Staff MattP Posted February 23, 2015 Staff Share Posted February 23, 2015 Purpose: Improvements, Features, Fixes Status: Beta Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer Mac App Store: Not submitted Download: https://s3.amazonaws...stomer Beta.dmg 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. Documents made in this version will not be openable in older versions of Affinity Designer. This change was necessary in order to ensure a consistent baseline for our file format for the Affinity Photo Beta. When we update the Mac App Store version it will upgrade to this new archive version number too so will not be an issue in the future. Improvements, Features, Fixes This beta includes the first versions of Path Text and the Corner Tool. Please remember that both these features are new and as such may have a few niggles - just let us know and we'll get them sorted. At present, we are aware of path text with strikethrough on sharp corners producing undesirable effects. We have many plans to improve corners over time, but feel free to make suggestions and we will try to incorporate these. Additionally, - Fix for swatch strip rendering incorrectly - Improved Yosemite look and feel - Remember recent colours for raster brush tools in the ‘recents’ area - Fix for colour picker occasionally returning the wrong colour - Single-click with tablets in brush tools now creates a more sensible sized nozzle stamp - Support for Airbrush Stylus wheel as a controller - Always pass key events to the main view unless you were in a text field - this should resolve some issues seen with Cmd+Space apparently not working. - Fix for redrawing issues seen in Lion (and occasionally Yosemite) with the Layers panel and Effects panel - Fix for opening bmp files - Added ability to set kerning and tracking of text in 1000th of the point-size - Intensity nozzles can now be 16bit, just like full-colour nozzles - Improved SVG export of rectangles - Typing 0->9 now affects the opacity of the selection. Typing ’4’ will set 40%, ’45’ will set 45%, etc. In raster tools it will set the opacity you are about to paint with. - Added shortcut for Convert To Curves (Cmd+Enter) - Improved PDF import of strokes - Improved PSD import - Improved EPS import - Fix for CMYK ‘Darker’ and ‘Lighter’ blend modes - Added Preferences item for choosing the default method of constraining aspect ratio - Allow all characters as valid slice export filenames, with the exception of / and : - Ensure context toolbar fills show correctly after the document’s ICC profile is changed - Swapped the stroke alignment icons inside/outside as they were wrong - Correctly use the system highlight colour rather than overriding it Update: We have made the decision to build another beta with the intention of fixing a common crash seen using the context toolbar of the new Corner Tool. This updated beta, version 1.1.2.23074, also includes the following changes: - Path Text initial height can be specified by dragging in the Art Text Tool while over a selected curve - Fixes for issues surrounding read-only documents and read-only volumes (NTFS for example) - Edit all layers is enabled by default - Added Path Text menu item - Path Text can be created from curves with corners. Similarly boolean operations now operate as expected with corners - Fix for corners artificially being limited in size when applying to objects - Support for 8bit LAB TIFF files - Corner Tool UI simplified to avoid clutter - New cat shape (it’s now the shape provided by our competition winner!) - SVG export now outputs ellipses as ellipses, rather than outputting as paths - this saves space and makes the file more readable. Also output straight segments as lines - Fix for stroke widths appearing incorrectly when set to scale with object in certain circumstances - Fix for double-clicking an item in the Layers panel not zooming to it MastroPino, Haluke, StudioDorgs and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRScott Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Thanks Matt. Gregg OS X Version 10.14.6 iMac 27" 3.2 GHz i5- 32 GB Huion Kamvas Pro 20 iPad Pro 12.9" IOS 13 AD = OS IOS, AP = OS IOS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paekke Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Thx again. Nice with the keys to change opacity, and for converting to curves. Shortcuts, shortcuts, shortcuts :D And glad to have the colorpicker behave as it should. Quick question.. when using the brush, the opacity shortcut doesn't work until the stroke is finished, then you can set the opacity with the shortcut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted February 23, 2015 Staff Share Posted February 23, 2015 The text-on-a-path feature is great. Straightforward and effective :P Still have to try the Corner tool. Also lots of small improvements everywhere... A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
00Ghz Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I get snapping options while in frame text editing mode. I don't think that should work while in that mode. UI Designer, CG Artist Macbook Pro 15" 2014 2.5 Ghz, 750M https://www.behance.net/VladMafteiuScai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leafdancing Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Thanks Affinity Team, and for all your continuing hard work! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpedit Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 The corner tool looks nice. Can't find text-on-a-path. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) Try creating a shape or curve, selecting the Art Text tool, and clicking on the shape's outline. There is also supposed to be a Convert to Text Path in Layer menu, alongside Convert to Text Frame and Convert to Curves, but I wouldn't be surprised if that got overlooked. (I've not been in a position to check this today.) PS Clicking a vector outline with the Frame Text tool will convert it into a Shaped Text Frame. We added that mostly for consistency. With either tool the object has to be selected first, and you should get a different mouse icon (and hintline) when you are over the outline. Edited February 23, 2015 by Dave Harris Added PS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
