Comments on v2 - a real disappointment

[Didge]

Hi,

I've been using Affinity products for ages and think they're great - particularly Affinity Photo and the astrophotography stacking features.

I've just paid to upgrade to V2 - and I have to say its a huge disappointment :-

1. In APhoto, the annoying things that I've written to you about before are still there,
    eg - the 'AddFiles' button in the Astrophotography stack pane should be next to the 'Type' dropdown,
    not at the other end of the pane.

2. File order has been fixed when adding a folder of files - which is great.

3. I hate the new icons and layout - they look like cheap MSDos software from the 1980's.

4. What are you thinking with the layer on/off buttons ?
     Checkboxes should be used here - they are universally accepted for switching things on and off.
     This little round dots are really dumb - its not at all obvious whether they are on or off,
     and they perform miserably - ie disappear completely - in high contrast mode.
     Do you think about users with vision impairment ?

     Can you tell me whether these 3 layers are ON or OFF* ?

     

     Please put them back the way they were.

5. The new tool icons are super-hideous ...
     The erase icon looks like a librium capsule - the clone icon looks like a chess piece.

     They don't look slick and professional - they look like something from a kid's game.

6.  What happened to SEPARATED view mode ?

     I dont want to float the working window with a blank grey panel blocking my desktop,
     - I want to be able to move my toolbars where I want them with the DESKTOP fully visible.

IMHO - this 'new' look is hideous.

What we're hopping for is new / enhanced features and fixed bugs - and ADVANCING the GUI - not retarding it.

=====

* They are actually ON !

=====

 

 

 

[When_Subscription]

It’s a steep price to pay for a couple extra tools (which should have already been included already) and a coat of paint done on a budget. I’m not sold on it unfortunately.

[AffinityMakesMeSad]

3 hours ago, Gary.JONES said:

Hi,

I've been using Affinity products for ages and think they're great - particularly Affinity Photo and the astrophotography stacking features.

I've just paid to upgrade to V2 - and I have to say its a huge disappointment :-

1. In APhoto, the annoying things that I've written to you about before are still there,
    eg - the 'AddFiles' button in the Astrophotography stack pane should be next to the 'Type' dropdown,
    not at the other end of the pane.

2. File order has been fixed when adding a folder of files - which is great.

3. I hate the new icons and layout - they look like cheap MSDos software from the 1980's.

4. What are you thinking with the layer on/off buttons ?
     Checkboxes should be used here - they are universally accepted for switching things on and off.
     This little round dots are really dumb - its not at all obvious whether they are on or off,
     and they perform miserably - ie disappear completely - in high contrast mode.
     Do you think about users with vision impairment ?

     Can you tell me whether these 3 layers are ON or OFF* ?

     

     Please put them back the way they were.

5. The new tool icons are super-hideous ...
     The erase icon looks like a librium capsule - the clone icon looks like a chess piece.

     They don't look slick and professional - they look like something from a kid's game.

6.  What happened to SEPARATED view mode ?

     I dont want to float the working window with a blank grey panel blocking my desktop,
     - I want to be able to move my toolbars where I want them with the DESKTOP fully visible.

IMHO - this 'new' look is hideous.

What we're hopping for is new / enhanced features and fixed bugs - and ADVANCING the GUI - not retarding it.

=====

* They are actually ON !

=====

 

 

 

The number 4 is a big agree!

Not only on/off layers is difficult to understand, even in the settings is hard to understand what’s Enabled/Disabled!

What’s wrong with Apples own svitsches that mark it green when enabled?

But, overall, I’m happy with my All Licence purchase (100$) - worth every penny!

[Chuck Away]

A couple of these gave me a chuckle but I must admit I don't know what the layer visibility buttons person was smoking. I'm sure they look very modern but as Gary so eloquently put, it's nigh impossible to tell if they are on or off. Please revert.

[TonyO]

11 hours ago, Gary.JONES said:

 Can you tell me whether these 3 layers are ON or OFF* ?

     

yes, they're off because the dot is gray, not bright white.  This is not hard. 

[Artsketch]

3 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

Red and blue erasers used to be very common

Maybe, but artists never used them

[Chuck Away]

24 minutes ago, TonyO said:

yes, they're off because the dot is gray, not bright white.  This is not hard. 

Admittedly not impossible, please forgive my hyperbolic figure of speech. What it is not, however, is as easy as it might be, or indeed as easy as it used to be.

