Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Things still on my wish list for Affinity


Recommended Posts

1. Select by color or stroke (I'm having to go to Illustrator to do this - it's a pain)

2. Better Direct Select tool. I sort of hate the way the direct select tool works. I can't drag to select a group of points. I have to click each one (unless I'm missing a trick)

3. Outline/trace an image. I use this a lot. I'm having to bounce from Freehand on the PC side or go to another Mac with an old version of Illustrator.

4. Could it ever be possible to export to a native Illustrator file? Some CS version?

5. Native import of Affinity files into layout apps like Quark or Indesign - so I don't have to go back to 1993 and have an eps file AND a working file.

Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, George3 said:

5. Native import of Affinity files into layout apps like Quark or Indesign - so I don't have to go back to 1993 and have an eps file AND a working file.

Extremely unlikely that Serif will document the format of their files, in order to enable Quark or InDesign to import them. In any case, why would Serif want to do that when they have their own layout program, Publisher? They would be hurting their own sales.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. Wow. I didn't know they didn't have that one yet. But I suspect it's low-hanging fruit and it will come sooner rather than later. Sooner, unfortunately, than universal layers, but alas, such is life. 

2. I also didn't know that. I'll probably have to check that one out. But it's also low-hanging fruit, so keep pushing for it.

3. It's a nice-to-have feature, but unless it's something you do on a daily basis, if you have an old version of CS lying around you're better off firing up a dedicated virtual machine if need be (on the Mac you probably will have to do that, yes, and deal with its potential fugly non-Retina-ness) and load it up on there. It's a feature that I'm certain is on their internal roadmap somewhere, but it will take years to come.

4. I highly doubt it. Those files are proprietary, so I'm really not seeing that happening. Honestly, you're better off sending .PDFs and trying to convert people into the Affinity fold. The price of admission is stupidly low and the licences are perpetual; if it ever reaches critical mass, even the most die-hard Adobe fanboy may eventually relent, and it's not like you're forcing them to install Corel. xD As for IDML, that would be cool, and please correct me if I'm wrong; it's a bit of a more “open” format, right?

5. Same as above, and the other posters already covered it. But I'll also add: if IDML import is doable, it stands to reason that IDML export should be, too, so at least regarding Publisher you'd be covered. And Photo can already save .PSD files, so there's that. 2/3 native competitor format support is pretty good if you ask me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

+1   

I hope they make these additions along with many other necessary ones. It would be great if the Designer * .afdesign files, besides being AF proprietary files, be natively compatible PDF files so as to insert them in INDESIGN without having to export a real PDF file. I understand that INDESIGN does not read such files ... Probably Affinity should create a tool that implements the Indesign functionalities making it capable of opening and importing the * .afdesign file as a link. I understand that on Affinity's part its purpose is to move on to the entire product range but as long as pubblisher will not be a worthy and valid substitute for Indesign this will never happen. Except Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign are valid software. Illustrator in my opinion sins a lot in many structural things at the base that for 30 years are not resolved. If the Affinity Designer development team will soon commit, we hope, to fill the gaps in this software with respect to the competitor, I believe it is a valid adversary. Already now AD is better than Ai on many things, but the lack of some function makes the complete transition to AD stop. Ai is slow, inaccurate, cumbersome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The major feature I dream for is a more robust pattern making tool, like what Illustrator has, only better in the way that Serif would make it ;) 

I do a lot of clothing design and really miss having Illustrator's pattern tool... A LOT.

With the addition of something like that, I could certainly move my whole department over!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...
On 5/20/2019 at 6:24 PM, MikeW said:

Re #5. Use pdfs instead when it makes sense to. But it would take cooperation between Serif and Quark for native file support and Serif will not do that.

