Aftemplate

I know there's a way to measure a distance from an object, but is there any way to measure a distance between two points on the canvas?
 
I.e., say I have a closed irregular shape, and I want to measure a certain distance from one of its perimeter lines to a point within. I can't select the object and press Command to measure, since that only gives me the distance from its outermost component to a different object (if any) within.
 
But if the object is irregular and I want to measure from a part of it closer to its center to a point (not object) within--our outside it, for that matter--this method fails in two regards--the measurement doesn't start from that inner line, and there's no second object to measure to.
 
I was hoping for a tool that simply measured the distance between any points A and B.

Status: GM Seed
Purpose: Features, improvements and fixes.
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Submitted
Download ZIP: Download
Auto-update: Available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the final build of Affinity Photo 1.9.2 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 an incremental update to the 1.9.1 version recently released to all customers (although it still installs parallel to the released version, as described above). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes Since 1.9.2.229
 
- The recent Metal changes have a couple of undesirable side effects. We have disabled them for the shipping version of 1.9.2. They will get cleaned up and reintroduced in the next beta cycle. This means the benchmark version remains at 1900 for 1.9.2.
- Fix potential crashes on M1 devices (introduced earlier in the 1.9.2 beta).
- Enforce ISO country code character limit.
- Fixed crashes with malformed ICC profiles.
- Improved the reliability of panorama stitching.
- Fixed bugs which were preventing Unsplash stock page items from working.
- Improved PSD import from recent versions of PS.
- Output levels (in the levels adjustment layer) are now correctly exported to / imported from PSD.
- Fixed missing EXIF data for EOS 300D RAW.
- Fixed a HEIC crash.
- Assorted tweaks to the new LUT import / export features.
- Assorted small fixes.
- Localisation improvements.
- Help improvements.
 
Changes Since 1.9.1

- Added ability to organise LUT adjustment presets, including support for multiple categories and import / export as “.afluts” files.
- Added ability to drag / drop all adjustment presets to reorder them.
- Added support for OpenType reverse chaining contextual single substitutions.
- Significant performance improvements for assets (import, export, organisation, etc.).
- Typography panel performance improvements.
- Minor improvements to Gaussian Blur performance when GPU is enabled.
- Assorted visual fixes in the adjustments panel.
- Further fixes for deadlocks with multiple GPUs.
- Restored ability to plug an eGPU in while the app is running.
- Fixed issues introduced in build 227 for users with multiple GPUs.
- Fixed occasional screen corruption introduced in build 227.
- Fixed potential deadlock issue when loading large files.
- Fixed assorted small registration page issues.
- Fixed the size of the “General” section in preferences.
- Fixed localisation issues in preferences.
- Fixed inability to add / rename / delete export presets.
- Fixed issue where UI would remain hidden when a studio page was enabled from the menu.
- Hardware acceleration has been improved to better make use of Metal (specifically to batch commands together into chunks, which gives the driver a better chance to optimise commands and provides a higher degree of abortability). The benchmark has also been tweaked to use multiple command queues for the Single GPU test, which makes it more representative of “real world” use.
This change affects both real-world performance and benchmark score. The benchmark version has been changed to 1920 - this means that results from this build should not be compared to results from previous builds with benchmark version 1900 (other than to measure the improvements which these changes yield). Once the iPad and Windows builds have been validated with these changes and new beta builds produced, a new forum thread will be created for 1920 benchmark results.
- Assorted performance improvements for assets.
- Assorted content download improvements and fixes.
- Added ability to optionally sort brushes by name.
- Improved performance of export and merge visible, especially in documents with Live Filters.
- Fixed a crash when using File -> Share after File -> Export.
- Fixed a bug where some Live Filters would appear to move after save / load.
- Fixed a crash when opening a brush category context menu with no selection.
- Fixed a bug which caused adjustment to fail to apply easily when clicking with a stylus.
- Assorted other small fixes.
- Localisation improvements.

Click here to download the latest beta
Status: Customer Beta
Purpose: 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.
Benchmark thread - https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/137515-benchmark-1920-results/Changes
 
Improved hardware acceleration performance Improved Lens Correction identification Added ability to organise LUT adjustment presets, including support for multiple categories and import / export as ".afluts" files Fixed LUT Adjustment being slow to respond after importing LUT  Fixed loading of certain assets consuming huge amounts of memory Fixed specific Print Profile crash Fixed crash when dragging Unsplash images from panel when Unsplash is returning errors Added F15 / F16 zoom shortcuts for tablets Fixed print orientation being wrong when printing Label with Auto Rotate selected  Fixed stroke width being printed incorrectly on rotated objects  Fixed "Print job was cancelled from print manager" using Canon iPF 5100 drivers  Fixed ending the print spooler from Services causing the app to hang Previous release notes

Click here to download the latest beta
Status: Customer Beta
Purpose: 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.
Changes
Fixed crash with Vector Brush Tool when the Appearance panel is open and undoing a brush stroke and selection changes to an object that had no linestyle  Fixed failure to create an object style if the only delta was line weight Fixed loading of certain assets consuming huge amounts of memory Fixed specific Print Profile crash Fixed crash when dragging Unsplash images from panel when Unsplash is returning errors Added F15 / F16 zoom shortcuts for tablets Fixed print orientation being wrong when printing Label with Auto Rotate selected  Fixed stroke width being printed incorrectly on rotated objects  Fixed "Print job was cancelled from print manager" using Canon iPF 5100 drivers  Fixed ending the print spooler from Services causing the app to hang Previous release notes

Nodes for generating new brushes (with physics like corel's Particle Brushes, with wetness simulation and viscosity simulation or adding some AI detailing enhance brush etc.)

