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The almost complete lack of new features


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I've been an Affinity Designer user for about two years now, and I've been mostly happy with it. However, during the time I've been using it, new features have been practically nonexistent. At the time, it was seen as (and was factually also approaching) a viable alternative to Adobe Illustrator, and the sentiment among users seemed to be that Illustrator was and had been dead in the water for years and it was time to get an alternative. However, Designer is now really in the same spot itself, which is really a shame.

A perfect example of this is the iOS application icon export preset. The export tools were really nice and the preset was a cherry on top, you selected it, hit export and dragged the json file into Xcode and you saved yourself a whole lot of manual effort. However, the preset is stuck in iOS 9, released in 2015. Now, you can apply the preset to get started, but you have to do manual stuff to make everything work and if you need to start over for any reason (like updating layers), it's back to square one again.

There are lots of other features that I understand not being there at launch. But this is now a popular package with lots of users. Why is there no simplify tool? Why can't I create new path points at the midpoint between two nodes? Why can't I scale individual nodes? Any user could probably add something pretty basic to the list.

I know the team has probably been busy with the iPad version and all (and I got it myself as well, it's nice), but I can't help but think I'm going to have to find another tool soon again because this one's not heading anywhere. Please make me be wrong about this.

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@Whistler possible you wait until the coming 1.7 passes the beta phase (which we are going to be real time contributors)  then decide if you stay or move? 

Honestly, out there I see That many Design softwares Such as SketchApp will struggle  a lot and at a higher level With tools like XD which does really impressive work. 

The new adobe toy kit is not a joke at all despite the evident bugs that designers who migratedmigrated can now see and experience but still,  the weather is bad out there. 

Let's come together and help Serif to deliver that life saving toolkit we all dream about. 

I'm also expecting things such as a fresh new Ui that rocks and shake the boat and tons of new tools but I do understand this: we have made a choice to stand with king David... So let it be despite King Saul assault and Goliath roaring, let's stand firm. 

Blessing 

Never be the Same Again !
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I would also really like to have the serif develop affinity Designer but they probably spend a lot of energy on Publisher. It is clear that Surf has no subscription and they need new products to receive money. But please do not forget the tools for which we loved the Serif -> there are Affinity Photo and Designer. Please pay attention to them. Thanks for attention

 

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there needs to be some form of additional revenue streams other than the one time purchase of the application. Adobe's solution was subscriptions. Traditionally one time purchase software only receives small incremental changes and updates because there is a lack of new revenue other than new sales. We are unlikely to see huge new features being added to products already released, in my opinion.

If serif ran a poll and stated they would implement three highly suggested features but that it would cost them 1.5 million CAD to create ... how would the community support such?

Maybe stated differently - if users want those three features and it will cost 1.5 million to put into place but the funds are not there ...

 

One possible solution? Collaborative editing via a cloud based system that you subscribe to. Adobe has been unable to do this, and if Serif pulled that off you would see a huge shift.

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4 hours ago, someguy said:

there needs to be some form of additional revenue streams other than the one time purchase of the application. Adobe's solution was subscriptions. Traditionally one time purchase software only receives small incremental changes and updates because there is a lack of new revenue other than new sales. We are unlikely to see huge new features being added to products already released, in my opinion.

If serif ran a poll and stated they would implement three highly suggested features but that it would cost them 1.5 million CAD to create ... how would the community support such?

Maybe stated differently - if users want those three features and it will cost 1.5 million to put into place but the funds are not there ...

 

One possible solution? Collaborative editing via a cloud based system that you subscribe to. Adobe has been unable to do this, and if Serif pulled that off you would see a huge shift.

+1 for the Collaborative cloud based system.
This is something i thought about for days; don't want to add another software to my toolbox but in the same time other software have a kind of collaborative thing already present.
With SketchApp yuo can collaborate on project (even if their model kind of confusing)
With inVision it's all about collaboration
with Gravit Designer you can do some collaboration.
So... making it possible for us to have something similar but even better even if Serif could charge small amount of money for those who need to have access it would be great.
We would then be able to work with designers located overseas but uses Affinity by Serif on projects and see our values and experience increasing on many aspects.

