Affinity Designer Customer Beta 1.9.0 (1.9.6)

[MattP]

Status: Beta

Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes

Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer for iPad From App Store

App Store:  Not submitted

Download link: Join the TestFlight

 

Hello,

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the Affinity Designer Beta 1.9.0 for iPad.

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 significantly different from the 1.8.6 version available for purchase - we strongly recommend that you do not use this beta for real work as data could be lost and the files you save are not guaranteed to open in previous / future versions of Affinity Designer.

Thanks again for your continued support!

Matt

 

Changes Since 1.8.6

- Added Export Preview in the Export dialog
- Fix for colour-picker not working correctly in brush tools
- Fix a number of potential symbol-related problems
- Text improvements - particularly relating to mid-word punctuation
- Snapping tweaks - you can now snap to column guides if they're hidden and you have 'snap to hidden objects' turned on
- Added hierarchical antialiasing control - accessed from the Layer Options view in the layers studio
- New cat shape (accessible on Friday 13th)
- Fix for printing of passthrough PDFs
- Misc PDF export tweaks
- Fix for Column Guides not updating correctly
- PDF Import improvements (particularly around tinted colours and unknown fonts)
- Application registration and content streaming (see post below)
- Fix for pixel layers inside symbols occasionally acting incorrectly (painting may not apply to all symbol instances, items may transform oddly, for example)
- Fixed sporadic crash with Pencil Tool (yay!) and hopefully generally improved product stability
- Fix for artefacts occasionally noticed in the noise pattern while editing objects with noise on a linear fill
- Enable image placement options in Designer (you can now choose Linked or Embedded)
- Added option for Designer to be able to show/hide overflow text - particularly useful for text on a path
- Fix for terrible rendering problems - particularly affected cropped items with layer effects applied
- Added Contour tool.
- Select Same / Select Object functionality. I'm happy to consider requests for extra options, so if you have a favourite, just say...
- Improved performance with large documents. I will aim to improve this further over time.
- Added a new “Divide” blend mode.
- Allowed snapping to the bounds of the pixel selection.

[DM1]

1 hour ago, MattP said:

Fix a number of potential symbol-related problems

Hi Matt, I’m still getting the crash to springboard on iPad when pasting content with a symbol into a new document.

[Naruto]

Please Add Shape Builder tool 🥺

[DM1]

1 hour ago, MattP said:

I'm happy to consider requests for extra options, so if you have a favourite, just say...

Any chance we may see Import Palette feature any time soon? 🤞

[iuli]

As a designer who works exclusively with vector shapes for cutting I had to see Contour tool “with my own eyes”. It’s a fantastic addition! For a second there I’ve thought it’s only a “trick”, a rather raster shape ‘attached’ to a vector but it’s not! “Substract” WORKS PERFECTLY and the result IS GREAT! Sure the tool needs more stability (maybe I had some issue setting the contour because of a 5000px doc, wanting to see the large-doc improvements for older iPads — that’s besides the point) — but I have no words how helpful this tool is!

[iuli]

5 minutes ago, DM1 said:

Any chance we may see Import Palette feature any time soon? 🤞

I wish at least to see the complete demise of this crucial function from a dev. No, we won’t ever be able to import our color palettes and every time we reinstall the app we’ll have to manually import them. I’d say well this sucks but I can live with it, what else can I do. The lacking of any official response instead feels worse to be honest.

[Mithferion]

1 hour ago, MattP said:

- Select Same / Select Object functionality. I'm happy to consider requests for extra options, so if you have a favourite, just say...

These ones, hehe.

(They are for the Desktop version, but I could mockup something for the iPad)

Best regards!

[Alfred]

39 minutes ago, iuli84 said:

I wish at least to see the complete demise of this crucial function from a dev.

I’m not sure that ‘demise’ is the word you’re looking for! I’m aware that you’re a Romanian and that English is therefore not your native language: perhaps you could find a way to explain what you’re really trying to say.

[LCamachoDesign]

I see that global colour swatches are still not mentioned in the changelog. I find this troubling as it seems like you're unsure if it will be included in the retail build... Pretty please, no do not take this away! Global colours are a must, even if they're not doing everything they could, it's still infinitely better than nothing!