Nodes for compositing - generating new filter layers - color grading effects - masking.

Nodes for generating visualizations from json data like in Blender
- https://youtu.be/0aRjInmibSw
But mostly i see there future for building new tools - brushes - adding motion blur vectors, particles, physics, combining clone tool with other tools available in AP and creating new ones.
But this would require lots of nodes: motion vectors, blur, math nodes, particles with life and birth rate, clone, inpainting, blending, mirroring (for example creating new inpaint with mirroring/flip options would be nice), stacking node, coloring node, alpha/mask node but i am not coder so i can just wish that Affinity will introduce something innovating in future for photo editing.. ultimate photo editing.
 

i just try to think node based workflows: create new filter layers, brushes driven by particles and physics nodes - or mixing/combingin clone/inpainting/brush/color tools/nodes to create new tools.

And the way how i could possible edit image with multiple layers - - i could group images more complex way and keep bigger composites more flexible than in current layer only based system for example moving layers (some of behind and some of them in middle and some of them in front) - i could group them more easily without need to use links like in photoshop - https://youtu.be/JXI-sYrwQ-8?t=37 like this kind of situations i could make composite where one layer would be behind the trees for example.. and some other layer in front of trees and i could still move them in sync without losing layer hierarchy but wihtout need to link them in node based workflow where i could easily separate background, middle and foreground layers and select what i want without messing my head - for example - by dragging wanted "layers" / nodes to same group  but which would be driven through  different "hierarchy node layers". There could be for example: z-index node - and i could assemble my nodes how ever i want - unlike in layers - there i need to consider hierarchy. Nodes could  be also good for building new tools like brushers which i already mentioned.


So i really hope Affinity will bring some node based brush creation tools and filters and compositing / image editing node workflow.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download ZIP: Download
Auto-update: Available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the third build of Affinity Photo 1.9.2 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 an incremental update to the 1.9.1 version recently released to all customers (although it still installs parallel to the released version, as described above). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes Since 1.9.2.228

- Added ability to organise LUT adjustment presets, including support for multiple categories and import / export as “.afluts” files.
- Added ability to drag / drop all adjustment presets to reorder them.
- Added support for OpenType reverse chaining contextual single substitutions.
- Significant performance improvements for assets (import, export, organisation, etc.).
- Typography panel performance improvements.
- Minor improvements to Gaussian Blur performance when GPU is enabled.
- Assorted visual fixes in the adjustments panel.
- Further fixes for deadlocks with multiple GPUs.
- Restored ability to plug an eGPU in while the app is running.
- Assorted other small fixes.
- Help improvements,
- Localisation improvements.
 
Changes Since 1.9.1
 
- Fixed issues introduced in build 227 for users with multiple GPUs.
- Fixed occasional screen corruption introduced in build 227.
- Fixed potential deadlock issue when loading large files.
- Fixed assorted small registration page issues.
- Fixed the size of the “General” section in preferences.
- Fixed localisation issues in preferences.
- Fixed inability to add / rename / delete export presets.
- Fixed issue where UI would remain hidden when a studio page was enabled from the menu.
- Assorted small fixes.
- Hardware acceleration has been improved to better make use of Metal (specifically to batch commands together into chunks, which gives the driver a better chance to optimise commands and provides a higher degree of abortability). The benchmark has also been tweaked to use multiple command queues for the Single GPU test, which makes it more representative of “real world” use.
This change affects both real-world performance and benchmark score. The benchmark version has been changed to 1920 - this means that results from this build should not be compared to results from previous builds with benchmark version 1900 (other than to measure the improvements which these changes yield). Once the iPad and Windows builds have been validated with these changes and new beta builds produced, a new forum thread will be created for 1920 benchmark results.
- Assorted performance improvements for assets.
- Assorted content download improvements and fixes.
- Added ability to optionally sort brushes by name.
- Improved performance of export and merge visible, especially in documents with Live Filters.
- Fixed a crash when using File -> Share after File -> Export.
- Fixed a bug where some Live Filters would appear to move after save / load.
- Fixed a crash when opening a brush category context menu with no selection.
- Fixed a bug which caused adjustment to fail to apply easily when clicking with a stylus.
- Assorted other small fixes.
- Localisation improvements.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download ZIP: Download
Auto-update: Available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the second build of Affinity Photo 1.9.2 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 an incremental update to the 1.9.1 version recently released to all customers (although it still installs parallel to the released version, as described above). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes Since 1.9.2.227
 
- Fixed issues introduced in build 227 for users with multiple GPUs.
- Fixed occasional screen corruption introduced in build 227.
- Fixed potential deadlock issue when loading large files.
- Fixed assorted small registration page issues.
- Fixed the size of the “General” section in preferences.
- Fixed localisation issues in preferences.
- Fixed inability to add / rename / delete export presets.
- Fixed issue where UI would remain hidden when a studio page was enabled from the menu.
- Assorted small fixes.
 