 

Never be the Same Again !
---
Dell Optiplex 5090 SFF
Intel Core i5-10500T @2.30GHz with 12GiB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 for 10th Generation
M.2 2280, 512 GB, PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4, Class 40 SSD

Windows 11 Pro x64 22H2 + LibreOffice 7.5.3

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2 hours ago, Arnaud Mez said:

+1 for the Collaborative cloud based system.
This is something i thought about for days; don't want to add another software to my toolbox but in the same time other software have a kind of collaborative thing already present.
With SketchApp yuo can collaborate on project (even if their model kind of confusing)
With inVision it's all about collaboration
with Gravit Designer you can do some collaboration.
So... making it possible for us to have something similar but even better even if Serif could charge small amount of money for those who need to have access it would be great.
We would then be able to work with designers located overseas but uses Affinity by Serif on projects and see our values and experience increasing on many aspects.

 

from my experience - there are a LOT of people who have been asking Adobe over the years for exactly this. Network saving instead of local saving ... so that they can do collaboration. So many people have asked that Adobe has up an entire page dedicated to basically stating - its not supported.

Adobe also used terminology that is just odd ... creative CLOUD seems to indicate some type of collaboration .. i dunno.

Collaborative editing is huge. I would be shocked if they dont move in this direction. I would be smart for Serif to beat them to it.

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7 hours ago, someguy said:

there needs to be some form of additional revenue streams other than the one time purchase of the application. Adobe's solution was subscriptions. Traditionally one time purchase software only receives small incremental changes and updates because there is a lack of new revenue other than new sales. We are unlikely to see huge new features being added to products already released, in my opinion.

If serif ran a poll and stated they would implement three highly suggested features but that it would cost them 1.5 million CAD to create ... how would the community support such?

Maybe stated differently - if users want those three features and it will cost 1.5 million to put into place but the funds are not there ...

 

One possible solution? Collaborative editing via a cloud based system that you subscribe to. Adobe has been unable to do this, and if Serif pulled that off you would see a huge shift.

Serif always said Affinity Designer would have free updates for two years. It's been three now... I want to give them my money!

That said, I understand it's an enormous task to create an entire suite of three professional design applications, even more to do so in a fraction of the time it took Adobe to develop modern versions of Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. I'm just looking forward to Publisher's release so Serif will have a fresh influx of cash and can hire up more developers to keep Designer going!

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10 hours ago, someguy said:

If serif ran a poll and stated they would implement three highly suggested features but that it would cost them 1.5 million CAD to create ... how would the community support such?

My point is not really about some high tech top of the line stuff that requires weeks or months of development time. We need the rest of the basic tools. Updating the export preset should take about an hour, path simplification is a very well known algorithm and doesn't take research, only elbow grease. Creating a node between two nodes should be incredibly trivial given we can already click on any point to create a node. Turning the reset selection box to an actually useful transformation reset should be a bug fix and a small label change.

If they focus on huge new features, they should come up with a business model. If they want to keep the revenue coming from new customers, they need to take care of the existing ones.

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What, exactly, are you complainers comparing to? Adobe's pace of feature development has always been lethargic. Still is. I could recite a long list just off the top of my head, but just one example is sufficient to make my point:

How many of you realize that it literally took decades for Adobe Illustrator to gain something every drawing program since the likes of ClarisWorks provided: live shape primitives (rectangles, polygons, stars, etc.) with adjustable shape parameters? It was in fact not until just very recently that its ellipse tool gained arc functionality; the ability to set angles for its start and end points for an ellipse, something invaluable for technical drawing.

