Has V2 fixed Affinity's biggest issues?

[chessboard]

@Tia Lapis Right. TIFF can save lossles or lossy and handle layers (However, I'm not sure if this is part of the official specification of this format, or a propriety feature.) But as mentioned above, lossy is a no-go, because it damages the quality of the image if it is used serveral times in a row.

But back to the problem with large files: The filesize on the disk is one side (rather less important today). The question is, can the image software handle this large images when they are opened and edited. This seems to be the problem that @JaGold appearently had to struggle with in AP V2.

[Tia Lapis]

7 minutes ago, chessboard said:

But back to the problem with large files: The filesize on the disk is one side (rather less important today). The question is, can the image software handle this large images when they are opened and edited. This seems to be the problem that @JaGold appearently had to struggle with in AP V2.

I would check opening times in V2 on my Ryzen laptop and my Mac Mini, but I don't have anything in this size region to test.

[A_B_C]

12 hours ago, Kal said:

Sure. Words and labels without context are always prone to misinterpretation. When I said that Affinity needs to 'listen to the pros', that was just a succinct way of labelling a very diverse group of users who would, in the process of sharing feedback with Affinity, provide the necessary context. But I think you probably understood that, and I agree, it would be good if we could 'leave this debate behind us'.

I did understand that, and as I said, I didn’t mean to reply to your post or any of your earlier remarks. They make much sense to me and mirror my experience quite closely. 🙂

 

12 hours ago, Kal said:

I found the transition frustrating. IMHO, UI/UX is not Affinity's strength. Like someone else said in this thread, all those little annoyances do add up, and they contribute to a less enjoyable experience. You learn to adapt of course, but I've never been able to say that I truly enjoy using Affinity software.

Yes, I wished *so dearly* that the developers would just take one, two or three weeks off, leave their planned schedule, and fix all those little things that add so much friction to the daily workflow. I provided an initial list earlier, but you could easily expand this list by reviewing what has been posted over the years on these forums. To repeat, these are really tiny annoyances, but they add up. The suggested solutions would non-disruptive and should be largely non-controversial, so I just hope that after bringing the suite to its full cross-platform extent, there will be some time for the developers to make improvements in this area.

[loukash]

3 hours ago, chessboard said:

In Photoshop, for example, it is already decisive whether the bottom layer is a "real" background layer. If it is, this also saves some memory. For whatever reason.

No alpha channel on a "Background" layer, from what I remember from my PS years.

[JaGold]

1 hour ago, A_B_C said:

I did understand that, and as I said, I didn’t mean to reply to your post or any of your earlier remarks. They make much sense to me and mirror my experience quite closely. 🙂

 

Yes, I wished *so dearly* that the developers would just take one, two or three weeks off, leave their planned schedule, and fix all those little things that add so much friction to the daily workflow. I provided an initial list earlier, but you could easily expand this list by reviewing what has been posted over the years on these forums. To repeat, these are really tiny annoyances, but they add up. The suggested solutions would non-disruptive and should be largely non-controversial, so I just hope that after bringing the suite to its full cross-platform extent, there will be some time for the developers to make improvements in this area.

I TOTALLY FEEL ya! Photoshop has been frictionless for a long time, and it's really difficult to use Affinity products and not keep running into these annoying unpolished bits, whether it's an unintuitive workflow issue, or some software glitch, like how I'm trying to figure out why painting on a mask layer using the "Color" tab frequently get's stuck on black-only (hence the reason I'm here, searching for a solution! ). 

I'm of the current mindset to be cautiously optimistic that they will get around to the polishing. During the v1 launch in 2015 I dove right in, and it was a barely-useable mess (Photo I mean, Designer I've been pretty happy with mostly) that I abandoned after I tried to actually use it in my design pipeline for client work. I'm seeing the same pattern play out again here with the v2 launch. They really do need to allocate some people resources and get senior-level Photoshop users to meticulously go through the workflow or real projects and find-and-fix all the issues, along with the use of the forum's help and the legacy problems we've all been pointing out for years. 

Since I've gotten off the PS train this winter, I'm definitely personally invested in seeing Affinity succeed, and willing to help.

 

[Tia Lapis]

I'm not so sure I even want a clone of PhotoShop's workflow.

[JaGold]

2 minutes ago, Tia Lapis said:

I'm not so sure I even want a clone of PhotoShop's workflow.

I get ya, and I think ideally it would be great to improve upon the foundation of the legacy of Photoshop and take it in it's own unique direction. It's the rock solid daily usage experience, quality of life stuff that is grinding gears. 

Affinity development reminds me of Zbrush/Pixologic, which was a hot mess for years and years (until the maybe the last 4 years), the software was simultaneously brilliant, yet it's UI never truly intuitively made sense, and it would combust every so often.

I'd love to see AP really rock solid and fixed.  Serif crew, make it happen!! 

[Tia Lapis]

As long as Maxon doesn't buy Serif... I'm still mad about that move and fearful about what happens to my hobby Zbrush.

[hinoki]

Looking at frustrations in this discussion…
I’d like to add one

Affinity came out,
they had a refreshing approach
that I wanted to support.
After a very frustrating year of beachballs and crashes
with Photo on a MbP, crash reports,
support always looking into it,
I really wanted to pull the plug.
Finally an update which resolved
and proved the issue.

Few reasons I didn’t quit
liked that they were fighting the big guys
too many afPhoto extensions
and no real affordable alternative.
So happy and supportive for what I have.

To be honest, why these memories came back with V2,
Launch 40 off…
and no differentiation for new and existing users.

It’s not the amount that does it
just a bit of acknowledgement for early adapters
will encourage support for Serifs V2 approach,
even beachballs now and then.

