Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.6 - Beta 2.1)


Recommended Posts

  • Staff

EDIT: I have updated the beta to version 1.6 Beta 2.1 - it's exactly the same as the last build apart from some fixes for High Sierra and Metal. If you weren't using High Sierra or Metal, there is no difference, so don't feel compelled to download it again!...

 

Status: Beta Release

Purpose: New features, fixes

Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer

Mac App Store: Not Submitted

Download: Here

 

This beta version represents a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it should be considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity that may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.6 may not open in 1.5 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.6 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.5 version.

 

To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it.

 

Fixes/Improvements:

  • Light UI improvements
  • Metal accelerated view (available in Sierra or High Sierra - defaulted 'on' for High Sierra) and hardware grid *
  • Artboards are created pixel-aligned
  • Images are pasted pixel-aligned
  • Items are copied to the same relative position between artboards
  • Fixed guide/margin visibility
  • Fixed Select-all (pixels) on artboard documents
  • Numerous bug fixes and other improvements

 

* please note that macOS Sierra has a bug in Metal with AMD graphics cards which means colour correction will not function perfectly, hence why it is disabled by default. If you have an Intel or Nvidia card then feel free to try it. This bug was fixed in High Sierra so all cards should work as expected :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for all of the work thus far. Designer 1.6 is working very well, but I do have a question. There was a feature told to come to 1.6 that isn't there yet, so I'm wondering if it is still in progress or if it didn't make it. TonyB said in this topic almost a year ago that the Pencil Tool will be able to continue a line from an end point in 1.6. May I ask if this is still being considered?

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Matt … and Steve,

 

wow! The light user interface is getting lovely! It is already looking *so much better* now. Isn’t it remarkable how these seemingly little tweaks improve the overall appearance? I am really happy to see this unfold …  :) :)

 

Now I wonder if we should still report some of those minor UI details, since I am sure you caught the users’ intentions. For instance, the UI fonts are still looking somewhat jagged and low-quality on non-retina devices (anti-aliasing). Would you still be interested in such small observations?  :unsure:

 

In any case, this is going to be really nice! Your hard work is definitely paying off …  :D

Cheers, Alex

post-1198-0-04838100-1499098589_thumb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

MattP,

 

Thanks for the hard work. I'm glad to see the paste in place between artboards added (and I'm still hoping for a "Hide/Show All" command)!

 

Sorry, I'm still having the same problem I have been having for quite some time. With the new Beta I'm still having the same problem with it always defaulting to "Greys" in he colour palette and the greys being RGB greys and not 100% Black even though I chose a CMYK document. Any idea why this is? Is it only me that this happens to? I posted a video about it in the last beta thread that better explains my problem. 

 

Thanks,

Hokusai

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

Hi Hokusai!

 

Definitely don't give up on the hopes for a hide/show all command - I'm still planning to add it but I just need to finish a few other bits first...

 

The palettes aren't document-aware, they're just built-in collections, so the 'Greys' you see are just a collection of RGB greys... I can see if there's something we could do about that to make it a little smarter, but it's just that everyone was busy fixing stuff so they've not had time to address improvements like that yet - but we will :)

 

Thanks again,

Matt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

I am not sure I see the difference with light UI. I have beta 1 and beta 2 side by side and it looks about the same.

It's obviously supposed to be a subtle difference, but if you zoom in and look at each area, you'll see it's neater, more precise and more polished - I've been trying it myself this evening and I'm really happy with it (although I'm on a retina screen, so I'd need to give it a whirl on a non-retina to see if there's more to do...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not seeing any issues with the Pen Tool and constraining with Shift? Is there any recipe to follow?

 

Thanks! :)

Matt

Hi Matt,

 

I notice that only happens running " Metal " graphics.

Please see my post where I upload a video.

 

Thanks

 

UPDATE: Forget my comment just I saw your answer at my post. Big thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Hokusai!

 

Definitely don't give up on the hopes for a hide/show all command - I'm still planning to add it but I just need to finish a few other bits first...

 

The palettes aren't document-aware, they're just built-in collections, so the 'Greys' you see are just a collection of RGB greys... I can see if there's something we could do about that to make it a little smarter, but it's just that everyone was busy fixing stuff so they've not had time to address improvements like that yet - but we will :)

 

Thanks again,

Matt

Matt,

 

Thanks for the reply! I am really, really looking forward to a hide/show all command!

