Jowday

At this point in time I would recommend to scale and observe in Photos main window and export. See what happens. I never scaled images during export in any program. I resize and sharpen the resized image then export what I saw with own eyes. Anyway scaling with bilinear here (Windows) doesn't trigger that effect. It never should, it is a harmless algorithm.

I experienced with and without scaling the same as him that images are rendered a bit sharper at 100% with nearest in view quality.

I think Acrobat can or could lock PDF - make them read only with no password option. I don't know just saying several protection modes could exist - some legacy now but correctly supported by Affinity. When I open password protected files in Designer there is no [Lock] tag. Perhaps Serif should explain what is happening and what is supported by the PDF library used by Serif in Affinity rather than we create a four page thread with wild guesses. 🙂

Barcodes, icon export, many more... a plug-in architecture would really, really be nice so third party developers could join in and fill the holes that Serif quite possibly will never fill for many reasons.

Okay, the difference is huge, it is hard to tell what causes such a dramatic difference. A few input: Always sharpen at 100% in any program you have and use. Software use different methods to scale huge images to the monitor, some methods and programs blur these scaled images than others. Algorithms and settings made the developers. Often you have no control. Remember that overs sharpening - when it is deliberate - is generally a sign of amatuers at work. When selling images many sharpened images are rejected. Professional cameras make softer in-camera JPGs than prosumer cameras. Be careful! 🙂 The threshold setting is key if you use unsharp mask. Always preview the output at 100% as well. A great image viewer with monitor colour profile is mandatory. Also be aware that Photo does render images at 100% slightly different depending on what view quality you have selected - the rendering quality matters. I noticed a difference when sharpening small details with unsharp mask during a test of Photo that didn't satisfy me. But I am also a picky photographer. Try toggling between them and see if it makes a difference toggling between them. Of are also welcome to share an image with me in a PM in strict confidence. I had commercial images stolen several times - not selling online anymore for that reason - so I respect ownership.

You are welcome 🙂

This is easy to deal with in a professional setup - at work we automated all this and test for it and teams collaborate and coordinate - but just example. It is vital that the user interface generates as few support requests as possible and as few interruptions in the workflow. Try to place a password locked PDF in Affinity ...

Double click the titles on the panels to minimize the studio panels. Select or de-select studio panels from the menu View > Studio You can also drag them to other positions on the screen, dock them etc. But View > Studio is a good place to start. Help to understand what you are looking at: https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Macros_Batch/macros.html https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Panels/macroPanel.html https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Panels/libraryPanel.html https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html

Your suggestion is not at all bad. Personally I would also recommend using styles like a fanatic - but there are plenty of use cases where styles are often not used. Small handouts, posters, small whatever. You make a small estimate and there is no time to fiddle with styles and perfect them. And the work is easy, you can improvise and benefit from your experience. Here a custom preflight warning with a min and a max may benefit some. I am not sure I would ever trigger it though. When/if Serif makes some export as ebook options such font size checks specifically for ebooks would make total sense. With additional new ebook preflight checks.

Take a look at Gravit Designer if a real knife tool is important in your workflow. Gravit Designer also sports an excellent pen tool. Website: https://www.designer.io/en/ For some reason there are almost no vector tools is Affinity Designer other than a few basic. I had to purchase a professional program from one of their competitors for my personal work after years of fruitless waiting. Some here will suggest you use the Boolean operators. This image shows an artist after hours of using that advice: Drawing maps using Boolean operators is like texting on a smartphone with your feet, so I do understand why you miss the knife tool. We are many in here that needs additional tools.

What Walt said. And to Serif - with a bit of this information in the dialog than"This file does not allow exporting" the issue could be understood and resolved by the customer without a round trip to the forums. Either a bit more information or like when timelapse export is disabled due to missing codecs - a dialog with a link to a webpage with a more thorough explanation and tips if available.

In a professional setup you do what is necessary and safe. In a personal setup you have more liberties but you still take a chance. And with my project I worked on for months, I do not take chances. To get what? Contours light? I can wait another month or two while others look for mines with their feet. Just update to open newer files? I am talking about the scenario when the damage is done and your files are overwritten with a new format. You have to downgrade to get the working version of your software back. And you simply cant export it to an older format if Serifs bugfixes takes weeks or months to arrive. But still. This was just an example. What is important is to underline that betas, release candidates and even first versions of the release version is not without risks. Perhaps you can't wait but people should know that even a release candidate is for testing purposes only.

