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Affinity Designer Customer Beta RC3 (1.1.2.23834)


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Hold on there! ;)   There won't be a new beta today - we've got a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff to do now with regards to folding our Designer Release branch into the main development trunk carefully so that Photo and Designer both have the same code base again, then we can move on... Ben is still typing away at his new snapping and grids - I was treated to a preview on Wednesday last week and it looks pretty fab to be perfectly honest, but Ben is a bit of a perfectionist, so he wants it to be right before he unleashes it on everyone. I'd expect to see it next week (if I'm right) - sorry about that! :(

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I am disappointed that Affinity still doesn't honour the users' regional settings… I could very well even have OS X set up to display all the interface in english (I have it in pt-PT, but that's besides the point anyway, as it will take ages – or maybe not even come to pass – until we get a pt-PT localization – and I'm fine with that… I've been living in english-UI land for 23 years now and have no issues with that fact), and still want it to recognize different decimal separators, as per my country standards (and also have it recognize international ones and convert them on the fly to the local ones, as I might wish to copy measurement info from foreign websites or documents – I'm hoping that the comma support is *added* to the period support and not an “either one or the other but not both” proposition).

 

...

 

[Edit and P.S.: Out of morbid curiosity, I did indeed try to change the UI language to see if I could try the decimal comma separator support but didn't get it to work in Designer with any of the localizations, nor did I find any preference whatsoever with which I might toggle it – not that I think, as I very clearly stated, that should even be a configurable preference but something universal and activated by default, but still. As for Photo, yes, I tried it in spanish and it worked just fine, as it should on *all* localizations and does in all Adobe apps already, so since you already have the necessary code in place, I'm hoping you can activate it in time for the final Designer update RC.]

 

Your first issue is now fixed for the next betas. The decimal separators now uses your system locale, not the applications. :)

 

As Matt already mentioned, the code for the decimal separators is too new and considered unsafe for a RC release (which should usually be no new features and only critical bug fixes). New features like this (no matter how small) must remain in beta for several weeks to determine if it has any major consequences to the rest of the application. You have already seen a bug with that code!

 

It will of course be in the next Designer's beta update.

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Hi JGD,

 

I'm sorry if you feel we're not making progress quickly enough... We're obviously typing as fast as we can - but we can't afford to just throw stuff into the application because it causes bugs - and then we end up with a program that is not a nice experience for anyone. We've clearly shown that we're taking translations seriously by introducing this Designer update with the first 4 languages in it and also Photo Beta is now showing our intentions to add support for your regionalised number separators. This could ​not be safely added to Designer before it was submitted - it would require at least another round of testing as the potential for it to go subtly wrong and completely annoy users is high, so was deliberately left out of the final build. That's just the way it is. But when the next Designer beta appears it will obviously be there, fully working, just like in Photo Beta.

 

Miguel (MEB) is part of the team and, yes, he's Portuguese so might even be able to help us with Portuguese translations - that's his decision as it's not his primary role in the company, so we'll leave that to him - but I don't know why you'd imagine you'd have to wait a long time before a Portuguese translation was made available? We haven't scheduled it yet, but if there is enough real demand for it then it requires very little coding effort now that we have the other languages working, so it's mainly about how quickly someone could type the translated strings and someone else could review them.

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

Hi Matt!

 

Thank you for your quick and frank response… Sorry, I sometimes forget just how finicky coding on large-scale projects like Affinity can be. I stand corrected… And you're right, I'm a bit of an impatient guy. But I do like the way the suite is heading and how it is shaping up to be a serious contender (and, yes, I will be buying both Photo and Publisher when they show up in the MAS).

