Washishu

I haven’t looked in here for a while. Thank you for your input each and all. However— My now ailing memory told me, perhaps erroneously, that the Divide operation didn’t work with an open path. In AfD it does, so that solves the matter. Re Outline Stroke: there’s nothing in my Appearance palette that suggests this operation. The Contour tool offsets the stroke and I can’t see how that helps(?) Outline stroke converted the stroke around an object into a compound path, to which I could apply, for example, a gradient fill. Yes, I could create the compound path myself but Outline Stroke was quick and easy and gave more satisfactory results in some cases. Layer–Geometry–Divide (when I tried) doesn’t work with an open path as the ‘dividing’ object. There is no Cut Curves with Key Object in my Layers–Geometry menu. I should probably have said at the start that I’m using v1. My now occasional need for vector imaging doesn’t really justify me updating. Apart from the things discussed here (which I can find a way around) v1 does what I want. Thanks again everyone.

Designer v1. I don't have the need to use Designer very often now (retired), but when I do use it I've often searched in vain for a Divide Objects Below function. In the olden days I used to find this very useful. Another one from the olden days is Outline Stroke; I used to use that a lot too.

Yes. So that the frames are easily rescalable for different sizes. And also because I'd prefer it that way. Thanks for the links. But I'd prefer to create something of my own.

I paint landscapes in acrylics and sometimes I like to see how best the painting might be framed, also, in submitting work to galleries, they sometimes request to see a jpeg of the framed artwork. Being able to create this digitally is a lot less expensive than framing. In the olden days I used a woodgrain filter (or was it an effect? It’s so long ago now I can’t remember) which worked well enough. Designer (V1) doesn’t have filters or appropriate effects. I’ve created something that looks…well, ok…but does anyone have a technique/method to create a woodgrain appearance? I’d prefer to stay vector if possible. Thanks. I've searched woodgrain with no results.

This thread needs to be retitled "how to copy a link".

Thanks for your suggestion. I'm on Mac too. The work in question is tends to be something that I create/edit perhaps a number of times, but I don't need to do so very often so it's not a folder that I'd need to access frequently. I considered that it was an OS thing rather than an affD. thing but other software does show, in Recents, the folder that the file was opened from. My very, very limited understanding of such things would suggest that, if it is the OS that controls such things, then there's something about affD. that the OS doesn't recognise and so defaults to…what?…the last used list? It's irritating at times but not something I'm about to write to my MP about.

Ahaa. I'd forgotten that I posted this. Thanks for the responses. And thanks GarryP—I now know how to get rid of it should it happen again. Re the using previous qualities for new objects, had I sheared some object I might have realised what was going on. My point was that although I can't 100% state that I didn't accidentally shear an object as described above (although I do think that unlikely). It's true that in some cases I would have duplicated then edited an object or two, so if this was an inadvertently sheared object this would account for it. It did seem to be very persistent though, even, I feel sure (although it is a long time back now), after creating other elements without gradient fills.

For reasons of my own and which are not really relevant to this matter, I quite often use previously saved documents to create new documents. Briefly, this might be because I wish to edit particular elements or because I know that that document has features/elements/settings I wish to duplicate. I make my changes. I go to Save As. The default location is ‘Desktop’. The list in Recent Places are, often, from other software and in some cases nowhere that I have ever in my life saved an .afdesign to before. The folder from which I opened the file is not shown. I like to make some effort to keeping files organised and it’s annoying to have to close the file, drag it from the desktop into the ‘correct’ folder and (perhaps) reopen it. I’ve looked through Prefs but can find nothing to suggest that there is any way I can change this.

