Affinity Photo Beta for iPad (1.6.7 - Beta 1)

[Andy Somerfield]

Status: Beta Release.

Purpose: Fixes, improvements, features.
Requirements: TestFlight Acceptance.
App Store: Not Submitted

 

Hi Guys,

The first beta of 1.6.7 has been deployed on TestFlight. The changes are detailed below.

You can download the App Store version at any time to stop using the beta - and download the TestFlight build at any time to go back to the beta.

 

Thanks,

 

Affinity Photo Team  

 

Changes this version.

 

- Brand new shadows / highlights algorithm in Develop.
- Brand new clarity algorithm in Develop.
- Can now open / edit files in place - directly from the Files app.
- New “Solo” layer option in layer properties panel.
- New preferences option to show touches - good for screen recording.
- Improved iOS11 drag & drop support.
- Can now rotate image in Develop.
- Pasting now keeps things in the right place.
- Maximum / minimum filters now obey the current channels properly.
- Brush scatter works properly when controller is “random”.
- Improved angle / tilt support for Apple Pencil.
- Handle vertical panoramas better.
- Fixed some HDR merge crashes.
- Fixed multiply blend mode in 32bit documents.
- Improved crop tool behaviour when using ratios.
- Improved retouching tools in 32bit mode.
- Fixed issues with “Direction” brush controller.
- Improvements to selection refinement.
- Improved TIFF support.
- PSD export improvements.
- Channels page improvements / fixes.
- “Save a copy” stability improvements.
- Ability to clear history (hopefully will help some people who encounter crashes when trying to return to the home screen).
- New “Constrain” modifier button for Depth of Field tool.
- Snapping candidates can now be selected by hovering over them whilst in a drag.
- All other relevant fixes from 1.6.6 desktop version.
- Help improvements.
- Localisation improvements.

[marcoborghesi]

Love the new files.app option to open and save in place. I think it might need to be just a lite bit more intuitive. Can we have open in instead of copy in ... 

On the other and it works amazingly when dragging a photo for files to Affinity.

 

[Puca]

2 hours ago, marcoborghesi said:

Love the new files.app option to open and save in place. I think it might need to be just a lite bit more intuitive. Can we have open in instead of copy in ... 

On the other and it works amazingly when dragging a photo for files to Affinity.

 

All it seems to do is copy it to the private Affinity Photo files location. It doesn’t save it back in the Files app where I opened it.

 

Note, however, that I’m using iOS 11.2 beta on an original 12.9˝ iPad Pro.

[marcoborghesi]

If open Affinity then you drag from file it will pen that file and not a copy. You can notice as you will see appear 2 new option. Close and save. If work on your file then go back to start and click on the 3lines menu of the photo you can notice you can save then close the image. In that case you did work on the same file. But is not obvious yet. What we need to have just an option from files.app to open in an the rest with the new save and close option in affinity are good to go. 

This in my opinion is increasing a lot the workflow. Well done. We just need a little bit more for this option to be perfect but is already a good good start.

[Puca]

Oh, I see, Marco. Thanks.

 

So I tried drag-&-drop, editing it, Save, then Close. It doesn’t update the thumbnail in the Files app, and if I just tap on it in the Files app, I get an error message when Photo tries to copy/open it.

 

If I then drag-&-drop it again, my edits are there and it opens fine.

 

I’m glad this is being worked on, but yes it’s not quite there yet.  

 

Seamless integration with the Files app is my #1 feature request for any Affinity app on iOS.

[Tschens]

Regarding the new shadow/lights algorithm, I am not sure if the "lights" part is improved in comparison to the last version. It still doensnt darken only the highlights but also some middle lights and leads to a rather shady picture. Shadows is quite fine.

For comparison reason, it would be nice if we had the possibility to install the beta and the official version in parallel.

