Affinity Photo for Windows - 1.8.4

[Patrick Connor]

We are pleased to announce an update for the Windows release of Affinity Photo, version 1.8.4

Changes in this build

The changes in Affinity Photo for Windows 1.8.4 (over the last release Affinity Photo for Windows 1.8.3) are as follows:

Fixes & Improvements:

• X3F: Fixed uninitialised crop areas in release builds 
• X3F: Fixed non-sequenced reads from files (was preventing any X3F file from being loaded in CL release builds) 
• X3F: Apply Black and White in Develop Persona when the Monochrome flag is set
• Fixed redo always being a step behind in Develop Persona
• Fixed import of PSD files with extended blend modes
• Fixed Hasselblad RAW files loading thumbnail preview only
• Fixed occasional crashes loading RAW files 
• Allow Saving a document with history to be in recorded macros
• Fixed crash when making some selections
• Fixed Voronoi reset not matching the default
• Changed mask thumbnails to use black, not transparent
• Improved LAB defaults for selective channels in the document view
• Fixed OCIO transform being removed when the window is moved or minimised
• Fixed Character Panel's Decorations colour box displaying in RGB 
• Fixed Layer Effects Gradient Overlay sliders not working correctly
• Changed brush parameter shortcut from Alt+RightMouseButton to Ctrl+Alt (same as macOS)
• Fixed flickering brush preview with tablet input
• Fixed spurious lines being drawn with tablet input
• Fixed Alt+Drag colour picker getting stuck when using tablet input
• Fixed crash when failing to load an X3F file (some files will still fail to load, but won't crash)
• Fixed gradients not changing when Global Colour is modified 
• Improved support for Canon EOS-1D X Mark III colour data. 
• [Installer] Prevent installation into non-empty directory
• Added EOS 1D-X Mark III to list of known CR3 cameras 
• Fixed Flood Selection Tool is offset with 'All layers' enabled
• Stopped Image quality dropping after exiting an edited Equirectangular image
• Minor CR3 tweaks
• Fixed CR3 from a Canon EOS-R opening with a purple haze
• Fixed Develop Persona Red Eye Removal Tool crash
• Improved support for X3F files
• Removed units from the Crop Tool ratio option
• Fixed rotating a raw file in Develop Persona darkens it 
• Fixed adding guides in Develop Persona darkening image
• Removed "Windows Ink" option, and replaced with high precision WinTab support
• Fixed AI import incorrectly identifying as EPS when it was actually a PDF with extra data at the front
• Fixed PDF import for documents with extra data at the front
• Fixed PDF export for some Asian fonts that support many glyphs
• Fixed Layers panel dropping of items of right of thumbnail in expanded parents
• Fixed right-click context menu to disable Merge Down when attempting to merge a Pixel Layer into a shape
• Fixed PDF import crash due to infinitely searching for fonts
• Fixed HSL ring displaying incorrectly when returning to the adjustment 
• Fixed being unable to drag afassets into the app 
• Changed PDFs to open as restricted if we don't have permission to edit, copy or print them
• Fixed PDF export accidentally outputting all RGB images at 16-bit.
• Fixed RAW files appearing too dark
• Fixed High Pass filter for LAB colour
• Fixed Detect Edges after developing a RAW file in 32 bit
• Fixed NEF import from Nikon D90 rendering incorrectly
• Fixed CTRL+M with a node selected to not show the curves dialog.
• Fixed handling of ' XP ' EXIF data from Luminar 4 exported files 
• Fixed placement of RAW files to apply default settings
• Fixed Selection Brush Width not remembered if changed by Right mouse button + Alt modifier
• Fixed layer blend modes not scrolling with arrow keys 
• Improved performance of font loading (and tried to improve behaviour with font managers)
• Improved PDF export support for 16-bit and 32-bit images
• Fixed SVG import of elements with closepath not followed by move
• Fixed SVG export of curves with large bounds
• Fixed incorrect sheet colour in PSD export (following import)
• Fixed incorrectly enabled control on Text Style decorations
• Fixed click to select items with group crops
• Fixed locked layers being selectable via Marquee selection
• Fixed PDF import of certain unicode characters producing the wrong character
• Fixed SVG import to ignore spurious quote marks in "url('#identifier')" references
• Fixed SVG import to treat gradients with one stop as solid fills
• Fixed SVG import having wrong default for gradientUnits
• Fixed crash when importing an invalid SVG due to negative heights or widths
• Fixed hand cursor getting stuck after panning 
• Fixed crash when pressing V with Alignment flyout open
• Fixed font names always displaying their English names
• Fixed PDF export with embedded ICC profiles
• Fixed SVG import of booleans
• Fixed SVG import of documents with multiple <svg> elements
• Fixed fill aspect ratio for Radial and Conical to be maintained unless the correction handle is visible
• Fixed text edit handles to allow auto pan ability
• Fixed changing tool while the Align Panel is open (if the next tool supports the alignment options, it will remain open, else it will close)
• Fixed crash when dragging items in the Layers control
• Improved performance of PDF import
• Improved performance of text when rendering text
• Fixed vector export of text occasionally filling characters
• Fixed crash when closing floating document 
• Fixed New Document dialog previous document selection highlight not being remembered
• Fixed Procedural Texture rendering different to macOS applications
• Fixed Ctrl+M with nodes selected to not bring up the curves dialog 
• Fixed crash when docking a panel with the Brushes panel
• Fixed PNG export not displaying the size warning if the export dialog was previously closed with a different preset 
• Help and Localisation improvements.

