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Affinity Designer Customer Beta (1.7.0.3)


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Status: Beta

Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes

Requirements: Purchased Affinity Designer

Mac App Store: Not submitted

Download: Here

Hello,

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the beta of Affinity Designer 1.7 for macOS.

Designer 1.7 is a significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version. Files edited in this version will not be backwards-compatible with the shipping 1.6 version. As such, we would not recommend using this 1.7 version for critical or production work at this stage. It is inevitable that there were will be a number of issues with 1.7 but we hope these will be minor and aim to resolve any issues very quickly, so please use it and explore the new features, but also do keep in mind that you may find snags and we would appreciate your help with finding and reporting these to us.

If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.

It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7.

With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this initial release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.

Many thanks,

Matt

 

Affinity Designer 1.7 - Changes since last Beta release

- Fix for crash in Export dialog when only one Artboard is present

- Fix for occasional crash when using Construction points

- Improved Freehand import slightly - failing to read all of a file shouldn't force it to produce a 'failed to load' response, instead we just load the bits that we *could* read

- Improvements to HSL adjustment

- PDF import and export improvements

- Fix for very poorly named Styles (oops)

- Sub-brush editing improvements

- New splash screen and Persona icons

 


Affinity Designer 1.7 - Changes Since Last 1.6 Release

 

Tools

- We've overhauled most of the core tools, adding subtle new features to make you more productive:

   - Node tool has a new 'Transform Mode' which provides a containing box for the selected nodes and allows for more freeform editing of the nodes.

   - Node and Pen tools have an utterly amazing Construction mode which gives easy access to common construction features to help you build complicated shapes or intersections accurately and easily, giving you simple access to parallels, right angles, reflected and mirrored angles, in addition to circular construction snaps and all construction intersections. This really needs a video to show how to use it - but it's awesome.

   - Pen tool now has a 'rubber band' mode and also a mode to allow future curves to be added to the current object's curves (for example, the character 'a' is constructed of two curves in a single 'curve object' and this mode makes that construction simpler).

   - Node tool can now auto-snap nodes if you drag a node from one curve over the top of a node from another (selected) curve and pause, it will offer to snap to the same geometry as the node you're hovering over (ie,  modify the on and off-curve nodes to match). This is really useful for trying to reconstruct areas of one curve from another curve.

   - Node tool now allows for lasso selection of nodes by holding the Alt/Option key and dragging a selection lasso.

   - Pencil tool now offers a 'sculpt' mode that allows for extending or manipulating curves in a more natural way. More to come in this area soon.

   - Many tools now allow for 'Alignment widgets' which you can toggle the visibility of in the context toolbar. When enabled you can visually adjust the alignment or even, for example, 'align to centre, snapped to the left edge of this object' by simply click/dragging.

   - Fill tool correctly allows editing of skewed fill handles and newly-created skewed fills draw much nicer now.

   - Ruler origin can be edited by simply dragging the area where the rulers intersect each other - it can even be snapped onto objects in the document.

   - Guides can be edited in most tools by simply dragging a guide in the ruler area.

   - Grid setup is now more interactive: origin can be dragged, axis scale adjusted and angle adjusted on-document, complete with snapping to objects and angles in the document to help you reconstruct useful grids from finished artworks or sketches.

   - By enabling 'Edit in Plane' on the new Isometric Studio, tools can edit objects and appear to make those edits along the currently active plane - extremely useful for artists who enjoy working with any axonometric projections.

   - You can now drag the rotation centre point (when enabled on the context toolbar) while holding Ctrl and it will translate the object - this is actually very useful for positioning and snapping objects relative to others.

   - Shapes tools now have presets so you can create your own favourite shape setups and more easily use them again.

   - There are just far too many subtle tool changes to mention here, but hopefully you'll find the tools much improved :)

 

General

- New brushes, styles and assets are now shipped with the product.

