KipV

Status: Beta Release
Purpose: Fixes, improvements
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: 1.5 Beta 4 Here
 
This is an early beta of a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it should be considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity that you may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.5 cannot be opened in 1.4 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.5 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.4 version.
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it.
 
Improvements & Fixes
 
- Improved supported RAW cameras - including cameras with X-Pro2 sensors. - Fixed issues where resized layers could not be painted on. - Fixed Apple Core Image RAW engine on macOS Sierra. - Fixed failure to write metadata. - Implemented Live Perspective Projection. - Fixed crashes with some Live Filters. - Added a couple of missing icons. - More macOS Sierra improvements. - Improvements to HSL adjustment when in HSV mode. - Improved curves adjustment when switching between colour models. - Fixed “Edit -> Paste FX” issues. - Fixed “Edit In” extension (you will need the latest macOS Sierra beta). - Photo can now load and store the extra channels from PSD files. - Increased the exposure adjustment range - and made the slider non-linear. - Don’t quit the app when batch jobs are still running. - Added more export options to batch dialog. - Improved 32-bit Preview panel. - Improved Tone Mapping performance. - Improved feedback when tone mapping, HDR Merging and Focus Stacking. - Improved hit testing for text objects, plus clicking in text tools will now always prefer text objects when selecting. - Fix for text wrapping behaviour with unclosed frames. - Re-enabled ability to export metadata in File->Export->More. - Document palettes are now available from the fill flyout. - HSL slider mode in the Colour Chooser now correctly updates the colour box to show the chosen Saturation level. - Miscellaneous other small fixes.   Thanks again for taking the time to use this beta!   Affinity Photo Team    :ph34r:

CAN´T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!!!!
>>>>> one CAN drag the "opacity" label to change the opacity of layers  :D :D :D
+ dropping stuff into assets and symbol panels
+ might we get the docking of two columns of tool panels to the right (and left) side like possible in AD for Windows?  
+ Bleed preview, linked bleed values  
 thanks for the update!   :lol:
 
so what´s your opinion on the state of this AD release?  :lol: judging from your profile picture you seem to be happy  :lol:

I agree with you Seneca.
 
Just a reminder to those that want it ALL and want it NOW, photoshop has been in development for 26 years (and still getting it wrong).
 
Here is a good history lesson https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop
 
Affinity Photo just had its 1st birthday and has only been in development for 5 years.
 
I have great respect for a company that allows others to get involved in critiquing the development of great software.
 
I have no respect for arrogant Adobe who charges $9.99US per month for PS and LR and although they sell a stand-alone Lightroom 6, it gets no updates, just bug fixes.

Has there been a more impressive feature upgrade list at any time before (well, I mean apart from the recent Affinity Designer list … ;))? I doubt that … can’t wait to try this out …  :D

Status: Beta Release
Purpose: New features, fixes, improvements
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: 1.5 Beta 1 Here
 
This is an early beta of a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it should be considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity that you may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.5 cannot be opened in 1.4 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.5 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.4 version.
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it.
 
With all that said, here is a list of all the new things we can do with 1.5. This will be a fairly short beta (approx. 6 weeks) and things will likely be bad / broken for the the first week or two. After that, we expect the beta to become more stable and usable.
 
Please understand that all betas must start somewhere - and that they are beta for a reason!
 
Thanks once again for taking the time to download and use our beta :) - here's the list:
 
