postmadesign

In Publisher on Mac (latest OS version, Affinity version 2.4.0) I ran into a weird problem with keyboard shortcuts. I live in germany and use a german keyboard, but my Affinity software is set to english, as I prefer my software in english. (but as I am dutch, my OS language is actually dutch... yeah, I know, it's pretty complicated 🤪) I wanted to create a shortcut for Preview mode, using the # button, as it is easily accesible and not used for much else. When I implemented this in settings, it shows up as # in the imput box. However, the shortcut does not work, and in the menu the shortcut next to the menu item says 3. When I then use 3 it does not work (possibly because of a conflict?). I then tried the = sign on the number pad. In the imput field it shows up normally, but it does not work. In the menu, it now says * next to the item. When I then tried to use this shortcut, it did indeed work... ⁉️ I have no idea why this problem occurs, and have found no way to change the input setting in Affinty. I have only one keyboard installed. I know my set up is a bit uncommon, but other software does not have this problem, so I guess this should be solveable.

I am using the latest version of Ventura. But these problems have been present for a long time.

This has been a problem in V1 and unfortunately there has been little improvement in this area. The problem is that Designer (other Affinity apps too) frequently crashes when working with styles. Crashes and hangups often occur when I open another category, which gives me the spinning beach ball, and most of the time I have to force quit the app. Creating, re-ordering, deleting and re-naming styles is also very slow and buggy, and causes frequent crashes as well. It seems to me this part of Designer is just not very well developed and too buggy. Plus it is lacking features, like the ability to edit a style. I hope that there will be improvement in this area soon, as it has been an annoyance for years and has in fact cost me time and work as well.

I think my issue was misunderstood: Bleed is working correctly in the exported PDF. However while working in Designer, I do not see the the graphics in the Bleed area when I have artboards enabled. It shows the markers of the bleed area, but no graphics that are outside of the artboard but within the bleed area.

I love to work with artboards in Designer to create Flyers and other design elements all in one document. Designer also offers Bleed for artboards, which is great when creating PDFs for printing. One thing is a bit annoying though: Designer will not show the elements within the bleed area. It will indicate the bleed edges, but not show anything outside of the artboard but within the bleed area. This sometimes makes it hard to see how the final output will look like. Perhaps adding an option to the viewing settings to enable this? Thanks!

Thank you for reminding me of this, but I always found this method very hard to work with and not precise. I would like a numbers based approach with a preview.

I really like the improvements in this area. May I add a suggestion: add the ability to create a grid of objects with this. You could create a checkbox for this, but it would require two entry fields for horizontal and vertical copies. I find this very useful in InDesign, and seems to be a rather easy addition to improve this feature

This is relatively minor feature request, but I would like to have another option for the size of the color swatches. At the moment the Large option is too large for my taste, but the medium option is too small. Perhaps create a size between these, and rename the Large option into extra large?

Could it be an option to have keep all draw lines selected? For instance when using the Sculpt feature to modify or add to the curves this might be useful. Not a big thing though.

Really? I find it hard to believe this would change my issue, because I have been using a non metal Mac until very recently (v1 in this case) and it had the very same issue.

No I do not have this setting turned on. However I have had this problem with my old intel iMac in V1 too, so I don't think this causes it.

In the latest version, working with styles in Designer is still very buggy and slow. Adding and removing styles is very slow, and might even crash the app. Each time I have an object selected to create a style from, opening the styles menu to add a style takes several seconds with spinning beach ball. This behaviour was already problematic in v1, but I hoped the new version, plus a new Mac Mini M2 would resolve this. It is still there though, and it is very annoying! I hope that you can finally improve on the styles functionality, both improve speed and reduce bugginess, but also allow for better editing of a style. Why not give me the option to edit the style and change things like effects, line width or color? It is quite cumbersome to work with right now, which is a real shame...

I can not really take these complaints seriously. Some people just want everything for free, and throw a tantrum when they don't. Affinity is amazing value, regardless of any discount.

Alas, one can dream...

I see what you mean, but I don#'t think the distinctions between the apps are clear cut, and have not been from the beginning: Designer was unique in the the way it combined Vector and raster elements in one app. In fact you could do most of the things that Photo does in Designer. Photo also has vector elements. I in fact find it frustrating that for some reason or another, only some functions are ported over to the other apps, while others are not. If you are doing purely photo-editing, you might not need the other apps. But having the vector pencil tool in Photo could be very beneficial, as well as having artboards, or a corner tool... These are just some examples where I feel the split between the apps is merely arbitrary. As for the price: Affinity offers a universal license right now, which is such amazing value that I can hardly believe it will keep customers from buying the app. Perhaps when they split it up into platforms it might reduce the price even a bit. I think that by saving resources in only developing 1 hybrid and unique app Affinity would be on a good path. I don't mind if you disagree, it's just my 2ct.

This is basically what gave me the idea that a one app solution could work.

