Preferences comprise a series of miscellaneous options that are applied across your application. They can be used to set up your own way of working.
General options
Choose whether to restore the last session when launching the application.
Choose whether documents open in a floating window separate from the app's main window.
Choose whether documents open in the current active group, meaning the most recent floating window, or in the app's main window.
Choose whether to limit initial zoom to a maximum of 100% when loading files.
Choose to open PSDs with editable text objects.
Select whether to show or hide file extensions.
Choose whether to create SVGs when copying objects for better cross-platform interaction.
Choose whether to preserve Unicode breaks when copying plain text out of Affinity apps or convert paragraph markers to line feeds.
You can exclude your thumbnail from being stored with your document.
Choose whether to overwrite imported PSD files when using the Save command, rather than creating an *.afdesign file. We recommend reading the warning provided in the dialog before selecting this option.
Filler text can be made editable by default, rather than as a field whose contents need to be expanded.
Choose whether to keep selection after deleting an object.
Linked resources (e.g., images) will update in publication if changed externally.
Language—Sets the UI language independently of the operating system. Select from the pop-up menu.
Color options
You can set up your default RGB, 32bit RGB, CMYK, Grayscale and LAB color profiles for use in future documents. Select from the pop-up menus.
Rendering Intent—Choose the rendering intent for your images. Select from the pop-up menu.
Choose whether to apply black point compensation when opening an image.
Choose whether to convert an opened file color space to the working space and also choose whether to warn that this has occurred.
Choose whether to receive a warning when a working profile is assigned to an unprofiled image.
Select a OpenColorIO Configuration File.
Select a OpenColorIO Search Folder.
Choose whether OCIO conversions are based on file name and also choose whether to warn that this has occurred.
Choose whether to merge EXR alpha channel information to its associated RGB pixel layer's alpha channel.
Choose whether to divide EXR color channels by the alpha channel.
Choose whether to leave zero alpha information untouched, or, with Post divide EXR colors by alpha enabled as well, for zero alpha information to be altered so post-division with color channel information can be achieved.
Performance options
RAM Usage Limit—allows you to set your preference for optimizing application performance for your projects.
Disk Usage Warning At—choose the limit at which you are warned about disk usage.
Undo Limit—choose the history length you are able to access.
View Quality—choose the way in which the image displays during modifications. Select from the pop-up menu.
Choose whether to dither gradients, when working on projects, to speed up performance.
Choose a clipping option for optimizing performance.
File Recovery Interval—sets the interval for saving temporary data for currently open documents, allowing a document restore to be offered at startup if the app develops a fault.
Display—Choose whether to use hardware acceleration such as Metal, OpenGL or OpenGL (Basic), or use Software acceleration. If your computer experiences performance problems, use the above option order until performance is acceptable. Metal requires Sierra macOS (10.12.x) and above, with Affinity optimized for High Sierra 10.13.x) and above. If your Mac has an additional discrete graphics card, checking the Use only integrated GPU will not allow access to it, therefore reducing power consumption and conserving battery life (useful for unplugged MacBook Pros).
Renderer—choose your rendering experience. Select from the pop-up menu.
Default—renders using the default method - typically the installed graphics card.
Graphics display adapter—the name here varies depending on your graphics card and its driver. If you have multiple graphics cards installed you may see more than one option here.
WARP—use Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform just for presenting the document. Try this if you are experiencing performance issues with the default option.
Retina Rendering—choose your rendering experience. Select from the pop-up menu.
Automatic (Best)—renders as non-retina followed by retina for balanced performance and quality.
Low quality (Fastest)—renders as non-retina only for highest performance level but compromises on quality.
High quality (Slowest)—renders as retina only for high quality but may compromise performance.
Hardware Acceleration—checking Enable Metal compute acceleration boosts some tasks' performance if a compatible GPU is available. See the Hardware acceleration topic.
Hardware Acceleration—checking Enable OpenCL compute acceleration boosts some tasks' performance if a compatible GPU is available. See the Hardware acceleration topic.