 

Well, maybe was I underestimating your localization efforts… Sorry for that, too. I see you might be aiming higher than even Adobe, as pt-PT is, admittedly, niche at best (Adobe does offer a pt-BR localization, but that's kind of moot; pt-BR always rubs us the wrong way as the differences in vocabulary and grammar, *including* technical stuff, are way bigger than between en-GB and en-US, thus making us feel a bit like “second-class” users and, more often than not, opt for the english versions instead – word!). But hey, if you are considering it, consider us spoiled in anticipation, then! ;)

 

By the way, while I'm at it and since you mentioned that MEB may participate even if his role inside the company isn't specific to localization, well, I might as well reiterate: if you also need volunteers or paid consultants, sign me in (if I were paid, all the better, but mostly I just want to watch Adobe crash and burn, while securing a decent and peaceful future for me and many colleagues as, potentially, strictly freelance designers… The only reason I ask is because I'd have ethical qualms about robbing my freelance translator friends of a potentially well-paid job). I've been working with DTP software since the early '00s and, being enrolled in a typography-related major, I have unfettered access to academics in the field and all the best portuguese literature on technical nomenclature (titles like “The Dictionary of the Book” by Almedina editors or the [waaaay] out-of-print “Graphic Speller” by renowned printer Vilela, just to name two).

 

Also, I personally know (nay, I am actually friends with, as I said) three freelance translators, one of them being an ex-girlfriend of mine (and a damn fine translator, if I may add; she attained her master's degree with flying colours, having scored a whopping 19/20 on her final dissertation and an overall 18/20 course grade), and another one of which works specifically in UI and documentation localization (but they are all eclectic enough to work on it regardless of their specialty). I am not sure if they are currently available, but, judging from the current job landscape here in Portugal, they very likely are, and I can definitely vouch for their competence. If and when you so wish, PM me and I can get you in touch with them.

 

Anyway, as always, keep up the great work!

 

P.S.: While we're on the topic of localization, how universal will the hyphenation support be? Do you, as purveyors of PagePlus (which, admiteddly, I barely got to know by anything other than name… I believe I launched a trial under a VM once or twice, but that was pretty much it), already have access to full hyphenation dictionary licenses? I am just asking because that will be an essential feature to have in Publisher – though I'm assuming that Publisher will not foist cumbersome shenanigans upon us like Quark did (like having to get a separate, “Passport” version… ha!) and be more like InDesign in that regard, am I right?

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Matt I found some more cropped out text in the Assistant Notification pop-up in AD RC3... I'm using the Large Font UI setting in US English. Below is the screen grab:

 

post-1105-0-09085900-1427123565_thumb.jpg

 

Thanks, Ronny!  I'm guessing this is a little bug from the US English translations... :S

 

We'll get it sorted (but yes, it's already waiting for review in the AppStore with this oddity!)

 

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

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Also Matt, AD RC3 sucks CPU cycles when hovering with large brush. I'm getting very high CPU usage (~ 450%) and of course the fans wind up on my laptop when I'm hovering over the image using the regular painting brush at somewhat large sizes (~700 px diameter). The document is empty. I am not even laying down a brush stroke, just hovering over (with the awesome live preview). Is this a bug or by design? Same thing happens with APhoto current beta...

 

 

Thanks, Ronny!  I'm guessing this is a little bug from the US English translations... :S

 

We'll get it sorted (but yes, it's already waiting for review in the AppStore with this oddity!)

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

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Hi Ronny,

 

I can imagine that it will use all of your available CPU to complete its task, and if your mouse keeps moving, it'll do that on and on and on... so eventually will heat up your CPU and cause your fans to kick in. I can't imagine a way around this, unfortunately. If it becomes a serious problem then we'll have to look at it, perhaps the easiest way is simply to offer the ability to disable the live preview, as that's what's causing the CPU load...

 

Thanks,

Matt

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Well, I'm not giving up the sexy live previews, CPU and fans be dammed, lol! Maybe if it's an issue like you say, it becomes a setting for low quality or ½ resolution brush previews or something like that, instead of just turning it off altogether... If I could only channel that excess heat into a thermo-electric converter to recharge my laptop's battery... C'mon Apple, let's start making zero-point, free-energy laptops already, lol!

 

Hi Ronny,

 

I can imagine that it will use all of your available CPU to complete its task, and if your mouse keeps moving, it'll do that on and on and on... so eventually will heat up your CPU and cause your fans to kick in. I can't imagine a way around this, unfortunately. If it becomes a serious problem then we'll have to look at it, perhaps the easiest way is simply to offer the ability to disable the live preview, as that's what's causing the CPU load...

