Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.6 - Beta 1)

[VIPStephan]

I'm enjoying the beta version. Not all fonts seem to be recognized, as files from earlier versions of Affinity are reverting to standard fonts. Redoura Serif OTF is one example. Any logic to why certain fonts would not be compatible?

For me it’s Wingdings that isn’t recognized for some reason.

[Dave Harris]

For me it’s Wingdings that isn’t recognized for some reason.

 

What's happening? I can apply Wingdings in the beta, and also documents using Wingdings created in 1.5.5 draw OK when loaded into the beta. Is either/both of those what is failing for you?

[VIPStephan]

Sorry, I confused it. It’s Webdings that’s not recognized. I’ve attached a screenshot; in the background you see FontExplorer with some activated fonts. There you’ll also notice that not only Webdings isn’t recognized but also Wingdings 2, Woodtype Ornaments, and XingKai (a font with chinese characters, I think). Dingbat fonts seem to be particularly problematic.

And by the way: I’m loading an AI file.

 

On a side note: the combo box for selecting the font doesn’t really feel very Apple-like, as opposed to the select field next to it; but I’m not 100% sure. https://developer.apple.com/macos/human-interface-guidelines/fields-and-labels/combo-boxes/

[VIPStephan]

I don’t know if it’s just me but when selecting the pen tool I’m not getting the yellow guideline and the angles aren’t constrained while holding the Shift key. (has been reported already)

 

Hm, I just compared it with the current stable version of AD and it doesn’t recognize the fonts either, and neither does LibreOffice, by the way. But my aging copy of Fireworks CS5 does recognize the fonts. Very strange.

[Heinrich]

"We do have prototyping already working behind-the-scenes in the current Designer, but it is disabled while we work through and flesh it out. Hopefully 1.6 will enable this functionality"

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/25175-craft-by-invision-app/?p=119398

I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer? :'( 

[anon1]

-

[Bri-Toon]

Bug found. The pressure profile option in the Stroke tab does not work on brush strokes if they were created with the Brush Tool. Even after they are converted to regular line strokes, the pressure profile will not make any changes. However, if the Pen or Pencil tool was used to create those strokes at start, then the pressure profile works as necessary. And then converting them to brush strokes, the pressure profile does work. It only does not if you start with the Brush Tool.

[truegold]

Hi,

 

Simple arrowhead for lines??? (Yes I know there's are ways to create them)

 

This has got to be the easiest thing to do and not sure why it's not a part of AFD after several years.

 

When I need arrowheads I leave AFD and go to other programs. I'd line not to.

 

Thanks,

John...

 

[Alfred]

13 hours ago, truegold said:

Hi,

 

Simple arrowhead for lines??? (Yes I know there's are ways to create them)

 

This has got to be the easiest thing to do and not sure why it's not a part of AFD after several years.

 

When I need arrowheads I leave AFD and go to other programs. I'd line not to.

 

Thanks,

John...

 

 

Did you mean to post somewhere else, John? This is a 'Designer Beta on Mac' thread, so its purpose is to discuss the behaviour of improvements and new features implemented in the beta releases.

[Bri-Toon]

Not to mention, we are on Beta 3 now. I think this topic may have forgotten to be locked.

[danceman]

FROM:

 

Posted Sunday at 09:52 PM

QUOTE: Summarized

revo

• Newbie
• Members
• 0
• 3 posts

Posted June 13, 2017

" You know it's wonderful that you guys have all of these nifty pie-in-the-sky ideas as to what mesh might be or might not be in your new program, but it's been three years now..this software is a sort of a rinky-dink app, until there's mesh gradient.

..sad thing is that you've been talking about adding it for 3 years now, and even in a post this year in this thread all you can say is that it's on your roadmap.

On your roadmap for when? When exactly is this roadmap going to start occurring? What is it that you're actually concentrating on right now? Affinity designer getting to a mesh stage is starting to seem about as likely as taking a road trip from California to Beijing playing Destiny on a Nintendo Switch.

