User interface and transform

[Neil M]

Hi,

Firstly, I like Affinity Designer. But having been a user for several years now I am surprised at the apparent lack of development, despite frequent updates. Is it only me who finds it exasperating that an Open or Place dialogue box and its buttons can be obscured by the program's floating palettes and toolbars which, as long as the requested dialogue box remains open, can no longer be used? Requiring you to move them out of the way in order to use the dialogue you've opened. Surely this is a fundamental interface error than should've been corrected by now. The dialogue box should be in front of all it temporarily disables until canceled or executed. Also, I find chats about requesting the addition of a 'perspective' or free-transform tool (which exists in Affinity Photo) going back to 2018, yet four years on: no free-transform tool. What I have seen on forums is people suggesting that because it exists in Photo, it's not needed in Designer. Which suggests that if you want to pre transform an element you simply need to abandon working in vector and switch to pixel? Oh, ok... Not. The fact that Affinity apps are one-off purchases is amazing, but could it be at the expense of development? Best NeilM

[PaulEC]

49 minutes ago, Neil M said:

I find chats about requesting the addition of a 'perspective' or free-transform tool (which exists in Affinity Photo) going back to 2018, yet four years on: no free-transform tool.

While I do actually agree that this would be useful, I can't help feeling that, playing "devil's advocate", it is worth pointing out that dozens (hundreds?) of people make requests for various additions, changes and "improvements" to all three apps. It really doesn't make much sense to assume that every time anyone (or even a group of people) request something, it should automatically be implemented within any particular time frame, if at all. Some requests are easier to implement than others, some actually contradict each other. (One person says "change this to A", someone else says "change this to B") Serif have to make decisions about what, when and how they implement improvements, changes etc to the apps; some, apparently simple changes, can cause problems elsewhere. I think it is generally accepted that there are some improvements that a large number of people would like to see, and I'm sure that Serif do take these requests on board, but, as has been said elsewhere, Serif is not a democracy, they can't be expected to simply comply with every request as soon it is made.

[Neil M]

Hi PaulEC,

I understand all your points, but they're simply excusing Serif - not solutions. Also, four years or more on from people requesting this feature is hardly expecting compliance as soon as it is made. If you Paul, or anyone knows how to export a designer vector to Photo, free transform it in Photo and export that vector back to Designer again I'd appreciate them sharing. Tried but I can't see how. At least that would be a workaround. Without it is a reason to go back to Illustrator. As for the pallets issue, sorry, but that's just poor GUI design and should have been fixed by now. While I'm sure Serif make many improvements to the apps, those improvements are lost on me and I've been using it for three years now, having used Illustrator and before that Freehand for 30 years. Best N

[PaulEC]

5 hours ago, Neil M said:

Also, four years or more on from people requesting this feature is hardly expecting compliance as soon as it is made.

But the point is there are a lot of requests, and very often people seem to assume that if they make a request Serif are somehow obliged to comply with it. What I am saying is that, however important you may think your request is, it is just one of many! I get pretty fed up myself, as the years go by, waiting for many, long requested, new features and improvements to be delivered, but (again, as has been mentioned before) you should buy software for the features it has, not for what you want/expect it to add in the future!

[Neil M]

I'll buy software for whatever reasons I choose, Paul.

[PaulEC]

3 minutes ago, Neil M said:

I'll buy software for whatever reasons I choose, Paul.

That's fine, of course you should buy software for any reasons you wish.

Personally, I prefer to buy software because it does what I want, not for things it doesn't do but I would like it to!

[sheriffderek]

There are many other topics with the goal of explaining our desire for a free-transform tool. I suggest you add to those instead of creating a new one.

and I believe there's one from 2015, but I can't find it.