 

Thanks,

Matt

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

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Well, I'm not giving up the sexy live previews, CPU and fans be dammed, lol! Maybe if it's an issue like you say, it becomes a setting for low quality or ½ resolution brush previews or something like that, instead of just turning it off altogether... If I could only channel that excess heat into a thermo-electric converter to recharge my laptop's battery... C'mon Apple, let's start making zero-point, free-energy laptops already, lol!

 

Now, I wonder, who would've thought of that… http://evergreenterrace.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Machine.gif

 

Sorry, couldn't resist lightening up the mood a bit. ^^

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One tiny request as well—is there a way to maintain the appearance of fonts for those who don't have them on their system, unless a user attempted to edit the font? Or is that less doable in Designer because we're living in both raster and vector worlds?

 

Just thinking, for instance, of working with developers who may want to see the appearance of type in a mockup and not want to install all fonts used. They likely would need to install fonts to pull out copy, though, so it may not be that much of an issue. :)

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Hi Smallreflection,

 

That's a nice request and one that's hopefully fairly simple to achieve - just cache the outlines of the text in the file until such time as you edit them...

 

I'll put it to our text guru when he gets back from his holidays and see what he thinks :)

Matt

 

Hi MattP,

 

Speaking of caches… What's the legality and feasability of fetching the glyph information embedded inside a .PDF exported by Illustrator or InDesign and using it to render all the corresponding text strings present in said file, even if the font isn't installed and activated in the system (at least until the user tries to edit it, not unlike smallreflection proposed for .afdesign files and .PDF readers already manage to do by design)?

 

Also, while I'm at it, do you reckon that those glyphs could be convertable to outlines? Or… would that veer off too much into the “downright illegal” camp?

 

I am posing both questions not because I might wish to pirate fonts (as I said before, I am enrolled on a typography-related master, so I am very much against that as a matter of principle; and, besides, even if I did want to do that, that would be the stupidest way of going about it, as not only the glyph sets are incredibly limited for all but the largest documents – say, multilingual or reference editions like encyclopedias –, you are also certain to lose the kerning tables and OpenType features in the process), but because of the odd logo I sometimes have to rebuild or extract in vector form at my day job. I am pretty sure that many colleagues around here can relate to that. :\

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Hi andyajon,

 

We submitted it last week, so we're just waiting for the approval process... We've not had any update on it so far, but I'm hoping it'll be any day now :)  We're super-excited too (plus, I've just seen the new video for the update and it's really good - I've played it about 50 times so far, hehe!)

 

Thanks,

Matt

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Hi Narlei,

 

It makes a new file and writes over the top of the old one so it will not have any of the original file's additional metadata. The only tag I'm aware that we think we're writing is the dpi. This isn't a bug, it's deliberate behaviour, but we can obviously look at that...

 

Thanks,

Matt

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Hello,

I'm having a problem: I just download the last upgrade of AD and in installing that I choose the replace the previous beta version, now when I try to open a file I was working on I have a window that says: "Failed to open file. The file was for a different version of Persone".

What can I do ?

 

Thanks

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Hi Tamauro,

This message appears when you try to open a file created in the Beta in the original Mac App Store version. Currently their file formats are not compatible. If you are double-clicking over a file in the Finder it may be trying to use the Mac App Store version to open it. To avoid this right-click on the .afdesign file on the Finder and select Open with ▹ Affinity Designer Beta or in alternative just run Affinity Designer Beta and use the File ▹ Open command from the menu to open the file. 

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Hi andyajon,

 

We submitted it last week, so we're just waiting for the approval process... We've not had any update on it so far, but I'm hoping it'll be any day now :)  We're super-excited too (plus, I've just seen the new video for the update and it's really good - I've played it about 50 times so far, hehe!)

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

Hi Matt,

 

Any chance we can see the video for the update?  :D

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Hi Matt,

 

Any chance we can see the video for the update?  :D

 

:D

 

The team are still tweaking it (although I think it's already awesome!) but hopefully they'll be done soon. I think there's a very good chance the update will go live next Thursday (Apple tends to do things on a Thursday, and we've not been approved yet today, so I imagine it'll be next week) - that's my best guess at the moment and the video will probably go live as soon as we spot the update is available. I feel like we've been waiting for a very long time to see this arrive in the App Store and I can't wait! :D

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