Now it’s more like I will stick to V1
which is ok for average use
and if something comes up in time
Affinity or not
I can always decide.

Serif cherish your users!
Don't forget
why many of us chose you. 

[JaGold]

Yes @hinoki

[JaGold]

@Tia Lapis ya I was disappointed too about the Maxon purchase... fortunately ZBR pro 2022.0.6 is solid... won't be subscribing for the same reason why I abandoned Adobe!

[iuli]

Hi @hinoki and welcome to the forums  

You may want to read Serif’s managing director addressing the whole situation here 

Personally I think that 40% off was (and is) a very good offer for both new and old users like myself.

[hinoki]

@iulian thnx for showing
was writing not to bash Serif
only to create some consciousness

as users
we received the V2 announcement

as supporter
you land on the temp offer

not a word about upgrade
or existing users
thanks to you we can grow

everything understandable
but patching this in a post after launch
which too few users will read…

[loukash]

3 hours ago, JaGold said:

an unintuitive workflow issue

I'd beg to differ. We've been indoctrinated and brainwashed with Adobe's "intuitive" (?) workflows for decades.
It's hard to free one's mind of old habits.  
I needed a whopping 5 years, counting from my APh purchase in 2015.

[JaGold]

1 hour ago, loukash said:

I'd beg to differ. We've been indoctrinated and brainwashed with Adobe's "intuitive" (?) workflows for decades.
It's hard to free one's mind of old habits.  
I needed a whopping 5 years, counting from my APh purchase in 2015.

Personally I don't view creative app usage as indoctrination. It's a tool to me, like a very good hammer. If I can do the job well with Affinity, if it serves my goals, then I use it. 

Theres been a lot of R&D and $$$ invested into Photoshop, and it's an excellent, industry-tested tool. I just don't like renting it. 

[loukash]

2 hours ago, JaGold said:

It's a tool to me, like a very good hammer.

I get your analogy. Except that bitmap editing apps are very, VERY complex hammers. 
So you're comparing apples with … well, hammers.

2 hours ago, JaGold said:

it's an excellent, industry-tested tool

No doubt. I've been using it since version 2.5 until v12.1 aka CS5.1.
I, for one, don't miss it since I finally understood the Affinity workflows.

[A_B_C]

Just for the record, as far as I am concerned, I’ve never said that I wanted a “Photoshop workflow” or something the like. I said I dearly wished that all the little annoyances that impede a true Affinity work-flow would finally be removed. I’ve been an Affinity user since the first version of Designer came out, and I can tell you, the annoyances I am talking about are not due to a lack of familiarising myself with “the way things are done in Affinity.” I think I can say that I know these tools from inside out, and I’ve completed countless projects with the apps over the last seven years. Nonetheless, it should still be possible to highlight aspects of the application that create needless friction, in particular, when they could be amended easily and are felt to be annoying by a great number of other users as well.

Just to repeat one of my examples, is there really a good reason for not making the buttons for the snapping options available in the toolbar of the Export Persona? In my workflow, I will regularly need specific snapping settings for slices that are different from my standard snapping settings for vector objects. Yet, I cannot change these options from the Export Persona toolbar, because snapping options are simply not available there. Don't tell me that the continued frustration I experience about this circumstance is due to a lack of familiarising myself with the Affinity way of doing things. 😉

[loukash]

4 hours ago, A_B_C said:

is there really a good reason for not making the buttons for the snapping options available in the toolbar of the Export Persona?

According to a staff reply I once got to exactly the same question, there was allegedly a major technical reason for that. No idea if that's still valid for V2 though.

[deeds]

23 minutes ago, loukash said:

According to a staff reply I once got to exactly the same question, there was allegedly a major technical reason for that. No idea if that's still valid for V2 though.

Sounds like it was unlikely to have been valid, ever.

 

[A_B_C]

I understand that snapping in the Export Persona will never be the same as snapping in the other ones. Slices must be follow the pixel grid, so it seems clear that you cannot simply use the snapping options from the other Personas there. Sometimes though, I wished there would be some more customization available, such as setting the number of snapping candidates or changing the way in which object (i.e. slice) snapping takes place. But anyway, the snapping example is probably not the the best example for what I wanted to say … basically, I just grabbed one from the bag, and certainly not the most significant one; which, admittedly, does not lend my argument the force I hope it has, considering some of the other examples … 😉

[Normando]

On 11/14/2022 at 9:05 PM, Aongus Collins said:

In Preferences > User Interface, you can change the icon style to mono. I much prefer this iteration.

THANK YOU FOR THAT!! I'm much happier with the Dark UI and the Mono Icon Style! Now if I can just memorize what they mean. To be honest, it took me constant use to memorize them in PS as well. Onward!

[walt.farrell]

22 minutes ago, Normando said:

Now if I can just memorize what they mean.

You can set the Tooltips to show sooner, via Preferences, which can help with the learning

[Ash]

Few things mentioned on this thread which are now available to try out in the 2.1 beta - you can sign up to the beta program here.

On 11/28/2022 at 11:40 PM, A_B_C said:

Alt+drag to copy objects in the Layers Panel

On 11/28/2022 at 11:40 PM, A_B_C said:

Alt+click on layer’s or group’s triangle in the Layers Panel to open or close the entire subtree structure, as it is the case in macOS Finder,

On 11/28/2022 at 11:40 PM, A_B_C said:

Shift+drag to constrain the aspect ratio of the Crop Tool rectangle in Photo

On 11/28/2022 at 11:40 PM, A_B_C said:

the option of having the Crop Tool remember its last-used state

(Ok shift-drag not in build today, but will be included very soon)

 

[A_B_C]

Ash, I am so very delighted to see these improvements added! Thank you so much everyone in the team, and sorry for the late reply to this announcement. 😀