That said, I do have a bug report for the new global colour dialog:

1. Bring up the new global colour dialog
2. Tap the slider type menu to bring up a list of slider types
3. Drag your finger through the list and select any slider type
4. Notice the list remains up if you try to compose a colour, and you can't change any of the values
5. Notice that you interact with the shapes on the artboard instead
6. Instead of dragging your finger on the slider type list, tap any slider type
7. Notice the list is dismissed and that you can interact with the colour sliders now
8. You no longer can interact with the shapes on the artboard as expected

I also think the issue mentioned on the other thread is gone. I can rename the global colour on this dialog just fine.

See the attached video for a visual demonstration of the bug.

Thanks!

[Sean P]

11 minutes ago, LCamachoDesign said:

I see that global colour swatches are still not mentioned in the changelog. I find this troubling as it seems like you're unsure if it will be included in the retail build... Pretty please, no do not take this away! Global colours are a must, even if they're not doing everything they could, it's still infinitely better than nothing!

That said, I do have a bug report for the new global colour dialog:

1. Bring up the new global colour dialog
2. Tap the slider type menu to bring up a list of slider types
3. Drag your finger through the list and select any slider type
4. Notice the list remains up if you try to compose a colour, and you can't change any of the values
5. Notice that you interact with the shapes on the artboard instead
6. Instead of dragging your finger on the slider type list, tap any slider type
7. Notice the list is dismissed and that you can interact with the colour sliders now
8. You no longer can interact with the shapes on the artboard as expected

I also think the issue mentioned on the other thread is gone. I can rename the global colour on this dialog just fine.

See the attached video for a visual demonstration of the bug.

Thanks!

RPReplay_Final1609936126.mov

Thanks for that! I can reproduce it here - I'll get it passed on over.

[Powerhorse]

On 1/4/2021 at 3:44 PM, Sean P said:

Thanks for letting us know - this is something we're aware of and with development to be fixed.

It still does not work 🙂

[iuli]

If no modifications are being made, “Add global color” crashes the app. It appears to erase the new project altogether.

 

 

[LCamachoDesign]

4 hours ago, iuli84 said:

If no modifications are being made, “Add global color” crashes the app. It appears to erase the new project altogether.

 

 

 

I can confirm this is happening to me as me as well. A few more details:

• Toggling Spot or Overprint does not prevent the crash
• Changing the swatch name does not prevent the crash
• Swapping to another slider type, like CMYK to RGB for example, does not prevent the crash

The only way to prevent this crash from happening is to move any of the colour sliders, even if just a bit. I can also prevent the crash from happening by moving a slider and then moving it back. For example, starting with CMYK all at 0%, move K to 100% and then back to 0%. The crash is prevented. It seems like the slider values are not initialised until a value change happens. See attached video.

[Sean P]

18 hours ago, iuli84 said:

If no modifications are being made, “Add global color” crashes the app. It appears to erase the new project altogether.

 

 

13 hours ago, LCamachoDesign said:

I can confirm this is happening to me as me as well. A few more details:

• Toggling Spot or Overprint does not prevent the crash
• Changing the swatch name does not prevent the crash
• Swapping to another slider type, like CMYK to RGB for example, does not prevent the crash

The only way to prevent this crash from happening is to move any of the colour sliders, even if just a bit. I can also prevent the crash from happening by moving a slider and then moving it back. For example, starting with CMYK all at 0%, move K to 100% and then back to 0%. The crash is prevented. It seems like the slider values are not initialised until a value change happens. See attached video.

FullSizeRender.mov 28.14 MB · 0 downloads FullSizeRender.mov

Thank you for reporting this - it is something we're aware of and with development to be fixed.

[DM1]

22 hours ago, Alfred said:

I’m not sure that ‘demise’ is the word you’re looking for! I’m aware that you’re a Romanian and that English is therefore not your native language: perhaps you could find a way to explain what you’re really trying to say.

I think iuli84 would prefer Devs gave a definitive response such as 'yes, we will add this feature' or 'no we have no intention of adding this feature'. Put the matter to rest, so to speak. 🙂