Changes Since 1.9.1
 
- Hardware acceleration has been improved to better make use of Metal (specifically to batch commands together into chunks, which gives the driver a better chance to optimise commands and provides a higher degree of abortability). The benchmark has also been tweaked to use multiple command queues for the Single GPU test, which makes it more representative of “real world” use.
This change affects both real-world performance and benchmark score. The benchmark version has been changed to 1920 - this means that results from this build should not be compared to results from previous builds with benchmark version 1900 (other than to measure the improvements which these changes yield). Once the iPad and Windows builds have been validated with these changes and new beta builds produced, a new forum thread will be created for 1920 benchmark results.
- Assorted performance improvements for assets.
- Assorted content download improvements and fixes.
- Added ability to optionally sort brushes by name.
- Improved performance of export and merge visible, especially in documents with Live Filters.
- Fixed a crash when using File -> Share after File -> Export.
- Fixed a bug where some Live Filters would appear to move after save / load.
- Fixed a crash when opening a brush category context menu with no selection.
- Fixed a bug which caused adjustment to fail to apply easily when clicking with a stylus.
- Assorted other small fixes.
- Localisation improvements.

the next beta will be 1.9.1 but yeah I know what you mean.... Sorry we cannot say (and that is not what this thread is for)

We are pleased to announce an update for the macOS release of Affinity Publisher, version 1.9.0
Changes in this build
A highlights explanation can be found here: 5 things you should know about Affinity Publisher 1.9
The detailed changes in Affinity Publisher for MacOS 1.9.0 over the release build Affinity Publisher for macOS 1.8.6 are as follows:
New Features
Data Merge (learn more) Support PDF Passthrough to ensure perfect representation of original PDF when exporting, without the need to have embedded fonts installed Package feature to collate your document alongside all used image and font resources into a folder (learn more) Studio Presets for the UI layout to save your favourite workspace setups for different tasks, explained here Studio panel combinations  (also learn more) Content sync of store purchases (requires Sierra or above and registration)
This feature is explained in more detail here Sync your Affinity Store resources with your Affinity 1.9 apps Flattened bitmap representation used for all PSD files  Path text improvements (learn more) Initial text baseline advance (learn more) Configurable bleed and margin guide colours (learn more) OpenAsset support for drag/drop from browser content PDF bookmarks (learn more) Convert pixel layer to image node (learn more) Divide blend mode  Fixes & Improvements:
General
Artboard conversion to spreads now optional Placed scale for all placed files, which allows scaling to be reset to 100% (learn more) Pages panel loses the scroll position when switching between document tabs Document Merge - Added option to ignore unused incoming text styles Print Dialog with Book or Booklet Document Layout showing could lead to instability (mac) Fix for PDF export on an M1 Mac causing issues Document profile PDX Export preflight tweak, falls back to CMYK profile for RGB / LAB documents Opening a template from File > Open or Drag and drop will now open it as untitled Filter Effect Dialog - Enabled the use of global colours Performance improvements  Various stability improvements Help and Localisation improvements Page/Spread
Resizing single page Master could change the size of dependent spreads incorrectly Deleting Master Page when editing detached could leave 'Editing Detached' notification open Fixed issue where re-applying master pages with text frames with pinned objects could cause document instability When modifying Adjustment Layers any bleed and pasteboard areas affected were not updating correctly Pinned objects from Master Pages were not showing in bleed  Resizing a single page master could cause spreads that used it to be resized incorrectly Guides lost from Master Page when changing from facing to single pages Added option to 'Add Pages (from file) at end of document' Added option in Add Pages From File to 'Add Before / After / Replacing Section' Text
Text selection highlight across multiple spreads could display incorrectly  Hyperlink styling could accidentally be added to new text More consistent handling of mid-word punctuation Deleting a row with merged cells could cause a crash Text wrap settings on images could become distorted after a document save and load Fix for hang resizing table columns in certain circumstances Line widths around Drop Caps could be wrong /inconsistent Glyph Browser was missing glyphs under certain circumstances when sorting via Unicode Prevent application of Hyperlink Anchors to Layers / Master Page instances Prevent creation of blank Hyperlink Anchors that could case errors on PDF Export Multi-curve text wrap could be combined incorrectly resulting in unexpected wrapping around complex shapes Bookmarks created by TOC not in the correct order when exported to PDF Style changes not always picked up as out of date for TOC TOC Anchors were not being deleted when the TOC was deleted Fixed generation of wrap shapes for certain images with alpha Import
IDML Import - text import now always applies appropriate text styling to be used when appending to imported text IDML import - Speed and efficiency improvements PDF import - Filter Effects could be wrongly rasterised and cause export failures PDF import - placed PDF improvements PDF import - fix for tiling patterns SVG Import - stability improvement Resources
Many Resource Manager fixes and improvements Artboard and other settings could be lost when reconnecting missing Affinity resources Place linked files could be opened as <Embedded> under certain circumstances 'Size frame to content' for images imported from IDML could behave incorrectly Picture frame within a Picture Frame could cause crash Export
Export Pages field now clears when switching documents PDF Export - panel truncated 'Advanced Features' check box (mac) PDF Export - Improved export of Type 1 fonts, which could cause failure under certain circumstances TGA Export - Fix for 32bit export  
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in application menu, Affinity Publisher > About).
If you’ve purchased from the Mac App Store— updates are done automatically next time you run your software after it is available in the Mac App Store. If this does not happen for you, open the Mac App Store app and go to the Updates page and then Store > Reload page or press CMD+R. This should hopefully force the update to show. Apple sometimes phase roll outs around the world which can mean it may take up to 72 hours for your update to be available.
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer to download and install any available update, or in the application main menu there is an option Check for Updates. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Publisher for macOS) can be downloaded from this link (that installer is NOT for Mac App Store purchases and needs a product key).

