A few bugs with 1.8.1

[Dazmondo77]

just updated to the latest pub ver 1.8.1 and noticed CMYK values have gone all weird (see attached) also some of the toolbar items are quite blurry (also see attached)

Also thought I'd test out create pallet from document with a T-shirt job (two global colours) which just looked like it did a load of estimated RGB values then converted to CMYK, is this a bug?

[Dazmondo77]

I'm currently stuck as all my jobs are set up in CMYK but I can no longer accurately assign colour - I can't work without this!

[woefi]

1 hour ago, Dazmondo77 said:

Also thought I'd test out create pallet from document with a T-shirt job (two global colours) which just looked like it did a load of estimated RGB values then converted to CMYK, is this a bug?

I'm afraid to tell you but, this has never worked. I'm testing it with every new beta version since like forever...

It bugs me because all the affinity apps are really good to work with, but there are some showstopping gaps (esp. with cmyk colours and print ready pdfs) you can only scratch your head why it is not considered important. 🤨

[Dazmondo77]

I managed to get CMYK back to normal by changing to 8bit then back to percentage - ACE!

15 minutes ago, woefi said:

'm afraid to tell you but, this has never worked. I'm testing it with every new beta version since like forever...

Would be great if it really worked as you would think, so if you have spot colours or any CMYK global colours it would create a document palette with just those colours

[woefi]

28 minutes ago, Dazmondo77 said:

Would be great if it really worked as you would think, so if you have spot colours or any CMYK global colours it would create a document palette with just those colours

...even better if the automatically created colours would also be linked with the objects the colours were derived from. As it is standard behaviour in Ai since I can think of...

[Dazmondo77]

14 hours ago, woefi said:

...even better if the automatically created colours would also be linked with the objects the colours were derived from. As it is standard behaviour in Ai since I can think of...

I must admit I do find it a pain to have to create a document palette with the global colours I'm gonna use, every time I start a job, even after 5 years of using Affinity I still sometimes forget to do it, if only there was a preference to to switch to global by default + have strokes and FX "scale with object" tick boxes ticked by default it could potentially save hours of bother.

I remember doing an 2 colour NHS job which featured around 300 medical illustrations which I chose to draw from scratch in InDesign as it's global by default, initially the consultant who commissioned the job chose pantone 321blue and black for the whole document, the main problem with NHS work, I find, is whatever is done usually has to go through a load of committee meetings before it gets the go ahead so I was kind of expecting a few tweaks here and there, but it basically took a couple of seconds to change the whole document over to pantone 2597 purple and black, I really miss that simplicity. Hopefully things will get better by version 2.00

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Dazmondo77 said:

I must admit I do find it a pain to have to create a document palette with the global colours I'm gonna use, every time I start a job, even after 5 years of using Affinity I still sometimes forget to do it,

You might: create a sample document, import your palette as a Document Palette, then export your sample as a .aftemplate file. Then start your projects using that template, rather than using a document preset.

[woefi]

42 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You might: create a sample document, import your palette as a Document Palette, then export your sample as a .aftemplate file. Then start your projects using that template, rather than using a document preset.

It is always good to remember what oneself can do to improve the situation. I appreciate your helpful tip (I have to admit, most of the time I'm too lazy to create templates)

The thing is, one has to consider in which work environment you are operating:

• I have accumulated around 100 clients, of which, say, 3 to 5 have active projects that I am working on in this week. (projects=multiple documents of the same corporate design – print and screen/web) 
  • these projects take 1 week to 1 month, and then the client is happy for the rest of the year. Maybe one quick mini-job in-between.
  • so at any time I have 3 different clients/corporate designs active, out of 50 to 100.
  • you never know, maybe, after this year, the design for one client needs to change. So, do you make your templates after the job, when everything is nailed down? Or should you take the time in advance, and then update them everytime something is adjusted...
• For me, (and many workmates I met in the last 20 years) it was always easier (-> and safer!) to just take the last client-specific file you were working the year before and use it as the source of your new documents. It helped, that InDesign by default used only global colours. And Illustrator, messy but creative as it was, let you use a "clean-everything-up" script, or at least the native commands "add used colours" and "delete unused colours". There are sooo many bugs in Ai, but this always worked a ton for me.
• to compare: Ai's "add used colors" does it in the right color model, and links the object to the colour (it already knew it 1 nanosecond before)
  • and as a bonus and absolutely important: if you copy this object to another document, the colour and the linking is transferred.
  • bonus-extra-victory-round: If the same colour is already present in the target doc it uses the target's definition.
  • this saves tons of time and lets me concentrate on the creative work instead. It reduces errors whether templates are up to date.

Affinity's apps are already the best candidate to replace the creative suite. Just fill the gaps in the basics and only then add new features.

Heck, I even wouldn't mind sacrificing stability! Adobe crashes so often, affinity is already way ahead (and auto-saves, fwiw).

[Dazmondo77]

21 hours ago, woefi said:

• For me, (and many workmates I met in the last 20 years) it was always easier (-> and safer!) to just take the last client-specific file you were working the year before and use it as the source of your new documents. It helped, that InDesign by default used only global colours. And Illustrator, messy but creative as it was, let you use a "clean-everything-up" script, or at least the native commands "add used colours" and "delete unused colours". There are sooo many bugs in Ai, but this always worked a ton for me.
• to compare: Ai's "add used colors" does it in the right color model, and links the object to the colour (it already knew it 1 nanosecond before)
  • and as a bonus and absolutely important: if you copy this object to another document, the colour and the linking is transferred.
  • bonus-extra-victory-round: If the same colour is already present in the target doc it uses the target's definition.
  • this saves tons of time and lets me concentrate on the creative work instead. It reduces errors whether templates are up to date.

Exactly!