Focus Merge Support
  Focus merging allows you to generate a detailed composite image from a number of images focussed at differing lengths. Use File -> New Focus Merge to get started.   HDR Merge Support   HDR merging lets you create a deep, unbounded 32-bit image from a number of exposure bracketed source images. Use File -> New HDR Merge to get started.   New 32bit RGB Editing Mode   Photo now offers a full compositing / editing environment for 32bit unbounded images. It correctly deals with 0-alpha cases (as per the OpenEXR spec) and generally operates in linear space.   Known Issues: Whilst most filters will work out of the box, we still have significant work to do to make all adjustments / blend modes work correctly in 32bit. Don't be surprised if you get weird result sometimes.   Known Issues: Our renderer will seem very slow when dealing with 32bit documents - it's because we are (at the moment) falling back to CPU where we should be able to use the GPU. This will get faster soon :)   Tone Mapping Persona   Full tone mapping Persona for both HDR and LDR images. This is obviously best used with an image merged by HDR merge - although you can use it on any image.   Known Issues: The UI still requires refinement and eventually there may be more sliders!   OpenEXR / HDR (Radiance) Import / Export   Photo can now import and export .hdr (Radiance, RGBE) and .exr (OpenEXR) images.   Known Issues: We know that people need lots of export options - mainly for OpenEXR - these will drop in in the next few weeks.   Macros   Using the View -> Studio -> Macro and View -> Studio -> Library menu items, you can access new panels which will allow you to record actions, save them, then play them back later. You can also store them in a handy gallery which will offer you live previews of what each stored macro would do to your document if you applied it.   Known Issues: You will find that you can not record some actions which seem natural / obvious (eg. selecting layers). This will be fixed soon.   Batch Processing   Using File -> New Batch job, you can queue up processing on a large number of files. You can resize, convert format and apply any number of macros to each file. The batch processing happens in the background - so you can continue working whilst the jobs are processed.   Live Projections   Photo 1.5 contains a new mechanism which allows you to edit an image in different spatial domains - we currently support the “Equirectangular” domain (360 pano - Ricoh Theta, etc.). You can use all tools when editing - and you can convert back once you have edited. This is especially useful for cleaning up stitching artefacts, or artefacts at the zenith / nadir of the image. Use the options in Layer -> Live Projection to get started.   Known Issues: Perspective projection is disabled. Will be introduced soon.   Improved Pixel Tool   The pixel tool is improved in 1.5 - you can hold shift when dragging to constrain the direction of painting (sorry we did not get this working sooner!). You can also select what happens when you hold Alt and drag - erase to transparent, erase to background colour, or erase to whatever the nominated snapshot / history location is (like in the Clone tool).   New “Pixel Art” Document Resizing   Photo now contains an alternative way to resize a document - using well known pixel-art resampling algorithms. If you work with pixel art and want to use this feature, it’s located under the Document menu.   Known Issues: This can crash if your document is huge - we will fix this.   New “Accumulation” Brush Dynamics   Many users have asked for “Opacity Jitter”. For us, opacity is a constant thing and will remain constant. However, we have added a new property to brushes - “Accumulation” - which should allow you to get what you need :) Please let us know how this works out for you..   Text Styles   Affinity Photo now has the same Text Styles support as Designer - it’s all shared code so it should work right out of the box :) Let us know if you find anything odd about it.   