Jowday

@StevenC2020 Finally back home at the computer. Took only a few seconds to figure out what is wrong. It is the chromatic aberration reduction that blurs the image. Try disabling it - then it should look a bit better - and possibly also disable the lens correction. It can also blur the image a bit but it is hardly a major factor in this image. But still. Professional RAW developers like DxO Photolab use their own, superior and deeply specialized demosaic algorithms that pulls out most details of the RAW data. Come to me for relevant advice 😄

I don't think anyone ever asked for it in Publisher. It is very useful when drawing in Designer and Photo, not so much in a DTP program. The thing is the three programs share almost all code and functionality so clashes of interest like this will happen. This also means Serif must consider possible action. Optimally Serif should identify these clashes and offer customization options to remedy the situations. Users of Publisher that never make art or illustrations in Designer/Photo will rarely understand or need rotation of the page. Perhaps in Publisher it should rotate the page in steps of 90 degrees instead. Whatever makes sense to customers. So indeed needs are different. But instead of repeating that which leads absolutely nowhere I would recommend what I just said; that Serif adds customization where it resolves such issues. Ah, the benefits of LISTENING.

Good call; I had a nasty feeling it just wasn't ready. In due time. 🙂

Not just fluffy. I have heard every bad and wrong argument, a few: "It is just common sense" (No. Chances are you don't know the difference between any two groups of people, cultures, age groups, etc. You probably don't get out too much.) "I have worked with computers for 30 years, so I know how software should work" (The sentence itself shows how bad a listener you are. And you are wrong.) "I know what our customers want - have 30 years of experience." (No, what some wanted. The sentence itself shows how bad a listener and trend observer you are.) "Not two user experience designers say the same" (They do not give personal advice, they should use knowledge about best practice from the field, current trends, involve end users (in the real world in labs), perform several iterations of user testing (live) and generally be an ambassador for the customers. "We can just look at the competitors and follow their example" (Unless you steal their entire workflow and UI and YOUR customers like it and you will not stand tall in front of a judge, no. Look at previous bullet.) And the list goes on. If the lack of user experience designers is due to a decision made by management, oh boy. And as you experienced yourself. It adds value and sales. Loyal customers. Increased productivity and happier customer. Fewer support tickets/forum posts. Fewer re-designs and a possible smoother transition to major versions. Any given software product have enough problems and challenges in producing stable code and and an optimal architecture. And there is never enough time. Indeed user experience would police harmonization and consistency because they would - and must - OWN the user interface and management would support them every inch of the way. So you know the feeling ... talking to dead eyes and closed ears. I was there... 25... years ago? I personally worked with user experience designers since... 1998. So onwards indeed... why sit here 20+ years later and observe the errors of the past being re-implemented. Take care, @ProDesigner - and never, ever give up.

If you select another RAW Engine? There should be an Apple engine. It doesn't have to be caused by noise reduction. The RAW engine itself can be the culprit. Not much compares to the in-camera processing where the camera company applies algorithms made by their own engineers. To get excellent RAW file development from especially dark images you need software with similar super algorithms; DxO Photolab with Prime or DeepPrime noise reduction and state of the art RAW development (sharpness/clarity). These programs are excellent Affinity Photo companions. PSST: If possible could you provide us with a RAW file?

My old habit from other programs that can be used in Affinity as well is to hit V for the move tool. The tool I use the most in between using other tools.

It is just obvious from what they do and what they admit directly and indirectly here. I baffles me. We have a company working for us - big, international, but still it worked the same way since it was smaller - it has user experience designers and we as a customer have now seven. The IT company actively involves their usability specialists and appreciate ours as well because they focus a delivering top quality. They actually helped raise our standard years ago by constantly asking polite but insisting questions about our whishes when they knew it could be done in a better way. Then we started hiring user experience designers because we raised the bar significantly ourselves. The difference between how we worked and what we delivered 10 years ago and today is significant. Projects now include a lot of usability design, user tests of early ideas, ideas later and of course in the last stages of development. But the user interface rarely gets any negative feedback anymore. The developers rarely have to make changes to the interface. Users are not crash test dummies and we don't get any negative press about the products themselves. That was the case years ago before usability got priority and funding. Now we can focus on accessibility, new features, improved architecture and optimal code. Besides three senior architects in our dev team most developers are quite young - but hand picked and incredibly talented - and they "grew up" with usability and accessibility specialists in projects. It is natural for them with several experts and natural to stick to their own territory and work. Older developers and companies tend not to understand their line of work. You wouldn't believe the arrogant bullshit I have heard years ago. It is just like covid-19 where your local shoe salesman pretends to know everything about viruses, masks and what not. We didn't and don't pick such old school IT companies either. It is 2021. All of us here involved user experience designers because IT products are maturing and people demand much, much better and easier products now than just a few years ago. We have perhaps only reached the end of the beginning.

