Affinity Suite 2

[Ferdinando Addison]

Ive seen reports of this issue on Windows when opening a non native affinity file causes an app crash but not yet on Mac, I would initially suggest going through a full reset of the app(s) to their default settings by following the below:

I earlier reported that Publisher V2 (Windows) becomes slower at responding after a few hours use - it seems to use a great deal of memory. It has now crashed (whilst trying to paste a MS word document) and will not restart properly - as soon as I try to continue working, it stops responding and I have to close it via Task Manager. This has happened twice in three days of use - last time this happened Affinity Photo2 would not load either - I re-downloaded the software from Affinity and re-loaded both programmes and this seemed to overcome the problem. There appears to be a serious issue with the V2 suite - a pity as the product could be excellent ... .

This is the Bug forum for Designer 2 on MacOS, I would advise creating a separate post on Publisher 2 for Windows bugs giving as much detail as possible on the issue. This is to avoid any cross posting/confusion as your issue looks like it's completely different to the original poster's.

Hello, sorry but it's no good sending the crash report to me as I'm an end-user trying to report the problem to the Affinity tech chaps. I was told to put my issue in the Windows section of the forum but I cannot find a separate Windows section - the forum is just marked MacOS/Windows.

I have a MacBook Pro and have upgraded to the Affinity 2.0 Suite and can attest that there is a major bug with SVGs and EPS files being used in documents. I have experienced several crashes after working on a document that has either an SVG or EPS logo. Upon reopening the document the layer that held the SVG/EPS still shows, but the actual file has been removed/stripped. The only remedy I found is by converting the SVG/EPS file to an PNG and using it in the document, but then I'm left with a lower quality logo.

Could you try launching the apps from a separate mac user/ if ones not available creating a temporary new mac user and then trying to launch/use the apps on the separate user? This helps rule out if there's something unusual in the user environment.

Hi All, sorry but I keep trying to say that this problem is with my Windows 11 PC - not Apple. The forum name is 'Apple/Windows issues' - perhaps there should be definitive separate forums for the two systems? I haven't used Publisher for a few days as I need to get some publications 'out' quickly so I am reverting to Adobe InDesign for the time being - pity as I like the Publisher system.

Thanks for coming back to me, I have since found another user with an identical problem to yours, it appears to be caused by a user environment specific issue on Mac to do with the most recent documents list (MRU.dat) causing the crashes. Unfortunately the only feasible workaround currently for this is to use an alternate Mac user, I've since collated and logged this issue with the developers for further investigation. I'll get back to you once I get any further information.

Having shared everyone's pain and frustration I just wanted to provide a solution which worked for me. I'm not sure if it will work for anyone on a Mac but my constant crashing during exports has stopped for me.

As I see it ... i've got almost the same problem. I'd like to have a flexible color system: for high-end users the export has to be consistent ... spot colors do have to be exported as spot colors. Otherwise/now I've got to return to Adobe to fix that problem. I'm not amused.

When I open the attached PDF in Designer again there is a confusing new CMYK layer. After deleting it the blue is a spot color again. But am I able to export it?

Personally, after 8+ years (yes I started with Designer v1 when it launched), I've stopped waiting for Affinity to fix the long-standing issues, and 'professional' feature requests, as going by their actions (the underwhelming, overhyped v2 release, along with the upcoming anaemic v2.1 release) I think Serif are quite content simply remaining in the hobbyist, casual user market. As much as I like the Affinity suite, I'm very reluctant to commit to working with it due to all of the bugs, workflow issues, missing tools/features, and uncertainty that my work will remain accessible into the future (with their proprietary, 'non-standard' file formats).

This is the only area of Affinity that gives me real anxiety. Most of my work is done for websites/screens but what I tend to get printed rarely involves spots, though I'm familiar with working with them in AI. If I ever move heavily towards printed work, I'd feel I have to go back to Adobe. I don't have the knowledge some here possess to deal with the complexities in a timely manner. Not to mention, it would frustrate a printer to no end to give them "non-workable" files over and over learning that this and that doesn't output as expected, which is unprofessional. So the issues some have cited with output on the regular are concerning. I've had bugs with just printing things at home straight from Affinity that have wasted ink. So I know outside of a quick check, to never use in-app print, which is concerning.

I know some have recipes to make it all work, but like others it gives me serious concern this has not been addressed. I'm fine that they have a screen focus, but I would like to know if they are moving ahead with serious plans this direction or not. If @Ash would enlighten us, that would be fantastic. If not possible atm, it is what it is. I'm not going to beat a dead horse and just appreciate the apps for what they're currently able to do, which is sufficient for what I'm doing. Of which I am grateful.

Hi, I wouldn't describe the Affinity Suite in such negative terms. In some ways, it's fantastic. Maybe I was a bit harsh in what I wrote in my post. For me, the problem is that after making giant strides initially to create an innovative Suite, they seem to have stopped just 100 meters before the finish line, when there was only the final effort left to create a top-level product. I know that the issues I listed are at the core of the Suite, so they are not easy things to address. However, I would love to be reassured in some way that the Suite will evolve in the direction of solving these problems. The arrival of V2 was disappointing in this regard because what it brought had nothing to do with the problems that, from my humble point of view, needed to be solved to give professional dignity to the entire Suite.

@debraspicher Thank you for your contribution and for calling out Ash (I didn't know him, and it would be really nice if he could somehow give us more precise information than our assumptions). From my experience, I can guarantee that the printing problems with the Affinity Suite remind me a lot of those encountered with the early versions of Indesign, in the late 90s when the market leader was Quark Xpress and Adobe was trying to take its place with InDesign (successfully). In fact, even today, the Adobe Suite, if you are not technically skilled in printing, can lead to undesired effects and poor results. Unfortunately, Affinity has a few more problems. As I wrote in my post, it doesn't allow for any direct control (or the possibility to verify) of what will happen in print. And this, for applications like Publisher, becomes unacceptable. I have learned to work around all the bugs and problems I have encountered (although sometimes I still come across new problems I've never seen before). But the time lost in constantly searching for the right way to avoid bugs is sometimes really too much, especially for a professional studio, where time is money. With Adobe, this hasn't been a problem for a long time.

Unfortunately, Affinity has a few more problems. As I wrote in my post, it doesn't allow for any direct control (or the possibility to verify) of what will happen in print.

There I'm saying that if you are not a graphic designer, you can achieve a bad result in printing using Indesign. And this is because what you see on screen is not what you're going to print. This is not just my opinion, it is a fact that concerns desktop publishing programs and offset printing in general.

Here I was talking about bugs and the big amount of bugs present in the Affinity suite, today, compared to the less bug of the Adobe Suite. I wanted to say that Adobe now as fewer bugs (even if it had important bugs when Indesign was younger).

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