New Marquee Modes (Polygonal, Magnetic) [NOT AVAILABLE YET]   We are committed to adding these modes in 1.5. There are already icons / modes for them in the context toolbar of the Freehand Marquee tool. At the moment, it won’t let you enter these modes - but it will in a subsequent beta build :)   Even more RAW cameras supported   We have upgraded our RAW support again! I’m sorry I can’t give a full list of supported hardware right now, but I aim to do so tomorrow :)   Improved Metadata Mining   Our detection of RAW / JPEG / etc. metadata has been upgraded - after reports of certain lenses not being properly recognised - hopefully this update will fix the missing ones, but if not, please let us know!   Massive Improvements to Export Persona   Our Export Persona has seen huge upgrades in this cycle - you now have total control of exactly what resolution sets get exported. You can also use our handy batch export builders to quickly generate content for external consumption - ie. Xcode .assets - even Spline compatible metadata can be generated!   Layered TIFF Interop   Users have constantly asked us to support “Layered TIFF”. Layered TIFF is not a thing. TIFF with embedded data is a thing - and I’m happy to report that we now import embedded PSD / Affinity data and can write TIFF with embedded Affinity data.   Halftone Filter   We have a marvellous new halftone pattern filter in 1.5 - it can approximate monochrome, colour, circular and line halftones and can even be applied as a “Live Filter”.   Known Issues: This filter can be a bit funky in "Live Filter" mode - and if you have a retina screen, you will see some jittering even in non-live.   Dust & Scratches Filter   Many user have asked us for a “Dust & Scratches” filter - so we have made one. It’s extremely useful for removing sporadic small defects in images. Please let us know if it works for you.   Layer Linking [NOT IMPLEMENTED YET]   Layer linking will happen in 1.5 - at the moment it is currently not exposed in this beta. Look out for it soon though - it should set the benchmark for how linked layers should work in a raster editor.. More on this soon!   “Edit in Affinity Photo” Photos extension   This is something which we didn’t think we could do - a Photos extension for Mac OS 10.9 and above which simply allows you to use the full Photo app to edit your images - and stores the changes you have made as a layered document.   New Colour Picker Tool   After literally thousands of requests, we have implemented a dedicated picker tool for colours. It requires little explanation - so let us know if it works for you :)   New Clone Sources Panel   We now have a new studio panel which allows you to store up an unlimited number of global sources for the Clone / Healing brush - it even works across multiple documents.   Direct PSD Write-Back   One of the most requested features - direct write-back to PSD. A number of 3rd party DAM applications will happily deal in PSD - but until now, Photo required you to File -> Export for PSD. No longer! You can now just hit File -> Save! You will need to turn this on - in File -> Preferences - please read the warning there carefully!   No Thumbnails Option   This is more a Designer feature, but I promised it some time ago so here it is - you can choose (in Preferences) not to write out a thumbnail with your documents. This has the advantage of making your documents use less space - but obviously you won’t get Finder thumbnails, etc.   Improved Vectorscope   Our old HSL vectorscope is no more - replaced by a vastly more appropriate Rec.709 YUV scope with an improved graticule :)   Improved Photoshop Plugin Support   We have found a significant bug with our plugin code - it has been fixed :) That said - please don’t expect all your plugins to now work. This fix primarily puts us in a position to work properly with plugin makers to move forward. That said, some plugins will now spring into life - “Focus Magic” being a notable example.   Multi-monitor Colour Profile Support   Sorry it took so long to get this fixed - we now can profile different on different monitors.   Adjustment Performance Improvements   Found and fixed a simple issue which made changing adjustment parameters appear to be slow. Fixed.   This update also includes literally hundreds of fixes and small improvements, some of which are listed below:   - User control over two pass rendering on Retina devices. - PSD import / export improvements. - PDF import / export improvements. - Snapping improvements - candidate-free snapping, gaps-and-spans (Alt key in Move Tool), so much more!   - Performance and stability improvements for macOS Sierra.   Thanks again for taking the time to use this beta!   Affinity Photo Team  :ph34r:

