under Catalina. Whether this is worth the effort depends on how important this app is. It is probably not a long term solution, the game starts again with BigSur.
As a replacement for LR (since Serif still has no DAM integrated into the Affinity Suite) I am using Graphic Converter. It allows me to organize my photos, including RAW files, review them, tag them etc. It is not completely up to what LR does, but it comes with a one time purchase and does the job for me. And it is running under Catalina without the need to roll back to an older OS.

I can’t speak to that as I do not have Photoshop, only Elements and LR. 
I have not found Catalina to be more buggy than previous versions for anything other than Affinity. The biggest change that affected me and perhaps many others was that 32 bit apps will not work on Catalina. Before upgrading users are encouraged to confirm whether any of the apps they use would be incompatible with Catalina. 
 
The two Affinity extensions which have issues with Catalina are Affinity Develop, which does not work with raw photos but does work with jpg (which don’t need developing) and Edit in Affinity, which in some circumstances for some photos does not want to save the edit. There are a number of threads on the bug forum and the desktop forum on this. The other extensions seem to work ok. 
 
I suspect part of the problem with them solving the Affinity bugs in Apple Photos is that it only seems to affect some users. 

I'm running Photos 5, the version that comes with Catalina. Using Affinity within Apple Photos has been hit and miss, sometimes the work arounds work, sometimes there are surprises. So I don't use it with Apple Photos anymore. If I need to use Affinity, I'll use it in stand alone mode or with the External Editors for Apple Photos app, an app that dates back to High Sierra times but still does the job with Catalina. 
I knew before upgrading to Catalina that LR and my older version of Adobe Elements would be problematic as 32 bit applications do not work with Catalina. Although LR 6.14 (which is 64 bit) can work in Catalina as long as it was installed before upgrading to Catalina, it is not supported by Adobe and components such as the installers and the application manager are 32 bit, so ever anything went wrong, it would have been impossible to re-install LR. My initial plan was to switch to Apple Photos for the DAM and basic edits and use Affinity Photos for more advanced edits. That worked for a couple of weeks with Mojave but fell apart with the upgrade to Catalina and the subsequent issues between Apple Photos and Affinity (unlike some, I didn't have any issues with Mojave, they started with Catalina). I then discovered On1 and it pretty much does everything I need for now as both my DAM and my main editing application. I'm not a power user so it works for me. 

"I would not be surprised to see the price steadily increase with each full new version. I also think it would be justified as you are still getting an amazing value for your dollar.".. And this type of suggestion is the reason for the thread. I imagine it's nice for the team to see what willing their is to support their continued improvement. Only an idiot would think that "A bunch of guys on the net asking for a pro version" is going to yield that in itself, but talking openly about what users would like to see, timescales and potential costs to schieve that can only be useful to the developers as they continue to evolve their model.

I thought this was pro version.

Except that Linux is not more popular than the Mac OS. The pie chart you posted is broken down by OS version for Windows & Macs, so the Mac OS figure applies only to version 10.12. Using other criteria that include all OS versions looks much different. For example, for a one year timeframe that includes all OS versions, the pie chart looks like this:

Beyond that, it is likely a high percentage of Windows & Mac users are running graphics software similar to AD or AP, while it is uncertain if that is also true for Linux users.

With regard to Lightroom like products, I switched to On1 Photo Raw in early 2020 as a result of incompatibility between LR 6.14 and Catalina. I am very pleased with On1 Photo Raw to date. As a DAM it is very similar to LR, the migration of edits worked better than I expected, and with its layers capability it also takes care of the relatively light Photoshop-type tasks I used to do with Adobe Elements. 

Very much regret to confirm that there are still problems with Affinity Photo extensions in Apple Photos, in particular Edit in Affinity Photo and Affinity Develop. It seems unlikely there is a fix in line anytime soon, indeed, it seems to be very low on the priority. 

No 'improved' compatibility with Apple Photo's???

Tutorials don't make up for poor user interface design. The fact I need to jump through this many hoops to make the simplest of typography adjustments is poor design.

Hello.
 
Just wondering if there's any news on upcoming betas.
Mainly to fix the several issues that are now buging the App while working in Separate Mode.
 
Thanks

Perhaps Leading override should be called "Baseline shift" or something else, since people not used to layout apps like QXD and ID seem to confuse the 2 and not use them properly.

OP does not really need to adjust leading override, but leading. And those are unconfortably far apart in UI. OP could though indeed use leading override instead as that is at least in the same panel as font size.

Thanks, Walt. I am making newspaper pages. I create headlines with a text style, which sets the font, font size, etc. After I do that, I almost always have to change the font size to fit the headlines in the allotted space. I then need to adjust the leading. In InDesign, the font size and leading size are right next to one another on the top toolbar. That’s not how it is in Publisher. I would like to set up Publisher with the same, or similar, tool settings as I use in InDesign. For me having the two tools separately is confusing and not user-friendly. I would also like to be able to change the font and lighting sizes with the up/down arrows (see photo), instead of using the drop-down menu. Having all of the text adjustment tools in one area is extremely helpful when laying out the pages.