We are pleased to announce an update for the MacOS release of Affinity Photo, version 1.9.0
Changes in this build
A highlights explanation can be found here: 5 things you should know about Affinity Photo 1.9
The detailed changes in Affinity Photo for MacOS 1.9.0 over the release build Affinity Photo for macOS 1.8.6 are as follows:
New Features:
Live liquify layers (learn more) Linked layers (learn more) Pattern layers (learn more) Stacking for astrophotography (see tutorials here) Divide blend mode (learn more) Path text added (learn more) Studio Presets for the UI layout to save your favourite workspace setups for different tasks, explained here Studio panel combinations (also learn more) Create brushes from current pixel selection (learn more) Linked images and Resource Manager (learn more) Use filters on masks Edit spare channels as layers Added per-layer antialiasing controls in the advanced blending menu Added export preview panel (for raster types) Support PDF passthrough to ensure perfect representation of original PDF when exporting, without the need to have embedded fonts installed Benchmarking option to measure speed of your device Content sync of store purchases (requires Sierra [or above] and registration)
This feature is explained in more detail here Sync your Affinity Store resources with your Affinity 1.9 apps Fixes & Improvements:
Improved “Serif Labs” RAW engine including native CR3 support Elliptical marquee automatically creates from centre Hierarchical view (learn more) Configurable margin guide colour Import multiple LUTS (learn more) Placed scale for all placed files, which allows scaling to be reset to 100% Snap to pixel selection bounds Added curves adjustment to the tone mapping persona Added JPEG-XR 101010 import support (useful for screen captures from Xbox, etc.) Added support for 12bit grayscale TIFF files Many TIFF file handling improvements Added “Duplicate spare channel” to right click menu Blend modes now work on “alpha only” layers (masks, adjustments, live filters, etc.) Gradient map adjustments now support global colours Filter effects now work properly with global colours The Curves adjustment now has numeric field controls for precise positioning Unable to use CMYK/LAB/GREY equations in a Live Procedural Texture Adjustments no longer auto apply when expanding a section of the adjustments panel Freehand Selection Tool (Polygonal): Fixed pressing backspace while drawing the selection path deletes the layer rather than the last node More filters now work on masks / adjustments / spare channels (Add Noise, Perlin Noise, etc.) LUT adjustments can be exported directly from the adjustments panel, and batch imported from files Having a large number of LUT presets will no longer make application startup slow Assistant options are now available from preferences (so there is no need to open a document to access them) many redraw issues addressed Various stability improvements Help and Localisation improvements  
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in application menu, Affinity Photo > About).
If you’ve purchased from the Mac App Store— updates are done automatically next time you run your software after it is available in the Mac App Store. If this does not happen for you, open the Mac App Store app and go to the Updates page and then Store > Reload page or press CMD+R. This should hopefully force the update to show. Apple sometimes phase roll outs around the world which can mean it may take up to 72 hours for your update to be available.
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer to download and install any available update, or in the application main menu there is an option Check for Updates. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Photo for macOS) can be downloaded from this link (that installer is NOT for Mac app store purchases and needs a product key).

We are pleased to announce an update for the MacOS release of Affinity Designer, to version 1.9.0
Changes in this build
A highlights explanation can be found here: 5 things you should know about Affinity Designer 1.9
The detailed changes in Affinity Designer for MacOS 1.9.0 over the release build Affinity Designer for macOS 1.8.6 are as follows:
New Features:
Powerful contour tool to create abstract objects or increase the width of single open curves (learn more) Select Same to efficiently match attributes such as fill colour, stroke colour, stroke weight, transparency, blend mode or shape type (learn more) Select Object to select all objects of a certain type within your document to make editing even easier (learn more) Studio presets for the UI layout to save your favourite workspace setups for different tasks, explained here Studio panel combinations (also learn more) Linked images and Resource Manager (learn more) Added Divide layer blend mode  PDF passthrough to ensure perfect representation of original PDF when exporting, without the need to have embedded fonts installed Save As Package feature to collate your document alongside all used image and font resources into a folder (learn more) Configurable margin guide colours Placed scale for all placed files, which allows scaling to be reset to 100% (learn more) Added hierarchical antialiasing control - accessed from the Blend Ranges dialog in the Layers Panel Curves numeric field controls Blend modes for mask layers Create brushes from current pixel selection (learn more) Added export preview panel (for raster types) - updates live whenever you change an export dialog parameter Content sync of store purchases (requires Sierra or above and registration)
This feature is explained in more detail here Sync your Affinity Store resources with your Affinity 1.9 apps Fixes & Improvements:
Snap to pixel selection bounds Added option for Designer to be able to show/hide overflow text - particularly useful for text on a path Elliptical marquee automatically creates from centre Numerous drawing issues resolved Fix for paste-style leaving objects with misbehaving lines Double-clicking the View Tool's tool icon should zoom to fit Improved performance of OpenType features Added JPEG-XR 101010 import support (useful for screen captures from Xbox, etc.) Fix a number of potential symbol-related problems Text improvements - particularly relating to mid-word punctuation Snapping tweaks - you can now snap to column guides if they're hidden and you have 'Only snap to visible objects' disabled Fixed insertion target button failure! Fixed font combo not previewing changes in the document correctly Fix for PDF export on an M1 Mac causing issues PDF export improvements - particularly around filter effects PDF import improvement with mask images PDF Import improvements around tinted colours and unknown fonts New samples Fix for pixel layers inside symbols occasionally acting incorrectly (painting may not apply to all symbol instances, items may transform oddly, for example) Fixed sporadic crash with Pencil Tool and hopefully generally improved product stability Fix for artefacts occasionally noticed in the noise pattern while editing objects with noise on a linear fill Misc Big Sur fixes. Fix for rendering problems affecting cropped items with layer effects applied Added ability to rotate canvas if you have a scroll wheel mouse (or two-finger vertical drag on your touchpad) if you hold down Command. This will rotate around the mouse cursor location. Holding down Shift in addition to Command while scrolling will rotate around the centre of the view. This shortcut can also be disabled in Preferences > Tools Improved performance with large document Various stability improvements Help and Localisation improvements  
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in application menu, Affinity Designer > About).
If you’ve purchased from the Mac App Store— updates are done automatically next time you run your software after it is available in the Mac App Store. If this does not happen for you, open the Mac App Store app and go to the Updates page and then Store > Reload page or press CMD+R. This should hopefully force the update to show. Apple sometimes phase roll outs around the world which can mean it may take up to 72 hours for your update to be available.
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer to download and install any available update, or in the application main menu there is an option Check for Updates. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "Download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Designer for macOS) can be downloaded from this link (that installer is NOT for Mac App Store purchases and needs a product key).