 

I didn't know that the palettes aren't document aware. I thought that if I create a CMYK document, the I should get CMYK builds of colours. To get RGB colours isn't good in a CMYK document, especially with black as it isn't always noticeable on screen but it can cause huge problems if you print black at RGB values. Thanks for the explanation as to why it is happening. I hope that the palettes become document colour space aware in a future release.

 

With each release things get better and better. Thanks to you and all of the team there for all the hard work!

 

Hokusai

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not sure I see the difference with light UI. I have beta 1 and beta 2 side by side and it looks about the same.

 

As Matt said, zoom in on the details and you will notice quite a difference. It is certainly more noticeable on non-Retina devices, but the changes will include:

  • Increased contrast on the main toolbar buttons
  • Toolbar button borders now sharp
  • Distracting gradient on main toolbar removed
  • Vertical sizes of UI elements (menus, inputs) harmonized, for the most part
  • Increased contrast for the panel dividers (sidebar)
  • Ruler ticks have all the same color now, numbers are better centered
  • Streamlined use of borders (sidebar, sidebar to canvas)
  • Blurry icons largely gone
  • etc.

All in all, this is already a great improvement, to my eyes …  :)

Alex

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I have the time to look at it a little closer. The crashes I reported seem to be gone, thanks. The UI improvements are subtle but they do help; for example the borders around the side panels now make them stand out a little more against windows in the background.

 

I don’t know if the background gradient in the top toolbar in separated mode changed but it feels very natural for the OS now. However, one thing that could still be improved is the contrast/difference of the top area of the window chrome in separated mode of active versus inactive (or foreground vs. background) windows. In AD the only difference between an active window and a window in the background is the colored buttons at the top left. In other applications active windows have a stronger gradient while inactive windows have an apparently flat light gray background at the top (see comparison with system preferences window in the attached screenshots).

 

Another bug I just noticed: I have no idea how this happend or how it can be reproduced but the topmost layer is outside of the viewport of the layers panel and I can’t scroll up any more (see third screenshot). If I expand other layers so they cause an overflow the scrollbar is cut off at the top. And said scrollbar shouldn’t even take any space with my current preference settings and no mouse attached. It should be an overlay scrollbar that only appears on scroll.

post-19002-0-48314200-1499118112_thumb.png

post-19002-0-49392300-1499118113_thumb.png

post-19002-0-40136700-1499118124_thumb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good work Matt! One issue: I think I'm missing the keyboard equivalent for switch the FOCUS on the color picker between fill and stroke, not to actually switch the stroke and fill color. I seem to recall that was available some betas ago...

2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Ventura 13.6

2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 17

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Matt … and Steve,

 

wow! The light user interface is getting lovely! It is already looking *so much better* now. Isn’t it remarkable how these seemingly little tweaks improve the overall appearance? I am really happy to see this unfold …  :) :)

 

Now I wonder if we should still report some of those minor UI details, since I am sure you caught the users’ intentions. For instance, the UI fonts are still looking somewhat jagged and low-quality on non-retina devices (anti-aliasing). Would you still be interested in such small observations?  :unsure:

 

In any case, this is going to be really nice! Your hard work is definitely paying off …  :D

Cheers, Alex

Thanks again for your comments Alex. It's really helpful to get such detailed feedback and suggestions. We're definitely interested in any observations, no matter how small. As you say, they all add up to make it better overall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can see the change now, it's the difference of maybe a 0% grey to perhaps a 10%-15% grey on the side tool bar. What I was mainly looking at was the buttons across the top that to my eyes look extremely close. Glad to see progress in this area though!

KipV - Don't worry, the changes are very subtle and difficult to spot. I must admit, I've used the zoom tool quite a bit while working on this!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I am not sure I see the difference with light UI. I have beta 1 and beta 2 side by side and it looks about the same.

 

As Matt said, zoom in on the details and you will notice quite a difference. It is certainly more noticeable on non-Retina devices, but the changes will include:

  • Increased contrast on the main toolbar buttons
  • Toolbar button borders now sharp
  • Distracting gradient on main toolbar removed
  • Vertical sizes of UI elements (menus, inputs) harmonized, for the most part
  • Increased contrast for the panel dividers (sidebar)
  • Ruler ticks have all the same color now, numbers are better centered
  • Streamlined use of borders (sidebar, sidebar to canvas)
  • Blurry icons largely gone
  • etc.

