media.tv Posted August 7, 2014 Share Posted August 7, 2014 As a FreeHand jockey whose 32-bit MacBook Pro finally went to its reward, AD is exactly what I've been looking for. So far, the beta performs beautifully. Very few problems. Amazingly stable for a beta… Huge kudos to AD developers for this wonderful program! When it's released, I'll be the first in line. The FreeHand tools (or facsimiles) I'm hoping for include: Add points & simplify points Envelope warping (or some kind of object-distortion tool) 3D rotation (perspective tool) Fisheye lens Roughen effect Expand Stroke, Stroke to path & Inset path Text flow around objects, along paths & flow between text boxes Multiple pages, with a scratch area for layout design work A lot to expect, I know. But when Affinity Designer can do these things, then it really is adios, Illustrator... I've heard that AD developers may be working on opening Freehand files. If so, then I DO believe in Santa Claus! Also, IMHO, pro-level CYMK prepress isn't a big priority since the vast majority of users (even Illustrator users) don't do 4-color publishing. Thanks again for filling a big hole in the Mac vector sphere... andy-in-mke and Dale 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted August 7, 2014 Staff Share Posted August 7, 2014 Santa Claus does exist though, surely!?! We can prove it too - the Freehand import is working really well at the moment and if you have any files you want me to test it against, then just send them over to support@seriflabs.com and we can make sure it works properly :) We'll obviously treat any files confidentially and they will be deleted after we've validated the import - we could even try to send you a .afdesign version back so you can use that file in Designer right now! I'm going to work on Expand Stroke in a bit and also being able to use the pasteboard and see the objects on it soon. We already have functioning text wrapping (see my video here) but it's an Affinity Publisher feature so you'll need Publisher in order to activate the attribute on objects (although Designer will open and edit the document with wrapping working correctly, obviously). Text flow is yet to be added - but again it's really a Publisher thing... Text along paths will be added to Designer after launch as a free update. I've never liked a broad 'roughen' effect - it always does the wrong thing in my experience (never quite what I wanted), so I think we might add a roughen tool that you rub over the areas of curve to roughen, and then also a smooth tool that smooths out curve segments that you apply it to: At least this way you have full control. Warping will also be added after launch as a free update, as will Pantone and professional print output. Thanks for all your kind comments - really glad you're enjoying using Designer! :) Matt andy-in-mke and 000 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aongus Collins Posted August 7, 2014 Share Posted August 7, 2014 Hello Matt, I've just emailed two old Freehand files. They're old newspaper and magazine illustrations, and not at all confidential. I can't open them myself, but I'm attaching JPGs as well. Regards Aongus Collins Dale 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
media.tv Posted August 25, 2014 Author Share Posted August 25, 2014 Thanks for Expand Stroke! That's a really critical feature. Only… I haven't figured out how to use it. Probably something so simple I missed it… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted August 25, 2014 Staff Share Posted August 25, 2014 media.tv, The entry is already on the main menu but it isn't completed yet as far as i know. It should be ready soon. Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nichod Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Hmm. Needed this feature today. (expand stroke) I hope it gets added to the public version soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRScott Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 A smooth tool sounds good. Maybe that is the closest thing next to "Smoothing" for the pencil and brush that I can get. Straighten out those ol' age jitters. ;) Quote 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...
