Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.5 - Beta 1)

[Ben]

I also have a thing or two to add when it comes to guidelines: they aren't snapping properly to points and objects at all (they are working fine in 1.4, so I'll consider that a bug), and – something I only now realized, after mentioning my node tool subterfuge – you should definitely be able to add (or even drag pre-existing) guidelines with the Node Tool (that never worked in Affinity, as far as I can recall, and should be fairly easy to implement), which could be very useful in complex geometric illustrations (smart guidelines and snapping are very useful, yes, but sometimes having visible and permanent guidelines can come very handy).

 

Snapping with guides seems to be working fine to me.  Have you got Snap to Guides turned on?  Also, when moving a guide, it should snap to candidates in the same way as if moving a layer.

 

As for editing guides in the Node tool - this will be improved soon.  It may appear to be a trivial thing, but I will have to refactor some of the tools in order to allow this to work in a common way across tools.  Not a small task.  We could shoe-horn in loads of features in this way, but I prefer to do them in a scalable and robust way - you'll thank us in the end.

[JGD]

Snapping with guides seems to be working fine to me.  Have you got Snap to Guides turned on?  Also, when moving a guide, it should snap to candidates in the same way as if moving a layer.

 

As for editing guides in the Node tool - this will be improved soon.  It may appear to be a trivial thing, but I will have to refactor some of the tools in order to allow this to work in a common way across tools.  Not a small task.  We could shoe-horn in loads of features in this way, but I prefer to do them in a scalable and robust way - you'll thank us in the end.

 

Hi Ben!

 

Yes, indeed I do have Snap to Guides turned on, as all other snapping options… It's not the snapping to the guidelines that is broken, but the opposite: snapping new and existent guidelines *to* other objects and nodes, which breaks the whole manual guideline workflow. :\

 

Maybe it's just an issue with my setup, but we should probably give a look into it, since it's working fine in the 1.4 MAS version. Is there anything I can do to help diagnose the issue? I can tell you upfront that this is happening on a new, blank document created in the 1.5 Beta, so it's definitely not a file format issue with 1.4-created documents.

 

And yes, I'll definitely thank you in the end… I am already thanking you for the promise of great performance, as using CC 2015 is an absolute nightmare (buggy, slow… especially Illustrator and InDesign) even on my maxed-out 2009 Quad-Core i7 iMac (I even swapped the processor, put a whopping 32 GB of RAM and a decent Fusion Drive). Much, much worse than CS6, for not that many new features (many of them lifted straight out of Affinity, eh), it's insane! And this 1.5 Beta (!!!) is still delivering, still smooth as butter, on my vintage (yes, it's officially vintage), nearly obsolete (it's the last model to be officially macOS Sierra-compatible… *shudders* ) but still powerful iMac.

 

Expecting anything less from your development roadmap choices would be not giving you enough credit. Still, since I know a thing or two about UX, and belong to a slightly different target group than most of your featured designers (they are mainly digital illustrators, and I am more of a type designer/branding specialist who does a lot of geometric stuff), I probably notice a different set of issues than them. And now, with the upcoming “Windows explosion”, users like me will no longer be a niche of a niche, but will actually become a sizeable group.  ;)

[JGD]

 

Designer has an extremely limited buffer for snapping candidates and starts “forgetting” objects after you selected more than six of them in a row …

 

Have you seen the new options? Have a look at the screen shot below …  :)

 

 

Oooh, I must've skipped past that option… I'll definitely give it a look later on, as it seems like it would solve my issues in many scenarios, thanks! ;)

 

However… 20 snapping candidates would still be too limited for some projects. Sometimes I make geometric textures (more specifically, tesselations) with up to hundreds and even [tens of] thousands of objects, via iterative duplication and snapping. Having a “snap to everything” (and I really mean *everything*, performance and intuitiveness be damned) mode could still be useful for some users in some use cases.

 

Maybe Affinity already has such a mode and I'm just missing something?

[Ben]

For geometric textures, you'd be best using the "Immediate layers" candidate option.

[Malcolm]

Crashing when creating a Symbol on a group that contains a 'Clarity' adjustment (the adjustment was added when the file was being used in 1.4.2.)