An approximate workflow for the graphic artist/typographer, pre digital imaging. 1. Read the client’s brief carefully. If no brief is given, write it yourself and get it approved by the client before you put pencil to paper. 2. In your layout pad draft out about two hundred thumbnail sketches. Circle those that you believe best satisfy the brief (and your design sense). 3. Still in your layout pad, prepare full-size visuals with marker pens. Text matter can be indicated as parallel lines to the x-height of the type-size but type above 24pt (approx) should be lettered out, using your knowledge of type face characteristics. Where you are using a decorative face you may wish to letter this out using a type specimen sheet. 4. From these rough visuals, select the one that works best and prepare a client presentation visual. Depending upon various factors this may include pasted-in photos, adhesive dummy body text, transfer lettering. 5. Submit the presentation visual to the client and grit your teeth when you are told that they didn’t understand that that was what you meant when you said… 6. Prepare a second presentation visual and consider a career change. 7. Mount photographs with tracing paper overlay showing finished size with % enlargement/reduction and prepare a technical specification for the typesetter/printer. I don’t think I’ve missed anything.

As I’m not working for a living these days I don’t have the need to use Designer very often so my learning curve is a little flat. Recently I was working with gradient fills and accidentally the four-way gradient controls device appeared. I have no idea how I did this and the only purpose I could detect was that it appeared to control the angle of the gradient although it seemed a rather clumsy and imprecise way of doing this. Since then I’ve searched the forum and found a thread which explains that this device appears when an object is sheared. Well, these four-way controls appeared more than once on different rectangles. I was working with straight-forward rectangles with no transformations so I don’t know how this happened—and once it had happened I couldn’t find a way to get rid of them other than deleting the gradient and starting again. I was using the Transform palette to enter specific dimensions for the rectangle, and also using the tab key to jump from one box to the next, so it’s a remote possibility that, once, I might have applied a shear angle unintentionally although I have no memory of this happening. Would it be that if I had unintentionally applied a shear angle and immediately undone it, that the four-way device would remain? It’s not a big deal as I just ignored them, but they were a bit of an unwanted intrusion. Also, as my learning curve is a little flat, I’d like to understand what might have happened.

It's called a 'St. Ives' frame Walt (although the pattern goes by other names too). Here's a pic from the maker's site with a picture behind the inner frame. But you can also mount the painting on top of that inner frame to achieve the floating effect. In this case it would be done that way to preserve the strong deckle of the paper. Cheers.

And, as if by magic, here's the job done. Thanks for responding thomaso. The contrast/brightness of the picture looks very slightly flat after the masking, compared to the original P'shop jpeg. An artifact of the masking?

Thanks for responding each. Walt—the white areas surrounding the painting should be transparent. Thomaso: I feel just a touch foolish now. I've not had the need to use the Pixel Pesona previously, but it did occur to me to create the mask that way. This Flood Select Tool looks very much like what I'd call the Magic Wand; I'll try that. It didn't work—no selection. Like you do when the world doesn't behave as you expect it to, I kept trying, with the same result. I read your response this morning and opened the file again. Immediately I realised my mistake of yesterday: in looking for a solution I'd been fumbling through the palettes and the Layers palette was hidden, so I hadn't noticed that the image layer was not active. Once I made the image layer the active layer it worked just as I expected it to work yesterday and as you describe. (With the exception of the Rectangle Marquee addition as it's only the white areas around the picture that I wish to mask. Thanks again each.

I’m working in Designer (V1) and am attempting to create a digital mock-up of a framed painting. My problem is to do with transparency. The painting is on a very irregular deckle-edged paper. In the olden days I would have made a selection of the outer edge of the painting in P’shop, created a workpath from that and exported that path to AI to use as a clipping mask. How can I achieve the same result in AffD? Thanks.

Thanks each and all. Old Bruce—I can't open that file as I have v1 only. As I was typing my response, MiWe's reply came in. That's the problem right enough. The multiple stroke solution is a solution only when a single path crosses itelf. Doesn't work for seperate paths. That business of assigning an Appearance to the layer rings a bell. Thanks MiWe. Seems that it can't be done in AffD. Not a problem for me really, it was just that in doing something else I (partially) remembered the technique and played around trying to re-create it as a learning experience.