We are pleased to announce Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher are now all updated to version 1.9.0 (for all new and existing customers).
Here are links to the release notes
Affinity Designer 1.9.0 for Windows               ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Designer 1.9.0 for macOS                  ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Designer 1.9.0 for iOS                         ( Apple iPad Store )
  Affinity Photo 1.9.0 for Windows                    ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Photo 1.9.0 for macOS                       ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store )  Affinity Photo 1.9.0 for iOS                              ( Apple iPad Store ) 
  Affinity Publisher 1.9.0 for Windows             ( Microsoft Store and Affinity Store ) Affinity Publisher 1.9.0 for macOS                 ( Mac App Store and Affinity Store ) Please follow this thread here to get notified when any new releases are made

Click here to download the latest beta
Status: Customer Beta - Release Candidate
Purpose: Features, Improvements, 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.
Changes
Fixed crash undoing Flatten Layers 1.9.0.927 (RC5) release notes

Click here to download the latest beta
Status: Customer Beta - Release Candidate
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.
Changes
Fixed crash undoing Flatten Layers 1.9.0.927 (RC5) release notes

Status: GM Seed
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Submitted
Download ZIP (Universal): Download
Auto-update: Available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the final 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.
 
Thanks again for your continued support!
 
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes Since 1.8.6
 
- Added a new “Astrophotography Stack” persona.
- Added “Live Liquify” layers.
- Added linked layers.
- Added pattern layers.
- Added studios presets.
- Added the “Resource Manager” functionality from Publisher for managing image placement.
- Added text-on-a-path support.
- Added “Export Timelapse”.
- Added ability to create brushes from the current pixel selection with one click.
- Added a new “Divide” blend mode.
- Added “Create from centre” for the elliptical marquee tool.
- Added a benchmarking tool to the help menu. It will only become available when no documents are open.
- Added an option to allow snapping to the bounds of the pixel selection.
- Added support for PDF passthrough.
- Added per-layer antialiasing controls in the advanced blending menu.
- Added curves adjustment to the tone mapping persona.
- Added export preview panel (for raster types) - updates live whenever you change an export parameter.
- Added JPEG-XR 101010 import support (useful for screen captures from Xbox, etc.)
- Added support for 12bit grayscale TIFF files.
- Added “Duplicate spare channel” to right click menu.
- Added native CR3 support to the Serif Labs RAW engine.
- Added support for Canon EOS R6.
- Added a registration page to the app - this allows users to login and download owned content from the Affinity store.
- Improved “Serif Labs” RAW engine.
- Blend modes now work on “alpha only” layers (masks, adjustments, live filters, etc.).
- Gradient map adjustments now support global colours.
- Filter effects now work properly with global colours.
- 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.
- Adjustments no longer auto apply when expending a section of the adjustments panel.
- More filters now work on masks / adjustments / spare channels (Add Noise, Perlin Noise, etc.).
- LUT adjustments can be exported directly from the adjustments panel, and batch imported from files.
- Having a large number of LUT presets will no longer make application startup slow.
- Assistant options are now available from preferences (so there is no need to open a document to access them).
 
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

Status: Release Candidate
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Submitted
Download: Download
 
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
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.x 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 Designer.
Thanks again for your continued support!
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes this time
- Replacing an image via the context toolbar now allows users to specify linked or embedded placement
- Fix for TIFF in the Export Preview window
- Present user with notice relating to the terms accepted in order to use H264 encoding in Export Timelapse
 