[Floor]

Oooh, I must've skipped past that option… I'll definitely give it a look later on, as it seems like it would solve my issues in many scenarios, thanks! ;)

 

However… 20 snapping candidates would still be too limited for some projects. Sometimes I make geometric textures (more specifically, tesselations) with up to hundreds and even [tens of] thousands of objects, via iterative duplication and snapping. Having a “snap to everything” (and I really mean *everything*, performance and intuitiveness be damned) mode could still be useful for some users in some use cases.

 

Maybe Affinity already has such a mode and I'm just missing something?

 

Look at that screenshot again (especially the right red arrow). It shows an option for "All layers". And it's awesome! Thanks for this, including the little distance indicators, very nice!

 

Just a small bug I noticed when drag-zooming:

If you hold Space + CMD and drag the mouse to zoom in, it looks like up and down are inverted. It should zoom to the point you started dragging (it does in 1.4), but if you drag from the top-left corner, it actually zooms to the bottom-left corner.

[Malcolm]

Got a file in where grouping some objects inside a Symbol cause some objects in the group to be transformed in a strange way - move miles away and scaled a bit. Might be re-lated to the crash bug when grouping I posted earlier?

 

Unfortunately when I restart ADB and try it again to see if it's reproducible it doesn't happen.

 

Likewise, undo after grouping objects in a symbol can cause ADB to crash but not after a restart. Something going wrong over time. I'll try to keep an eye on it.

[predick]

Please put the option for exporting only @2x back.

I choose 'Retina PNG-24', the results are @1x and @2x files, so I've to delete 1x files every exporting. :(

[Sean P]

Please put the option for exporting only @2x back.

I choose 'Retina PNG-24', the results are @1x and @2x files, so I've to delete 1x files every exporting. :(

Once you've selected the preset you can expand the slice name and it will show which sizes will get exported. You should see both a 1x and 2x export listed if using the Retina PNG-24 preset. Click the X to the left of 1x and it will remove that size from the export leaving you with just the 2x. See attached screenshot.

[Ben]

Please put the option for exporting only @2x back.

I choose 'Retina PNG-24', the results are @1x and @2x files, so I've to delete 1x files every exporting. :(

 

If you need to do this often, create your own preset with just a @2x PNG.

[Malcolm]

Hi guys,

I have a file that can reproduce the grouping problem I've been experiencing inside a Symbol. Would you like it for testing or is this a know issue which is being addressed??

 

Two issues can be tested;

1. Grouping certain objects inside a symbol causes those objected to be translated in an odd way - somehow linked to the first or highest artboard in the document. 

2. Using undo to ungroup after issue 1 causes the application to crash.

[MattP]

Hi guys,

I have a file that can reproduce the grouping problem I've been experiencing inside a Symbol. Would you like it for testing or is this a know issue which is being addressed??

 

Two issues can be tested;

1. Grouping certain objects inside a symbol causes those objected to be translated in an odd way - somehow linked to the first or highest artboard in the document. 

2. Using undo to ungroup after issue 1 causes the application to crash.

Yes please! Can you send the file to me! :)

 

(Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday - I was at the hospital again yesterday afternoon so have been trying to catch up...)

[Malcolm]

Yes please! Can you send the file to me! :)

 

(Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday - I was at the hospital again yesterday afternoon so have been trying to catch up...)

Hey no worries fella. I know how busy you guys will be with all this feedback - and that other thing called life which pokes its head in from time to time :)

 

I'll send it over.

[Dave Harris]

 

Great, " functions properly!

 

Perhaps x, a, c are not mentioned, because they will be improved?

 

For example 4cm/c results in 4.0904…cm when using Arial Black and 4 cm when using Arial. In other apps you get 4 cm and 4 cm.

 

If you activate one or more text objects that use different fonts and change c, the result is often wrong because only one c is assigned for all.

 

 

I've no plans to improve them. We use the metrics from the font file. It looks like the values Arial Black returns are simply wrong. For example, 4cm/x does not give an 'x' that is 4cm high. There's not a lot we can do about that.

 

As with our other fields, the maths is done in the input field, so it uses the metrics of the first selected font. If you have a mix of fonts you'll have to select them individually.

[Egor Komarov]

IT IS AWESOME GUYS!!!!!!!

