Improve PDF exporting speed (and other features for print)

[tudor]

I've been trying to use Affinity Designer for a print project involving the creation of all kinds of posters and banners (starting from 24"x36" posters, going up to 31.5"x79" banners and other pieces larger than that). The graphics are quite simple but I have to use a couple of bitmap graphics which at that size are heavy enough in MB.

Everything went well excepting for the final PDF output, which turned out to be very slow. For example, exporting a simple 31.5"x79" test file took 2.5 minutes in AD, with the CPU usage going up to the max of 800%. On the same computer Illustrator exports the same file in 25 seconds. Obviously the AD export process isn't very efficient so there is room for improvement.

So while UX and flashy illustration seem to be all the rage these days, it would be great if the Affinity team could spend some time focusing on improving and adding features required for print production and general graphic design. Besides improving the PDF export speed, I'll vote for these too:

• Bleed guides
• Arrowheads
• Placing linked graphics
• Better grid/guides management
• Selecting all objects with the same fill or stroke
• Object styles which can be modified and updated

Thank you!