Dazmondo77

I've been moaning about this for a few years - the only solution for reasonably accurate proofs from Affinity is PDF then open in Acrobat pro or reader and print = predictable CMYK and nice crisp vector - to my eye it looks like Affinitys very basic print engine doesn't have the beef to sent vector to a printer that has a postscript rip and just pre rasterises, plus converts to RGB then the rip converts back to CMYK to print - I did find a post a couple of years back which stated that there are no plans to improve this which is shocking (lets hope this changes) - not every printshop has an all singing and dancing PDF workflow RIP - I've personally never used another graphics app aimed at pros that does this - even acrobat reader can send CMYK and Vector - ?!?!?!

I usually copy and paste between Affinity and Illustrator which retains gradients and transparency both ways - as stated above eps is pretty much obsolete, I only find it useful for having the ability to open old stuff and re-save as PDF or Affinity formats

I love the way you can have multiple masks and multiple objects (both raster and raster) which make up a mask - loads of power when used with blend ranges and layer effects - not really a fan of bog standard layer masks in Affinity - as an alternative to a standard layer mask, I prefer to make a selection then refine then create a new pixel layer and fill the refined selection with a colour then use that as a mask plus combine it with vectors Screen_Grab_2020-12-16_at_19_21_28.mov

ACE stuff MattP - These will come in handy - works great directly in Designer, although not currently accessible in pub via studiolink

Chris26 - great example vid - sorry boss, I have to remember to be a bit more descriptive in my grabs, as once you get used to the way clipping and masking works, you tend to not think about it as it becomes second nature - I just love the way Affinity does this

No problem buckclemley - Merry Christmas 🎄🎅👍

Not sure if this is of help, but I find using vector masks super flexible and also can contain raster elements - the problem is a mask including vector mask will be rasterised on output whereas a clip (place inside vector shape) will retain vector information on output - I find a good workaround is to combine the two so mask for hair and then place inside a vector container with no fill which will retain a vector path on output to pdf Couple of examples detailing a vector mask and how to invert and an example which shows a vector clipping path with masked hair Screen_Grab_2020-12-16_at_13_11_27.mov Screen_Grab_2020-12-16_at_13_26_32.mov

as Gear maker says :shift and control should work - CorelDraw - not for me - just a bloated sack of sh*t - looks like now it's back on the mac it's still sitting on ancient code - seen too many repro nightmares, although I know of a printer in Matlock that prefers it over CC - for me its AFFINITY (and a few work arounds for the time being)

The way would do it would be to make sure you're document is set to CMYK and choose whatever profile your printer mate recommends - say ISO coated 300% - this should work by resetting the colour on your existing document but I'd advise working on a copy - then go to adjustments and add a B&W adjustment layer to the top of your layer stack and tweak to your liking - then you can always test to see that only black is showing in Photo persona in the info panel and rolling the curser over your darkest black which should only read a percentage in the K (black) channel - (if your document is setup in RGB you would get a four channel reading) when happy either cut and paste the B&W adjustment onto a master page and assign to your pages moving to the top layer or copy and paste the B&W adjustment to the top of the layer stack of each page - then if you output your PDF/x file leave the colour settings as : as document and use document profile - generate - and if you open your pdf in acrobat pro and look at output preview you should be able to switch off your black separation and see no other colour ----- hopefully this helps? Screen_Grab_2020-12-16_at_10_57_28.mov

Have a great Crimbo Patrick 🎄🎅👍

Really looking forward to a vector version in Designer - KILLER

Can't believe there's no mention of clipping vector paths which was the standard method through the nineties and naughties, must have done thousands over the years, the benefits are you can just make the vector path a mask by dragging to the direct left of the image then you can even add a bit of gaussian blur or whatever - still the method I use for catalogs

Sorry MEB I thought this post was referring to isolating groups and having the freedom to work on anything within the group - yes isolating single objects for edit is occasionally handy - still optimistic that this could be a great feature especially if you could isolate 'tagged' layers or special groups to enable isolating and working on multiple objects that could reside within different groups or layers throughout your entire layer stack

