DragonWhimsy

Yeah, I know. One of those posts is even mine. But I thought a refresh was necessary. Besides, maybe a new post might at least provide an insight from a Serif representative on why they can't do this or why they don't want to. It's such a weird thing not to have after 4 years. It's such an easy add, I feel it's less that they haven't had time and more that someone in the UI/UX department is just against it for some reason. And if that's the case I just really want them to get over it because it's reallllllly hurting my workflow. Love ya Serif, you guys are really great. But I don't get this one. I'd really love some insight on their choice here.

It'd be great if there was an option to show the brush names in the brush panel without having to hover the cursor over each brush. Not only would it fix my greatest annoyance with the apps but it should hopefully be really low hanging fruit given the IPad versions already do this. Please? The lack of this option is driving me insane. *Obi-Wan voice* Help me Serif, you're my only hope.

Running AD as Administrator did actually work. I hadn't thought of that since I'm on an administrator account already. Good catch thanks!

Affinity Designer will display the progress bar and seem like it's searching for something, then crash when attempting to link the product with my account. It doesn't even ask for an account e-mail or anything... not sure if it's supposed to do that or if it's trying to pull it from my browser? In any case it's definitely not working on my machine.

I changed my panel layout last night and now I can't recreate the problem. So problem solved I guess? I'll keep an eye out for it and see if it pops up again. It's weird, it's been plaguing me for days but now seems to be gone ever since moving the panels around.

Every time I load AD, switch personas, or go to another panel (like the stroke or swatches panel) and switch back to the color panel the color panel won't remember what mode I have it set in. It goes to the tint mode. No matter how many times I switch it back to color wheel mode it will switch back to tint mode at any opportunity. I've only noticed this behavior since the latest patch.

This sounds really great. It's something in Serif's marketing arsenal I have thought has been missing for quite some time. Nothing sells design software better than seeing other professionals use it. Plus, it's fun and educational and helps to build an online community around your products. I really hope you guys continue this past May. I would love to see this become a regular thing.

That would also be a great quality of life feature I'd love to see.

Yeah, that's my fear as well. That it's not even that they haven't gotten around to it because of more important priorities, but it's just some guy in the UI department who decided it looked better more streamlined like that rather than be practical and useful about the matter. If you can see the names in the panel you're registering those names each time you use the brush, you're gaining muscle memory about which brush does what as you use them. It's easy to find them again in the list as well. Hovering over the item just gets in the way and as something that gets in the way the user isn't going to do that, and so they don't build that muscle memory. In the end it's just a list of different squiggly lines which mean nothing to me.

I'm really loving the Affinity Suite, they are fantastic products. But it's become frustrating that my biggest pain point with the desktop software is seemingly something so easy to fix. I'm talking about how you can only see the brush names in the brush panel by hovering your cursor over the brush. For someone who has bought a lot of brushes for the software this is really painful. This has really hampered my ability to find a brush, or even remember what brush I had used previously. It seems like a small thing, but it really isn't. Seeing the names in the panel helps greatly with memory retention and creates a much stronger user experience. Right now I either have to hover over the brush, taking an extra second to let the name pop up (getting me out of my artistic flow and annoying me, and that annoyance meaning I'm unlikely to bother), or I have to not register the name in my consciousness at all, leaving me to hopefully remember later which in a long line of squiggly shapes is the brush I used. While I realize this isn't the most important feature in the world, it's also really low hanging fruit. And doesn't the ipad versions of the suite already have this (I don't have the ipad versions but I'd swear I saw in a video that they do)? Is this a result of someone in UI wanting to make the panel look prettier and more streamlined and thinking it doesn't hamper our workflows? Because if so please, please put that strange notion aside. You are most definitely hampering my workflow. Please don't tell me we have to wait for 1.9 for this. It's such a small thing but so important.

I would be shocked if Serif didn't announce their Lightroom alternative at the next "Affinity Live" event. It's the only app listed in their initial vision of the suite that hasn't been released (as outlined in the forward to the Affinity Designer Workbook). It's definitely coming next and before the 2.0 versions of Photo and Designer.