All told I waited 2 years for you guys to actually get this together..before..a different purchase..Adobe lost me,..Affinity designer, but gradient mesh is critically important no two ways about it...dropped $500 on Corel,..unlikely..to be coming back to Serif,..just lost a customer..I'm a long-time Serif customer..appreciate everything..but I just couldn't wait any longer.
On a final note,.what really irritates me is not that you haven't added the feature, but that you keep dicking people around promising that you're going to get there eventually with no guess as to when that might be..very frustrated overall with the lack of progress..and the obvious fact that your developers are concentrating..on other applications prior to..near complete for the first one...I'd rather support developers that..deliver on their promises,..don't make promises they can't deliver on. "

Thanks Revo(MEB & TonyB),

                                                  you've summarized for countless many loving but leaving Drawplus because its near singular destiny remains maliciously unfulfilled.
Your generation experienced them talking about and your waiting 3 years, but it's been on their "roadmap" for Over 13 Years!, as seen in pasted 2007, Drawplus X2 Mesh Fill feature addition discussions

This decade's timeline proves MattP and Serif talk, like having philosophical converse with an oversea's telemarketeer, he'll suggest obviously laborious workarounds or DIY solution, suggest you unqualified to comprehend the numeric, commercial and temporal impossibilities of a fully operational gradient mesh, like Adobe Illustrator's(he'll soon equal, hes' always "new ideas"), all of which could be achieved if Matt would complete the gradient mesh fill he was commissioned to: "..a gradient mesh or mesh fill that is unaffected by or not conformed to the path it fills is literally and visually just an ordinary Radial Gradient."  

..i wrote this to Matt when ready to give up 3 years after my generation requested\demanded a completed Drawplus gradient mesh. Then Serif site closed down for same reason making all those customer mesh requests\complaints inaccessible.

Also, in light of all this Revo, don't apologize for speaking truth experienced by too many and for as long. Trying to get back in Matt's good graces obviously's been done much and what sustains him, and another reason besides his now obvious inability, that he'll Never complete their mesh software.
So after 13+years, if you await a true Gradient Mesh in Drawplus, just leave now.
Danceman

There IS one true Gradient Mesh, thats Animatable!! outside of Adobe Illustrator, but this website(Not its members) doesn't deserve to know. To those who do, PM me and i'll let you know the! software.

 

* Drawplus X2 Mesh Fill feature addition discussions, from later to earlier in history *:

1)
" 25th June 2010, 03:15 PM    #40  
danceman
New Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 23
Re: How to force mesh fills to conform to the path they're filling
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
Originally Posted by danceman
For heavy mesh users aware of Drawplus this is the most frustrating, avoidable waste of power imaginable...
more specifically, a gradient mesh or mesh fill that is unaffected by or not conformed to the path it fills is literally and visually just an ordinary Radial Gradient.
(illustrated by my posted screenshot "3_DP2-CircularMesh=NotDynamicAfterPATHNodeMove.png")
Therein is the waste of power referred to: all that brilliant mesh filling code becomes merely radial regardless of the target shape because this final, mesh defining step is omitted."

2)

" 9th June 2010, 10:07 PM    #39  
danceman
New Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 23
Re: How to force mesh fills to conform to the path they're filling
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello again Matt.
The deadlines i mentioned are for cinema studio footage i'm submitting to department heads for approval and production. My work on their films
require a "shape conforming" mesh fill on every shapes curve in each motion-based keyframe of the footage. For only one, moderately complex shape in Drawplus it takes 16 minutes to add mesh nodes then align that mesh grid with the shape its applied to (making the mesh fill shape conforming). Then another 20 minutes to color the additional 36 intersection nodes created on average and by default. This is after first sampling colors from their corresponding positions on Adobe Illustrators gradient mesh which on average requires a single mesh and about 3 minutes to do the same thing per shape. Now in the very simple, animated intro i'm working with theres only 7 shapes sofar, but thats already 4 hours 20 minutes meshing per keyframe in Drawplus, as opposed to 21 minutes in Illustrator. And there will be many dozens of keyframes.
So its more practical to produce speedy mesh keyframes in Illustrator and then produce the tweens in tedious, bitmap morphing software than be slowed to 4+ hours per keyframe in Drawplus even with the near instant mesh tweening of your awesome Keyframe Animation. For heavy mesh users aware of Drawplus this is the most frustrating, avoidable waste of power imaginable and the only thing keeping Drawplus from common use in the motion picture industry.
So unfortunately, myself, my staff, partners and industry peers have no choice but to continue using Adobe Illustrator until Drawplus has a dynamic gradient mesh at least equal to Illustrators, but please, please, please let me know the moment your version is released!
Danceman "

THE FOLLOWING AND MUCH MORE:

3)

" Hello Serif Developers, Tech.Support and Community,..
and thanks for such excellent programming and products.
DrawPlus is the only software worldwide that can blend and tween gradient meshes. Unfortunately the mesh gradient does not conform accurately to the shape being filled. Nor is the mesh fill dynamic, updating its shape to conform to any changes in the path shape.

DYNAMIC MESHES:
a) I've attached screenshots...
"1_AI-CircularMesh=CircularGradient.jpg" showing Illustrator's circular gradient mesh conforming to its circular path

"1a_AI-CircularMesh=DYNAMICGradient.jpg" Illustrator's circular gradient mesh conforming DYNAMICALLY to path edits

"2_DP-CircularMesh=DIAMONDGradient.png" Drawplus's mesh fill remaining diamond shaped in its circular path.

b) Also attached are...
"3_DP2-CircularMesh=NotDynamicAfterPATHNodeMove.png" exposing the DrawPlus MESH fill edge after a PATH node is moved and..

"4_DP3-CircularMesh=DynamicAfterMESHNodeMove.png" showing the MESH fill conforming to the path after a MESH node is moved to match the PATH node position.

1) Please force mesh fills GRADIENT to conform to the path they're filling? and to update dynamically as the path changes?
2) conform the mesh fill GRID to the contour of the shape being filled? (like Illustrators gradient mesh). I do this by hand and it helps the fill
conform to the path.
2a) Then after aligning the mesh GRID with the path allow the edit of both as once ie: Apply to Fill AND Line simultaneously?

MESH ENVELOPING:
3) Allow enveloping the rectangular, mesh fill GRID into the shape of path being filled ie: make a fill path (or copy) the envelope for mesh GRID? I've attached
screenshots 2 thru 6 showing how its done in Adobe Illustrator...
2.jpg = Mesh path (rectangle)and Envelope path,
3.jpg = add mesh point to mesh path (rectangle)
4.jpg = color mesh points, edit envelope path,
5.jpg = edit mesh points,
6.jpg = Object > Envelope > Make with top layer
Drawplus will not import Illustrator gradient meshes so i must learn to envelope this way in Drawplus. Or...
4) Allow the import of A.I. gradient meshes?

5) Allow Customer or User DESIGNED Envelopes to be used instead of "Present Envelopes"

6) Allow adding a Single! Mesh Node instead of multiple nodes on intersection lines...
... Another crucial requirement of successful gradient mesh or mesh fill usage is that Less Is More, Much More. The transition between FEWER mesh node, gradient colors is actually predictable thus controllable. As opposed to having to paint those gradient transitions over MULTIPLE UNNECESSARY nodes between the 2 colors you want to blend. This is whats required using Drawplus's current mesh node adding which creates multiple nodes on the mesh intersection lines instead of just the one on the place double-clicked.

A gradient mesh allows photorealistic technical illustrations and art in part because it shades 2d shapes 3 dimensionally ie: a circle is shaded as a sphere by a mesh point. So by tweening meshes one can morph 3d realism in a linear, 2d environment.
A dynamic!, realtime shape conforming Mesh Fill is actually realtime, 3D shading/texturing on 2D media, and in your animating environment this becomes responsive and dynamic 3D surface/shape Morphing.
Illustrator and CorelDraw cannot animate and would lose many clients to you soon as its known Drawplus will animate and envelope path conforming!, dynamic! gradient fills.

Please let me know how and how soon these significant capabilities could be accomplished now in DrawPlus X3,X4 or implemented in a patch or next release.

Thanks again, also for any help you've time to give,
Danceman "