- Visible bleed (accessed from the View menu) so you can more easily design into the bleed area - a common feature request.

- “Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Designer will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done.

- New 'Isometric' Studio makes it easy to setup and work with various axonometric projections within the application.

- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Designer. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed.

- Designer now supports custom document presets - a popular feature request.

- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.

- New “Move inside / outside” commands have been added - useful for quickly clipping/unclipping.

- New "Merge curves/Separate curves" commands.

- Grids now have an editable number of angle subdivisions.

- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.

- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features such as bullets and numbering.

- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.

 

Brushes

- Designer 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time. Each sub-brush has a fully separate and customisable set of dynamics. You can control when the sub-brushes are drawn and how they blend with the main brush.

- Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring.

- Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance.

- Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control.

- All pixel brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request.


Adjustments

- The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls.

- The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request.

- The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten.

- The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten.

- PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved.

- The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten.

- The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider.

 

Misc

- Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list!

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6 minutes ago, Gear maker said:

So Matt what does .0.3 have different from .0.2?

It's listed in the first post in this topic, isn't it?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
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I'm sadly missing any mention of an envelope distort for text. The transform mode for nodes could hold the answer, it is possible to pinch both corners inward at the same time for a perspective distort? I'm ideally looking to do the equivalent of vector Arch Distort, (see bottom example on attached image) . Is this something that can be achieved with the new transform nodes? I'm toying with the beta at the moment but don't know if I'm just missing something.

Thanks for the peek at the beta. I'll definitely play with it more over the next few days and report any bugs I may find. 

DISTORT.jpg

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@MattP really happy to see that new beta have surfaced.
unfortunately i won't download it now nor give it a try, had another power outage (will have really crazy ones until next month) but as always (since beta cycle started) i will download this new one and make use of it then revert with a dedicated topic for it.
JUst wanted to add this: Those who may have experienced some issues with Affinity Designer (actually the suite) and who make use of an external monitor/screen plugged through HDMI port of your Macbook, please try to unplug that external monitor and process some work with any software you have, Affinity included; i've noticed a real difference since i'm no more using my 32" external 4K samsung TV, i don't think it has something to do with Affinity but i suspect issue with transfer rate between the Macbook and the external device, please if you can try another cable (a good one) after you have unplugged that other one.
i've done 6hours non stop work on my Mac with all 3 beta opened (i needed it for the project i was busy on) and No crazy usage of ram or CPU at all for the entire 6hours long, i just hope this nex beta will make it even better or preserve what is already Okay !

BTW, will revert as soon as i have that new Gun loaded and ready.

Blessings !

Never be the Same Again !
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41 minutes ago, Phojoegraphy said:

I'm sadly missing any mention of an envelope distort for text. The transform mode for nodes could hold the answer, it is possible to pinch both corners inward at the same time for a perspective distort? I'm ideally looking to do the equivalent of vector Arch Distort, (see bottom example on attached image) . Is this something that can be achieved with the new transform nodes? I'm toying with the beta at the moment but don't know if I'm just missing something.

Thanks for the peek at the beta. I'll definitely play with it more over the next few days and report any bugs I may find. 

DISTORT.jpg

At this stage: Draw a line using your pen tool then bend it to match your curve expectations then click the Text tool or simply type T and bring your pointer closer to that curved line and you will see the text symbol apear with a ~ close to it, that means it okay, just click on the curved line then start typing.
Or go for Affinity Photo method but i don't know if it has become Non Destructive at this stage.

Enjoy !

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, walt.farrell said:

It's listed in the first post in this topic, isn't it?

No, that writeup is the same one used from version 1.7.0.2, last Thursday.  Something was changed to get to this version 1.7.0.3.  I'm just curious what it was.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) with macOS Sierra

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6 minutes ago, Gear maker said:

No, that writeup is the same one used from version 1.7.0.2, last Thursday.  Something was changed to get to this version 1.7.0.3.  I'm just curious what it was.