User Interface options
Background Grey Level—controls the grayscale level of the pasteboard surrounding the document.
Artboard Background Grey Level—controls the grayscale level of the pasteboard surrounding artboard(s) if you have an Affinity Designer 'artboard' document open.
UI Gamma—adjusts the contrast of the user interface.
Font UI Size—optionally increase the font size of UI text.
UI Style—displays the user interface in a dark or light style.
Tooltip Delay—set the length of time before a tooltip appears when hovering over a UI element.
Decimal Places for Unit Types—controls the number of decimal places allowable for each document measurement unit and degree readouts.
Locks (or keeps unlocked) an imported image as a background layer.
Choose whether line width (thickness) displays in points or in the document's measurement units.
Choose whether text is expressed in points or in the document's measurement units.
Choose whether the brush cursor display a preview of pixels to be placed.
Overlays a cross-hair over the brush cursor for better targeting.
Makes icons display in grayscale.
Expands layer to reveal selected object entry when object is selected.
Choose whether to activate touch bar support.
Tools options
Tool Handle Size—makes selected layer content's selection box handles and curve nodes (and handles) smaller or larger.
Choose whether +click displays context menus (alternative to right-click with a multi-button mouse).
Enable or disable the Force Touch context menu; when enabled, the menu is accessed by a strong-press on a Force Touch-compatible trackpad.
Choose whether an object is added to a selection when partially covered by the selection marquee or whether it has to be encompassed by the marquee.
When enabled, cycling between tools is only possible with modifier pressed.
Choose whether the middle mouse button will allow scrolling or zooming.
Choose whether dragging with the Zoom Tool zooms around the cursor (scrubby zoom) or creates a 'zoom to' marquee.
Enable Dial support—Check the option to use Surface Studio's Surface Dial (or equivalent radial device).
Choose if the canvas can be rotated using a Trackpad or not.
Choose if the canvas can be rotated using a scroll wheel or not.
Synchronize tools between documents—Makes tool settings persistent between different documents.
Touch for gestures only—When enabled, only your connected tablet pen can use tools on the canvas but you can still use gestures. Useful for preventing accidental tool use when interacting with the canvas. When disabled, you have full touch control plus gestures, with or without a tablet pen.
Move Tool Aspect Constrain—controls the default constraining behavior when resizing objects using the Move Tool. Select from the pop-up menu.
Create Text with Blend Gamma—controls the default blend gamma applied to text on creation.
Nudge Distance—sets the nudge amount by which an object is moved when using the arrow keys. Select measurement units from the pop-up menu.
Modifier Nudge Distance—sets the amount by which an object is moved when using the arrow keys along with the .
Additional dictionary folder—Lets you Browse to your downloaded dictionary folder (e.g. ru-RU) and copy/paste the folder to the Additional dictionary folder after clicking Open. The folder is scanned during start-up and found dictionaries will be added.
Synchronize tools between documents—Makes tool settings persistent between different documents.
Use these options to control how auto-correction intelligently and automatically replaces or formats your art and frame text.
Abbreviations options
Use to provide a pre-defined abbreviations dictionary which is used to prevent inadvertent capitalization after the abbreviation is used in your publication.
Filler Text
Instead of placeholder 'Latin' text you can add your own custom text content for various languages to act as filler text. With a text frame containing filler text selected, the language of its filler text is controlled using the Spelling language option on the Character panel.
Title Exceptions
Use to control the case sensitivity of specific words by keeping a title exception list to override standard capitalization behavior.
Software Update
Set the interval to check for software updates.
Miscellaneous options
Your current Fills, Brushes, Object Styles, Text Styles, User Defaults and Fonts can be reset to factory defaults. Reset fonts updates the font cache to the current state of the system (from memory).
Choose whether crash reports are sent to Serif automatically and whether they include your registered name to help technical support identify your feedback. Reports are anonymous by default.
To set preferences:
From the Affinity Publisher menu, select Preferences.