IPv6

"Added “Live Liquify” layers" - wow, this finally happened, this is huge!!!
Thanks a lot for this feature, much appreciated!

"Added “Live Liquify” layers" - wow, this finally happened, this is huge!!!
Thanks a lot for this feature, much appreciated!

"Added “Live Liquify” layers" - wow, this finally happened, this is huge!!!
Thanks a lot for this feature, much appreciated!

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download ZIP (Universal): Download
Auto-update: Unavailable (the switch to universal binary has disrupted auto-update - it will return soon)
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the fourth build of Affinity Photo 1.9.0 for macOS.
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.
This beta is significantly different from the 1.8 version available for purchase - we strongly recommend that you do not use this beta for real work as data could be lost and the files you save are not guaranteed to open in previous / future versions of Affinity Photo.
Furthermore, massive behind the scenes work has been done to enable GPU acceleration for the Windows version of Affinity Photo in 1.9. In theory this should have no consequences for macOS / iOS users - but it’s likely that a couple of things will have become broken along the way. We are giving ourselves a longer beta period with 1.9 in order to find and fix those things.
This also means that the full complement of new features is not available yet in this 1.9 beta - more will be added over the coming weeks.
Thanks again for your continued support!
 
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes Since 1.9.0.199
 
- Added a new “Astrophotography Stack” persona which allows you to combine dark frames, light frames, bias frames, flat frames and dark flat frames then stack them. FITS images are also supported. Lots of photographers have been experimenting with astro during lockdown - hopefully these new tools will help users to get better results. I'm sure James Ritson will be providing some tutorial guidance in short order
- Added “Pattern Layers” - a fixed size bitmap layer which repeats across the entire document. You can paint on pattern layers and use all filters to manipulate them and see the resulting pattern in real time. They can be transformed non-destructively. After a pattern is added and a tool selected, a faint grey box indicates the "real" area of the pattern which can be edited.
- Added “Export Timelapse” - the ability to export a document which has undo steps as a video. Numerous options exist to control how the video is generated (and more will come later!).
- Added “Live Liquify” layers - as the name suggests, they allow you to have non-destructive liquify layers in your stack which can be edited and masked just like all other live filter layers. At the moment, a hard limit of 512 pixels offset in either X or Y is enforced - we hope to eventually lift this restriction.
- Reworked “Studio Presets” from the earlier 1.9 betas. They now work in a more predictable way and store tool / toolbar configuration. A manager dialog is also now provided.
- Added a new “Combined” result to the benchmark - to test performance contexts where vector and raster content is used together. The benchmark version is still 1900 - so existing vector and raster scores from previous builds are still valid and comparable.
- Added a registration page to the app - this allows users to login and auto-install brushes (so far).
- Added the “Resource Manager” functionality from Publisher for managing image placement.
- Added ability to open package files from Designer and Publisher.
- Photo is now a universal binary, supporting both Intel and Apple silicon processors.
- Path text improvements.
- Assorted small bug fixes.
- Help improvements.
- Localisation improvements.
 
Cumulative Changes Since 1.8

- Added “Duplicate spare channel” to right click menu.
- Added missing “Convert to Path Text” menu item.
- Small improvements to the benchmark UI.
- Update app icon for Big Sur.
- Fixed numerous bugs with brushes, introduced in the 1.9.0 betas.
- Fixed issues when opening multiple RAW files at once.
- Fixed significant memory leak introduced in 1.9.0 betas.
- Fixed UI issues with Big Sur.
- Fixed assorted other GPU acceleration issues introduced in the 1.9.0 betas.
 
- Text on a path is now available in Photo.
- More filters now work on masks / adjustments / spare channels (Add Noise, Perlin Noise, etc.).
- Improved Metal rendering performance (over 195).
- Improved experience when editing a spare channel (view artefacts, histogram and navigator).
- Setting a blend mode on a sub-brush will now work properly - paving the way for import of PSD dual-brushes in a future build.
- Attempted to fix startup crash on machines with no compatible Metal GPU.
- Fixed localisation issues affecting non-UK users.
- Fixed issues when attempting to add layers to a spare channel (!).