Changes Since 1.8.x
- Numerous drawing issues resolved
- Fix for paste-style leaving objects with misbehaving lines
- Fix for PDF export on an M1 Mac causing issues
- Fix for PDF passthrough failures. Disabled passthrough of multi-page PDFs (for now, at least)
- Fix for macOS beep when using keyboard shortcuts within the Export Preview window
- Numerous export preview improvements (press Escape to close the preview quickly, you can now reposition the export dialog so you can work with it and the preview window more easily at the same time, shortcuts for zooms implemented (as per the main view), click-drag with mouse to pan the preview, Apple Magic Mouse better supported
- Account-related improvements
- Added user-controlled Mitre limit to the Contour Tool
- Enabled PDF passthrough context toolbar control
- PDF import improvement with mask images
- Fixed Contour Tool's light UI context toolbar icons being invisible
- Contours now form miters (when requested) until greater angles
- Performing a boolean operation on an object with a contour no longer leaves the new object with an additional (unwanted) contour
- Double-clicking the View Tool's tool icon should zoom to fit
- Export preview UI tweaks and ensure it uses the correct ICC profile to show the colours as intended
- Improved performance of OpenType features
- Added export preview panel (for raster types) - updates live whenever you change an export parameter
- Added JPEG-XR 101010 import support (useful for screen captures from Xbox, etc.)
- Added new splash screen
- Content download service improvements
- Numerous assorted fixes
- Help improvements
- Localisation improvements
- Export Time-lapse should now draw without pixellation when showing zoomed in areas
- PDF export improvements - particularly around filter effects
- Added 'Select Same Name' and 'Select Same Colour Tag' options
- Updated Help
- A few Big Sur UI-related tweaks
- Fix for printing of passthrough PDFs
- Fix a number of potential symbol-related problems
- Text improvements - particularly relating to mid-word punctuation
- Snapping tweaks - you can now snap to column guides if they're hidden and you have 'snap to hidden objects' turned on
- Added hierarchical antialiasing control - accessed from the Blend Options dialog on the layers panel
- Added 'Export Time-lapse' feature from Photo
- Fixed insertion target button failure!
- Fixed font combo not previewing changes in the document correctly
- New cat shape (accessible on Friday 13th or if you know the magic trick!)
- Misc PDF export tweaks
- Fix for Column Guides not updating correctly
- PDF Import improvements (particularly around tinted colours and unknown fonts)
- Fix for a UI issue in Big Sur (the vertical positioning of some checkboxes)
- New samples! 
- Added Preferences item to allow auto-updating of linked images in the document when the images are edited externally
- Fix for 'Embed'/'Link' image placement preference working incorrectly from some dialogs...
- Added 'Save as package' feature for easy delivery of a complete project
- Improvements to application registration and content syncing
- Fix for pixel layers inside symbols occasionally acting incorrectly (painting may not apply to all symbol instances, items may transform oddly, for example)
- Added Studio Presets with, hopefully, complete functionality 
- Tabbing between fields in the New Document dialog should no longer crash! (sigh)
- Fixed sporadic crash with Pencil Tool (yay!) and hopefully generally improved product stability
- Fix for artefacts occasionally noticed in the noise pattern while editing objects with noise on a linear fill
- Fix for occasional disabling of some buttons
- Added registration page to the app - allows users to login and auto-install brushes (so far)
- Fix for Select Same and Select Object when they encounter text objects
- Enable image placement options in Designer (you can now choose Linked or Embedded) and also Resource Manager (from the View menu)
- Added option for Designer to be able to show/hide overflow text - particularly useful for text on a path
- Application icon updated to fit the 'Big Sur' visual style, also document icons updated. Misc other Big Sur fixes.
- Fix for terrible rendering problems - particularly affected cropped items with layer effects applied
- Added ability to rotate canvas if you have a scroll wheel mouse (or two-finger vertical drag on your touchpad) if you hold down Command. This will rotate around the mouse cursor location. Holding down Shift in addition to Command while scrolling will rotate around the centre of the view.
- Contour tool.
- Select Same / Select Object functionality. I'm happy to consider requests for extra options, so if you have a favourite, just say...
- Improved performance with large documents. I will aim to improve this further over time.
- Added a new “Divide” blend mode.
- Allowed snapping to the bounds of the pixel selection.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread

No crashes, tested for about an hour.
 
Cheers

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.
Changes
Fixed High Pass incorrectly applying to masks Added Output Black Level to the Astrophotography Remove Background panel Fixed Benchmark Run button enabling too soon  Improved PDF import of alpha-only images Removed Export Preview (it will come back later, with improvements) Added OpenAsset integration (requires an existing OpenAsset account) Fixed crashes relating to expanded groups in Layers panel Fixed BMP loading for files with offset data Enable PDF Passthrough Fixed crash after clicking Texture panel in Brush Editor  1.9.0.885 release notes

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
 
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
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.x 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 Designer.
Thanks again for your continued support!
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes this time
- Fixed Contour Tool's light UI context toolbar icons being invisible
- Contours now form miters (when requested) until greater angles
- Performing a boolean operation on an object with a contour no longer leaves the new object with an additional (unwanted) contour
- Double-clicking the View Tool's tool icon should zoom to fit
- Export preview UI tweaks and ensure it uses the correct ICC profile to show the colours as intended
- Improved performance of OpenType features
 
Changes Since 1.8.x
- Added export preview panel (for raster types) - updates live whenever you change an export parameter
- Added JPEG-XR 101010 import support (useful for screen captures from Xbox, etc.)
- Added new splash screen
- Content download service improvements
- Numerous assorted fixes
- Help improvements
- Localisation improvements
- Export Time-lapse should now draw without pixellation when showing zoomed in areas
- PDF export improvements - particularly around filter effects
- Added 'Select Same Name' and 'Select Same Colour Tag' options
- Updated Help
- A few Big Sur UI-related tweaks
- Fix for printing of passthrough PDFs
- Fix a number of potential symbol-related problems
- Text improvements - particularly relating to mid-word punctuation
- Snapping tweaks - you can now snap to column guides if they're hidden and you have 'snap to hidden objects' turned on
- Added hierarchical antialiasing control - accessed from the Blend Options dialog on the layers panel
- Added 'Export Time-lapse' feature from Photo
- Fixed insertion target button failure!
- Fixed font combo not previewing changes in the document correctly
- New cat shape (accessible on Friday 13th or if you know the magic trick!)
- Misc PDF export tweaks
- Fix for Column Guides not updating correctly
- PDF Import improvements (particularly around tinted colours and unknown fonts)
- Fix for a UI issue in Big Sur (the vertical positioning of some checkboxes)
- New samples! 
- Added Preferences item to allow auto-updating of linked images in the document when the images are edited externally
- Fix for 'Embed'/'Link' image placement preference working incorrectly from some dialogs...
- Added 'Save as package' feature for easy delivery of a complete project
- Improvements to application registration and content syncing
- Fix for pixel layers inside symbols occasionally acting incorrectly (painting may not apply to all symbol instances, items may transform oddly, for example)
- Added Studio Presets with, hopefully, complete functionality 
- Tabbing between fields in the New Document dialog should no longer crash! (sigh)
- Fixed sporadic crash with Pencil Tool (yay!) and hopefully generally improved product stability
- Fix for artefacts occasionally noticed in the noise pattern while editing objects with noise on a linear fill
- Fix for occasional disabling of some buttons
- Added registration page to the app - allows users to login and auto-install brushes (so far)
- Fix for Select Same and Select Object when they encounter text objects
- Enable image placement options in Designer (you can now choose Linked or Embedded) and also Resource Manager (from the View menu)
- Added option for Designer to be able to show/hide overflow text - particularly useful for text on a path
- Application icon updated to fit the 'Big Sur' visual style, also document icons updated. Misc other Big Sur fixes.
- Fix for terrible rendering problems - particularly affected cropped items with layer effects applied
- Added ability to rotate canvas if you have a scroll wheel mouse (or two-finger vertical drag on your touchpad) if you hold down Command. This will rotate around the mouse cursor location. Holding down Shift in addition to Command while scrolling will rotate around the centre of the view.
- Contour tool.
- Select Same / Select Object functionality. I'm happy to consider requests for extra options, so if you have a favourite, just say...
- Improved performance with large documents. I will aim to improve this further over time.
- Added a new “Divide” blend mode.
- Allowed snapping to the bounds of the pixel selection.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread

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.
Changes
Added Export As Timelapse capability  Added Astrophotography Use the more correct perspective grid drawing for the live perspective tool Fixed Linked filters name Added Export Preview Added resumable downloads  Changed Lock Colourspace (on the Colour Chooser etc) to be on by default Added missing Reapply Base Styles text menu entry Fixed being unable to apply Styles with a single click  Fixed Layer Effects being incorrectly rasterised in PDF export 1.9.0.876 release notes

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download ZIP (Universal): Download
Auto-update: Pending
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the eighth 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.
 
Thanks again for your continued support!
 
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes Since 1.9.0.209
 
- Added support for PDF passthrough.
- Fixed issue with high pass live filter compositing.
- Fixed assorted compositor alpha issues.
- Fixed assorted compositor crashes.
- Improved astrophotography background removal filter.
- Help improvements.
 
Cumulative Changes Since 1.8
 
- Added export preview panel (for raster types) - updates live whenever you change an export parameter.
- Added JPEG-XR 101010 import support (useful for screen captures from Xbox, etc.)
- Added per-layer antialiasing controls in the advanced blending menu (it’s also hierarchical, which is nice).
- Added new splash screen.
- Added a new filter to remove background light from astrophotography images (Filters -> Astrophotography -> Remove Background).
- Assorted improvements to astrophotography stacking (performance, robustness, quality).
- Live liquify improvements.
- The layer link editor is now a studio panel - further cleanup work is still planned on this panel.
- Reduced binary size.
- Content download service improvements.
 
- Linked Layers.
You can now select a layer and do Layer -> Duplicate Linked. Linked layers are denoted by a small link icon in the layers tab - clicking that icon will bring up a link editing panel (the UI here will change in subsequent beta builds - this is just so we can test the linking itself for now). You can “unlink” particular aspects of a layer using the buttons - for example, if you wanted a mask to share the same pixel content as another mask, but not the opacity settings, you can do that using this test UI.
For the brave, this panel also allows “relinking” - even between different layer types(!). Dragging a layer from the layer tab and dropping it onto one of the small target icons in the panel will link together that particular aspect of the two layers (again, the UI is all going to change). For example, you could make a mask layer which shares opacity settings with an adjustment layer somewhere else in the document, whilst also sharing blend mode with a circle shape layer somewhere else. 
It’s worth noting that this feature is quite raw at the moment - please feel free to experiment with it, but *do not* use it for any real work. There is a high chance any documents you make will stop working in a future beta.
- Default to black-to-white gradients in the gradient tool (more gradient tool improvements are coming for 1.9, at last).
- Content download service improvements.
- Assorted astrophotography stacking improvements.
- Allow placement policy for images to be changed using the menu.
- Added missing text baseline options to the menu.
- Added support for 12bit grayscale TIFF files.
- Added ability to create pattern layers from selections.
- Timelapse fixes and improvements, including ability to choose codec.
- Timelapse export performance improvements.
- Fixed incorrect attribute bits when writing 32bit TGA files.
- Fixed bugs when duplicating pattern layers.
- Fixed broken insertion target buttons on the toolbar.
- Fixed incorrect pattern sizes when committing the dialog without tabbing away from the height field.
- Fixed broken AANN sampling mode in pattern layers.
- Fixed filter effects on pattern layers.
- Fixed brush panel crashes.
- Fixed live filters initialising to RGB in (for example) CMYK documents.
- Fixed crazy behaviour when entering Liquify persona.
- Fixed issue whereby you would get more / different options depending where you right click on spare channels (!).
- Assorted other small bug fixes.
- Localisation improvements.
- Help improvements.
 
- Pattern improvements - brushes now wrap around the edges of the pattern.
- Timelapse improvements - progress bar, abortable, crossfade.
- Improved colours for Canon EOS R5 camera RAW.
- Filter effects now work properly with global colours.
- Fixed white balance issues.
- 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.

- 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

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download ZIP (Universal): Download
Auto-update: Available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the seventh 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.
 
Thanks again for your continued support!
 
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes Since 1.9.0.206
 
- Added export preview panel (for raster types) - updates live whenever you change an export parameter.
- Added JPEG-XR 101010 import support (useful for screen captures from Xbox, etc.)
- Added per-layer antialiasing controls in the advanced blending menu (it’s also hierarchical, which is nice).
- Added new splash screen.
- Added a new filter to remove background light from astrophotography images (Filters -> Astrophotography -> Remove Background).
- Assorted improvements to astrophotography stacking (performance, robustness, quality).
- Live liquify improvements.
- The layer link editor is now a studio panel - further cleanup work is still planned on this panel.
- Reduced binary size.
- Content download service improvements.
- Numerous assorted fixes.
- Help improvements.
- Localisation improvements.
 