 

[donka]

5 hours ago, Tschens said:

Regarding the new shadow/lights algorithm, I am not sure if the "lights" part is improved in comparison to the last version. It still doensnt darken only the highlights but also some middle lights and leads to a rather shady picture. Shadows is quite fine.

For comparison reason, it would be nice if we had the possibility to install the beta and the official version in parallel.

 

 

Yup, shadows is a huge improvement over the previous version in develop with results more similar to the Photo persona. Good job. Highlights does seems to affect mid tones a little more than I would like so you need to be very conservative with its use. 

[pixelcoder]

Since I am not native English I have a little question, does the new Files App integration mean that the files for example when I open them from iCloud are not stored on the iPad instead are saved back to the cloud? Since that would save me a ton of space. (Unfortunately bought the 64GB iPad ;))

[specworkfan]

Seems to be more stable!

1) On the brush UI, I think "More" should be moved to the next tab after you press the arrow. There is also no need to put "Stabilizer" on a tab by itself, and "Continue Last" and "Pick Color" on a third tab. "Pick Color" is by far the most important setting besides the brush size. It should be second, and arguably first. I have no idea why it is relegated to the last tab where nobody can find.

You seldom need to go to the "More" menu, and if you are adding unwieldily arrows to break up the UI elements (spacing I guess), then "More" definitely shouldn't be on the first tab.

 

 

I thought at first there was no included color picker. The color setting only opens the color wheel, which is fairly useless for art or photo work. I think you are using the picker much more often (photo and painting), and if you are not, you are typing in a hex value for a specific color (designers). Hitting the "I" key brings up a picker, but it doesn't change the color, only "Pick Color" works intuitively. 

2) I am not sure if it worked before, can't remember, but brackets should change the brush size on the keyboard. The keyboard map is pretty illogical after using desktop version. It should just be the same.

3) I would add tool tips when pressing help for the three wet edges, pressure sensitivity, and alpha region icons on the brush (and to similar UI elements). It's not obvious what these icons mean if you have never used the app before.

[A_B_C]

Thank you for adding the Files app option. This is a great start! In addition to what has been said, I would love to be able to drag and drop a file from the floating window of the Files app directly into a project. And I can’t drag-and-drop .afphoto files to the app. Really? What am I doing wrong here? 

[Andy Somerfield]

A_B_C,

 

Dragging into an open document is working for me - with JPEG images and .afphoto documents (which end up as embedded document layers). Does this not happen for you - and if not, what type of file are you trying to drag in?

 

Also, I can drag .afphoto files into the app. Are you certain that the build you have is 1.6.7.68 ?

 

Thanks,

 

Andy.

[A_B_C]

Hi Andy,

 

my version of Photo is 1.6.7.68, and my device is a first generation iPad Pro 12.9" 128 GB model. I made a screen cast for you to see. The file called “Bug” is just a single-layer Affinity Photo (.aphoto) file created in the desktop app (App Store Version), and the file called “Bug-JPEG” is a JPEG exported from the app. I plugged my iPad into the MacBook Pro, launched iTunes, put both documents in the “Photo” folder, and both files showed up in the Photo folder of the Files app. However, as you can see, only the JPEG version can be dragged to Photo or to an open document. Let me know, if you need additional information.

 

Cheers, Alex 

 

Drag-and-not-Drop.mov

[csp]

AP crashes immediately when I try  to change the color space in the info panel 

[Skm]

Found some potential issues with Affinity Photo Beta 1.6.7.

 

English (UK) and English (US) in the same document settings.

 

When drawing dots with the brush tool and Apple Pencil, the dots are barely pressure sensitive. In order to get a decent range of pressure sensitivity when making dots, the size of the brush needs to be changed. I’ve attached an example image of how Procreate handles it and how Affinity Photo does it to illustrate the issue.

 

Certain brushes that are made with multiple layers may not render correctly if the brush is used to fill a selection. This happens with the Frankentoon Pattern brushes.

 

I’ve attached some images showing the potential issues.