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Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.0.19721)


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  • Staff

Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes

Status: Beta
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer
Mac App Store: Not submitted
 
Improvements / Features
 
Huge number of Mac OS X Yosemite "Look And Feel" changes and optimisations.
 
Mac OS X Yosemite will (hopefully!) see a public release soon - so we have been doing a lot of work to make sure we look "at home" there.
 
Implemented stroke alignment options: Inside, Outside, Centre, renamed panel.
 
Strokes on vector objects can now specify offset (inside, outside, centre). Also, we called the panel "Line" before, which confused some users who (correctly) refer to these things as "strokes". The "Line" panel is now called "Stroke". The "Stroke" FX item is now called "Outline".
 
Improved performance of Pencil and Brush Tools, also improved the shapes they create.
 
Our pencil, vector brush and raster brush tools were waiting too long for input before producing a preview of the stroke - we have fixed this by completely rewriting the algorithm we use to generate our curves from input strokes. Users should now expect immediate, high quality results from all of these tools.
 
Added ‘Continuous Export’ feature to Export Persona.
 
Many users asked us to remove the need to press "Export All" in the export persona each time they change something.. Now, once you have done "Export All" once (choosing a folder), you can tick the "Continuous" box and Affinity Designer will automatically re-export slices when they need to be re-exported.
 
@3x export added, along with iPhone 6 document preset.
 
We have added a 3x option for export, along with an iPhone 6 preset. We are still unsure how to proceed with the iPhone 6 Plus preset, but will continue to look into it.
 
Added ability to replace images in-place.
 
A large number of users, including many ex-Freehand users, wanted Linked images. This will be an Affinity Publisher feature - but we have added a simple "Replace Image" / "Replace Embedded Document" button in the context-toolbar. This should carry people over until Publisher is done.
 
Added ability to convert any object into a white-is-transparent-black-is-opaque mask
 
This is useful when working with 1-bit TIFF files, etc.
 
Vector cut-and-paste.
 
Designer can now talk "vector" with other apps - so cutting and pasting no longer means rasterising!
 
Improved JPEG export quality / progressive.
 
We were setting sub-optimal chroma subsampling flags when exporting JPEG images. This is now fixed - along with a new option to export progressive JPEG, which seems to be making a comeback in the web community. We now also write the correct DPI setting to exported images.
 
OpenType / Typography.
 
We have renamed the "OpenType" panel "Typography" - as the settings in there are not specific to OpenType. Numerous bugs / fixes have been implemented (GPOS kerning etc.) along with a number of suggestions from Adam Twardoch (http://www.twardoch.net) - thanks Adam!
 
SVG export improved
 
SVG export now includes object names, supports composite transparency as an attribute (rather then forcing rasterisation). Many things are now exported as vector - not rasterised.
 
PDF export improved
 
PDF export now correctly honours the ‘text as curves’ checkbox - and many things are not unnecessarily rasterised.
 
More stuff!
 
- Many printing improvements.
- Convert to Curves should maintain the winding mode of source objects.
- Sensible document defaults for CMYK documents.
- User-definable tooltip delay.
- Pencil and Brush tool ‘Use Fill’ option is now application-wide and saved across sessions.
- Swatches are now visible in a list view and use the correct 0-100 values for CMYK.
- Added "Convert to Curves" to all shape context toolbars.
- "Gamut Check" option for Soft Proof adjustments.
- Ability for users with two graphics cards (integrated and discreet) to force Designer to only use the integrated card.
 
Fixes
 
We're still writing this (big) list - but basically everything which is marked as [Fixed] in the Bugs section is fixed in this release. Also, every reproducible crash in 1.1.0 is fixed in this release.
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You're making great work guys!

 

I'm checking the new features and behaviours (the ones I personally know how to use at the moment :D )

 

  • Would be great that AD would remember the last presets when exporting on every format... for example if I want (always or at least as default for every file i'm working in) a 100% or 60% quality .jpg. .... or bicubic .gif .... or .psd with stability preserved ...etc.
  • By the way, when exporting a file, "draw persona" do have a 80% default .jpg quality and pixel persona and export persona 100%, why not those 3 in 100%? ... just silly (maybe) but I do always prefer to export .jpg with the best quality, so i have to change it on every start up and on every file.

 

  • Close buttons on tabs can't hardly be seen. And the clearest background grey level (white background) makes the canvas not differenced from background.

 

  • When using the pan tool with the mouse clickwheel the symbol do not change to "grabbing hand" as when using that tool with the space bar.
  • It's great being able to use the zoom tool with the mouse clickwheel but would be even greater not having to keep it pressed while rotating it for the zoom tool to work.
  • Zoom to fit or zoom to extension by double click on the mouse clickwheel or in the zoom tool icon.
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Added ability to replace images in-place.

 
A large number of users, including many ex-Freehand users, wanted Linked images. This will be an Affinity Publisher feature - but we have added a simple "Replace Image" / "Replace Embedded Document" button in the context-toolbar. This should carry people over until Publisher is done.
 
----
Very good work. But when a image is replaced, the name of the original images dos not change in the tool bar. If you replace the image again dos not work in any form.

Graphic designer from Bilbao (Spain) FreeHand forever. Affinity Designer rocks! - Diseñador gráfico de Bilbao (España). FreeHand forever. Affinity Designer ¡mola!

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Copy-and-paste from Affinity to Photoshop doesn't work for me. If I perform the task with a group, it pastes a transparent object in PS. If I copy a whole layer, it pastes a cropped portion of the whole layer.

 

It does work if I paste ir first into Illustrator, and from there to PS as smart object, but I would love to skip that step.

 

Thanks!

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  • Staff

Great to have stroke alignment now, but it just works with closed paths.

 

Hi fRED,

 

I initially implemented it to work on unclosed curves too, but then I found that it has some serious issues if you use them on certain curves - so I took a look at other applications... the only other application I could find that would let them work on unclosed curves was iDraw - and that exhibits the same issues with unclosed curves... so I concluded it was much better to just leave it only allowed for closed curves. If you have specific cases where it is beneficial, or if you could provide an example of another program that doesn't exhibit artefacts when inside/outside is used on unclosed curves, then I'm more than willing to change our implementation to enable it again.

 

Thanks,

Matt

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great sotware!

omarvelazquez [Graphic Designer]

 

· OS X 10.9.5 (13F34),  2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB ·Wacom Intuos 3·

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Hi fRED,

 

I initially implemented it to work on unclosed curves too, but then I found that it has some serious issues if you use them on certain curves - so I took a look at other applications... the only other application I could find that would let them work on unclosed curves was iDraw - and that exhibits the same issues with unclosed curves... so I concluded it was much better to just leave it only allowed for closed curves. If you have specific cases where it is beneficial, or if you could provide an example of another program that doesn't exhibit artefacts when inside/outside is used on unclosed curves, then I'm more than willing to change our implementation to enable it again.

 

Thanks,

Matt

i totally agree and spend some time checking if i can find a vector app on my system with that behavior. I just know why i felt like a bug, you should grey out the buttons until the path is closed. Now you click something and nothing happens, that feels wrong. 

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