It's not that it's basic, it's just currently just a preview. If we could just edit whatever we have isolated, for me, I think it would be loads better than illustrators

ACE - looks like a fairly lightweight app aimed at hobbyists - good to see Amadines devs prob consider Free Transform, Perspective & Warp Tools to be a basic essential 👍 Come-on Santa spread some fairy dust over the next Xmas day beta or get your vector distortion dev elves on nightshift - feeling optimistic 🎅🎄

It would have saved a lot of grief if if designer was released with a very very basic Warp/distort capability back in 2014 - with the build up to every new beta I'm always optimistic - but again, no mention and total silence from the moderators - it would make a great Christmas present though - maybe we'll see a download link to a new 1.9 updated beta on Christmas day with a great Warp/distort tool

Hopefully sometime in the future we'll get the little triangle icon at the side of a multi-mask to expand and collapse, and also the ability to press Alt while clicking on a layer or layer group and get item isolation that you can edit rather than it just switch back to viewing all the layers - then it would be super-powerful. Surely there has to be an alternative shortcut for windows to right click and select a layer inside a layer group - come on moderators

As an addition to the above, I find Blend ranges works pretty convincingly and is super easy to tweak Screen_Grab_2020-12-11_at_09_05_05.mov

This is really easy to do using blend ranges: Screen_Grab_2020-12-11_at_08_30_11.mov

I always find using blend ranges is really quick and easy: Screen_Grab_2020-12-10_at_15_13_14.mov

Wow - another addition to the workarounds for Free Transform, Perspective & Warp Tools - Clip studio paint now supports import and export of vectors and all the mesh distortion stuff works and exports, although you need to perform workarounds on the workaround - plus pressure drawn strokes don't currently translate over - really pleased and maybe there'll be further improvements as the vector engine in CSP is brilliant and very quick and smooth Current Free Transform, Perspective & Warp Tools I'm using to plug the gaps: Illustrator CS5 VectorStyler LibreOffice (yes and it does a pretty decent job) CSP Inkscape (Frustratingly slow) Still these are no substitute for even a very basic Transform, Perspective & Warp capability from within Affinity

You can edit the mask by making sure you have the move tool selected (v) click on the mask in the layers panel then hold the ⌘ key while right mouse clicking on the area of the page where the mask sits, which gives you a list of whatever in in the mask group - you can then edit, blur, alter opacity or mess around with blend ranges and all that, on a all elements that make up your mask, you can move from each element of the mask by using ⌥⌘[ and ⌥⌘] shortcuts Once you're working inside the mask group you can even add pixel and vector layers to the mask and paint or add shapes - very powerful Screen_Grab_2020-12-08_at_12_17_51.mov

First thing I would to do after assigning a new shortcut: as with assets swatches and brushes, and hopefully once we have 1.9, studio presets, - Export - Make an Affinity settings folder to store all your settings in, then either overwrite or (safest) date the export - if you have some really crucial assets (or any other settings) you have built, save then quit app as you will usually find that if Affinity bombs while in the middle of building a job asset library, theres a strong chance you'll re-start Affinity and you've lost the lot -

Proper vector brushes - NEEEEEEEEEEED

I may be only dreaming but, wouldn't it be amazing if there was a Pre-press persona in publisher that had all the current - save as package and preflight features moved over, and also a fully featured output pane giving you control over seps, spots, screen angles, trapping overprint and knockout and maybe even a paginatior with intelligent creep (type in your stock thickness) Yes I know this is stuff most print service providers will sort in RIP, its just having the option for that extra bit of control and piece of mind. Also would need a PDF/X output viewer with full seps preview and also be able to generate the pdf and automatically open it and check PDF/x compliance - and let you view the seps - maybe there's a way of adding proof check features so when PDF's are viewed in the freely downloadable + web based check Affinity PDF viewer (which you send links to all your clients), there would be a three stage proof process so you client ticks a box (to sign off for print) the the design house ticks a box, then the print service tick a box which flags once its been successfully ripped as is in the print queue --------- Sorry just had this really odd dream - I'm off for some readybrek