The last release notes did not have this section 

5 hours ago, MattP said:

Affinity Designer 1.7 - Changes since last Beta release

- Fix for crash in Export dialog when only one Artboard is present

- Fix for occasional crash when using Construction points

- Improved Freehand import slightly - failing to read all of a file shouldn't force it to produce a 'failed to load' response, instead we just load the bits that we *could* read

- Improvements to HSL adjustment

- PDF import and export improvements

- Fix for very poorly named Styles (oops)

- Sub-brush editing improvements

- New splash screen and Persona icons

 

 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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 Thank you guys for adding the Transform Mode Node tool and aligning the node using the align tool. I miss that from Inkscape it's really useful tricks 

the thing that I was hoping that you guys work on is that I can

- "gradient tool" pick colors using the color picker 

- "color picker tool", by pressing shift I can pick the color for the stroke

 

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5 hours ago, Uncle Mez said:

At this stage: Draw a line using your pen tool then bend it to match your curve expectations then click the Text tool or simply type T and bring your pointer closer to that curved line and you will see the text symbol apear with a ~ close to it, that means it okay, just click on the curved line then start typing.
Or go for Affinity Photo method but i don't know if it has become Non Destructive at this stage.

Enjoy !

Thanks Uncle Mez. What you described, (type on a path,) is how I did the top example. I need to distort text and have it stay a vector so moving it to Affinity Photo is not an option. This singular option is why I still have Illustrator installed. There really is no vector workaround for it in Affinity and I was really hoping we would see it in 1.7. Sorry to be such a downer about it. I’m anxious to try the improved node tools but I don’t think they’re going to do what I want for this. 

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Hey team, how about extending the awesome new lasso selection feature to the move (selection) tool? Currently it's only active when the node tool is selected, unless I've got that wrong.

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The new Node tool improvements are brilliant

especially transform Mode and lasso selection

Visible bleed.... hallelulya! although it still doesn't work with artboards????

Isometric' Studio isn't really something i'll personally use but looks like it could be adapted in the future for a perspective grid which would be ACE!

Bit disappointed there's still no distort (hold down a modifier key and drag a corner point of any vector or group) or envelope distort, which are taken for granted, every day features many designers and illustrators have used since the mid 90's - just a bit frustrating that we have to create work around affinity's current limitations or just fire up a ten year old version of Illustrator just to distort vectors

Just wondering why theres no lock guides in Designer?

Daz1.png

Mac Pro Cheese-grater (Early 2009) 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC Ram, Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5, Ugee 19" Graphics Tablet Monitor Triple boot via OCLP 1.2.1 - Mac OS Monterey 12.7.1, Sonoma 14.1.1 and Mojave 10.14.6

Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo 1.10.5 - 2.2.1

www.bingercreative.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

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I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the incorporation into Designer of some of the Publisher developments — particularly the typographic enhancements (like hanging punctuation) and the Publisher bleed enhancements. I love the continuity between these two applications, something that InDesign and Illustrator have never had. You‘re doing a great job, guys!

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Wanted to say that some of the improvement in the beta are great. I can now move the node hands at the same time with a key combo, bleeds (thanks goodness, not crashing anymore when using the search tools (ie, style, fonts, assets, etc). I'm sure there is plenty I did see yet. But thankful they are slowly address some of the issues.

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Awesome!

I've noticed that Advanced Grids are not possible/editable if the construction mode is ON.

Is this by design?

Also: 

- Snapping sometimes works only after the second click on artboard/canvas.

- ALT + Drag (draw from center) doesn't work for "Edit in Plane" 

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

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Thank you very much for all the work you've put in.

But that one thing that annoys the hell out of me in all 3 apps (Designer, Photo, Publisher): The fact that you can't get two fixed columns of studio panels next to each other on macOS - but the windows version allows for that: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/59066-studio-panels-in-two-columns/

Will this ever get fixed?

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