Otto Manuel

Hi @walt.farrell, The * is a good work around. It seems like Affinity could code the * into the application so I did not have to know about it. 🙂 Thank you!

Hi @Mark Ingram I should have included the info: Affinity Designer 1.8.5.703 on Win 7 x64 If the Affinity Export dialog was able to display both .tif as well as .tiff files then manually editing the extension would seem easier because I could see the names of all the other iterations I have stored in that file. For example; I have a directory filled with iterations of a design. The files are named Design_01A.tif, Design_01B.tif, Design 01C.tif, Design 02A.tif, Design 03A.tif, Design 03B.tif, etc. When I go to export another TIFF file and the directory window opens, it looks empty because all my files are named with the 3 character .tif extension rather than the 4 character .tiff extension that Affinity is looking for. I have to recall the actual contents of the directory and toss my export in there without the benefit of seeing what the other .tif files are named. Here is an example of how another program works in Windows: When I choose to "Save As" a TIFF file I can select the extension convention I wish, but more importantly the application recognizes that both .tif and .tiff file extensions are TIFF files so I may see them all. FWIW, When I saved the .jpg screen shot I have uploaded here, I was presented with the opportunity to view JPEGs labeled as .jpeg, .jpg, and .jpe It would be helpful if I could set a preference in Affinity products to let me consider the 3 character .tif choice without being forced to work around the constraint. Thank you. Affinity Designer 1.8.5.703 on Win 7 x64

Is there any hope that there will someday be a global option to always export a TIFF file with the 3 character .tif extension. I don't mind changing the extension from .tiff to .tif on each and every export, but when Affinity is trying to export something it thinks should be labeled as a .tiff it can not see, or display, any of the .tif files that exist in the folder. The inability to see the other .tif file names makes it less than convenient to save an iteration of a file with a unique name, because the previously used names are not readily apparent. Thank you. Affinity Designer 1.8.5.703 on Win 7 x64

OK I figured it out. When I was working in InkScape I started by Spraying copies of a bubble (a simple circular curve shape) that I had drawn in Affinity Designer, but then I had selected another bubble that had been replicated with the InkScape Spray function because it was smaller and it let me qucikly switch to a second range of scale. Although the SVG that I modified and saved in InkScape looked fine in both Chrome and Firefox web browsers, the bubbles would not display in their intended locations when I opened that SVG in Designer. I tried different settings such as InkScape's Save As "Plain SVG" and tried setting preferences for different coordinate references such as "Relative", and nothing worked, but I finally recognized that I was causing the issue by Spraying copies of an object that I had made by Spraying. To solve my issue I placed two different sized bubble instances in the project while still in Affinity Designer. I used these bubbles as reference objects when Spraying in InkScape. By doing this I was able to replicate hundreds of bubbles and get the look I had hoped for, and then I was able to return to Affinity Designer and open the SVG and save it as a .afdesign where I will continue with my drawing. It was pretty easy once I figured it out. Thank you!

Well I was wrong... I just exported a SVG from Affinity Designer and used the Spray function in InkScape to make a bunch of bubbles. I saved as a copy of the SVG file in Inkscape. The bubbles look just as I had hoped. When I open the SVG file to round trip the image back in to Affinity Designer the placement of the bubbles doesn't match what I see if I look at the same SVG file in InkScape. As a test I also opened the SVG file, that I saved with InkScape, in Google's Chrome web browser the image looks just as I would expect it too. There is something about how Designer is interpreting the SVG file that I saved with InkScape. Something is causing the elements that I created in InkScape to be placed in unexpected locations. Is there a setting I can change to make this work? Thank you.

Thank you for answering the question and offering a suggestion. The nice thing is that Designer and InkScape seem to handle SVG files well, so making a round trip should work with minimal effort. Thank you.

Hi, I am making a drawing where it would be helpful if I could somehow spray a bunch of stylized vector bubble shapes that varied in size to create the impression of foam. It would save me from copy pasting and resizing hundreds of bubbles. I am just wondering if there is a way to do this with Affinity Designer. I looked at some tutorials about custom brushes but all I can find is info about importing png files to make stroke effects. Thank you!