[Chuck Away]

1 minute ago, Artsketch said:

Maybe, but artists never used them

Perhpas this fascinating diversion is deserving of its own thread? "Colours of erasers I have used" perhaps or "Great artists and their pencil rubbers"?

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Artsketch said:

Maybe, but artists never used them

It's a sad day today to learn that I never was an artist. Oh well.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, LondonSquirrel said:

Faber-Castell pencils

Don't insult my beloved Faber-Castell pencils which I bought in 1983 when I started with the art school! I still have them, including the metal case! Or what's left of them…  

[MxHeppa]

Faber-Castell (also many others) user agrees this checkmark thing also i dont fully like new gui but otherway i like.

[Didge]

9 hours ago, TonyO said:

yes, they're off because the dot is gray, not bright white.  This is not hard. 

No - they are actually ON - which you can tell if you follow the * ...

Which totally proves my point.

Something that used to be clear when seen from across the room has been replaced by something ambiguous,
and even worse, inconsistent with the way MacOS and every other Mac app works.

It is bad UI design.

Try adjusting display contrast and see what happens.

[redroyal]

9 hours ago, LondonSquirrel said:

Oh God. Here we go. Us artists must only use Arches paper and Faber-Castell pencils, and look down on the great unwashed who use red and blue erasers. Except that Faber-Castell also make red and blue erasers.

Those erasers were literally designed to be sand paper that wore away the papers surface on thick grades of paper to remove dark marks. Meaning if you were an artists it would destroy your good quality papers.

So less elitism, and more, this literally destroys my art.

 

[TonyO]

22 hours ago, Gary.JONES said:

Can you tell me whether these 3 layers are ON or OFF* ?

     

     Please put them back the way they were.

 

1 hour ago, Gary.JONES said:

No - they are actually ON - which you can tell if you follow the * ...

Those layers are obviously off because if you have them on, they are white, unless there's something wrong with the rending of the UI on computer.  The difference is pretty obvious as shown below. 

Why don't you show us your on-vs-off comparison so we can see the difference in contrast on your system.

Showing 3 of the same thing offers no point of comparison. 

[thomasp]

Btw. has anything functionally changed with how the on/off buttons in the layer stack work?

In V1 at least you have to go and click the checkmark to toggle layers one by one. By contrast in Photoshop you can click and hold and then drag across the eye icons in the layer palette to hide or show as many layers as you want in one go.

Oh and in AP V1 you can (accidentally) draw on hidden layers making for an unwelcome surprise once you unhide again whereas Photoshop prevents it. Nifty details. 👍

 

[loukash]

33 minutes ago, thomasp said:

In V1 at least you have to go and click the checkmark to toggle layers one by one. By contrast in Photoshop you can click and hold and then drag across the eye icons in the layer palette to hide or show as many layers as you want in one go.

Click & drag works in v2 (Mac). Which might be the reason why they didn't use regular checkboxes.
And like in v1, you can select all layers you want to show/hide and click just one of the buttons.

[m.vlad]

I think an eye icon would be best, clear indication that it's to do with visibility, clear distinction between a closed eye and an open eye if something is visible or hidden. The round blob is too abstract

[Didge]

2 hours ago, TonyO said:

 

Those layers are obviously off because if you have them on, they are white, unless there's something wrong with the rending of the UI on computer.  The difference is pretty obvious as shown below. 

Why don't you show us your on-vs-off comparison so we can see the difference in contrast on your system.

Showing 3 of the same thing offers no point of comparison. 

No - they are ON.

You continue to confirm my point - which is to demonstrate that the visibility status of there layers is not clear when there is no point of reference.

There is nothing wrong with my display.

If you go to the original post and read it, you will see the * and understand why it is there.

[TonyO]

59 minutes ago, Gary.JONES said:

No - they are ON.

Ok, now show us some that are off along with the ones that are on, so we can see a COMPARISON

[Didge]

You are missing the point ... the point is that it is not clear whether they are ON or OFF.

[carl123]

1 minute ago, Gary.JONES said:

You are missing the point ... the point is that it is not clear whether they are ON or OFF.

Can you upload a screenshot showing some layers on and some off, so we can see what you see?

[TonyO]

3 hours ago, TonyO said:

This looks clear, does yours not look like this? if you only see gray it might be a bug that the Devs would want to look into.