I believe that if you purchased Affinity in the horrible, horrible Microsoft Store then you will get the updates automatically. NFW.

I agree. But to avoid the thread spinning out of control 🙂 lets focus on the issues that can (and often will) arise when people use betas, release candidates or first release versions. 🙂

A release candidate is still a test version with a different name. With all that follows. With no guarantees. Never use it for production work - only testing. The first release version was a release candidate a few days earlier. Still only a newborn. Use it for production work with caution. Let the first movers burn their fingers if you are using it for commercial work. Wait for the first minor updates. That is why the constant startup reminder (that cannot be disabled) about a new release available in all Affinity apps is dangerous. Every release has a new file format, older apps cannot open files saved in the new format. Example: Upgrade to 1.9.0 Work in 1.9.0 Save over 1.8.5 file from 1.9.0 Discover a serious issue you can't live with in 1.9.0 Downgrade to 1.8.5 SCREAM! You cannot open the file from 1.9.0 Stuck In a commercial setup you will be up Shit Creek without a paddle Backups of all files is a clumsy no go Restoring backups from servers is a clumsy no go LibreOffice is an excellent example of a project that takes stability in a production environment serious. They do offer brand new update but also recommend production work installations to follow the older branch and they release several updates to that for an extended period. It is how it is done. Serif also release around five minor updates after each major release - if only their nagging reminder wouldn't push people towards updating to a brand new major version the second it is released.

Vector Vectorstyler is a program I followed for some time now. Very interesting. I have been in touch with the developer several times - he reminds me of a developer working for us that has the entire product in his head and can debug and adjust the code instantly to fix the issue or develop features overnight - but I am a customer in that case and the developer has a huge international company behind him and under him. We work in a professional setup. This VS guy sounds like a one man army and the product needs more. The potential is big! With a re-designed user interface and a significant scope freeze period where bugs and weaknesses are fixed I can only imagine a solid result. The obvious ambitions shown in Vectorstyler and the instant fixes is what feeds my joy. If it could be merged with an elegant interface and stability in a professional setup. Bingo! Personally I drifted back to Illustrator at work and CorelDRAW (for variation) at home because I need mature software with professional time saving features, great usability and algorithms that works. The pen tool in Designer is more pleasing and motivating to work with overall with but from there I meet the wall too often in the draw (vector) persona. A wall or an empty toolbox. Designer would be a much more interesting product now and later with the advanced features and algorithms found in Vectorstyler. Interesting to see where they both stand in 10 years time but for now I have to stay with the biggies.

Naturally - I didn't suggest it would cause an uproar 🙂- just hinting that it was better to report and fix it in the 1.9 branch than overseeing it for some time in the release forum.

You may want to get this little bugger fixed before release:

You tell us. You'll be funding it.

15 minutes?? Holy cow. I am happy I purchased software that does it in one or two if I am slow. This is how you make simple drawings take 15 minutes. A computer should make things easier.

Well, guess what, Designer trying to preserving the shape when deleting nodes is kind of implemented. No way as good as in Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Inkscape or other vector programs. But it is not enabled by default. Argh. And the keyboard shortcut on Windows is.... Ctrl + Alt + Backspace. Mac Alt + Delete. Worlds apart. So I had to google it - I had once again forgotten all bout that illogical shortcut. It is not possible to assign another shortcut for it - but you can assign a keyboard shortcut for the cat tool.

Yes, indeed, I get it too. Good catch!

I just disagree with most of that. There is no reason to make basic usability mistakes when it is so easy to avoid with a little assistance from real specialists.

A suggestion - I find it unbearable to edit in LAB curves in Photo - and the only issue is usability: This is what makes LAB editing not-so-fun to use in Photo: A visual mess - all curves show at the same time with various colours Colours are misleading AOpponent curve (just label it 'Channel A') is represented with green, kind of OK, it 'adjusts' magenta <-> green BOpponent curve (just label it 'Channel B') is represented with magenta, wrong, it 'adjusts' yellow <-> blue Floats in input fields? Why? AOpponent... what? Channel A. Photo 1.9 - even when adjusting one single channel - impossible to focus and work: Worst case - overlapping curves: Other example - just a mess: Adobe Photoshop since forever - much, much better: I have said it a hundred times; Photo is great feature wise as an editor - but needs a major - MAJOR - usability overhaul.