10/10

Edited June 30, 2016 by Leigh
No swearing please :)

[anon1]

I totally missed that in the video. yea thats nice. and now I see what you are saying although to be honest what I would really like is the option to put both columns on the right side. that way I have tools on the left with easy access to the canvas and then all the other stuff on the right

putting both columns to the right is possible in the AD windows beta so maybe we do also get it  :blink:  :wub:

[MEB]

This explanation makes sense however it is the inverse of what I would expect and I think UI should be changed. When placing constraints outside the box the object is constrained positionally when the lines are selected/on/solid but inside the box the object is constrained to its current size when the lines are deselected/off/dashed. I think this is confusing to the user and that constrained should always be when the line is selected/on/solid.

 

Thanks,

 

William

 

Hi Wiiliam,

You can't have the lines around the box solid (to keep the distance to the container) and the ones inside the box disabled simultaneously.  To be able to keep the distance of the object to the container, the object must be stretched. That's why the lines becomes dashed as soon as you enable both outside distance constraints in one axis.                                                                                                                                                                                       

[anon1]

so basically: dashed means "I was not solid but I´m forced to be" 

from a functional POV dashed is just like solid?

[Egor Komarov]

Why Affinity does not support text in PSD export?

[Ben]

Why Affinity does not support text in PSD export?

 

Because it's a total nightmare.  Getting our text export to be identical in Photoshop is no small task.  To make it editable and precise requires very detailed knowledge of how Photoshop handles text - and that is knowledge private to the Adobe dev teams.  We have to work it out for ourself.

 

We have a big enough job getting text import to be accurate.  Import is our priority - it has been stated many times that we do not intend Affinity to be a stepping stone in an otherwise Adobe tool chain.  There are many reasons to work within the Affinity ecosystem and use the end-target export options for collaboration in web and print.  Round trip between PSD and Affinity is not a 1-to-1 process.  Data has to be converted, sometimes in a way that cannot easily be reversed.

 

Editable text export will happen one day.  We are concentrating on other priorities first.

[VIPStephan]

(Sorry, nevermind)

[Egor Komarov]

Because it's a total nightmare.  Getting our text export to be identical in Photoshop is no small task.  To make it editable and precise requires very detailed knowledge of how Photoshop handles text - and that is knowledge private to the Adobe dev teams.  We have to work it out for ourself.

 

We have a big enough job getting text import to be accurate.  Import is our priority - it has been stated many times that we do not intend Affinity to be a stepping stone in an otherwise Adobe tool chain.  There are many reasons to work within the Affinity ecosystem and use the end-target export options for collaboration in web and print.  Round trip between PSD and Affinity is not a 1-to-1 process.  Data has to be converted, sometimes in a way that cannot easily be reversed.

 

Editable text export will happen one day.  We are concentrating on other priorities first.

Thank you. Now iam understand a problem. Affinity Designer -for me its perfect app for web-design,  but it is hard way to give affinity project to developer. 

For example i can not use affinity in Avocode, or Developer do not have app on windows (now he have)

 

Maybe you have a plan to add CSS info for objects and texts? (Like Avocode app or invision) - it will be perfectly.  How developer can work with affinity project to get info?  (colors, size etc)

[VIPStephan]

How developer can work with affinity project to get info?  (colors, size etc)

 

You could export to SVG or EPS and the developer can open it with other applications that support it (Inkscape, Illustrator…). But make sure you don’t have any complex nested layer/constraint setups because that might get lost when exporting to other formats. Alternatively create a layer with annotations about colors and sizes so the developer can read what’s supposed to be what.

[Egor Komarov]

You could export to SVG or EPS and the developer can open it with other applications that support it (Inkscape, Illustrator…). But make sure you don’t have any complex nested layer/constraint setups because that might get lost when exporting to other formats. Alternatively create a layer with annotations about colors and sizes so the developer can read what’s supposed to be what.

Yes, but export does not support texts. Affinity just convert all text in image, when you make export to PSD, for example. 

[Dave Harris]

Yes, but export does not support texts. Affinity just convert all text in image, when you make export to PSD, for example. 

 

Then don't use PSD. Use SVG or EPS as VIPStephan suggested, or PDF. These export formats support text.