The fact that a traditional perpetual license to Illustrator—when it was offered that way—cost about eight to ten times what Affinity Designer does, really has nothing to do with it. Individual, independent talented and passionate graphics people (as opposed to corporate IT departments just tasked with maintaining a company's software) who buy into Adobe's rental scheme often don't realize they are actually paying more in the mid-term than they did with its already overpriced perpetual licenses. (Why else do you think software rental schemes are the holy grail of software companies?) And they are painting themselves into the corner of perpetual brand-specific business-critical dependency, which I, for one, will have none of. (Guess who immediately dropped all interest in formerly promising Gravit Designer upon the announcement a couple of weeks ago of its acquisition by Corel and that it will only be offered by subscription.)

But it's all just a desperate move by that handful of now monolithic companies that were there in the "paradigm shift"  '80s to cling to, for as long as they can, what has long since become an outdated pricing model.

Adobe apps became perceived as the "leading" products simply because they carried the Adobe label (the household word in the days of the desktop publishing revolution, as creator of PostScript), not because of objective functional superiority of its desktop software. You think innovation only comes from such companies? What was the last truly innovative thing you saw done to Illustrator? It's 2D graphics. This isn't rocket science anymore.

Don't get me wrong; I've got my own problems with Affinity Designer. As soon as the 1.7 beta starts, I will be all over what is really the most foundational problem of its drawing interface: basic transformations being only bounding-box based. That's got to be addressed for serious illustration work. It effectively negates the program's otherwise superior accuracy. The difference is, I rather expect that with Serif, someone will actually be listening.

The rate of development of this fresh (and refreshingly affordable) graphics suite is not at all lethargic by comparison to its grossly overpriced monolithic competitors.

JET

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Also, consider this:

 

- The 1.6 release came with new features, but also had many internal changes.

- Ben confirmed that they put a lot of efforts changing the internal framework, and it was time well spent.

So, let’s hope for a new set of features by investing time the way they did it.

Best regards!

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9 hours ago, Whistler said:

My point is not really about some high tech top of the line stuff that requires weeks or months of development time. We need the rest of the basic tools. Updating the export preset should take about an hour, path simplification is a very well known algorithm and doesn't take research, only elbow grease. Creating a node between two nodes should be incredibly trivial given we can already click on any point to create a node. Turning the reset selection box to an actually useful transformation reset should be a bug fix and a small label change.

Just....  

 

Words fail me.

Coding is easy. Code which works is very difficult.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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10 hours ago, Whistler said:

My point is not really about some high tech top of the line stuff that requires weeks or months of development time. We need the rest of the basic tools. Updating the export preset should take about an hour, path simplification is a very well known algorithm and doesn't take research, only elbow grease. Creating a node between two nodes should be incredibly trivial given we can already click on any point to create a node. Turning the reset selection box to an actually useful transformation reset should be a bug fix and a small label change.

…. so easy and quick.... why don't you write your own full blown version. It shouldn't take you more than a month or two.... 

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On 10/24/2018 at 8:01 AM, Whistler said:

Why can't I scale individual nodes?

Are you talking about dragging a node angle and pressing a modifier key that would cause the opposite node to mirror with the node you are adjusting?  I'm on this forum wondering and wandering for information on this function which is often found in other vector tools. While it doesn't seem important, its very useful in symmetrical work. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Coming back to this !

@Whistler have you tried or tested the new betas?

I really believe it's an opportunity for you to help fix what you disagree with concerning Serif products precisely the Affinity Line.

Hope you have not left yet and will get this right on time.

Blessings !

Never be the Same Again !
---
Dell Optiplex 5090 SFF
Intel Core i5-10500T @2.30GHz with 12GiB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 for 10th Generation
M.2 2280, 512 GB, PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4, Class 40 SSD

Windows 11 Pro x64 22H2 + LibreOffice 7.5.3

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  • 1 year later...

You lost him.

image.png.1ba5fa59a04116be5413256c055a5230.png

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
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