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Stace

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Posts posted by Stace

  1. You're right MikeTO, I did have trouble understand that comment and anyway it didn't work. Still messes up.

    Thank you for the excellent resource. However, I'm caught between your sentence:

    "The disadvantage of using the Books feature is increased complexity and the inability to package a Book for publication"

    ...and just being really, really careful to proofread carefully for applied masters before export because both options look like about the same amount of hassle.

  2. I'm new to Publisher so this'll be one of those basic questions which is so basic I can't find the answer written down.

     

    So I'm formatting the inside of a book. (Cover in Photo/Designer.) In Publisher I'm keeping it simple with a single double spread master: Header and footer with page numbers, title of work, section heading.

    Several times I've (prematurely) gone in to 'clear master' on certain pages which don't need the header and footer. (Blank pages, first page of each chapter/section etc.) But then something minor will need changing and the Publisher pages will shift up or down. Now the wrong pages have their masters cleared and I have to redo it. This is such a lengthy work it's actually impossible to do it manually and not make any slip-ups before export.

    There must be a smarter way of clearing masters.

    Is the workaround to make another master with nothing on it, and apply the blank master to the pages which don't need the headers and footers? Or is there a way to anchor the 'clear master' selection to a specified document page rather than to a Publisher page? Some other trick I haven't learned about yet?

    Any advice appreciated.

  3. I'm still trying to figure out how to draw vector in Designer (beta) in the simplest way.

    If you want to get rid of hundreds of layers by merging paths of an illustration element into a single layer, I've found various ways of doing that (Geometry>Add, Create Compound) and I suppose this works for some kind of illustration.

    But not for the fairly detailed, freehand kind. Is there a way to stop the software from doing this to the lines? 

    (Side question: What exactly is it doing?)

    1785466006_curvesimplification.png.a56086120d9d3d2c036ccf1590c60b61.png

     

  4. Yeah, I really like this particular font though -- I want to give the project cohesion by using only the fonts in this family. Normally when I buy a font package the outline version matches the fill version exactly, in which case you just lay the outline font on top of the fill font, boom, done. But this time, for some bizarre reason, the font designer has offset them just enough so that this is impossible. 

    It's 40 degrees here, my brain is not working. 

  5. 28 minutes ago, toltec said:

    That has a Sculpt option. With that option set, you can continue a line by starting to draw again from exactly over the last node. You can also reshape a line by drawing over the top of it.

     

     

    Oh my, this is why we don't be afraid to ask basic questions on a forum. Thank you! This is EXACTLY the functionality I always wished existed in vector software. Today marks the beginning of my new life as a vectorfarian. Thanks for sharing toltec, and thanks for thinking of our wrists and layer management sanity, Affinity.

  6. Hmm. I got a little excited there for a sec.

    Instructions say all I need to do is click the final node once and continue drawing. My computer is set up for a double click, but I'm guessing I click until the white square with a red outline changes into a blue square with a red outline. This ensures the line continues in the right place with no gap, but my query is more relating to layers.

    If I 'continue' the line, even joined up neatly, the next segment is appearing on its own layer. 

    This is a feature of vector drawing in general? New layers for every single little stroke, no workarounds to keep all the lines of a single shape on a single vector layer?

  7. So, I'm drawing silhouettes in Designer using the vector pencil tool. To speed it up a bit I'm checking the fill box, but I guess that's irrelevant.

    The problem, maybe: If I'm drawing something a little complex, my hand gets tired and wobbly before I've closed the outline. I end up creating a shape like this one below with three separate partial outlines. 

    The question: I don't usually draw in vector so I know this is a super basic question, but it's impossible to lift the pencil from the tablet, give your hand a break, then resume the same line and layer, right?

    Or is it impossible? Can I give my drawing hand a break by holding down a key or something? Do vector artists simply group the various layers of a 'single' shape and not worry about it? That just feels... messy.

    I know there are lots of vector artists here, so does anyone have a hack for drawing outlines of (and closing) complex outlines using the pencil tool when you need to give your hand a rest?

    1754455603_silhouettequestion.thumb.png.e5416404bcce1fbe65480d9abe0de7cf.png

  8. I'm trying to understand why Affinity Designer resets some user options from the previous document, and not others.

     

    For instance, the font resets to Arial. There's another font I use all the time, so it would be great if Designer could just remember that font when I start a new document.

     

    However, new documents do retain 'protect alpha', which catches me out regularly. (Why isn't this pen working? Oh.) That seems like an odd choice, because 'protect alpha' tends to be a temporary solution to a drawing process rather than a 'permanent kind of setting'.

     

    There are other examples, but those illustrate my general point. Are there reasons behind these choices that I can't see? 

     

  9. It's a matter of what you get used to. If you've been digitally painting for years without a massive outline in your way, to suddenly have one feels unnecessary at best and obtrusive at worst. I understand other people's preference for the outline. It would be nice in a future update to allow more user control of the cursor for those of us who don't like it at all. Note that this is really only a problem when using something like a spray paint brush at a very large size, one with lots of detail. The amount of outline really does get in the way of the canvas in such cases.

     

    In a lesser known art application, Artrage, the user interface is very simple. It's designed for the casual user (though can also be used professionally if needed). Dig deeper and you can change the preferences, including how the cursor displays. I reject the idea that more choices equal more confusion, especially in software which is positioning itself as an alternative for professionals. It's all in the UI. (See attached image. It's really not confusing at all.)

     

    I also discovered the workaround of turning on the brush stabilizer, but this changes the way it draws.

     

     

    Artrage Preferences.jpg

  10. When I draw with the pencil tool in draw persona, there's a nice little unobtrusive pencil icon.

    But when I draw in pixel persona with the paint brush tool, the shape of the brush stays on the page. If I'm using a large size, the icon gets bigger too, and obscures what I'm trying to paint underneath.

    I can't work out how to fix this in preferences.

    Is this meant to happen? It feels like a bug. 

    If not, how might I set up Affinity Designer to avoid showing me the shape of the pixel brush, or make it disappear while I put pen to paper, so to speak?

     

    I'm using Affinity Designer 1.6.0 with Mac OS X High Sierra, but it's been doing this for a long time. 

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