All in all, this is already a great improvement, to my eyes …  :)

Alex

 

Thanks Alex - Fantastic observations! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I have the time to look at it a little closer. The crashes I reported seem to be gone, thanks. The UI improvements are subtle but they do help; for example the borders around the side panels now make them stand out a little more against windows in the background.

 

I don’t know if the background gradient in the top toolbar in separated mode changed but it feels very natural for the OS now. However, one thing that could still be improved is the contrast/difference of the top area of the window chrome in separated mode of active versus inactive (or foreground vs. background) windows. In AD the only difference between an active window and a window in the background is the colored buttons at the top left. In other applications active windows have a stronger gradient while inactive windows have an apparently flat light gray background at the top (see comparison with system preferences window in the attached screenshots).

 

Another bug I just noticed: I have no idea how this happend or how it can be reproduced but the topmost layer is outside of the viewport of the layers panel and I can’t scroll up any more (see third screenshot). If I expand other layers so they cause an overflow the scrollbar is cut off at the top. And said scrollbar shouldn’t even take any space with my current preference settings and no mouse attached. It should be an overlay scrollbar that only appears on scroll.

VIPStephan - Agree totally about the active/inactive titlebar gradient. Great suggestion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Steve,

 

great to hear from you. It is really so nice to see this evolving, and though these are all minor things, they will make the user experience so much better. Well, I think one of my main suggestions for the next iteration would be caring for the distances, the alignment, and the distribution of the elements on a pixel level.

 

When you take out your pixel ruler, you will see that many of the distances among the elements of the toolbars and in the panels are quite random. Just have a look at the Pencil context toolbar or the Character panel, for instance. I would really suggest that you take measure of these things in every part of the interface, and though the required adjustments are very subtle in most cases (very often only +/– one pixel), you will see that slightly correcting these disparities will clean up the interface considerably.

 

As an example, let me append a review of the context toolbar for the Pencil tool. You will find similar thingies in many other parts of the interface as well. As I said, these are pretty small ones, but I think you will agree that getting these straight (compare my rough attempt in the screen shot below) will be beneficial to the overall user experience.

 

Great work! Love it …

Alex  :)

post-1198-0-09767100-1499158336_thumb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi!

 

Thanks for your endless efforts, but I am missing something or it is not possible to replace a color for another?

 

1.You can edit, change the name, delete a color and other things, but is NOT possible to replace it for another color.

 

By the way, when you select a color in the palette (in this case Global color Cyan at 100%) and choose Create color chord -> Tints, Shades or Tones, never is created 9 colors in increments of 10%: 10, 20, 30% or so on...

 

2. When I select a object with Cyan 100% and edit it from the color palette as a tint and I choose 40% if I choose from the contextual menu Add to Swatches from fill, when I change the global color, the tinted color created not change.

So, how I can create a tint of a global color and edit when I wanted the global color and the changes are applied to its shadings?

 

3. And about the name of a color:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/22569-image-updating-and-color-naming/?p=106345

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Steve,

 

great to hear from you. It is really so nice to see this evolving, and though these are all minor things, they will make the user experience so much better. Well, I think one of my main suggestions for the next iteration would be caring for the distances, the alignment, and the distribution of the elements on a pixel level.

 

When you take out your pixel ruler, you will see that many of the distances among the elements of the toolbars and in the panels are quite random. Just have a look at the Pencil context toolbar or the Character panel, for instance. I would really suggest that you take measure of these things in every part of the interface, and though the required adjustments are very subtle in most cases (very often only +/– one pixel), you will see that slightly correcting these disparities will clean up the interface considerably.

 

As an example, let me append a review of the context toolbar for the Pencil tool. You will find similar thingies in many other parts of the interface as well. As I said, these are pretty small ones, but I think you will agree that getting these straight (compare my rough attempt in the screen shot below) will be beneficial to the overall user experience.

 

Great work! Love it …

Alex  :)

Thanks again Alex. Really appreciate your feedback and suggestions. They really help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.