That was quick … just installed Beta 5 this morning. :o)

Photo 1.5 is coming along soon, never fear! ;)
 
We share a back-end across all products on all platforms, so once we get ANY of the products into testing, it effectively means we've started testing ALL the products - the only things it doesn't test are the specific additions that can't be accessed in the other program. Right now, that means you're testing all the main architecture for Photo without even realising it, but the HDR Persona and unbounded float format, focus stacking etc are not getting exercised - so when Photo 1.5 comes out, it'll already be generally stable, but we'll need specific testing around those areas. If that makes any sense? :)

Really, Affinity, I LOVE YOU! Switched to Mac and using the new beta for a real layout and, what can I say, it's awesome! Until now I was using Illustrator for webdesign and Affinity Designer is so much better. Constraints (!), dynamic symbols, global colors, paragraph styles, a grid that acually works, perfect export features!
 
THANK YOU SO MUCH for making my life better and easier! 

Did you just say "Batch Processing", Andy?
Won't be able to sleep until the beta is out ... please hurry ;-)

When you have downloaded the new version of Affinity Designer and trying to understand their own.
 

We've already had a similar report to this - I'll try to get it looked into on Monday morning :) Thanks!
Matt

Hey, that looks pretty cool!
 
(err, I'll fix it though...)

maaaayyyybbbbbeee ;P I am very excited for this one as I told you yesterday. also Its still morning here in the US :) which means I have all day to use the beta :D

Status: Beta Release
Purpose: New features, fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: Here
 
This is the first beta of a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it should be considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity that you may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.5 cannot be opened in 1.4 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.5 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.4 version.
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it.
 
 
I am hoping for a brief video overview of the new headline features from Ash very soon and I'll add a link here when it arrives, but here's a quick summary in the interim...
 
Summary:
Symbols - Objects can be made into symbols and remain editable on document at all times - instantly updating other instances. The 'Sync' button on the Symbols panel controls whether changes will be made to all instances, or just the current instance. Found on 'View'->'Studio'->'Symbols'
Constraints - Objects can be made to constrain in certain ways when their parents change. For example, an object could be anchored to a corner of its parent and told to not scale when the parent is scaled. This is powerful for UI mockups and allows you to see in realtime how dialogs may scale, for example. Found on 'View'->'Studio'->'Constraints'
Assets - We now have an Assets panel that you can use to drag any documents into from your document. Dragging items back out creates new objects from them. You can also add Symbols to your Assets if you wish. Found on 'View'->'Studio'->'Assets'
Text Styles - We've added support for text styles - and it's really very powerful... It probably needs a video tutorial all to itself to describe how to use it properly! Found on 'View'->'Studio'->'Text Styles'
Export Persona - The Export Persona has much greater functionality, allowing you to specify many export sizes and formats from each slice area/object. It also has presets for creating common icons, making Xcode asset JSON and even for creating JSON export for Spine (2D animation software by esotericsoftware.com - we're not affiliated with them in any way, but they suggested they'd like to use Designer for content creation so we tried to enable it)
Snapping - This has been greatly improved, as has the 'candidate' snapping system (there are options for this in the snapping setup). We now also support 'gaps and spans' to aid with object construction and object geometry snapping. We will soon add 'measuring'
Colour Picker Tool - We've added a colour picker as a dedicated tool. I'm open to suggestions on your favourite shortcut key for this one and we'll add it next time :)
Styles - Now has a 'spotlight' style search box.
Tool shortcut fixes for International keyboards.
You can now drop colours from programs like Chroma (by softpress.com - again, no affiliation but they mentioned they'd like to do it, so we tried) directly onto objects on the document.
Embedded documents should now usually export as vector elements rather than being rasterised.
Many PDF/PSD import/export improvements.
You can now choose which artboard to display for an embedded document (if it contained artboards) rather than being forced to see the whole document.
Selection has been improved to hopefully stop people getting frustrated about not being able to click to select the things they can see!
New Beta Icon - Perhaps the biggest change, we've finally thrown out the old Beta icon and its terrible, terrible 'chain' hanging the beta sign off the icon! Hurrah!
 
 
Known Problems:
I've accidentally left the Links panel available in the UI and also the option to mirror the document to iOS is still there too... I'd encourage everyone not to delve into any of this... The Links panel allows you to specify for any object which artboard it will transition to and in what way it will transition when it is touched. It's only of any use to you if you have the iOS Mirror application (which we aren't ready to release yet) and by enabling the links on your objects, you may well be left with a document which will not open again in the future if the developer decides to change anything... Also, the Artboard Tool's context toolbar includes Header and Footer controls - this is also related to previewing on the iOS Mirror application and is to enable scrolling website mockups. So there you go, you know what we're up to a little ahead of time, but it would take me too long to build the whole application again without it all! ;)
 
Embedded documents in colour formats/profiles which are different to the parent document might draw strangely - this will be fixed for the next beta, sorry.
 
