Dazmondo77

Worked for me using PDF/X-4 - but as it is six by three metres, takes a while for redraw in Acrobat / apple preview
From my past experience doing billboards, (it's been a while) if I remember right, we used to work at 50% of the finished size
1808188926_problem2.pdf

I started with Freehand 7 in 96 which did everything I needed it to 25 years ago, and back in 2014 saw Designer as a shining light as it showed so much promise, looking at all the missing basics planned back then, I thought within a couple of years I'd at least get similar basic functionality as freehand - now we're approaching 7 years from release and I just want to get work done, which is ultra frustrating as Designer is a brilliant beast - brilliant we recently got select same and contour tool but it took 6 years - 
Now at the point - wish someone could find the grave of Freehand and do a super Frankenstein job on it (no subscription)- massive shame Adobe got it hands on it.
Yes I know missing basic features aren't everything, you only have to use VectorStyler to realise how good the Affinity user interface is, I'm just tired of the workarounds on workarounds to get functionality I was getting 25 years ago with Freehand
Also some of us need to print CMYK to CMYK devices!?!?!? 
(Vincent Price type voice) 'O' RISE GREAT FREEHAND' 
Moan moan eff-in moan😕
Sorry guys woke in a mood realise the team are doing all they can to achieve - just getting stuff off my chest

I have nothing against adding animation, but way way down the line after we have all the planned but still missing basic features that some of us need to do our jobs

I have nothing against adding animation, but way way down the line after we have all the planned but still missing basic features that some of us need to do our jobs

You are right, got in touch with the print shop, 50%, or even 33% is okay. Billboards need a minimum a 60dpi on 100%.
 
Thanks

Until such time as this can be made to work reliably the apps should refuse to open files from those sources, or at the very least warn users of the risks before allowing them to do so.
As it is now, the only way users learn about this issue is from the forums ... often after they have lost hours of work, just like the OP here.

exactly. would be very helpful to do so in a simple email or pop up message. I guess we all love the app but this is a very serious problem that lead to a trust issue.

It should be built into the apps. 

Unfortunately, as you can see with one of the major new feature they've added to APh lately (astro protography stacking), their focus still is attracting new enthusiastic hobbyists with fancy looking features rather than focusing on making the apps reliable tools for professionals.
I also wish they'd focus a bit more on adding "dated, yet needed" features to their apps instead of adding stuff which cut a fine figurine on websites and PR texts.

I started with Freehand 7 in 96 which did everything I needed it to 25 years ago, and back in 2014 saw Designer as a shining light as it showed so much promise, looking at all the missing basics planned back then, I thought within a couple of years I'd at least get similar basic functionality as freehand - now we're approaching 7 years from release and I just want to get work done, which is ultra frustrating as Designer is a brilliant beast - brilliant we recently got select same and contour tool but it took 6 years - 
Now at the point - wish someone could find the grave of Freehand and do a super Frankenstein job on it (no subscription)- massive shame Adobe got it hands on it.
Yes I know missing basic features aren't everything, you only have to use VectorStyler to realise how good the Affinity user interface is, I'm just tired of the workarounds on workarounds to get functionality I was getting 25 years ago with Freehand
Also some of us need to print CMYK to CMYK devices!?!?!? 
(Vincent Price type voice) 'O' RISE GREAT FREEHAND' 
Moan moan eff-in moan😕
Sorry guys woke in a mood realise the team are doing all they can to achieve - just getting stuff off my chest

I was shocked that there are no tools like Eraser, Knife, Shadow, Distort, Envelope, Extrude and some transform tools (Roughen, Smudge) in AD 😮
I've just tried Affinity Photo and it's really great so I thought that I will finally get also some good vector graphics tool for occasional personal use because Corel is extremely expensive nowadays and it's "cheaper" version has less and less tools every year... but AD doesn't have some tools that I've seen in Corel TWENTY or at least SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO!
I don't understand it, since many of them are really basic and as other users noticed Serif offered them in their previous app DrawPlus X8 (last version from 2015 if I'm correct)!
Even Gimp seems to have more tools... It's sad because some of them are really crucial for less experienced users (for example Eraser, Knife, Envelope, Extrude...)
It would be great if we knew if and when some of these tools will be finally added. Without them buying AD makes no sense, especially that 2.0 version will be a separate product. 