- Improved “Serif Labs” RAW engine.
- You can now single click a spare channel in the Channels panel to edit it like a layer.
- The Curves adjustment now has numeric field controls for precise positioning.
- Studio presets are now available.
- A benchmarking tool has been added in the help menu. It will only become available when no documents are open.
- Blend modes now work on “alpha only” layers (masks, adjustments, live filters, etc.).
- Added a new “Divide” blend mode.
- Added “Create from centre” for the elliptical marquee tool.
- Allowed snapping to the bounds of the pixel selection.
- Added ability to create brushes from the current pixel selection with one click.
 
To be notified about all future macOS beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Photo update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Photo on macOS customers, please follow this thread

Update to the new beta 834:
Plugins do work. Had forgotten to check the box that all, even unknown plugins are allowed. So Luminar 4 and Aurora 2019 work.

Yep, but i expect default action to be the same. Honestly, adding point is 1000% more frequent operation then deleting segment of curve. And in Windows this is a constant pain

Beta 820 crashed when I tried to edit an existing macro. Considering the whole macro topic needs serious rework I don't consider it as significant  
iCore i7-3770, 3.50GHz, 32GB RAM, SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, Windows 10 Pro
Wacom Intuos Tablet
Beta 1.9.0.802
Clicking on a macro in the library -> edit macro -> clicking on one of the commands in the macro -> crash to desktop
Happened twice - not reproducable

It's optional, if you don't like it, don't use it, we won't be forcing you to create an account. We just thought it was a convenient way for users to download their content from the store, in the app.

Still, press-and-hold would be fantastic addition... really helpful

We're not Adobe 🙂
Honestly, this was designed as a something that we thought would be good (and helpful) for our users. If you don't like it, you don't have to use it, we're not forcing you to use it (and that's why it is optional).

I do not want to fight with you but in the quote that i refer to it says explicitly that the users are not forced to use the sign up process. They are free to download their content the old way and turn off the internet completely.
I do not opose to your position (or critisism) towards constant online connection. I try to point out that this is only one of two options and the user has the freedom to choose.
Cheers,
d.

Yep, and we consciously designed it in a way to support portable / disconnected devices, as the apps are available on iPads...

Yeah, we’re very interested in hearing feedback on the reg / content streaming stuff.
  A few comments:   Signing in is purely to give the ability to stream content from the store directly into your apps. If you decide not to sign in it will have no other impact at all - you will be able to use the apps as usual. All store content will continue to be available to download and install in the old way if you would prefer for whatever reason not to sign in to get it. Once you are signed and install your content that will be available to you in future whether or not you are connected to the internet. The only thing is if you physically decide to sign out of the app you will then lose access to that store content. You can get it back at anytime by signing in again (or alternatively installing the old way as per point 2.)  This will not be the case in the next beta - if you sign out you will be able to choose to keep your store content installed. We are absolutely not collecting any usage data or anything else while you are signed in.   The issue with allowing your store content to still be available if you sign out of the app is that it could be open to abuse (i.e. credentials for an account which has purchased all content could be passed around for 1,000s of people to sign in, install and then immediately sign out of). Of course this concern isn’t directed at you guys, but something we need to think about   But yes we are very interested in your feedback on all of this and are definitely listening.

I agree about offline mode. I appreciate the thought behind the Resource Manager (tons of potential) and I am looking forward to trying it later tonight, but I too am concerned about the possibility of needing to be always online to use Affinity. In most cases I am always online so it will not affect my day to day use, but the times I am not I want to be sure that I am not locked out from the programs. Needing to be online to receive patch updates and the like I however do not mind and I hope that us users will be able to manage updates and installs of the Affinity Suite through the new Resource Manager down the line.
Anyway, looking forward to trying it out!

Click here to download the latest beta
Status: Customer Beta
Purpose: New features, performance, fixes
Requirements: A valid product key (for Affinity Store purchases), or an installation of the full retail version from the Microsoft Store

As this is a beta it is 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 may be adversely affected by the application failing, including the total loss of any documents. We hope you enjoy the latest build, and as always, if you've got any problems, please don't hesitate to post a new thread in this forum and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks once again for your continued feedback. 