10on12 Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 I'm opening FH11 files and it's all holding together very well. It's adding fills to vector paths (unclosed) but apart from that it's very use-able. Dogwings 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Andy Somerfield Posted October 1, 2014 Staff Share Posted October 1, 2014 Hey, We prioritised import of pure illustration work from Freehand for the Designer release over all else - makes sense I think.. Adding fills to vector paths sounds like a bug, so if you could drop an example into the Bugs forum, I'll fix that for you. We'll tackle FH text import soon - it's the thing I want to do before asking for bug reports for the feature - the FH crowd know what they want and I won't ask them for feedback until I have no outstanding jobs on my own FH import bug list :) AndyS 10on12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogwings Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Thanks for the updates, sounds like we all expect great things from the program! Passing the word along to all my FH colleagues. One issue that I've experienced is in actually opening FH files. Most of my native files are not saved with suffix, just the file name. These files will not open unless I add (.fh11) to each prior to opening. Due the countless art archives and project files this really slows down the process for me. Looking for a fix or a suggestion that I may have over looked. Thanks for the help - looking forward to a great product. stephen may 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
000 Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Hi Dogwings, I suggest running a file renamer (there are plenty available in all price categories) through your archives and adding the .fh11 ending to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Andy Somerfield Posted October 1, 2014 Staff Share Posted October 1, 2014 I think I've missed adding an ".fhmx" extension - if you have ".fhmx" you might need to rename to ".fh11". I'll make sure that's in the next build you guys see. It's difficult for us to add a handler for "no extension" - although I might be able to do something to help here - let me look.. Cheers, A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDGwf Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 I'd like to chime in and add my request for a roughen tool as I've decided to attempt to do some fictional atlas style maps. Inkscape on the Mac is a bear to use with X11's non-Mac way of doing things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rui_mac Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Roughen tools would be easy to implement when we get programming tools ;) And spiraling tools... And ... And ... :D 000 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen may Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 I really would like to create vector brushes from vector shapes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harryhunger Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 Hi developers. First: MANY thanks for this amazing tool! For Freehand lovers its finally bringing back a lot of core features that Adobe never managed to integrate for years. Regarding possible future features: I would love to see the following two and would be very happy if you could find a way to integrate them. add the freehand-tool cut content (e.g. on alt + cmd + x) . It's basically the opposite of your paste inside command and it makes it so much more comfortable to build complex vector drawings! You can get really fast with it. allow to scale objects that have content inside without scaling the actual content (basically scaling the mask only), ideally accessed by shortcut (hold any key while scaling) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted November 19, 2014 Staff Share Posted November 19, 2014 Hi harryhunger! Both completely valid features and will appear as soon as we get chance :) Thanks for the heads-up (I wasn't aware of cut content and it sounds good!) Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy-in-mke Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Santa Claus does exist though, surely!?! We can prove it too - the Freehand import is working really well at the moment and if you have any files you want me to test it against, then just send them over to support@seriflabs.com and we can make sure it works properly :) We'll obviously treat any files confidentially and they will be deleted after we've validated the import - we could even try to send you a .afdesign version back so you can use that file in Designer right now! I'm going to work on Expand Stroke in a bit and also being able to use the pasteboard and see the objects on it soon. We already have functioning text wrapping (see my video here) but it's an Affinity Publisher feature so you'll need Publisher in order to activate the attribute on objects (although Designer will open and edit the document with wrapping working correctly, obviously). Text flow is yet to be added - but again it's really a Publisher thing... Text along paths will be added to Designer after launch as a free update. I've never liked a broad 'roughen' effect - it always does the wrong thing in my experience (never quite what I wanted), so I think we might add a roughen tool that you rub over the areas of curve to roughen, and then also a smooth tool that smooths out curve segments that you apply it to: At least this way you have full control. Warping will also be added after launch as a free update, as will Pantone and professional print output. Thanks for all your kind comments - really glad you're enjoying using Designer! :) Matt As much as I used and liked FreeHand's old roughen tool, I must say the idea of making it targetable to a segment of a line in the manner you describe sounds really good – I'd never thought of such a thing until reading it in your post. How about making that a tool pref, or a mode, depending on the user. The whole line or just part(s) of it, with the user choosing the default? MattP 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhquiroga Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 I'm testing Affinity because of its FH capabilities... I'm also a FH user looking for an actual similar app. The text import doesn't seem to be fixed yet, is it gonna be a solution for that?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGraphicist Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 On 10/1/2014 at 4:05 PM, Andy Somerfield said: We'll tackle FH text import soon - it's the thing I want to do before asking for bug reports for the feature - the FH crowd know what they want and I won't ask them for feedback until I have no outstanding jobs on my own FH import bug list :) I purchased Affinity Designer for Desktop with the expectation that Freehand text import would happen when Affinity's staff designer said it would: "soon". It's been over four years since Mr. Somerfield's assurance, and months since I purchased the product. Freehand MX files still fail to import with text into Affinity Designer for Desktop. This cripples my entire reason for purchasing Designer. When can we users expect this feature to be added to Affinity Designer for Desktop? Please answer this query on behalf of all Affinity Designer users. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
built4com4t Posted November 10, 2018 Share Posted November 10, 2018 I too, a freehand user since aldys with literally hundreds of critical FH MX files, am looking for an answer to this. exiting to be able to slip out of the adobe choke hold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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