The vector and pixel personas are missing from Affinity Designer and Photo

[Juan T]

The vector and pixel personas are missing from Affinity Designer and Photo when Designer or Photo is activated as personas inside Publisher via studiolink.  Where are they?

[R C-R]

You must have the Affinity Designer & Affinity Photo apps installed on your computer & run each of them at least once to activate the Designer & Photo personas of Affinity Publisher.

[Juan T]

I can access both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer inside Affinity Publisher. But once I am in Designer there is no menu to switch between its vector and pixel personas?

[Juan T]

I purchased all Photo, Designer, and Publisher.

[Jowday]

2 minutes ago, Juan T said:

I purchased all Photo, Designer, and Publisher.

The Pixel Persona from Designer is simply not available from Publisher using StudioLink. Only Draw Persona.

[RNKLN]

Not sure, but why would someone want to access the AD pixel persona from Publisher when you can access the APh pixel persona in stead. 

[walt.farrell]

8 hours ago, Juan T said:

I can access both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer inside Affinity Publisher. But once I am in Designer there is no menu to switch between its vector and pixel personas?

You get only the Designer Persona (from the Designer application) and the Photo Persona (from the Photo application). You do not get the other Personas from either application. But as RNKLN mentioned, why do you need the Pixel Persona when you have the more capable Photo Persona?

[Pšenda]

If you need every Personas from APhoto/ADesigner, for example Export Persona, you must switch to application via "Edit in.."

StudioLink offers basic application features. 

[Jowday]

11 hours ago, Juan T said:

I can access both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer inside Affinity Publisher. But once I am in Designer there is no menu to switch between its vector and pixel personas?

Also be aware that even though you can activate Photo or Designer using StudioLink in Publisher you will not be able to use vector or bitmap brushes you installed in Photo or Designer. You will have to install them AGAIN in Publisher.

[Aammppaa]

8 hours ago, RNKLN said:

Not sure, but why would someone want to access the AD pixel persona from Publisher when you can access the APh pixel persona in stead. 

This assumes that you own all three apps.

If a customer only owns Publisher and Designer then it is reasonable that they might want to use the Pixel persona from Designer - which at present means using Edit in Designer.

[walt.farrell]

25 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

This assumes that you own all three apps.

If a customer only owns Publisher and Designer then it is reasonable that they might want to use the Pixel persona from Designer - which at present means using Edit in Designer.

True, but as asked, the OP has all three.

[RNKLN]

39 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

This assumes that you own all three apps.

Correct. But i would certainly recommend everybody who has 2 out of 3, and has the desire to use specific functionality, to also invest in the 3rd component, especially with the current 50% discount.

[Jowday]

1 hour ago, RNKLN said:

Correct. But i would certainly recommend everybody who has 2 out of 3, and has the desire to use specific functionality, to also invest in the 3rd component, especially with the current 50% discount.

50% + 50% = no discount (Designer, Photo discounted (for StudioLink use for Designer users))

100% + 50% = no discount at all (Designer full price, Photo discounted (for StudioLink use for Designer))

The (generous) discount is targeting creatives who are up Shit Creek without a paddle financially these tragic days. Millions lost their job. Perhaps for good. If Affinity customers have all they need in Publisher and Designer bad usability should not put them in this silly situation where they have to purchase what they have in Designer anyway.

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, Jowday said:

50% + 50% = no discount (Designer, Photo discounted (for StudioLink use for Designer users))

That makes no sense. Both the Designer & Photo apps include features that are not available in Publisher's Designer & Photo Personas so there is a discount if you consider the value of those features. Besides, StudioLink is a feature of Affinity Publisher, which itself has many other features that neither Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo have.

[Jowday]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

That makes no sense. Both the Designer & Photo apps include features that are not available in Publisher's Designer & Photo Personas so there is a discount if you consider the value of those features. Besides, StudioLink is a feature of Affinity Publisher, which itself has many other features that neither Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo have.

It makes total sense. If you purchase Designer discounted but have to purchase Photo as well to get the same pixel features you already have in Designer but have to access via Photo if you want to use StudioLink... you saved 0%. If you don’t need Photo but are pleased with what you have in Designer. Like me. I don’t need Photo at all.

Just talking about what you get and can access via StudioLink.

If your design is often made or finalized in the pixel persona in Designer and you want to edit it in Publisher further finalizing something then StudioLink is no help. It is only vector. And designer has so few vector features you don’t have much to play with.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Jowday said:

If you purchase Designer discounted but have to purchase Photo as well to get the same pixel features you already have in Designer but have to access via Photo if you want to use StudioLink... you saved 0%.

You do not have to purchase Photo to get the pixel features you already have in Designer. Nobody is forcing you to do that.

But you can purchase Photo if you want the pixel features that are not available in Designer but are in Photo, like live & destructive filters or its extensive range of selection & pixel tools. The latter includes pixel brushes & the undo, dodge, burn, smudge, healing, patch, flood fill, flood select, etc. tools.

[Jowday]

I am talking about using Designer via StudioLink - not about using software individually.

You are inside Publisher and have this photo - or a painted graphic illustration is perhaps a better example:

You activate the Designer persona. Not vector persona. The DESIGNER persona. You expect the Designer features you know. You are a skilled pixel artist and have used the pixel persona exclusively.

How do you using the Designer persona in Publisher via StudioLink:

• Sharpen
• Blur
• Smudge
• Use the paintbrush tool
• Use the pixel tool
• Etc.