An extensive plugin system may be the solution for the pop-up palette, if that is indeed something they have an interest in creating in the near future. Though an extensive plugin system is a lot more resource intensive than the simple pop-up palette I'm asking for if plugin's were not something they were planning until much later. And the pop-up palette could be used for other tools besides just the brushes so it doesn't seem like bloat to me. But there are three other things I asked for above, all of which are actually more important to the digital painting experience than the pop-up palette. In fact the lack of first two are so painful to the experience of using the Affinity products that they actually seem like bugs. Why won't a brush stay highlighted? WHY?!!!!!!! Oh please just stay highlighted if I've selected you. Why can't I see the brush names? I can't remember squiggly lines. I need to see the names. I don't want to wait and hover over each brush until the name pops up. Together these two items make for a horrible user experience and it effects everyone who uses brushes for any reason, not just digital painters. Finally the third request is more of a bonus I suppose, but I'm often creating an effect that I can't remember later how I created it. Sometimes if I'm trying a lot of different approaches, one right after another, I don't even remember how I did something just moments ago. Being able to click on a layer and have something tell me exactly what brushes I've used would be a godsend. Yes I could name each layer after the brushes I used in it I suppose but that's another thing taking me out of the painting experience.

If Affinity Photo was meant to just be for photo manipulation (and yes that is it's primary use I freely admit) then why did they just add the Symmetry and Sub Brushes feature? Why did they just add a nice selection of Daub Brushes? Why is there an entire section about their "beautiful brush engine" on the main page for Affinity Photo? Besides all these features are low hanging fruit. None of these are resource intensive. And bonus! These features would also be very useful in Affinity Designer as well and would be easily ported there. It actually seems like a very efficient use of resources. Finally, hobbyist digital art is a major gateway into using graphic design software. Especially the sort of person who wants professional features without paying for an Adobe subscription. These people also don't have to worry about what is "industry standard" since they're not working with or for anyone! Affinity is really missing a trick by not catering to that market at least a little bit. Adobe knows you own the future by getting them when they're still hobbyists. Affinity needs to learn that too.

I've been enjoying my time in Affinity Photo a great deal. And while I know it's primary use case is photo manipulation it's also clearly marketed toward digital artists as a secondary use case so with that in mind I figured I'd ask for some quality-of-life features geared toward the digital painting experience. Specifically geared toward keeping the artist in the zen creative mindset. The more he or she is using the brushes and the less he or she is fiddling with the interface the better for the overall creative experience. So here we go! It would be great if there was an option in the brushes panel to display the brush's name. It would be more than great, it would be immensely helpful. I believe the IPad version of Affinity Designer already has this feature. Please bring it into the AD/AP desktop versions too. I find it difficult to remember what brush I was just using and it's frustrating. For some reason the selected brush in the brush panel never stays highlighted. Even when it's still selected. It'd be nice if the last brush I used just stayed highlighted. Even after I switch tools. Along the same lines it would be great if I could click on a layer and see what brushes have been used in that layer. This would be amazing for remembering how to achieve an effect I've previously created. It would help that "zen" feeling if a feature along the lines of Krita's "Pop up Palette" was implemented. See how it works here: Unlike the Krita version, it would be wonderful to have an option for the Popup Palette to be able to display brush names too. It goes without saying that these features would be just as useful in Affinity Designer as in Photo. So having them added there would be great too! And now here's the part where YOU dear reader chime in with how you don't want to see these quality-of-life features because you fear it will take away resources from features that will help YOUR workflow instead. Because that's what we do here. Obviously Serif knows what their target market priorities are and will choose the features that are the biggest bang for their buck. These are just things I'd love to see. Your trying to guess what those target market priorities are (and that they just so happen to coincide with your feature requests) is irrelevant but thank you for your concern on the matter future poster! And yes I know you're going to post anyway.

New features have been added but there is nothing that is in the books that has been done away with. The workbooks cover up to patch 1.5 and to be honest patch 1.6 wasn't that big of a patch so the books are mostly up to date and are still very relevant.

I'm hoping that once Publisher is out they spend some time on Affinity Designer again rather than coming out with a 4th part of the suite. I'm more than willing to pay another $50 for an AD2 or something if it's new features are significant. In the meantime I hope 1.7 is more along the lines of 1.5 than 1.6.

There seems to be a misunderstanding by some posters here on what is being asked for. The OP is not asking for a WYSIWYG functionality being added to AD. No one is asking for AD to be turned into Adobe Muse or Frontpage 2000. What is being asked for is that each layer be given CSS Properties so that when a designer hands off the design to a developer that the developer can EXACTLY match the design given because the CSS properties are right there for him to see. He's not approximating the design, he has the option of an EXACT translation. It saves the developer time and guesswork. No one is expecting AD to do the actual coding. It's just supplying some CSS Properties to speed up the developer's work. Most software used for UI design already has this functionality. Sketch. InVision. Illustrator. Photoshop. Only Adobe XD doesn't have it yet. And AD. Serif put a lot of effort into making AD ready for UI designers in the 1.5 update, but without CSS export it's mostly for naught. You absolutely have to have this feature to compete.