Variable Font Support

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Floor said:

SF Pro from Apple is a variable font with a hidden Width (wdth) axis. https://developer.apple.com/fonts/

It shows up correctly in 2.5.0 (2449) (macOS) and enabling 'Show Hidden Axes' reveals the Width axis.

No surprise considering that I'm running Catalina & what @Pauls said above, but I see the hidden width axis on my Mac & there is no 'show hidden' checkbox for it either.

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

Pretty tragic that Serif is holding off so many changes to Affinity Suite for desktop to iPad...

As an example, the new thing that we can group fonts in Mac/Win, but not on iPad...

But, there's so many things here and there that is desktop only, that's sucks...

[Bryan Rieger]

43 minutes ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

Pretty tragic that Serif is holding off so many changes to Affinity Suite for desktop to iPad…

…there's so many things here and there that is desktop only, that's sucks...

I think one of the big missteps Serif made with the iPad versions of their apps was to imply feature parity across all platforms. While the iPad versions are generally quite good (once you get past the dismal v2 user experience), it's really frustrating to run up against the edges of these apps, spending hours looking for features that are in the desktop apps, only to find them unavailable on iPadOS.

I wish Serif had taken a more pragmatic approach with the iPad apps and instead of trying to (poorly) recreate the 'complete' desktop experience on the iPad, took the opportunity to re-envision the apps for a mobile/tablet context where the pencil is the primary input device, and keyboard shortcuts (via the command controller) aren't really inline with user expectations. There's a lot to like about the Affinity iPad apps, but the fact that they're poor interpretations of their desktop counterparts isn't one of them. 

[Affinity-Inspiration]

7 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

I think one of the big missteps Serif made with the iPad versions of their apps was to imply feature parity across all platforms. While the iPad versions are generally quite good (once you get past the dismal v2 user experience), it's really frustrating to run up against the edges of these apps, spending hours looking for features that are in the desktop apps, only to find them unavailable on iPadOS.

I wish Serif had taken a more pragmatic approach with the iPad apps and instead of trying to (poorly) recreate the 'complete' desktop experience on the iPad, took the opportunity to re-envision the apps for a mobile/tablet context where the pencil is the primary input device, and keyboard shortcuts (via the command controller) aren't really inline with user expectations. There's a lot to like about the Affinity iPad apps, but the fact that they're poor interpretations of their desktop counterparts isn't one of them. 

I’ve never had a problem with the iPad apps. Brilliant. If you really want a rubbish app, try Adobe Photoshop for iPad.

I’ve done around 700 YouTube videos on Affinity apps, all 3 of them and never felt short changed.

The desktop is of course different. The iPad as well. But it’s all there. 

[walt.farrell]

40 minutes ago, Affinity-Inspiration said:

But it’s all there.

There are a number of Affinity desktop functions that are not present in the iPad apps.

• Two that come quickly to mind for Publisher: the Books feature of Publisher, and Add Pages From File.
• And for Photo: recording macros, and importing .afmacro (single macro) files.

There are more.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Bryan Rieger said:

I think one of the big missteps Serif made with the iPad versions of their apps was to imply feature parity across all platforms.

I never saw anything from Serif that even hinted at 100% feature parity between the desktop & iPad versions, so I have to wonder what you saw (from Serif?) that did.

But I think due to the constraints of the iPadOS, like its poor excuse for a desktop file manager app, the need to keep everything in open documents in memory, the considerable differences in the UI, the "walled garden" security features that make sharing anything between apps very difficult, & so on that it is almost a miracle that they could even offer as much feature parity with the desktop versions as they have so far.

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

2 hours ago, Affinity-Inspiration said:

I’ve never had a problem with the iPad apps. Brilliant. If you really want a rubbish app, try Adobe Photoshop for iPad.

I’ve done around 700 YouTube videos on Affinity apps, all 3 of them and never felt short changed.

The desktop is of course different. The iPad as well. But it’s all there. 

I don’t mean that the iPad Affinity Suite isn’t great, they are, but, I going in on details, functions pretty new to desktop that is left out on iPad…

One of them is this function Copy/Duplicate/Move:

 

[R C-R]

7 minutes ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

One of them is this function Copy/Duplicate/Move:

What would you suggest they use in the iPad version UI as a substitute for the Return key?

[Bryan Rieger]

21 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I never saw anything from Serif that even hinted at 100% feature parity between the desktop & iPad versions, so I have to wonder what you saw (from Serif?) that did.

But I think due to the constraints of the iPadOS, like its poor excuse for a desktop file manager app, the need to keep everything in open documents in memory, the considerable differences in the UI, the "walled garden" security features that make sharing anything between apps very difficult, & so on that it is almost a miracle that they could even offer as much feature parity with the desktop versions as they have so far.

There is also no hint that there isn't 100% feature parity between the desktop and iPad versions.

Yes, the constraints of iPadOS are very different from the desktop environment. And while it's commendable that Serif managed to cram in so much of the desktop experience into an iPad, it is also noticeable that the UX for the iPad apps wasn't primarily designed for the iPad.

Anyway, this is getting really off topic from the original post so I'm going leave it here and go back to some illustration work using Affinity Designer on my iPad.

[walt.farrell]

25 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

There is also no hint that there isn't 100% feature parity between the desktop and iPad versions.

On that page, no, there isn't. You need to look at the details.