Hi, I recently asked for some help with drawing line segments, and learned about the pencil tools "sculpt" function. This will not address all your concerns, but learning how to work with sculpt option can make it very easy to draw a sharp corner with the pencil tool, so you may find the option useful.

Thank you for the info about the Vector Brush.

I figured out that the "[" and "]" work on the Pixel Persona brush and eraser sizing. That works great. The ctrl+alt+drag left/right or ctrl+alt+drag up/down is a fantastic surprise to learn about. Nice job Affinity! How about vector stroke weight? Is there a hot key system for stroke parameters? Thank you.

Hi, When I draw I often wish there was a hot key that would let me more rapidly change the stroke width or brush width without moving my cursor up to the control bar. Is there a quick way to change the size with a keystroke? Thank you! Designer 1.8.5+ on Windows 7 x64

I am so excited about using Affinity Designer, that I am trying to figure out how to make the most effective round trip out of Designer, make a quick warp distortion to a group of curves, and return to Designer. With all the extremely knowledgeable and genuinely helpful designers interacting here at this forum I thought this would be an easy question to ask and answer. Thank you.

What is this mesh distort feature called in Corel Draw Graphics Suite 2020? I would like to search out some tutorials for how to use the Corel features. Knowing the terminology used within the Corel ecosystem would be helpful for searches of useful info.

Will you explain specifically if, and if so at what license level ("Standard" "Suite" etc.), Corel Draw offers a mesh distort feature that equals or exceeds the functionality of Illustrator CS2? This page hasn't offered any details regarding my question: https://www.coreldraw.com/static/cdgs/product_content/cdgs/essentials/2020/pdfs/cds2020-comparison-matrix-en.pdf

I am glad to learn of this. Thank you.

Hi, Thanks for adding some info. It looks like I will have to try a demo of Xara to find out how it works. The Photo and Graphic Designer web page doesn't mention warping as a feature. The Designer Pro web page does mention warping but just perspective and envelope rather than mesh dragging. Both of the Xara programs seem to be unduly preoccupied with Photo editing which seems unappealing because I am currently interested in tools optimized for Vector artwork. I found an old Corel Draw envelope warp tutorial and the process seems primitive. Does Corel Draw have a mesh drag system? One of the challenges while searching for mesh distort features is the wide spread interest in gradient mesh tools. Search returns seem to trend towards gradient editing results despite the fact that I include words such as "transform" or "warp" or "distort". Vectorstyler has the only web page that presents a warping tool in an attractive and inciting way. I was hoping to find something similar to the features in my 15 year old Illustrator CS2 application. Thank you! Affinity Designer 1.8.5+ on Windows 7 x64

Well, that did not last long. Here is a quote straight from InkScape's Help File: "The tool has several known problems." I found several of them. I went and read about Vectorstyler. It looks great, but it is Mac only. No Windows installs, and I use Windows. So, I am still looking. Corel Draw? Xara?

Hi, FWIW, for anyone who stumbles on this thread I found a tutorial for InkScape https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/warping-and-sculpting-fun-in-inkscape--cms-20709 That describes the Tweak Tool and the Push Parts of Paths option. It is working on an SVG I exported from Designer although it seems prone to crash the program on my old Windows 7 laptop. It is encouraging to think there may be an inexpensive work flow. Edit to add: I just updated to InkScape 1.0.1 and the Tweak function worked well without crashing the program. The SVG round trip works excellent. I have a solution that will be very helpful. Thanks for listening while I rambled on about the details. 🙂

Thank you for the helpful tips. I tried copy pasting between Designer 1.8.5 and my old Illustrator CS2 install and nothing happened. I can see that there is something on my Windows 7 clipboard but pressing Paste in Illustrator doesn't result in anything happening. I sure wish I had upgraded to CS6 but was doing less vector work at that time. I have an install of Inkscape but have not figured out how to warp a group. My previous Google search didn't turn much up, so I will try searching again. I had never heard of Vectorstyler until reading some of the threads here about warping text so was not sure if it works on a group, but I guess text is a sort of group. I will look in to it. I saw reference to Xara, but the Xara website doesn't say much about warping. I was also wondering if Corel Draw has a function equal to Illustrator mesh warp. If it did I might be able to buy a perpetual license to augment my Designer install. I have to say that after years of fooling around with occasional vector illustration Affinity Designer has made "drawing" on a computer seem fun for me, so I am doing it more often, but it is just for rest and relaxation so I would feel foolish subscribing to a cloud for a couple hundred dollars each year. In any event Thank you Affinity for making computer graphics seem so fun! Thank you.