You don't. You have to edit in Designer itself in another window. No big deal. But to get acces to the above features - you already have in designer - from within Publisher using StudioLink - you need the Photo persona and Photo. So Publisher does not feature a Designer persona. It features a vector persona. Much less than half of Designer.

So recommending purchasing all three programs to make StudioLink great now that there is a discount targeting the unfortunate in this global crisis is not a good advice. It is simply smarter to use Designer and Publisher together using 'Edit in Designer/Publisher' in the file menu. Until Designer gets more features than the current basic, basic features the Designer persona in Publisher and before they share brushes and data... StudioLink is no great timesaver. 

[R C-R]

41 minutes ago, Jowday said:

I am talking about using Designer via StudioLink - not about using software individually.

So am I. But I am talking about the much wider range of tools (plus the filters) available in Affinity Publisher's Photo Persona if one elects to purchase Affinity Photo, which once again nobody is forcing anyone to purchase.

These are the available tools in Designer's Pixel Persona:

These are the available tools in Publisher's Photo Persona:

Obviously, some of those tools are duplicates of what is available in Designer, but many are not.

This also enables access to Photo's extensive selection of destructive filters, including 15 types of blur filters (one of which is customizable for even more variations), 16 types of distortion filters, 7 types of noise filters, & 20 types of color filters (one of which is the powerful Procedural Texture filter). Most of these are also available in non-destructive live versions. It also enables access to Photo's new Metadata Studio panel & to its Library & Macro Studio panels.

In case it is not clear, all of these features are available via StudioLink, fully functional in Publisher's Photo Persona, useable with any object on any page that works with that feature, and there is no need to resort to 'Edit in' & open the Photo app to use them.

I think a great many users consider this added capability well worth the price, even without the current very generous discount. With it, it is almost a no-brainer.

[Jowday]

Of course I understand all that. But imagine not having Photo, not needing it. At. All. Not needing those tons of photo manipulation related features. Just the pixel and vector features in Designer - through Publisher. You sound like the former sales people from the Serif PagePlus era; fool people into buying more they don't need. 

You are just underlining my point with a fat marker - as a Publisher + Designer owner you HAVE to purchase Photo to access features you should be able to use from the Designer persona in Publisher. You already purchased them. That is not a bargain or a no-brainer. Especially not if money is now a problem. Lets see where this crisis ends. No one will be able to pay their rent or feed their family with "15 types of blur filters or access to Photo's new Metadata Studio panel & its Library & Macro Studio panels" if they don't use them in their line of work.

You can use Designer together with Publisher in three ways (Separate, Edit in, StudioLink) and StudioLink is the weakest option of the three - by far. So just forgetting StudioLink and Photo in that case - that is a no-brainer.

No further comments.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Jowday said:

But imagine not having Photo, not needing it.

Then you would have to use File > Edit in Designer to access its limited range of pixel features if you are working on a project in Publisher. But you do not have to purchase Photo to do that, nor has Serif ever said that StudioLink will give you access to any of Designer's features other than those in its Designer persona.

Nobody is trying to fool anybody by suggesting this is a great time to buy Photo, or for that matter any of the other Affinity apps they do not already own. 50% off is a bargain, a particularly attractive one for anyone hoping to make money from their graphics editing skills during this crisis. That is why Serif is doing this & why it has been mentioned so often, not just in this forum but also on other web sites, among them Windows Central, EnGadget, & 9to5Toys (which erroneously says the offer has expired).

[walt.farrell]

10 hours ago, Jowday said:

You activate the Designer persona. Not vector persona. The DESIGNER persona. You expect the Designer features you know.

 

7 hours ago, Jowday said:

to access features you should be able to use from the Designer persona in Publisher.

I don't think there was ever a "Vector Persona" in the Designer application, Jowday. There was a Draw Persona (if I remember correctly) until 1.7. In 1.7 it became the Designer Persona.

StudioLink in Publisher gives you exactly what Serif said it would: access to the Designer Persona from the Designer application. It is the same Designer Persona as you have in the Designer application, and gives you all the capabilities you would have in the Designer Persona of the full Designer application.

If you want the other two Designer application Personas, Pixel or Export, you need to use the full application.

[Amir Anderson]

Honestly this whole discussion makes no sense.

I have affinity publisher and designer (no photo, because i have another software for that).

I want to access the full capabilities of both programs I have pruchased via the studio link, period!

From a user perspective this thread shouldn't exist at all...

 

 

[Patrick Connor]

3 hours ago, Amir Anderson said:

I want to access the full capabilities of both programs I have pruchased via the studio link, period!

We have provided a function that does exactly this. Studio link is a subset of full functionality. You should use Edit in Publisher and Edit in Designer.

[Amir Anderson]

Ok, if this is so than I want to apologize! I just really can't find it...

So may I ask you if you could help me to find the option how to switch from vector to pixel persona of affinity designer without opening the program separtely?

This is what I am missing (looking for):

Affinity Designer only:

Affinity Publisher open --> switched to Affinity Designer persona - but no pixel persona option:

Many thanks!

BR,

Amir

 

[GarryP]

You cannot get the ‘extra’ personas of Designer (Pixel, etc.) or Photo (Liquify, etc.) when you use Studiolink in Publisher.
To use the ‘extra’ Personas in Designer and/or Photo you can use menu “File → Edit in <application>”, and then use “File → Edit in Publisher” when you’re ready to go back to Publisher.