Affinity Publisher Customer Beta - 1.8.4.663

[AdamW]

Status: Beta
Purpose: Updates and Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Publisher
Windows Store: Not submitted
Download: Download
Auto-update: Not Available

Hi,

We are pleased to announce that Affinity Publisher Customer Beta 1.8.4.663 is now available as a download from the link above.

If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.

This beta is an incremental update to the 1.8.3 version recently released to all customers (though it installs parallel to the release). We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.

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Improvements and Fixes

General
Fixed recent regression when saving Linked Image placeholders which was causing large document files
Recoloured K-only images with transparency lose their transparency
(Win) Can now import .afassets file via drag drop 

Text
Avoid generating infinite filler text when leading is zero
Further improvements for ideographic line breaks, mainly for quote-marks
Allow OpenType kerning between glyphs with different settings (if they are the same font and size)
Fixed 'Indent To Here' not working if lines are broken by drop cap or wrap shape
Fixes for line-breaker around Fixed Spaces

Import / Export
IDML Import - Text frame corners are now scaled correctly
IDML Import - Fixed instances where text wrap path could fail to import, or be scaled incorrectly
IDML Import - Generic OpenType features not being imported from IDML file
IDML Import - Effects settings not scaled correctly on master page items
IDML Import - En-Space in numbered list imported as a 0
IDML Import - Elements could be positioned incorrectly in some instances
IDML Import - Question mark in file path breaks link during the import
IDML Import - Initial Words not scaling correctly
IDML Import - Placed EPS files are slightly clipped
PDF Import - Better handling of restricted files
PDF Export - Fixed issues exporting to PDF/X-4 with content with embedded profiles 
PDF Export - Export could fail for glyph ids that happen to match surrogate pair values

Index
Index Find - match words with following punctuation
Partial loss of parent topics when adding pages from file
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Further fixes, made since the release of 1.8.3, are listed in earlier 1.8.4 betas

To be notified about all future Windows beta updates, please follow this notification thread 

To be notified when this Publisher update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Publisher customers, please follow this thread

[Uwe367]

Thanks for the new Beta and the Improvements. Installation was working well without problems on Win10, Version 2004, Build 19041.329. Software works fast and stable 👍

[Joachim_L]

Thanks for new beta and the improvements. All went well on my side. Being curious: After some rounds of bug fixing, when do we can expect new features?

[Sam Neil]

Please make support for RTL a priority....

[Patrick Connor]

2 hours ago, Joachim_L said:

After some rounds of bug fixing, when do we can expect new features?

We expect/hope 1.8.4 to be the last round of fixes to 1.8.x codebase, before starting the next beta cycle, which will include some new features (and larger fixes requiring a longer beta cycle to check).

[Blende21]

For me fixing the multiple chances to cause an unexpected crash is the priority. The risk of loosing work or needing external support is a real concern, and especially worrisome if working on to a deadline.

[Blende21]

If you follow the forum, there are more ...

The most annoying stuff is when a small change corrupts a project, the program crashes and there is no feedback or even sometimes no log. I usually then move backwards to try to find the issue. Creating copies (an old habit from the days back then) helps sometimes, but removes history. What I observe is that I did not have issues on iOS, only on my Mac, and more with Publisher than Photo or Designer (I have the Windows version of APhoto as well, but rarely use it). This is a very small sample, so probably not to be generalized.

Affinity support is doing a good job on this, but I can‘t remember that sort of crashes (hard fail, no log) with other programs years back from now. And I am talking release versions here, not betas - with a beta I sort of expect that things may go wrong.

If there is a pattern behind this is a question for the Devs or QA - this is beyond my area of competence.

[Dave Quail]

Thanks for the Beta update. Installed and all looking good so far. I have a couple of publications I am working on which I am going to try out this version.

[Joachim_L]

23 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

which will include some new features

Any whistleblower at the Serif staff?

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Joachim_L said:

Any whistleblower at the Serif staff?

Andy Somerfield, so far

Here, here, here, here, and here.

[Joachim_L]

Oooooh, this means no Undo button? 😭

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, Joachim_L said:

Oooooh, this means no Undo button? 😭

Not necessarily. I would say that it means only that Serif is willing to commit to the functions Andy has mentioned and not (yet?) willing to commit to any others. (Though I may have missed some other preannouncements, of course.)

[Joachim_L]

I made a joke. Not too obviously, obviously. 😂