Hi, So I back tracked a bit and learned that my Adobe Illustrator CS2 install has a feature known as Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Mesh function, which I think I remember using once many years ago. I exported a group of content from Affinity Designer and was able warp the entire group, just as I had hoped to learn I could do, but the content did not round trip from Affinity Designer to Adobe Illustrator CS 2 and back again without some issues. For example; I tried working with the EPS format. I was able to make the warp but lost all my layer name labels, the grouping, and the layers were divided into pairs representing the fills and the strokes, so on return I had approximately twice as many layers, without names or grouping. It seemed like the layer info was lost during the export from Designer, and I assume this is a condition that is related to the age and origins of the EPS format. Furthermore with EPS I saw a color shift. No matter how I attempted to force sRGB as the color space, it kept getting converted in export or save. For example; I tried working with the SVG format by exporting from Affinity Designer, but could not open the version of the SVG file in Adobe Illustrator CS2. When I tried to place the SVG in Illustrator I got some invisible stroke data, which I could highlight, but it was not of any use. I would like to pursue using the SVG format because it appeared to preserve my layer names. For example; I tried working with the PDF format but the layers were affected just as with the EPS, while the colors seem to have been preserved OK. So, once again I am not asking for a feature request. This thread was moved to feature request without a request. I did originally ask if this feature was available, but now I am asking if anyone has a better working flow to use than the examples I described. My primary interest is learning if there is a more efficient way to warp distort a group of vector curves without having to buy an Illustrator CC subscription or one off month for the occasional amateur use. Thank you!!!

Hi, It was informative to read the replies. There were some comments that made me wonder; what options are available in other apps that make asymmetrical distortion of a group of vector curves possible? Is there a particular application that I should go look at? Disclosure; I am not a pro illustrator. I am not up to date on what is available in the soft ware market place. I have been using an old license for Adobe Illustrator CS2 for my occasional vector illustration use and slowly migrating to Affinity Designer. I like Designer very much, but might be willing to add another app to augment it if there is something that makes distortion styled transforms on groups. Thank you.

Does the fact that this was moved from general discussion to feedback indicate that there is no existing method of accomplishing the function in vector mode? Thank you!!!

I defer to you on this. My experience has been limited to working with single word phrases, so I have not witnessed what happens when you use the space or punctuation characters. What you describe seems like it is helpful functionality. I am glad to learn about it. Thank you for sharing the insight.

Hi, In Affinity Designer I occasionally wish I could transform a vector Group of curves in an asymmetrical manner. It is easy to make scale transform on the vertical axis, the horizontal axis, or both, but I have not found any way to grab the corner of a group and pull just that corner. To be fair, I don't know of a vector editor that does it, but I would sure love to be able too. I can transform a group of layers in this manner using a raster editor such as Photoshop, and I imagine that it may be an easier mathematical task to do this in the raster format, but it sure would be nice to be able to do this in vector. Here is an example made in Photoshop: It can be a lot of work to pull on each curves' nodes and keep the edges aligned when I am working with multiple instances of a group and want to shift their shapes into a variety of postures. I am not complaining, nor necessarily requesting a feature, but I would like to learn if I am I missing a function that I have not found? Thank you!!! Windows 7 x64 with Affinity Designer 1.8.5.703

Great news. The caveat seems to be that you must have ithe text tool instantiated to get to the contextual right click menu that you have pictured. I looked in the manual before posting here and did not find this info by searching "spell", "spelling" or "spellcheck". Thank you for your help. I think what was happening is that the warning does not display until you exit the current text box, which I usually do by instantiating the select tool. The select tool right click context doesn't offer the spelling options so I missed the pertinent menu. Thank you!