As I have repeated here endlessly - if they really want that to happen they HAVE to hire a user experience designer. At least one. A lot of user testing, networking with companies and adjusting to do. Let the developers code, focus on their craft, and let the user experience designers build - and own - the user interface across all apps. We now have SEVEN for our work. That Serif doesn't have ONE is surreal.

Based on the many, many cries for help because of hardware and driver issues in this forum I can only recommend an older Windows 10 based machine with a lame and retired built in graphics card. Affinity has been a rock solid and quite fast experience on cheap hardware. Adobe too actually. I honestly kept myself from upgrading because it is such a pleasing and stable environment. Just teasing the first movers and hardware enthusiasts. No OS wars please. I am OS agnostic.

Congrats with the X100V. A great camera from a great company. But now you are adding HP sauce to excellent, hand picked and expensive ingredients dreaming about a magic ratio that makes it taste almost like in a Michelin restaurant. The RAW demosaic algorithms in Fuji and Olympus cameras are based on totally different algorithms - and colours profiles - same goes for CaptureOne Pro.

Then I get these corners myself? Zoomed in deeply but still.

A clock? 😞

It is an issue also on Windows - a major showstopper for a program with so few vector features where I have to use additional programs to make certain changes. Well... Had to. Moved on.

I never said that, @walt.farrell 😄

There is also another option; Serif hires a user experience designer and gives especially Photo a usability overhaul after user testing and massive customer input and adjusts Affinity to what people would expect and prefer. It would certainly lead to more satisfied customers and more creative customers. A World War II Plane That Kept Crashing Helped Lead to Steve Jobs's Biggest Innovations https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/steve-jobs-boeing-b-17-wwii-paul-fitts-alphonse-chapanis-code-shaping-ergonomics-design.html

Yes, the Yep. They are not styles in Designer - rather just presets. The term styles signals something else. I was fooled too. There is also no consistency when a style in Publisher and Designer means something different. There is also no consistency between programs when a style in Publisher and Designer means something different. Usability beginner mistake. There is just no way to work with them in their current state in a professional context.

Yes - and it is exactly what it is. A solution. Automagically applied so you just focus on drawing and the computer assists in cases like this.

Thanks, @walt.farrell 🙂 Yes, yet another workaround is possible, but the user interface is supposed to work for me, I am not supposed to work for the user interface. (That was for you, Serif 🙂 )

This can't be a deliberate design choice - in preview mode I still see the distracting grey borders around pages. So there is no way to view or preview a publication without this border? That is no good for presenting a publication at the desk or in a meeting room without exporting to PDF which is not an option if you try out changes with someone live. The amount of "What is that grey border?" questions alone... or "Please hide it" requests... brrr...

The export algorithms create some horrible artifacts during down-scaling of the image it seems. Not terribly much to do about it. The different algorithms do not make a big difference. I tried one trick though - YET ANOTHER WORKAROUND, SERIF!!! - that may help you. Select the two layers Duplicate them (Control + j) Group them (control + g) Name the group export Right click the group and select rasterize Keep it selected - and only that layer Export with the desired settings - remember to select "Selected" in 'Area' If you require a slightly sharper image you can sharpen it in the pixel person with a low opacity. This is what I got from my how-to above with no additional sharpening:

A Freudian slip almost revealing why an UX is needed in Nottingham. "I", "Myself".

Indeed a search field is needed - but as mentioned you can customize many keyboard shortcuts - I have simplified some that required several keys as well. Do remember to save your shortcuts and keep them as a backup - should they be overwritten by mistake during an update or whatever:

Agreed. One feature from Vectorstyle I really, really like that I have to mention here is "File -> Export again" - It simply exports directly with the last settings - no questions asked. Brilliant when you are fine-tuning.

Indeed and I could imagine that this is simply an unhandled scenario in Affinity Designer that needs to be fixed/handled. Not a deliberate design choice.

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