If you have a general question about the software, please head over to the Questions Forum, or if you have any suggestions, please head over to the Feature Requests forum.
New Feature: Product registration and store content streaming
We have now added the ability to link your Affinity app to your Affinity account through a new app registration process. This will have the advantages of you being able to stream any content you have purchased or received for free from the Affinity store directly to all your apps without having to manually install them. This is of particular use to customers who have more than one of our apps, or run our apps on different devices and operating systems as all your content will automatically be available across all of them.
If you register the beta app you will initially receive a free brush kit (the luminance brush kit) for testing purposes. This might be a kit you already have, but if you don’t you will get it for free. In a couple of weeks this will be expanded to include all of the store content you may already own.
While this is the full scope of what we are implementing for 1.9, the link between your account and your apps will open up the possibility for us to offer other features and services in the future which we think you will like.
Known Issue: 23/10/2020 @ 7:30am GMT, this issue is now resolved.
Users with certain locales are being presented with an Internal Server Error when trying to register their applications. We are aiming to resolve this issue (server-side, no application update required) tomorrow morning. I will update this post when the issue has been resolved. 
Changes
Added Affinity Registration and Content Sync [Installer] Fixed crash when the current monitor profile is set to a virtual profile Fixed Curves panel Y values being reversed Fixed Curves panel not updating when tabbing through the X and Y boxes Fixed Curves panel difficultly dragging nodes Fixed Keyboard Shortcut Preferences for Undo/Redo showing the name of the last action Fixed Keyboard Shortcut Preferences not showing Ctrl+Shift+1 to 9 as being used Fixed Studio Presets not being reset when holding down Ctrl at start Added Image Placement Policy option Added Resource Manager to menus Added Show/Hide Text Overflow toggle 1.9.0.791 release notes

thx for this new feature to create a brsuh from a selection. But, this brush will allways be an "image brush" - if i change the brush-color it dosent effect the brush. Is this behavior  a "feuture or bug? I would like to decide if i want this brush as a pixel- or as a instensive-brush. Any possible to change this?

I select a layer, and cannot alignment with toolbar buttons. Here is a screenshot, and steps:

 
Steps:
Click to anywhere out of canvas select any layer on canvas cannot click to alignment tools on toolbar  
Temporary solution: select a different layer (alignment tools will enable) and click on previous layer again.

That will likely come in a later version, yes.

Great that the rotation of canvas has been implemented. Two suggestions:
I would wish for a possibility to use this feature with a digital drawing stylus. Like pressing a button and dragging left and right to rotate instead of scrolling. In most cases dragging will be more comfortable instead of scrolling the weeel. Especially if there is like a snap to origin orientation if you move to that orientation slowly. Maybe make those two behaviours (scrolling and dragging) available in the options to switch. A kind of compass indicator for the rotation would be nice, in case you are very zoomed in and want so see at which angle you are working at the moment.

One of the plugins I miss from PS is ColorPerfect, used for colour correcting scans of colour negative film. I can place the plugin in the Affinity Photo plugins folder and have it recognised in the preferences pane (as 'Unknown' but I can check the use unknown box). Sadly Photo crashes when I try to open it. I asked the developer if I might expect the plugin to work with Affinity Photo in the future and got a rather bad-tempered reply:
Ouch! Rather regret asking the question. But, presumably, I was not the first to ask, and hence the frustration. I'm sure Serif has lots of things to do, and has done a pretty good job so far of rivaling Photoshop. Let us hope full plugin support is on the to-do list!

Please fix the components display in the adjustment "Curve" for the LAB model. The A and B components should go positive and go negative and the zero line should be halfway up the display pane and not at the bottom. In the case of A, orange colors would be above the line and cyan below. (The whole thing should look similar to the graphical display of an audio track.) Of course, the L display, showing positive only numbers, should stay as it is.

Tools are on the toolbar on the left.
Properties of tools (such as the type of gradient) are in the context toolbar at the top of the window.
That is consistent and appropriate.

Hi,
I would love such tool in Affinity : 
 
Is there any alternative here or just need to wait for such thing?
Thanks

Hi IPv6,
Thanks (again!) for your reports. These issues are not exclusive to v1.9 Beta, v1.8 behaves exactly the same way. If i'm not wrong the second case is already logged. I will check it out and update the report if necessary.