Wow. Seems to me this would be a huge compliment for Quark to have in competition to Adobe. Quark doesn't have a photo app or vector app. I get that Serif is working Publisher, but it's hardly 'there' yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Selection by different attributes are the thing I miss the absolute most. Organizing your drawings can be very troublesome without. I hope, cross my fingers, that it is on top of the feature list in future versions. A big time saver if this will be add'ed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

My wish

  • Bring the symmetry tool to the Designer persona to use on vector brush and pencil tool. (Using it on Pixel persona is rasterize in vector)
  • A setting to adjust amount of nodes for the vector brush and pencil tool.
  • A Setting option to use brush stroke on one layer instead of creating multiply layers. (I know I can be group but it look clutter) 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Notes said:
  • Bring the symmetry tool to the Designer persona to use on vector brush and pencil tool. (Using it on Pixel persona is rasterize in vector)

Hello @Notes,

you can accomplish this already by using symbols. This is e.g. explained in this video: 

 

Cheers,
d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/20/2019 at 5:16 PM, George3 said:

2. Better Direct Select tool. I sort of hate the way the direct select tool works. I can't drag to select a group of points. I have to click each one (unless I'm missing a trick)

Are you referring to the Node tool (the white arrow)? There is a trick for it to allow you to select multiple nodes with a selection by first selecting the object with the Node tool and then holding down the Option key and drawing or moving your mouse around the nodes you want to select. Sorry I don't know the Windows modifier but I'm sure someone else here does. I'm not sure if this is what you are after or not but it is worth giving it a try.  

Best of Luck,

Hokusai

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Hokusai said:

There is a trick for it to allow you to select multiple nodes with a selection by first selecting the object with the Node tool and then holding down the Option key and drawing or moving your mouse around the nodes you want to select. Sorry I don't know the Windows modifier but I'm sure someone else here does.

On Windows I don't have to use a modifier key. I just drag the mouse and that way nodes get selected.

d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, dominik said:

On Windows I don't have to use a modifier key. I just drag the mouse and that way nodes get selected.

d.

Thanks dominik, I knew that someone would come up with it! Thanks for letting me know that I don't need to use a modifier. I didn't realize that you don't have to use the modifier on the Mac either but the behavior is slightly different with the modifier and without. Maybe someone can explain the reason for the differences? 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Hokusai said:

but the behavior is slightly different with the modifier and without. Maybe someone can explain the reason for the differences? 

 

The help text at the bottom of the screen says 'Drag + ALT to begin lasso selection'. But interestingly this does not work for me. It always marquee selects. Are we about to find a bug? What kind of difference do you observe when you use the modifier key?

d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi dominik,

Here are two screen shots which I hope shows the different styles. The regular one that you described is just a regular marquee type. The one with the modifier (with the Option key on the Mac) gives you greater control over which nodes (or points) are selected by letting you "draw" the selection as opposed to just selecting broadly. I'm guessing this is the difference but there maybe be something else, I'm just not sure. 

Hokusai

Marquee.png

Selection_Modifier.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Hokusai said:

Hi dominik,

Here are two screen shots which I hope shows the different styles. The regular one that you described is just a regular marquee type. The one with the modifier (with the Option key on the Mac) gives you greater control over which nodes (or points) are selected by letting you "draw" the selection as opposed to just selecting broadly. I'm guessing this is the difference but there maybe be something else, I'm just not sure. 

Hokusai

Marquee.png

Selection_Modifier.png

Thanks for the screenshots. I tried again and can confirm that this works the same on Windows with the ALT-key as a modifier. I do not know what I did wrong in my first test. Most likely I pressed the wrong modifier key :o

I am not sure if there is more to it.

d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
3 hours ago, gafvert said:

Still wish it would let me select controls points for basic shapes and text boxes though.

It already does, but the control points for shapes are different from those for paths and behave differently.  Text boxes are usually built from shapes and will behave like those shapes, but you can create one from a path as well and then continue to manipulate it as a path using the node tool after converting that path to a text box.

It's not like Illustrator in which a shape becomes a path as soon as it is created - they are different types of objects in the Affinity products, with different characteristic behaviors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wasn't aware that it was possible to select these control points with the node tool. It's been something I've been struggling with trying to do, but I haven't found a way to do it.

For me when I try to drag up a selection rectangle around them with the node tool nothing is selected (video example: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/105832-allow-node-tool-to-select-control-points-of-shapes-and-text-fields/ )? But maybe that's a bug, or is there some modifier key or something I need to be pressing to also select these types of control points?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.