citizenr Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 The "Convert to Text Path" is missing in the Layer menu. Beside that, the text on path is very simple to use and is working quite well. Regarding the corner tool, the only comment I have for the moment is... UAU!!! you nailed it. I was dreaming with this tool in an illustration program for ages. Thank you for doing this and congratulations for the amazing work you're doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signguy Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Text size defaults to Document Defaults. After creating a document and setting its size as inches, text will display as inches instead of points. Is this intended? Previous version keeps text size as points. Stroke size is still displayed as points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoCreative Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I don’t usually place comments in forums. Ik just read them. But in this case I have to make a exception. you really did a great job on the corner tool. This makes AD my Nr1 tool. :D MattP 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpedit Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Try creating a shape or curve, selecting the Art Text tool, and clicking on the shape's outline. Got it, thanks. Seems intuitive and I tried it earlier but wasn't quite sensitive enough to placing the cursor. PS: Both new tools seem simple and effective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paekke Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I don't know how I missed it, but I missed the part about the corner tool and the text on a path.. The Corner Tool is awesome, really fun to play with. Now I know that I can skew objects. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted February 23, 2015 Staff Share Posted February 23, 2015 Paekke, Place you cursor near the middle control points of the object's bounding box (from the outside) until two small arrows appear. Then click and drag to skew the object. Paekke 1 A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jurek Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 corner-tool on rectangle (with rectangle-tool created) is solved great! in an ordinary path (with pen-tool created) I have so far not detected any corner-tool - or I have tomatoes on the eyes? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rui_mac Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 These new tools are amazing. Love them!!! :D May I create some movies showing those tools at work to show to some students and friends of mine?May I post them on youtube? MattP 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronnyb Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Awesome guys, I'm just downloading, looking forward to playing with it tonight :) 2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Sonoma 14.4.1 2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrograde Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Just downloaded as well can't wait to take it for a spin... cheers gals and guys, sounds like the corner tool is a hit! http://www.kevincreative.com https://www.behance.net/kevincreative https://dribbble.com/kevincreative https://www.instagram.com/kevincreative/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted February 23, 2015 Staff Share Posted February 23, 2015 PS Clicking a vector outline with the Frame Text tool will convert it into a Shaped Text Frame. We added that mostly for consistency. With either tool the object has to be selected first, and you should get a different mouse icon (and hintline) when you are over the outline. Really nice touch! It's more in line with the app real time nature than going to the menus (besides being consistent with the Art Text tool/Text on a path too). A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Andy Somerfield Posted February 23, 2015 Staff Share Posted February 23, 2015 rui_mac: Make any video you like - these betas are public upon initial release (because they can be installed as a trial), so it's all good :) Andy. rui_mac and Paekke 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nguyen Ha Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I got crashed after export to JPG very often bro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenogre Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I've got a bug with interface : Stroke / Style > menu is grey when I use it several times. No more icons (none/solid/dash/brush). I must quit AD and relaunch. Mac OS X 10.8.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted February 24, 2015 Author Staff Share Posted February 24, 2015 That's very odd - I'll ask one of the guys to try it on their Mountain Lion today to see if they can reproduce it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macmonkey Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Really great job on the text to curve implementation. i love how you can easily split text into the upper and lower sections of a circle… and how you can resize the circle (by clicking and dragging a corner point) without rescaling the text… both are fantastic timesavers :) Also really liking the corner tool. I noticed that you can bake all corners on a shape but wondered if it's possible to just bake selected corners if necessary?! One final thing… is it possible yet to switch off the selection outline when adding an effect. For example when I add a drop shadow or an inner shadow or a blur it would be really handy if the selection outline disappeared whilst i am moving the sliders so that I can see exactly how the final effect will look. The same way that changing the stroke colour is currently implemented. once again fantastic job everyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted February 24, 2015 Author Staff Share Posted February 24, 2015 Hi Macmonkey, Thanks for that :) Yes, I do plan on making the 'bake corners' button just do the selected ones, rather than all corners (or maybe having it as a modifier-click action?) but I also need a better name than 'bake corners'! ;) I didn't want to use 'Fix corners' because it sounds like they're broken and had a brain-freeze thinking of anything else! So... suggestions welcome! :) We'll definitely try to get the selection outline hiding behaviour in there - we have the facility to do it (as seen by changing the stroke colour) but have just forgotten to sprinkle the pixie-dust in the appropriate places! I'll get on it later! :) Thanks, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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