A MacOS Automator service plugin/workflow, programmed by yours truly:
“Activate All Affinity Studio Panels”
FAQ:
What does it do?
It contains a nifty AppleScript code that goes through the menu View > Studio, checks for all panels without a ✓ check mark and activates them all at their respective last position (if any). That's all. Why does it do that?
Because otherwise you'd have to repeatedly open the menu and the submenu again and again, activate each panel one by one. Which is – pardon my French – a major p.i.t.a. As in, literally, a pain in the arm. Been there done that. How do I use it?
Upon installation in ~/Library/Services (see included ReadMe) or in /Library/Services if you want to activate it for all users, you can run it from the Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher menu > Services > Activate All Affinity Studio Panels. You can assign a custom keyboard shortcut via System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services. Heck, you can even disable it from there if it annoys you. (But why should it? Hey, it's a Good Thing™!) It will only do its Good Thing™ while one of your Affinity apps is running frontmost. Should you accidentally launch it while using another app, it will only inform you that it can't do anything. Can it do any harm?
I don't think so. But if you're paranoid, open the *.workflow document with the Automator app and see for yourself. It's open source. What does it cost?
It's free as in beer. That is… feel free to contact me if you'd like to buy me a beer. I won't say no! Where can I get it?
loukash.com/download What's there?
You'll be able to download a file named "Activate_All_Affinity_Studio_Panels_v1.0.zip". Inside the ZIP archive, there are two files:
• Activate All Affinity Studio Panels ReadMe.pdf – which you should read, obviously…
• Activate All Affinity Studio Panels.workflow
That's all. My website runs on Wordpress, so it will automatically attempt to set a few cookies. Feel free to reject them. Enjoy!

Sorry, I don't have those files anymore, as it was not working, no matter how I set the PDF export, we had to print it CMYK and I changed everything accordingly.

This just exports the spot colors as opaque while set to overprint. It doesn't recalculate the opacity values to tint values, which is what the Adobe PDF library does.
As noted in my other thread, I can work around by exporting to PDF/X-4 and converting to PDF/X-3 via Adobe PDF. In the meantime I've set up a few conversion filters directly in Acrobat X, so I don't even need to take the route via InDesign or Illustrator import as described in that thread.
Of course, that works for me only as long as I'll continue to work in El Capitan (or not going higher than Mojave). Which is OK for likely a few more years to come.

Hi Thomahawk,

I've just tried this myself (both with the Layer Opacity set to less than 100%, and also with the Tint Opacity set to 100%) and it is working as intended. Could you attach a document that is failing for you and the resulting PDF file you've exported that shows the fail please?
SpotOverprintTintOpacity.afdesign
SpotOverprintTintOpacity.pdf
SpotOverprint.afdesign
SpotOverprint.pdf

When I set a spot color and overprint, but make it less than 100% opacity, it is not treated like a spot color anymore and does not overprint. This is a very heavy bug!
Mac OSX 10.14.6
Affinity Designer 1.9.0

Affinity all products 1.9.3 - i see this in publisher Mac, but it is certainly all the same problems on Windows and the all apps.
I said this 3 years ago: Affinitys swatches are built wrong. Anyone using a swatch does this is in the assumption that elements it applies to stay connected to the swatch. Therefore changing the swatch all elements change with it. Would a user not want tis connection, he would simply define independent colors on the color mixer instead of defining a swatch. The connection is the whole reason why swatches exist, otherwise why bother defining one?
But in affinity, if you want elements connected to a swatch this way, you have to learn using Global swatches and know how to do it and always be very careful in applying. The slightest error and you end up with elements that do not change when changing the swatch.
Furthermore, despite you then have an element with a connected gobal swatch - when copy paste to another document, the swatch does not come with it. There is again another type of swatch for that - why do things simple, when you can do it complicated so everyone has to read a book or flood the forum before being able to use affinity products - seems to be the motto at Serif.
And there are so many more subtle wrong implementation in Affinitys GUI that make their usage so frustrating and errors happening so frequently. One of many examples: You define a color for a text style, say you use a specific swatch and highlight it. You close the style setting. If you later check, open the edit window of that style again and check its color, the color mixer comes up, you have to change over to the swatch list and even then you still do not know what color is set because no swatch is shown highlighted.
And dont get me started on the handling of paths and path points, the missing of a fundamental distort tool in Designer - all that defies any logic too.
As an interface designer and founder of the FreeFreeHand movement, I gave such input to Affinity already three years ago FOR FREE and they still don't get it.
Do not understand me wrong. I am using Affinity products every day and I am glad they are around. But I would have much more confidence in them, if those fundamental functions would work correctly, instead of me having to work around them all the time.