Earlier changes and fixes in 1.8 made since 1.7 (including the new 1.8 features) are listed in some detail in this 1.8.0 update announcement and  this 1.8.2 update announcement

 

UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)

The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in Help > About Affinity Photo).

If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the Affinity Store software it will check for updates and offer any available update. The latest update will install over the top of any earlier version, with no need to uninstall. You can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "Download" button in there. Alternatively, this new release (and previous versions of Affinity Photo for Windows) can be downloaded from this link. (that installer is NOT for Windows Store purchases and needs a product key).

If you’ve purchased from the Microsoft Store— Microsoft Store updates are done automatically by the operating system (each time you start the application). If this does not happen for you, open the Windows Store app and click the three dots in the top right corner of the app and then go to Downloads and Updates. Click Get Updates. This should hopefully force the update to show.

[Patrick Connor]

All Readers

This thread is solely for commenting on this announcement.

Please do not post bugs or problems that you find when using this version of the software in this thread, instead make a new thread in the Photo Bugs on Windows section and questions about usage go in the Desktop Questions forum.

[walt.farrell]

Installed all 3 updates (Photo, Designer, and Publisher), and all updated successfully. I downloaded all 3 updates from the https://affinity.store/update/windows/<product name>/1 links, as all 3 were from the Affinity Store and those were the easiest methods of downloading the update.

Started all 3, and Designer and Publisher started fully.

Photo, however, wants me to enter my product key or start a 10-day trial. This is the first time I've ever had that happen. I've captured the setup logs in case someone at Serif wants to see them.

Edit: Photo did start properly after I entered the product key and email. My guess is that the license.xml file for Photo was previously in Program Files\Affinity\Photo and this was removed when the directory was removed during install. I suspect that previously it was not removed during install, but now must be removed from there as Affinity will no longer install into a non-empty directory. After entering it during startup It is now in one of the other alternate locations, in programdata\affinity\photo\1.0 which should be safe from removal in the future.

So, not a big deal, just a bit of a surprise.

[debraspicher]

Thank you all for everything you do. Downloading updates now from account page.

[Mystical]

Awesome as always to see new updates for Affinity Photo.

[360]

Equirectangular images were losing quality? What! Now I have to redo hundreds! Thankyou.

[mapline]

Thanks again for  update.

 

[Panlumix]

Brush Parameter shortcut change on Windows works with one keyboard key (Alt Gr) as well as Ctrl+Alt.Although I use the left mouse button.

[pgraficzny]

Thank you very much for your work. For me, the performance of the PC application is noticeably better.

[duckfanatic]

Thanks for the update. I noticed in the what's new list is the ability to show groups as folders. I've been looking but can't find how to choose that option or turn that feature on? I'm using the Windows version

[walt.farrell]

57 minutes ago, duckfanatic said:

Thanks for the update. I noticed in the what's new list is the ability to show groups as folders. I've been looking but can't find how to choose that option or turn that feature on? I'm using the Windows version

Use the hamburger menu in the Layers panel, and turn off "Show Group Thumbnails":

[duckfanatic]

Ah there it is thanks 😉

[R_G]

That is one impressive list of fixes and improvements.

Big thanks to everyone involved for the great amount of work that must have gone into this!