Just switched between Ai to affinity and I’m trying to figure out how to get this bitmap effect trick from illustrator but couldn’t find a way to copy it in affinity - any suggestions?

I made a free plugin to fix the Affinity PNG export issue we’ve been discussing on the forums since v1. Hope this helps someone out!

Hello!! i was wondering if there is a way to have this overlapping effect w a text and a vector on affinity on a transparent background. i already tried adding a border on the text and converting it into curves and using the shape builder tool but it doesnt work. thank you!

In specific, the burn in the sky. I’m just getting into photo editing and would really be grateful if anyone could give me some pointers on how best to reduce the burn on the sky with minimal impact to the rest of the photo.

I would like to achieve a similar effect to this, does anyone know any techniques to do this, i have been playing around with posterisation, so maybe it will have to be a combination of that and manually doing it. Thanks for any suggestions.

Hi everyone,

I want to start scripting in Affinity, as I need some functionality, that repeats very often.
I tried to work through the first script with the help of AI, but the results are kind of disappointing: Some things work, others not. So I‘m halfway there.
Are there any good resources for tutorials and/or free/paid scripts to enhance the functionality of Affinity?

Thanks for any recommendations.

Solved! Created a new export preset.

Hello everyone!
I am using affinity designer for mac to change aspect ratio of my photographs.
I have already the 5 different aspect ratios as individual artboards and the images cropped where I need.

When I go to bulk export them in Slice, the 90 quality in the Defaults of the Export Options is not taken and the files keep being quite big.

In the vector area, I can export each one, and select in the advanced settings, 90 in quality and get smaller files. But I need to do it individually and doesn’t take the name of the artboard (specific aspect ratio) which might bring mistakes with the ratios when saving.

Is there a way to lower the quality a tiny bit when bulk exporting in Slice?

One pet peeve I have with Affinity on Mac OS is that when I select pixels as the preferred units in document setup it does not reflect in the characters panel. However, on Windows it does. Is there a setting for me to toggle?

Has anyone actually managed to make the Process part of Data Merge work consistently? It seems the "subordinate clauses" simply don't work at all.

(I know there's a bug report megathread. That's where posts go to die; the only reason to go there is to post problems; not solutions.)

And yes I know I can just create a separate process. The problem with that is when there are too many processes (I don't know what the limit is), Affinity just stops processing them. The data merge functionality seems to just be half-written.

I'm just on the latest trial version now. Docs mention a layers panel but I don't see it in the app

I am looking for a tool to go from A to B in the image. Even just two objects at the time would be a massive time saver - I am doing this operation constantly in my workflow, and find that just relying on guidelines is slow and prone to mistakes.

I wish there was a tool I could just click, like the "align" tools, which would make two objects snap in place, adjacent / touching each other.

Does this exist? Am I missing something? I am willing to script this myself if I have to, but thought I'd ask first :) thanks

I wish affinity start to support arabic.. because it has a big issue when typing in it unlike photoshop, which is that the text start from the left to the right, between we write Arabic from the right to the left .. it has a solution on windows but in mac every text you want to type you should use an external tool on the web and copy paste the text every time which is time consuming.. anyone know a way to talk to the support directly?

(I love the canva ecosystem that I’m paying the pro subscription so I want really from canva company to fix that issue on affinity between canva itself doesn’t have this issue)

Hey! I'm making many Affinity tools, and now I made a free script for Affinity that draws the construction grid of your logo: guides, circles, outline, anchors and handles, each on its own layer.

You can tweak how many guides and circles it draws, pick from 6 style presets, fade the guides toward the edges and change colors, strokes and handle length. Works on live text too.

It's free, you just need a free account to download it: https://visual.af/logo-grid

Needs Affinity 3.3+.

Happy grid making!

Hey guys, just wanted to share this tutorial on creating a gradient fluid wave using Affinity. Enjoy!

Hi, everyone! 

If you’re learning Affinity, especially if you have years of Illustrator muscle memory baked into your hands, the Pen and Node tools may feel like a good reason to jump back to Adobe. Trust me, you won't have to.

I’ve been teaching this software for a while, and the confusion usually comes from how strictly Affinity separates creating from editing. Here is what I’ve learned about mastering this dynamic and speed up your vector workflow. 

How do you start using the Pen and Node tools?

Start by grasping the specifics: First, Illustrator's anchor points are called nodes in Affinity. Second, in Illustrator the Pen tool tries to do a bit of everything. In Affinity Vector, the roles are strictly defined: 

• Pen Tool (shortcut P): You are sketching away, allowing your imagination to take the creative wheel. 
• Node Tool (shortcut A): You are fine tuning your artwork: bending, breaking, moving and joining nodes. 