Today i finished my first vector portrait in Affinity Designer

Quite disappointing that there is no comment in this thread from an Affinity employee. It would be nice to hear from someone in the know who can tell us what's going on with these basics. IFor example, if they could just tell us that their software is aimed at UX & webdesigners, but also supports print designers, then we'd understand a lot of these "over sights".
Do they use experienced designers to guide their development, and if they do, are they print designers or web designers, and why they don't mind working with these short commings?
Are there any plans to correct/complete existing features, or are they just moving on with adding new features.
What is their view on professional print production? (eg: Do they think a professional workflow is placing RGB PNGs into a doc, then convert to CMYK at export and hope and pray that everything comes out okay? ...like in one of their video launch demos.)
If we know their intent, we can probably throw away a whole bunch of these issues we've been discussing and stop getting frustrated when they seem to be ignoring our cries.

Agree with this entire thread.
Most of my posts on this forum is either about bugs, or really basic things that I'm very surprised are still missing.

Agreed. JPEG export preview is essential. At the very least, it's logical.
The cutting edge features I vaguely refer to are things like live vector brush strokes, advanced slice exporting, scalable objects, live shapes, live corners... things like this. Nice to have, good to brag about, but not essential.
The problem is this... we buy the app for these features that stand out in a comparesson chart against Illustrator, but then we find out that Designer only plays lip service to the basics. eg: Affinity's apps are part of a very small groups of designer apps that support a CMYK work flow which is essential to print designers. Working in RGB with the option to export as a CMYK PDF is not the same (see Pixelmator for this issue). However, when you actually start working in Designer, you quickly learn that while its color management/workflow is is genuine, it's not mature and robust.
Affinity apps remain on my computer more as novelties than my primary work tools because of this. I support Affinity because I'm hopeful of a future, but right now, I just can't let Adobe go.
 

Lots of work for a usability experience designer here - if only Serif had one... (!!!) @Stephen_H
The lack of export preview and the lack of optimized JPG algorithms etc. etc. alone is pure madness and evidence of many saddening issues in Nottingham.
I don't see what cutting edge features we got. 

A lot of points raised which if Team Affinity were to revisit these areas would make Designer much more powerful. 
As a lifetime Adobe Illustrator user, I also used to face the same frustration when trying to duplicate objects in Affinity until I had to relearn the other duplicate option. Simply use the Control key on Windows and you will get the desired and expected behaviour. The Control key when used for duplicating will behave in exactly the same way as the Alt key used in Adobe Illustrator. Affinity once got it right a couple of versions back where you could actually have the Control and Alt key sharing the same behaviour when duplicating. Alas, this was to be short-lived. I don't know what went wrong and the functionality somehow got broken on the Alt key.
Also note that Adobe Illustrator favours the Alt key to transform or scale objects from the centre and Affinity favours the Control key...

I forgot to add another problem with swatches not carrying over to another document via copy-n-paste... if your swatch is a SPOT color, the SPOT swatch is left behind. Try and re-make that swatch from your pasted object and you'll only create a CMYK swatch. Your SPOT color is gone for good.
This is a blinding oversight that should be treated as a bug fix rather than a missing feature.

And that sums it all up... why are the two droppers that look identical, so completely different.
Us from production backgrounds need to get something done, and Affinity is confused about what it delivers to us.
I hadn't thought about the lack of production background programmers, but this argument makes a lot of sense and explains a lot. I hadn't realised the launch demo had the presenter placing a PNG instead of a CMYK image. I'd love to see his face when when those glowing RGB colors print in CMYK. (He'll probably just blame the printer)