Credit where credit is due, v2…

[Guest]

While I've often been (hopefully constructively) critical on these forums, I think it's very important to call out those things that have made using the Affinity products such a joy. I'll go first (these are all v2 related):

1. Whoever redesigned the bottom tool options bar (ie. removing it completely and placing those options in logical locations) on the iPad apps… THANK YOU! This is such a massive improvement when drawing on the iPad.
2. The addition of the knife and shape builder tools in Designer are most welcome additions, and that vector distort tool is… 👩‍🍳😘 [a chef's kiss] really lovely to use (although I have no idea where to find it on the iPad version of Designer).
3. The Universal License which enables you to access all of the apps on all of the platforms for one price is such a good idea. Before I often saw folks unhappy that they had to buy the apps again to use them on a different platform. This solves that problem in a very cost effective way. Kudos!
4. The addition of the Books and Notes features in Publisher are both long standing feature requests that have finally made it into v2. 🎉 I'm looking forward to seeing how both of these features evolve in coming releases.
5. The addition of both JpegXL and WebP export and import formats is great news that seems to have slipped in under the radar—and the redesigned export and new document dialogs are a set in the right direction.
6. The decision to move all of the palettes from the View > Studio > {palette list} menu into the Window menu creates a much better mental model and division between the right and left studio panels, and the windows and palettes that they may contain. It also makes it much easier to find them.
7. The ability to import (and export) colour palettes on iPadOS solves a limitation in v1 I ran into the other day. 
8. Being able to manage layer visibility of linked documents in Publisher makes my life so much easier.
9. Multiple layer effects per makes it easier to create complex effect combinations.
10. Despite missing the mark a little, the addition of auto-close mode for the pencil tool in Designer is a nice improvement. Ideally it would simply close when the last node is within whatever tolerance distance was set from the first node, but this is a good start.

Anyway, that's it for me for now. I'm still just finding my way around with the v2 apps. I'm sure I'll find many other changes and additions that delight along the way, and am really excited to see what the team at Serif comes up with in subsequent releases.

Your turn. 😀

[loukash]

3 hours ago, Bryan Rieger said:

(although I have no idea where to find it on the iPad version of Designer)

Being new to Affinity on iPad, usually I go with the old saying: "If everything else fails, R.T.F.M.!"
In my case, it has helped to figure it out.  

Hint: Don't use the Help files on the iPad itself, use your desktop browser instead and go to https://affinity.help so that you can keep the help content open while actually working on the iPad.

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, loukash said:

Hint: Don't use the Help files on the iPad itself, use your desktop browser instead and go to https://affinity.help so that you can keep the help content open while actually working on the iPad.

Yeah, I had to RTFM to find it. Apparently it's under 'group' (the icon in the layers palette). I know on desktop it labels it as 'warp group' in the layers palette, but for some reason that mental model of thinking of distortions as groups doesn't come easy.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Bryan Rieger said:

on desktop it labels it as 'warp group' in the layers palette

Yeah, and just for the "fun of it", on desktop it's also called "Deform Group" in the Layers menu… Oh well.

Other than that though, I think it's logical that it's a Group object. Once created, you can freely edit, disable, or move objects in and out of the "Warp Group" via the Layers panel. That's smart.

[Guest]

On 11/11/2022 at 10:04 AM, loukash said:

Yeah, and just for the "fun of it", on desktop it's also called "Deform Group" in the Layers menu… Oh well.

Other than that though, I think it's logical that it's a Group object. Once created, you can freely edit, disable, or move objects in and out of the "Warp Group" via the Layers panel. That's smart.

Huh, on desktop for me the language (Default - English UK/CA, 'colour' is spelt correctly) is consistent with 'Warp Group', both within the layer menu and the layers palette. I'm now starting to grok the whole 'warp effect as group thing' as being 'live and non-destructive'. I can add additional objects (does not currently apply to images) to that warp group and they will automatically distort based on the existing warp group mesh. I can also go back at any time and modify the mesh defined for that warp group via the warp group layer icon (a distorted mesh and folder) on the warp group in the layers palette.

Clever, very clever! 😋

PS: I also added a few more 'things that bring joy in v2' to my list at the top (rounding it out to a nice even 10).

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Bryan Rieger said:

Huh, on desktop for me the language is consistent with 'Warp Group', both within the layer menu and the layers palette.

Ah, I see. So it's a "lost-in-translation" bug because I'm always deliberately switching the app language to "English (US)", not "Default" or "English". When I switch to "English", it displays "Warp Group" in the menu.

[Guest]

I'm not sure if this was in v1, but I just discovered the "Window > Apple Colour Picker…" menu option in v2. Being able to use that (I'm very familiar with it and often use it to store other colour palettes I use in Pages, Keynote, etc.) in addition to the Affinity colour picker is a nice touch. Thank you. If it was in v1… thank you anyway.

[loukash]

5 hours ago, Bryan Rieger said:

If it was in v1

It always was: View > Apple Color Picker