Assets and Symbols are all currently assumed to be in the current document format and colour space - again, this will be fixed for the next beta, sorry. They also don't currently get snapped as you drop them onto the document - this will be fixed shortly, too.
 
 
The Future:
We'll try to update the beta a lot more regularly again, hopefully weekly but it will depend on whether enough is ready to warrant a new beta. Expect this first beta to have a few snags, but we'll try to get them turned around and a new beta out very quickly when they are identified. We have a number of other smaller things to tweak that will hopefully improve the whole experience subtly and these will also appear in the coming weeks.

I just bought one of the new MacBooks and Affinity works great! In fact canvas rotation works MUCH better. I still don't get smooth 360º canvas rotation on my other computer with my Wacom Tablet. So far only Apple's track pad gives me that.

:wub:  There may, indeed, be bugs in Designer, but using Illustrator still drives me up a wall in comparison. Keep it up guys!

Hi all,
Since today's Easter break (Good Friday) in UK (and other countries) most of the staff is not around.
A new Photo Beta should be available soon (eventually Monday), meanwhile you can still use the Mac App Store version.

I'm not even sure that the beta forum is the right place to discuss this but I am very pleased that Affinity doesn't slavishly follow Adobe's UI conventions.
 
In some ways, Adobe is stuck in the past, encumbered by user expectations of how things "should" work, even when there are faster, more intuitive ways of interacting with Ui elements that the latest OS's can easily support without the need to tack on tons of inefficient resource-eating code.
 
Sure, this can make the learning curve steeper than one might like but I think it is well worth the effort in the long run.

To a lot of people Illustrator is not a very well liked program. I see no value in making a clone of Illustrator without a subscription. The first time I used Affinity I was overjoyed that it was not exactly the same.

To a lot of people Illustrator is not a very well liked program. I see no value in making a clone of Illustrator without a subscription. The first time I used Affinity I was overjoyed that it was not exactly the same.

You can cycle between overlapping objects in Affinity Designer pressing ⌥ (option/alt) while clicking on them on the canvas.

And this!! Visibility checkboxes are no longer covered by scrollbar! Wooow! :wub:
 

Okay Im tired of being chained to this forum for a new AD/AP beta! Please release one soon! I literally cannot work because I'm always checking for new betas! lol

Holy bleep Matt, I didn't know this!   :) How did I not know this? Is this new?
 
One suggestion or improvement might be in the main window to just right click on an element to access isolation mode/un-isolation, that way you don't have to go digging through the layers palette...  ;)
 
edit - one funny thing... I entered isolation mode on an element and when I went to edit it it exited isolation the moment I clicked on a node...

WOW, yesterday I had to go back to PS6 to update a project.  I couldn't believe how difficult it was to take care of several of the tasks.  15 months ago when I started with AD the main question I seemed to ask was "Why in the world did the Affinity devs do it this way?"  Now going back to PS I find that the way that AD did it makes more sense and usually is easier.
 
When I started I was looking for a substitute for AI but with no monthly bill.  I had expected AD to be a knockoff of AI.  I admit I was somewhat disappointed when it wasn't.  But I found that most of the actions made enough sense that though they were different they were mostly pretty easy to pick up.  Now going back to Adobe, only when I absolutely have too, I find in most cases the Affinity process (muscle memory aside) really is more natural, logical, intuitive, etc.
 
I know in the past half year I find myself rarely questioning why does AD does it this way, so I should not have been surprised.  But Adobe's methodology was even so much more cumbersome than I remembered.
 
I know there are other people on the forum that disagree with this, but I suspect there are not many that have given Affinity a fair try for more than a few months that aren't appreciating the difference between Affinity and Adobe.
 
Thank you Affinity team for all the planning and work you have done.  Job well done.  Now if we could get some lingering bugs taken care of, like Expand Stroke...  <_<
 
Mike