Affinity Photo Customer Beta (1.7.0.130 - Release Candidate 1)

[Andy Somerfield]

Status: Release Candidate

Purpose: Features, improvements, fixes.
Requirements: TestFlight Acceptance.
App Store: Not submitted

 

Hello,

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the latest beta of Affinity Photo 1.7 for iPad.

Photo 1.7 is a (very) significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version, so, as ever, I would strongly urge users to avoid the 1.7 beta for critical work. This is a pre-release build of 1.7 - we may release more builds before 1.7 ships. Things could still be broken in this build - please use it to explore the new features and not for real work.

Please note that any 1.6 documents you load into this beta will subsequently fail to load back into 1.6 - please make copies first!

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.

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

Many thanks (as always),

Affinity Photo Team  

 

Changes Since Last Beta

- A much more complete set of keyboard shortcuts - pretty much everything which is available in the macOS product is now available on iOS.
- If you apply the crop tool using a preset, it will be remembered for next time.
- Fixed crashes in Procedural Texture UI, especially when being used a live filter.
- Snapshots can now be set as the undo brush source (ie. the button now works).
- Rationalised the tools shows in Apple Pencil double-tap preferences. Added missing option to the erase brush.
- Blemish tool performance improvements.
- Fixes for unsharp mask at small radii.
- Improved brushing performance when texture mode is “nozzle”.
- Fixed annoying lag at the end of brush strokes.
- Batch processing now shows a progress bar.
- Added “Selection from Layer” to selections persona.
- Refactored resize document UI (was too long).
- Assorted small fixes.
- Localisation tweaks.

 

Changes Since 1.6 Release

 

Performance

- Second generation Metal hybrid compositor, now 100% shared code with macOS Photo 1.7. All Metal accelerated features are now significantly faster - sometimes by over 100%.
- We have tweaked a number of app features to work better on both new and old iPad hardware.

UI

- All UI has been reworked aiming to make the usable area of the canvas bigger and the controls less intrusive.
- A new “monochromatic iconography” switch has been added to preferences - it does the same as the desktop version.
- The small buttons on the content bar (without labels) are gone.

Brushes

- Significant improvements in brushing performance and responsiveness.
- Photo 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.
- 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.
- ABR brush import has been improved - preserving controller options correctly.

RAW

- The denoise algorithm has been rewritten.
- Added support for CR3 RAW.
- Show which autofocus rectangles were in focus and which were selected by the camera (yellow, green respectively).

Filters

- New “Voronoi” filter.
- Denoise, Clarity and Shadows / Highlights filters have been rewritten (using technology from the Develop Persona).
- More filters are now available as Live Filters - including the new Procedural Texture filter.
- Live filters have been rewritten to improve performance - especially when multiple filters are used in a document.
- Improved Polar to Rectangular and Rectangular to Polar filters.
- Added round dot type to the halftone filter.
- Bilateral blur accuracy improvements.
- New “Procedural Texture” filter with advanced presets support.
- New “List mode” - like adjustments.
- Ability to add Live Filters directly from the filters studio - avoiding rasterisation.

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.

Layers

- Layers page - added ability to tag layers with a colour - including PSD round-trip.
- Layers page now has optional checkerboard behind layer previews.
- New “Duplicate Selection” item in Layer menu (old behaviour). Duplicate now duplicate the whole layer ignoring pixel selection.
- Hide / Show / Show All Layers options in layers menu.
- Ability to either rasterise or rasterise and trim a layer. Previously recorded macros will trim.
- Allow adding an empty group from the Layer menu.

Selections

- Significant improvements to selection refinement.
- When using selection tools with no pixel selection, default to New / Add as appropriate.
- Added “Alpha Similarity” to Select Sampled Colour tool.

Tools

- The Crop tool has been rewritten - it now supports resolution changes, absolute pixel size and has a much improved preset mechanism.
- The Sponge Brush tool now gives more correct / pleasant results.
- Added a “Reveal Canvas” checkbox to the crop tool - defaults to off.
- Added new “Transform object separately” mode into Move tool.
- A general tools overhaul has been performed - providing editing of grids, guides, page origin, across multiple tools (not just in the Move tool)
- All brush tools can now be axis constrained once brushing has started - not just the pixel tool.
- Preferences now has a spline for controlling pencil input pressure.
- Preferences now allows you to assign actions to a pencil barrel double tap.
- Guides tool improvements.

History

- “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. Photo 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.
- Snapshots are now available from the history panel.

I/O

- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Photo. 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.
- TIFF export now has user selectable compression method.
- Added support for 12bit TIFF files.
- Introduced new metadata mining - completely rewritten to improve performance, flexibility and correctness.
- Metadata is now dynamically synchronised with your document - so if you resize then export, the values will be correct.
- Added Focal Length to metadata summary view.
- Support 16bit CMYK TIFF import.

General

- Official support for iPad Air 3, iPad mini 5.
- The “Stock” panel is now available in Photo iPad. Tap to search and long-press-drag to drop content into your document.
- Batch processing is available.
- "New Document" presets are now customisable.
- Added new share extensions for Panorama, HDR Merge, Focus merge. If you select more than 1 image in, for example, the Photos or Files app then tap "Share" you will see new options to launch AP directly with those files.
- Added an “Assets” panel to Photo.
- The modifier keys on a hardware keyboard now work (alt, cmd, etc.). If you enable on-screen modifiers, a symbol has been added next to each one indicating which key it corresponds to.
- New ability to control how macros are scaled / aligned when playing back.
- Ability to create a document from the contents of the clipboard.
- Add “Fill with Primary / Secondary” to the Edit menu for fast access.
- “Lock guides” added to menus.
- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.
- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.
- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features.
- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.
- Wonderful new samples.
- Numerous bug fixes - too many to list!

[000]

Working on a Sunday ... wow!

[donka]

Any tips on the batch processing feature? This is something I have yet to try in the beta. 

[marcoborghesi]

Hi guys. As per Donka ... similar question. Do we have the preset on develop persona like the desktop?i can’t find in this new version. Wasn’t there in 1.6 I’m correct.

[Paul Mudditt]

Hi Andy, the keyboard shortcuts are great, but any chance of adding shift selection support for layers in the layer studio, you tap first, press shift select last?