[Bryan Rieger]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

On that page, no, there isn't. You need to look at the details.

Okay, I'll bite.

From the Affinity Designer page:

"Any device, anywhere. Whether on Windows, Mac or iPad, the file format is exactly the same. This gives you and your team complete freedom to work on the same project across different devices, no matter where you are.

Learn more about Designer for iPad."

So, we then follow that link and come across the following:

"Same great features, optimized for iPadOS – Do nearly everything you can on the desktop version, without compromising the quality of your work."

From there, I have no idea where to find out what 'nearly everything' actually means.

Where are these details?

[R C-R]

16 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

... it is also noticeable that the UX for the iPad apps wasn't primarily designed for the iPad.

In what way? The iPadOS OS itself is designed for providing a touch-based interactive user experience & that is what the Affinity (& essentially all other iPad apps) provide. There are some additional features that will support keyboard input if one is attached or connected by BlueTooth but if you do not have one you can still use most of those features via the Command Controller.

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, Bryan Rieger said:

Where are these details?

In the Tech Specs section of the Store pages, which give the details of the functions.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

So, we then follow that link and come across the following:

"Same great features, optimized for iPadOS – Do nearly everything you can on the desktop version, without compromising the quality of your work."

From there, I have no idea where to find out what 'nearly everything' actually means.

Be that as it may, doesn't "nearly everything" tell you that there definitely is not 100% feature parity with the desktop version?

[Bryan Rieger]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

In the Tech Specs section of the Store pages, which give the details of the functions.

Aha, the equivalent of "in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard."

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

In the Tech Specs section of the Store pages, which give the details of the functions.

To be fair, that section is hard to search for features that are not (yet) supported in the iPad versions, & for some things like "Use Spacebar as keyboard modifier for Lock Children" (I think!) either doesn't apply or only works with a real attached keyboard.

[Bryan Rieger]

Okay. I'm going to bow out here. Everything is awesome.

Have a great day folks.

 

[R C-R]

7 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

Okay. I'm going to bow out here.

Considering that this topic is supposed to be about the new still-in-beta support for variable fonts, that is probably a good awesome idea.😝

[Frozen Death Knight]

1 hour ago, Bryan Rieger said:

Okay, I'll bite.

From the Affinity Designer page:

"Any device, anywhere. Whether on Windows, Mac or iPad, the file format is exactly the same. This gives you and your team complete freedom to work on the same project across different devices, no matter where you are.

Learn more about Designer for iPad."

So, we then follow that link and come across the following:

"Same great features, optimized for iPadOS – Do nearly everything you can on the desktop version, without compromising the quality of your work."

From there, I have no idea where to find out what 'nearly everything' actually means.

Where are these details?

Aren't practically all features advertised in each 2.X version marked as for iPad or Desktop if they are supported in those releases on What's New?

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/whats-new/

The patch notes on the forums have also shown which platform a new feature or bug fix is being supported.

It's not like I don't understand some of the frustrations that it isn't a 100% 1-to-1 experience. For instance, certain bugs that exist on Windows which affect my workflow pretty substantially don't exist on Mac. Though, realistically there will always be some differences. As long as the gap isn't very wide I can tolerate some of it personally, but I can understand why some don't if they really need a certain thing to work. It's a matter of your own personal view of what is tolerable or not.

Affinity is the only creative software I know of that even comes close to achieving that feature parity between versions while retaining file compatibility. It could be better for sure, but at least it isn't on the level of Adobe which have had notoriously bad releases on iPad.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Variable Fonts - Font Manager issues" (REF: AF-2890) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.5.0.2463".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Variable Fonts - Updating a text style based on variable font changes not functioning" (REF: AF-2886) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.5.0.2463".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

17 hours ago, R C-R said:

What would you suggest they use in the iPad version UI as a substitute for the Return key?

Ha! So, the lack of the RETURN key on iPad is what’s hold Serif off that functionality??

I fully understand that some functions is left out, like Book feature and so on, but, the v.2.3 feature Move/Duplicate is something Xara had already in 1995, so, iPad should perfectly fix this also…

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

Ha! So, the lack of the RETURN key on iPad is what’s hold Serif off that functionality??

I am simply asking how you think they should implement a feature on the iPad versions that requires the use of the Return key on the desktop ones.

1 hour ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

I fully understand that some functions is left out, like Book feature and so on, but, the v.2.3 feature Move/Duplicate is something Xara had already in 1995, so, iPad should perfectly fix this also…

Does Xara offer a version that runs on iPads? If not, what does that have to do with it?

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I am simply asking how you think they should implement a feature on the iPad versions that requires the use of the Return key on the desktop ones.

Does Xara offer a version that runs on iPads? If not, what does that have to do with it?

Hold on now - what I mean is that this “Move/Duplicate” feature isn’t just an advanced AI high tech feature, it’s something that has been around for three decades…

That’s why I don’t understand why this couldn’t be present on the iPad platform as well…

Also, the new font categories that sorts out different fonts, like variable font, that’s something I really wants on my iPad.

In the same time, I’m blessed that I can run Affinity Suite on all three platforms, but, there’s certainly users that heavily trust in the iPad platform…

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

Hold on now - what I mean is that this “Move/Duplicate” feature isn’t just an advanced AI high tech feature, it’s something that has been around for three decades…

OK, but what other iPad app has that feature? That's why I was asking what that has to do with it.