I'm not sure why Document Setup offers only Print and Presets, Kip. If you start with a Print document you'll only have the Print and Presets options available in Spread Setup, Kip.
But given that it does offer Presets, you can:
Use File > New and choose the Social Media preset that you want. Make any adjustments that are needed (or none at all). Then Click the + sign to create your own preset. Then Switch to My Presets so you can rename the preset you just created. At that point it will become available in Spread Setup when you've chosen Presets rather than Print.

The release of Publisher 1.8.0 has made me soooooooo happy!!!  Now  I can finally update to Mac Catalina since I'm no longer bound to InDesign CS6.
Purchasing Affinity Publisher has certainly been money well spent! Thank you!!!!!

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download ZIP: Download
Auto-update: Available.
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the second beta of Affinity Photo 1.8 for macOS.
Photo 1.8 is a significant change to the currently shipping 1.7 version, so, as ever, I would strongly urge users to avoid the 1.8 beta for critical work. This is a pre-release build of 1.8 - we will release more builds before 1.8 ships. Things will be broken in this build - please use it to explore the new features and not for real work.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.8. 
With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.
Many thanks (as always),
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes This Build
 
- PSD smart object import support (enable in preferences).
- Reference presets for the Pro Display XDR are now supported properly.
- Filter effects now support high intensity colours in 32bit mode.
- Embedded document fixes.
- New stock brushes (your custom brushes will not be lost).
- New document panel tweaks.
- Text field expression improvements.
- Improved RAW support (Serif Labs).
- Improved handling of RAW files when using batch processing.
- Improved channels panel behaviour when disabling alpha.
- Numerous other smaller fixes and improvements.
 
Changes Since 1.7
- Overhauled the “File -> New” dialog - user templates are now supported.
- Implemented unified toolbar for appropriately modern macOS versions.
- Updated PANTONE palettes to include new Solid and Bridge sets.
- Renamed EXIF panel to Metadata and added support for user-editable fields, including IPTC).
- Added ability to read metadata from an XMP sidecar file (enable in Preferences).
- Added native CR3 support to the SerifLabs RAW engine.
- Added a new lens profile selector to Develop.
- Reimplemented the HSL filter's HSV option.
- Improved quality & file size of results when exporting JPEG.
- Switching to a mask node will now automatically switch to the grey colour slider.
- Improved lens correction of RAW files coming from lenses with fixed focal length.
- Improved unsharp mask “threshold” slider.
- Improved selection refinement performance & quality.
- Improved the noise reduction filter result when applied to JPEGs.
- Improved precision of Gaussian algorithm (to reduce banding).
- Improved reporting of file load errors (could previously report file corruption incorrectly).
- Improved performance of operations with large selections.
- Improved memory use with alternate futures and when replacing image layers.
- Improvements to Photoshop plugin support, notably for DxO plugins (but also for many others).
- Fixed Styles to show styles that would normally be invisible.
- Fixed crash when loading some corrupt JPEGs (valid image data, but corrupt following data).
- Fixed deletion of brushes / styles / etc. not reducing disk usage correctly.
- Fixed PSD export of hidden layers.
- Fixed angle cursors when the view has been rotated.
- Fixed “Create Palette” from CMYK images resulting in RGB colours.
- Fixed Pixel Selection appears incorrectly when started near page edge.
- Fixed rasterising a fill layer goes wrong after changing document size.
- Fixed Marquee Selection not constraining to a square if you drag across the right diagonal.
- Fixed mis-identification of some Tamron lenses mounted to Canon bodies.
- Fixed failure to load some PSB files (and failing to report errors).
- Fixed missing EXIF data for CRWs.
- Fixed crash importing PSD files containing embedded colour profiles with unicode characters in their names.
- Assorted other small fixes and improvements.
- Localisation improvements.
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Photo customers, please follow this release notification thread

Just checked my 5k iMac and I'm not seeing a significant diff when the windows are overlapped. I do agree that much of the interface is (and has been) a bit too small to comfortably see on a 27" iMac. 

I understand now. I think in a usual set up it will make the most sense to click on tab and see the long list of the tab you clicked on. Having the first row be recents would probably be fine. I don't think the short list of all the sections would work as well.

I was originally going by the mockup you provided in your OP - you show four entries and a "more" button on each tab, and that I would be strongly opposed to.  Clicking the tab should be enough to show all of the options.
Adding a "most recently used" section to the top then showing all of the options underneath it would be fine, maybe something like this:

Having the tabs and the "more" button though is just an extra click to reveal them which would be pointless and you would be wasting all of the remaining space there until the button was clicked.
If the idea was to get rid of the tabs and show the sections as separate headers instead, then I could see that scheme working, but personally I would still prefer the current approach.