Cumulative Changes Since 1.8
 
- Linked Layers.
You can now select a layer and do Layer -> Duplicate Linked. Linked layers are denoted by a small link icon in the layers tab - clicking that icon will bring up a link editing panel (the UI here will change in subsequent beta builds - this is just so we can test the linking itself for now). You can “unlink” particular aspects of a layer using the buttons - for example, if you wanted a mask to share the same pixel content as another mask, but not the opacity settings, you can do that using this test UI.
For the brave, this panel also allows “relinking” - even between different layer types(!). Dragging a layer from the layer tab and dropping it onto one of the small target icons in the panel will link together that particular aspect of the two layers (again, the UI is all going to change). For example, you could make a mask layer which shares opacity settings with an adjustment layer somewhere else in the document, whilst also sharing blend mode with a circle shape layer somewhere else. 
It’s worth noting that this feature is quite raw at the moment - please feel free to experiment with it, but *do not* use it for any real work. There is a high chance any documents you make will stop working in a future beta.
- Default to black-to-white gradients in the gradient tool (more gradient tool improvements are coming for 1.9, at last).
- Content download service improvements.
- Assorted astrophotography stacking improvements.
- Allow placement policy for images to be changed using the menu.
- Added missing text baseline options to the menu.
- Added support for 12bit grayscale TIFF files.
- Added ability to create pattern layers from selections.
- Timelapse fixes and improvements, including ability to choose codec.
- Timelapse export performance improvements.
- Fixed incorrect attribute bits when writing 32bit TGA files.
- Fixed bugs when duplicating pattern layers.
- Fixed broken insertion target buttons on the toolbar.
- Fixed incorrect pattern sizes when committing the dialog without tabbing away from the height field.
- Fixed broken AANN sampling mode in pattern layers.
- Fixed filter effects on pattern layers.
- Fixed brush panel crashes.
- Fixed live filters initialising to RGB in (for example) CMYK documents.
- Fixed crazy behaviour when entering Liquify persona.
- Fixed issue whereby you would get more / different options depending where you right click on spare channels (!).
- Assorted other small bug fixes.
- Localisation improvements.
- Help improvements.
 
- Pattern improvements - brushes now wrap around the edges of the pattern.
- Timelapse improvements - progress bar, abortable, crossfade.
- Improved colours for Canon EOS R5 camera RAW.
- Filter effects now work properly with global colours.
- Fixed white balance issues.
- 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.

- 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

Health is the primary productivity.

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
 
Auto-update: Not available
 
Hello,
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.x 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 Designer.
Thanks again for your continued support!
Many thanks!
Matt
 
Changes this time
- Export Time-lapse should now draw without pixellation when showing zoomed in areas
- PDF export improvements - particularly around filter effects
- Added 'Select Same Name' and 'Select Same Colour Tag' options
- Updated Help
- A few Big Sur UI-related tweaks
- Fix for printing of passthrough PDFs
- Fix a number of potential symbol-related problems
- Text improvements - particularly relating to mid-word punctuation
- Snapping tweaks - you can now snap to column guides if they're hidden and you have 'snap to hidden objects' turned on
 
Changes Since 1.8.x
- Added hierarchical antialiasing control - accessed from the Blend Options dialog on the layers panel
- Added 'Export Time-lapse' feature from Photo
- Fixed insertion target button failure!
- Fixed font combo not previewing changes in the document correctly
- New cat shape (accessible on Friday 13th or if you know the magic trick!)
- Misc PDF export tweaks
- Fix for Column Guides not updating correctly
- PDF Import improvements (particularly around tinted colours and unknown fonts)
- Fix for a UI issue in Big Sur (the vertical positioning of some checkboxes)
- New samples! 
- Added Preferences item to allow auto-updating of linked images in the document when the images are edited externally
- Fix for 'Embed'/'Link' image placement preference working incorrectly from some dialogs...
- Added 'Save as package' feature for easy delivery of a complete project
- Improvements to application registration and content syncing
- Fix for pixel layers inside symbols occasionally acting incorrectly (painting may not apply to all symbol instances, items may transform oddly, for example)
- Added Studio Presets with, hopefully, complete functionality 
- Tabbing between fields in the New Document dialog should no longer crash! (sigh)
- Fixed sporadic crash with Pencil Tool (yay!) and hopefully generally improved product stability
- Fix for artefacts occasionally noticed in the noise pattern while editing objects with noise on a linear fill
- Fix for occasional disabling of some buttons
- Added registration page to the app - allows users to login and auto-install brushes (so far)
- Fix for Select Same and Select Object when they encounter text objects
- Enable image placement options in Designer (you can now choose Linked or Embedded) and also Resource Manager (from the View menu)
- Added option for Designer to be able to show/hide overflow text - particularly useful for text on a path
- Application icon updated to fit the 'Big Sur' visual style, also document icons updated. Misc other Big Sur fixes.
- Fix for terrible rendering problems - particularly affected cropped items with layer effects applied
- Added ability to rotate canvas if you have a scroll wheel mouse (or two-finger vertical drag on your touchpad) if you hold down Command. This will rotate around the mouse cursor location. Holding down Shift in addition to Command while scrolling will rotate around the centre of the view.
- Contour tool.
- Select Same / Select Object functionality. I'm happy to consider requests for extra options, so if you have a favourite, just say...
- Improved performance with large documents. I will aim to improve this further over time.
- Added a new “Divide” blend mode.
- Allowed snapping to the bounds of the pixel selection.
 
To be notified about all future Mac beta updates, please follow this beta notification thread 
To be notified when this update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Designer customers, please follow this release notification thread