I am not sure about this if the UI is better and you can have different workspaces/personas, so if you would be editing a photo, it would be much like AF right now. I agree in principle, yes. But the problem I see is that the 3 Affinity apps share the same code base, so changes to the one app will have an effect on other apps as well. A problem with the pen tool will have to be fixed on all programs. By bundling it into 1 they could save resources by not having to makes changes across all apps. Serif is a small company, not like Adobe, and I don't believe they have different independent teams working on different apps, but I might be wrong. I believe though that from a financial and resources perspective, Serif needs to focus on their USP, which to me is integration. By not having an app that could be compared to Illustrator or Photoshop, you would stop direct like-for-like comparisons and focus more on a unque product. I see your point, but the comparison is not quite right. Microsoft and Adobe are huge companies compared to Serif. But to be able to build such a suite of apps, all Affinity apps share the same code base. They were developed to work together from the beginning. The suites you mentioned never were, and especially with the Adobe suite, they are still playing catch up in this regard.

You are right for many use cases, but I still often run into situations where I have to switch programs for one tiny thing, which is annoying. I just want it all in one place and only change persona, not program.

I have done some thinking about what direction Affinity is heading relative to the competition. Adobe has been making a lot of strides, specifically with AI powered features. Even if Affinity 2.0 is a very good update, and 2.1 added some good improvements, I still feel that the general perception is that Affinity is stalling a bit. Serif took up a huge task for a small company putting out a very nice integrated suite of programs at a very good price. They took the fight to competition with 3 programs that could replace mre well known industry standard programs, at least to a high degree. By being so affordable, they provided a good entry point for small businesses, freelancers and enthousiasts. I truly appreciate what Serif created in this respect. Providing these apps also on iPad was quite visionary as well. Then the v.2 offered a universal language for all apps at a very good price, making an offer very hard to ignore. However it is a very big task to keep 3 apps on 3 platforms up to date, provide regular updates and not lose the users to the competition. The competetion in this field has become much more severe than it was even 10 years ago and I think this is why Serif really needs to ask the question where to go next. In my vision there is only one way that makes sense: fully integrate the 3 apps in one program! Affinity has been about the integration of the various parts from the start, and this has been its unique selling point. Publisher was the cherry on the pie in this regard. With the Universal License, Affinity made it clear that you get the best result when all apps are installed. Let's not kid ourselves into believe any one of these 3 apps is the best in class in terms of features (best bang for a buck though). It's strength lies in how well the different parts work together. There are 3 apps now, and though I understand they are meant for different use cases, but in real life as a designer, these do not always make sense. Having to jump over from designer to photo to use a filter on an illustration, or from photo to designer to round the corner of a shape is annoying, and it seems arbitrary. Publisher led the way in providing all elements of the suite in 1 program (albeit in reduced form) and I feel this is the only logical way to develop the suite. Making 1 app instead of 3 saves resources and makes it less prone to comparisons to similar programs. The persona approach which was in designer from the start provides a good base, but I would argue that the user should be provided with more options to customize they layout to its preferences. This is an area where Affinity is lacking a lot. I see this as the biggest chance for Affinity to keep their own unique place in the market, but I look forward to other ideas.

I really like the freehand vector pencil tool in Designer, but there are some thing that are a bit annoying and could improved imo. 1. Auto close was added in 2.0, but I find that in most cases it is not very useful. I would rather have the ability to close a path when the starting and end point are at a specified distance from eachother, say 10 points. This would allow me to use sculpt mode AND create closed paths, which is not possible right now. 2. Set smoothing factor: I would like the ability to set the accuracy of the stroke I draw, from very raw input with a lot of accuracy to a more smoothed out line. 3. Related to the previous point is the problem I have with zooming and pencil accuracy. The more zoomed out you are, the less accurate/more smoothed out the path becomes. I wish for a general smoothness regardless of zoom level. 4. I would love the integration of a Path eraser, that would be able to cut lines up to an intersection. This is possible using the Shapebuilder tool right now, so the code is there, but having it integrated in the Pencil tool and available with a shortcut would make it much more intitive and fast. This would probably require an option to keep all drawn paths selected.

Of course I am willing to pay for a software or service if the price is right. If the pricing does not make economic sense to me though I will let it pass.

Yes, I found this out when I wanted to know more details. Of course this is a shame, but quite understandable. I just hope the pricing strategy will be decent and offers some flexibility. If I have to get a subscription (I hope not, but probably) the fee will decide if this service makes sense for me. Paying for a vectorization could be an option too, but it all depends on the price.

Vectorizer.ai (already in the list) has the best vector trace I have seen so far, The results are amazing... I tried various kinds of images, and the results are always very good, both for flat logo and illustration as well as more complex work. Check this result from a very poor JPEG image:

Two more images to show how clean yet precise the results are:

I just discovered this website that uses AI to trace images to vectors, and it is the best I have found so far. The quality, especially with low resolution images, is remarkable. It offers quite advanced options too. The upload has a max resolution, but this did not seem to affect the result in a negative way. The end result is very usable, with clean vectors. I would love vector trace for Affinity, but with online tools as good as this, it makes me wonder if they should really put their resources into it. I still would prefer an offline option, even for a price, though... Check it out: https://vectorizer.ai/ Here is a random image I scanned with the vectorized result: