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Affinity Designer Customer Beta - 1.6.0.72


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Fixes
  • Fixed rendering problems with Windows Display Scale set to something other than 100% or 200%

 

Hi, this issue doesn't seem to be completely fixed. I see all shapes and letters rendered with jagged edges - it looks like wrong antialiasing. My Windows DPI scale is set to 125 %.

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Hi Karf,

 

Can you confirm that View > View Mode is set to Vector and not Pixels or Pixel (Retina) please?

 

Yes, it is in vector mode. I am trying to attach a screenshot…(no success, uploading fails)

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Yes, it is in vector mode. I am trying to attach a screenshot…(no success, uploading fails)

did you try basic uploader?

if no. select it, choose file (and dont forget to push the upload button next to it)

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  • Staff

Thanks, yes I forgot to push the upload button.

Hi Karf,

 

Thanks for the image. What you are seeing I think is different to the issue that was fixed. However I can see on my machine (running at 200% that there is a noticeable difference in the quality of anti-aliasing (as My1 has mentioned) in the non-beta. I will get this looked into and passed on to development.

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The cursor seems to get stuck on the gradient fill edit tool when I activate it.  I find it takes an unknown amount of time and/or key presses to revert back to the 'v' pointer/cursor. Is it a lack of memoery? I have 16Gb of RAM and 4Gb on my Nvidia gtx970? In Preferences the memory is maxed out and I don't have any memory issues with other programs. It means workflow is disrupted by confusion about which tool is activated and then mistakes are created when trying to rectify then issue.

 

Perhaps I am pressing the wrong keys but I would assume that after editing the gradient 'live' with the gradient tool, if I press 'v' I thought I would have the pointer tool/cursor activated. The lag creates confusion that makes me question if I am trying to do an operation which is allowed or not.

 

Context menus hang around for me, longer than they need to. They seem to not automatically disappear when I click on the art board or work area.  Only pressing escape get rid of them. This creates confusion over whether the intended action chosen from the menu has been executed or not.

 

I am using a Wacom intuos pro small with the high precision tablet input activated.  Sometimes the tablet cursor stops moving, and if I try using the mouse then the cursor still moves/responds.  It is hard to separate this issue whiles using the program as sometimes it also seems to freeze up and so I can't really tell which issue I am encountering.

 

I hope this feedback is useful.  All encountered whilst working on the attached file.

cut comb.afdesign

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I am also trying to centre two polygons - one behind releative to another in front.  To achieve this, I choose to lock the one in front (the one I want to keep stationary), select both of them and then use align to centre them.  But the one I just locked moves to centre with the unlocked one.  It would be great if we can lock objects and then align other objects to them so we have a datum or locked reference for use for aligning other objects to.

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Erratic behaviour of the menus is also a common thing I have discovered. I am presently copying the polygons (in the same attached file as previous) to other locations behind the 'foreground' polygons, and I keep coming up against the situation where I use alt to copy one, I align it (by eye) then hold space to pan across to the next location to copy and move to.  When I do this, It wants to copy another polygon rather than execute the pan function. If I then press ctrl z to undo I get the Minimise/Maximise/Restore Windows popup window appearing (the one you can get to by clicking on the top left Affinity Designer icon which incidentally only appears if you click near the beta symbol, not the blue Affinity logo)  a confusion of things!  So then I cannot use the Wacom tablet to change things so I have to use the mouse to click on the artboard  or work area and the restore window thing goes away and I can then use ctrl z to undo as intended.

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I have tried to understand the logic in the blue highlighting of the layers when moving and re-ordering from one to group to another.  It seems to me that when using the layers panel, it is not possible to move an object in a group to the very bottom of that group without either 1. putting it into a group with the lowest most object in that group or 2. putting it one up from the very bottom then having to use the 'Move Back One' icon/command at the top of the screen. Am I missing something here? I feel there is a third option I want to do - that is put an object into a group but at the very back/bottom of that group.  

 

To  phrase it a different way and to explain the same issue in a different way, to be clear, I would assume that if an object is below a group in the layers panel, and you move it up by dragging it, then it should appear at the very bottom of that group you are dragging it into.  Instead it goes to the top. Then, once in that group, if I try to drag it to the bottom that group, it jumps into an automatically created bottom group with the lowest down object.  There is a blue highlighting function missing at the very bottom of groups. This missing function is the same function that is present if you move an object to inbetween other objects in a group, ie. it simply moves to a different location. It is impossible to move using the layers panel, an object to the lowest position within a group.

 

If this is a design feature then it would be good to know why it behaves like this. If not, can we have the 'drag between' function operate also to move an object to the very bottom of a group please? Hope that makes sense!

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Hi, I still see a gradient and blend mode issues with the eps format.

 

1. At AD 1.5 both pdf and eps format from the export, had an unreadable gradient if we open it with Adobe Illustrator. The gradient object change to raster.

 

Now with AD beta 1.6 the pdf issue gone. Adobe Illustrator can read the gradient from pdf (export from AD) But not with the eps, it still read as raster.

 

2. And also with the blend mode, in eps, Adobe Illustrator cannot read the blend mode. I export a multiply blend mode object from AD to eps, open it at Illustrator, an it read as a "normal" blend mode.

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To  phrase it a different way and to explain the same issue in a different way, to be clear, I would assume that if an object is below a group in the layers panel, and you move it up by dragging it, then it should appear at the very bottom of that group you are dragging it into.  Instead it goes to the top. Then, once in that group, if I try to drag it to the bottom that group, it jumps into an automatically created bottom group with the lowest down object.

There is a blue highlighting function missing at the very bottom of groups. This missing function is the same function that is present if you move an object to inbetween other objects in a group, ie. it simply moves to a different location. It is impossible to move using the layers panel, an object to the lowest position within a group.

 

Very much in agreement with Ian R on this - during the pre-alpha phase I had assumed this was a 'to be sorted' and it was behaviour I'd just get used to, but that it is still here is a something of a problem.

 

Although I am hugely pleased Affinity Photo is bagging various plaudits for its iPad variants, I am starting to get that 'runt of the litter' feeling where it comes to AD development on Windows. The cursor crosshair/brush preview issue still persists despite this being brought up first by Paolo Limoncelli several months ago and it really does inhibit serious use of the tool. The issue doesn't seem to be on any roadmaps either, so it's hard to know if the team are working demonically to crush this as a bug or if solving the problem has merely stalled.

 

Nobody wants to be 'that guy' - everyone wants Affinity to succeed, take on Adobe and all that - but the pace of resolving the AD issues has, in truth, really dissuaded me from also moving over to AP for Windows. It's certainly not an issue of cost, but merely hesitancy to fully take the leap and adjust, 100%, to a new package, when I'm not convinced the commitment is absolutely there. Personally I feel AD for Windows plopped out of beta way too early and I'd this stage I still cannot consider using it for pro work, which is sad. It is - on so many levels - exceptional software, but always feels like it's maybe 85% of the way there.

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I have tried to understand the logic in the blue highlighting of the layers when moving and re-ordering from one to group to another.  It seems to me that when using the layers panel, it is not possible to move an object in a group to the very bottom of that group without either 1. putting it into a group with the lowest most object in that group or 2. putting it one up from the very bottom then having to use the 'Move Back One' icon/command at the top of the screen. Am I missing something here? I feel there is a third option I want to do - that is put an object into a group but at the very back/bottom of that group. 

 

I have no problem moving an object both inside a group as lowest element or outside that group in both the beta and stable versions (although in bright UI the blue line isnt as nicely visible as in dark).

including the switch from outside to lowest and back I made shots for all scnarios (inside to lowest, inside to outside, outside to lowest, lowest to outside) in stable and beta all done with your afdesign file a few posts back

 

although you have to be careful with your mouse. if you are working with a group on the very bottom you move your mouse a few pixels up to get into the group and down to get out.

post-46348-0-23766500-1498404797_thumb.png

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post-46348-0-11226000-1498404835_thumb.png

post-46348-0-03389500-1498404839_thumb.png

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during the pre-alpha phase I had assumed this was a 'to be sorted' and it was behaviour I'd just get used to

 

It's clear from your subsequent comments that you aren't a Serif employee, so how did you get involved during the pre-alpha phase?? :huh:

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Hello there - I'm referring to the phase when AD was available pre-release in beta for a time, I think for two months or so whilst it was going through its final pre-flight checks - this was sometime around October of last year. I seem to recall this was open to anyone who had expressed an interest in Affinity products for Windows earlier on in the year. At the stage of AD moving out of beta, there were certainly some major UI issues - particularly around swatch scrolling speed - that I would've assumed solved for its alpha release but were not, but to be honest it was only via purchasing AD you could discover this was the case as beta access had (at that time) then closed.

 

I have no problem moving an object both inside a group as lowest element or outside that group in both the beta and stable versions

 

I'll certainly have another play with this and it may indeed be down to some fumbling mouse technique (or in my case tablet), but I can only say that my experience is pretty similar to Ian's, certainly the 'once in that group, if I try to drag it to the bottom that group, it jumps into an automatically created bottom group with the lowest down object' a very familiar experience, with a fair bit of fiddling around to subsequently drop the element into the right position. It seems sensitive enough for it to be an issue, or me to actually interpret it as a bug, and I've been using vector software for twenty years. I do completely accept however that I might be screwing it up somehow.

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Hello there - I'm referring to the phase when AD was available pre-release in beta for a time, I think for two months or so whilst it was going through its final pre-flight checks - this was sometime around October of last year. I seem to recall this was open to anyone who had expressed an interest in Affinity products for Windows earlier on in the year. At the stage of AD moving out of beta, there were certainly some major UI issues - particularly around swatch scrolling speed - that I would've assumed solved for its alpha release but were not, but to be honest it was only via purchasing AD you could discover this was the case as beta access had (at that time) then closed.

 

Ah, OK, you've simply got your alpha and beta mixed up! As in the word 'alphabet', alpha comes before beta, the alpha stage of testing being essentially a technology review which is usually internal. What we saw in the weeks before the release of the retail versions was a public beta test after whatever alpha testing Serif had done (and that public beta was almost certainly preceded by a goodly amount of internal beta testing before we got our grubby hands on the products).

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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I accept, like Alfred, that I may be missing a trick with getting the object into the right place and that it may be possible.  I'll have to try it out some other time.  I'v spent a long time trying to get it right and not been able to. Thanks for the message and images, but unfortunately @My1 the images are a little confusing for me to see what you are doing.

 

To me the layer thing is still an issue too if I cannot work fast. my screen isn't massive (22") and it must even harder on smaller screens, such as on laptops to get right.

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I accept, like Alfred, that I may be missing a trick with getting the object into the right place and that it may be possible.  I'll have to try it out some other time.  I'v spent a long time trying to get it right and not been able to. Thanks for the message and images, but unfortunately @My1 the images are a little confusing for me to see what you are doing.

 

To me the layer thing is still an issue too if I cannot work fast. my screen isn't massive (22") and it must even harder on smaller screens, such as on laptops to get right.

well my laptop is kinda dead so I had to do it at home on my big TV which serves as PC screen,but at work on an iirc 22 inch screen I dont have problems either.

 

using the file you attached in #34 on page 2 I can grab the rectangle and drag it slightly upwards to move it inside the group as last element (be careful that you dont put your mouse too far to the right, or else you will make it the layer mask for the element above.

 

and for dragging a layer/object from inside down you do the same (but when you move your mouse too far down and the blue line indicator becomes full width you move it outside of the group.

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Wow you're right My1 thanks for that.

 

So I would describe it as there is are two positions to drag the element into the group (excluding the position you drag the element for a mask). One highlights blue ONLY underneath the layer name (if your cursor is under the layer name), this creates a group with the lowest most element, correct?  The other option places the element in the lowest most position in that group, which is done by dragging the object/layer/element/thing to underneath the thumbnail image of the object you want it to sit beneath. This puts that dragged element under that element. Simple! How did I manage to miss this! Thanks again My1

 

Tutorial is here:https://vimeo.com/107566766

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Wow you're right My1 thanks for that.

 

So I would describe it as there is are two possitions to drag the element into the group (excluding the position you drag the element for a mask). One highlights blue ONLY underneath the layer name (if your cursor is under the layer name), this creates a group with the lowest most element, correct?  The other places the element int he lowest most position in that group, which is done by dragging the object/layer/element/thing to underneath the thumbnail image of the object you want it to sit beneath. This puts that dragged element under that element. Simple! How did I manage to miss this!

 

Tutorial is here:

 

well almost, but I partially screwed up as well.

 

there are 4 possible positions in total that I observed:

 

 

line is full width: global object

 

line is only up to icon and name: same level as the object above -> inside a group)

 

like only covers name: move the object inside the other object, e.g. top object of group (dunno what this does for anything except groups, but it does something)

 

line VERICALLY next to the the icon: mask.

 

the only place where fun gets seemingly problematic unless you close the group is when you have the group at the bottom and want to move an element below the group into the artboard. you have to close the group for that but saside from that, I dont see much problems.

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simply got your alpha and beta mixed up! As in the word 'alphabet', alpha comes before beta

 

Ahhh true enough - for some reason I thought development worked backwards toward the alpha, I'm not entirely sure why.

 

Anyway, I'll need to delve back into the workflow and see if the above works for me - as noted above, I've shifted away from AD for a time so I would need to revisit the steps and reproduce where I was struggling. My thoughts around the beta still stand, however - elements like swatch scrolling have certainly been solved now, but it was dispiriting to find these on the production version at launch. Solving the brush issue would restore my faith completely.

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