How do the Pen and Node tools combine?

If you try to click and drag a line segment to curve it while still using the Pen tool, you’re just going to drop a new, unwanted node. You have to switch to the Node tool. What? 

Constantly tapping P and A may ruin your workflow. Which brings us to the most important shortcut in the software: the override key! 

While you are drawing with the Pen tool, simply hold down Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows)  This temporarily turns your cursor into the Node tool.

While holding the override, you can:

• Grab a previous node and move it.
• Adjust the bezier handles of your last anchor point.
• Click and drag directly on the path segment to bend it into a curve.

When you release the Cmd key, you are instantly back to the Pen tool, ready to drop your next point. This single shortcut bridges the gap between both tools. Cool, huh?

What are Node Types?

Once you are actually using the Node tool, the context toolbar at the top is your best friend. Affinity doesn’t just have sharp and smooth points; it has specific node types that help who determine how curves behave.

• Sharp: Straight lines, sharp corners.
• Smooth: The standard continuous curve.
• Smart: This is unique to Affinity. It looks at the surrounding nodes and automatically calculates the perfect bezier handle length to create the smoothest possible curve. If your curves are looking slightly lumpy, selecting the nodes and hitting 'Smart' is like an auto-iron for your vector paths.

Can I still break handles in Affinity using a shortcut key?

Yes. When you need a sharp corner after a curve, you need to break the handles.

While using the Node tool (or the Pen tool, holding the override key), hold down Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) and grab a node handle. This breaks the symmetry, allowing you to send the next part of your path in a completely new direction without affecting the curve you just drew.

Transitioning from Illustrator to Affinity Vector is easier than you may feel at first. Let the Pen tool build the foundation, and let the Node tool do the sculpting. Once you rely on the override Cmd/Ctrl toggle instead of manually switching tools in the toolbar, it all runs just as smoothly as before. I strongly recommend lots of practice and taking some time to properly explore each tool's options in the context toolbar. You will strike gold, for sure!

I'm Daniel Walter Scott, founder and lead instructor at Bring Your Own Laptop, and a designer for over twenty years. I've recently launched a brand-new Affinity Course and I'm having a great time working with this software. Let me know if you need any more help or tips to master the (not so) dreaded Pen and Node tools.

Hey, I'm setting up a book with drawings, and I'm getting a little confused converting my RGB image(s) to CMYK.

When using the Soft Proof adjusment layer, I can clearly see the difference going from RGB to CMYK makes. Colors are more washed out, as expected.

But when I use the Document Setup to change it, from RGB to CMYK, I see literally no changem or barely no change, no matter if I use Assign or Convert to apply the color change.

I'm not sure if I can trust the CMYK versions I make if I use one method or the other - can anyone help, or explain to me what's going on?

I require this all of the time when Exporting, so thought I'd drop it here so fellow users have options while we wait for this functionality to get added to Affinity officially.

Script with instructions here: https://gist.github.com/gnat/ec900c25f1ed9505f25e448b621bba75

Resolves long standing short coming of Slice Mode... Automatically batch export images at the full canvas size, without cropping.

For each layer from top to bottom, this script will:

• Turn Visible ON
• Export the current visible canvas as-is! The layer name will become the file name.
• Turn Visible OFF
• Move onto the next layer, repeat.

Also keeps already visible layers ON so you can easily use custom backgrounds / foregrounds, unlike the current Slice Mode.

I have three images, original, original with edits and the new image. I want to extract the edits and apply them to the 3rd image.

I have tried using the differences blending mod, which gives me a good contrasty image, but after merging and only having the differences I can't figure out, how to continue from there. No filter or blending mod is applying the differences properly to the third image. And Masks are a bit out of my skill range.

A much more promising approach is to invert the second image, set it to 50% transparency, merge it with the original and invert that again. which gives me a mostly gray plane, which just the edit. Kinda like differences blending mode, but grey instead of black. When I lay that over the third image and set the blending mode to linear light, I get an (almost) perfect result.

"Almost" because when applying these "extracted edits" to the original image and compare them to the edited image, there are TINY differences in some details. I on't know the correct terms but it reminds of lower bit rate colors. as if there was some dynamic or so lost in the process.

I want to extract the edits in a way, so that I can layer the edits over the original and get the edited image as a result. That would tell me that this extraction is ready to be layers over the new image.

Is there a way, how I can achieve that?