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Hello! I have had a few issues recently that seems to be performance related (serious lag and erratic behaviour of node tool and move tool) I have attached a video of a work session (sorry if it's long and tedious, it's a realistic snippet of how I, and probably many others, have to work) I don't know how to put subtitles on a video so I will put a list below with the issues I found. Now, I must say, as it have been pointed out multiple times a smooth and/or simplify option on path and nodes would be greatly appreciated. I know that I will receive comments on the fact that I should learn to be proficient with a pen tool before trying to smooth paths, because that what I have been reading a lot on these forum. I get that most people who answer here are "creators", but I suspect a lot of us Designer users are what we call "artworkers". Meaning we have to work on files given to us by others (who don't care if their files make sense or not - they don't give a crap, they couldn't be bothered, don't even try to talk to them ) The case I am presenting here is a 146 kb .eps file provided by the studio in charge of digitizing the assets from Schultz estate. They provide those files (take it or leave it) to those who buy the licensing rights. My work here is to smooth out the jagged lines, because the scan was probably done, digitized via livetrace (and converted to .eps) from a small/damaged/blurry line drawing. So if you have the patience to go through the video, you'll see that the file has 81 layers (which I tried to organise a bit prior to recording the video). You'll see that I really lack the availability to use a smooth tool or a simplify option. I tried to use the "smooth" function in the contextual menu, but it makes little difference to the end result. so the list of issues with the timecode are below: 0.06: trying to use the space key to pan the canvas, it's either slow or simply not working (it sometimes does) have to use the navigator instead 0.14: Same with using the zoom (Space bar + CTRL) 0.38: Trying to select a shape with the node tool (it sometimes works) end up using the layer panel (wading through 81 layers) 1.24: The node tool now has a mind of its own. At the particular moment I am not even touching the tablet with the pen. I am just hovering over the drawing after clicking the node and the node tool has now picked up the node and travels with it. I get the same behaviour with a mouse. (but who would use a mouse?). Again, I am not clicking, nor click/draging the node. I have to do a number of CTRL+Z to restore state. 3.10: Happens again. As I said, the original file is 810 KB. It's 146 kb when saved as an afdesigner file. Beyond the lag/performance issue, I would like to plea for artworkers workflow to be taken into account in the development of the software. When I do an inventory of all the features I'd like to add (select similar for example) I can see that these are features aimed at modifying shapes and paths as opposite as creating new ones. It seems to me that the project managers had "creators" in mind and not artworkers (simplifying here), meaning that if you are working on a generic .eps or .ai file created by someone else, it's infinitely easier do it in Adobe Illustrator (because those feautres exist in .ai), whereas I have no trouble using all the - very well - thought-out tools of Affinity designer if I want to create a design from scratch (I am someone who is naturally very neat with her layer stack, and I always name and group my layers, it's even a breeze if someone has to work on my files ). But if you decide that your software isn't aimed primarily at artworkers, then I think you're losing out (particularly given the price and licencing model, artworkers are AD natural customers. Apologies for the Sundays ramblings.... Hope everything makes sense... record_000001.avi

I spent the past two hours reducing a logo from a billion separate elements to three (white, light, dark) for vinyl printing. But this shouldn't take as much effort as it did. I couldn't find a simple way to 'flatten' this image, so I had to manually add/subtract/divide many elements many times. The outermost line and white background are not a problem, simply select everything and add. But the darkest shade is made up entirely of outlines of shapes such as the fries. So I cannot simply add those together as it will create one big clump. I also can't just make them all outlines and transparent centers because you'd see the underlying layers. So for each fry i had to: -expand stroke -copy the inside -copy the shape and make transparent (so you only have the stroke) -subtract the stroke from the inside. -subtract the result from the original shape -subtract all the higher layers from the original shape Does anyone know a decent workflow for this type of work in Affinity Designer? I also reckon this is something that can be done algorithmically. At least in the sense that we should be able to divide the visual end result in contiguous blobs of one color. That means the dark green would be 1 element, and the white and light green about two dozen islands each. I'd still have to manually group those into one element but it'd already be much closer to what the endresult would be.

Hi, I've been using Affinity now for two professional projects and it's good. I noticed there are a few panels which can be consolidated to use the same template as the layers panel, this would lower the API surface area and improve maintainability over time. Just my 2 cents.

Here is something I processed in Affinity then tried the Topaz plugin Simplify.

Hi, I would like to put two ideas up to discussion. I like working with AD, but also work with Manga Studio 5 a lot, and it has some nifty features that would be welcome in AD. First thing I like a lot is the vector eraser option. In MS5 you can draw on pixel and on vector layers. On the vector layer I can use the eraser to erase until intersection. This is cool as I don't have to be too fussy with overlapping lines. It works very well, and would be great in AD! I can also erase one line easily without affecting the other lines around it. 2nd thing that is quite great is the simplify brush. As a default the paths made with freehand drawing in MS5 have too many points, but using this brush cleans up pretty nicely, with a good range of options. Something like this would be a great addition to the pencil tool Come to think of it: what would be very welcome is more settings for the pencil tool, I think it is too basic now without any way of setting smoothness. Is this coming?

Will be great if Affinity could be able to simplify curve after freehand drawing. So number of nodes can be reduced without losing significant fidelity.