Charles Jenkins

I'm writing to share some tips, but I also hope Affinity developers will see these and make the Arrange tools easier to use in future versions. I'm working on texture images for 3D models which need to be symmetrical from left to right. Conceptually for me, the easiest thing to do is paint on the left side, duplicate the layer, flip the copy, and mask if necessary. But I've found it exceptionally difficult to get expected behavior from Affinity Photo's Arrange menu items. Keep in mind that all these tips are in the context of using Flip transforms to end up with artwork that is mirrored left-to-right or top-to-bottom. Tip #1: If the layer you want to mirror has a mask, make sure there are visible pixels somewhere at the extreme edges. Photo apparently does not use the current selection as a guide to how you want to flip stuff. So if the layer you need to flip was created by pasting, it might flip according to bounds smaller than your full image width, even if you hit Ctrl-A to select the full image bounds before flipping. As a result, even if the visible pixels mostly fill the layer, the flipped portion can end up the the wrong place. To be sure my flipping will result in a mirror image, I make sure to paint a few visible pixels along the left and right edges when flipping horizontally, or along the top and bottom edges when flipping vertically. Basically I use pixel painting to make sure the layer I'm flipping extends across exactly the full width or height of the image before I flip it. To be fair, Photo's behavior in this regard is not a bug. If you've pasted in something small on a collage and need it to face the other way, you don't want it to jump from one side of the screen to the other when flipped. Tip #2: Temporarily set the layer to full opacity and Normal mode before flipping, if applicable. Today I had a layer with a mask set to Color Burn mode at 10% opacity, and flipping horizontally simply erased the layer's content. I tried several times but always ended up with a blank layer. I wondered if opacity or mode was somehow confusing the program, so I set the layer to Normal mode at 100% opacity, and then flipping worked. Tip #3: If the Arrange menu items are grayed out, lasso- or box-select something to copy and (temporarily) paste. I started a new document from an image I wanted to mirror. After duplicating the Background layer, I found the Arrange menu's transform items all grayed out. In an attempt to enable them, I tried all these things in turn: Made sure the unlocked duplicated layer was selected Hit Ctrl-A to select the full image size Saved and quit and reopened the program Renamed the duplicate layer in case the program prevents you from transforming based on the name "Background" Added a new, empty pixel layer Quit the program again and updated to version 2.2.0 before retrying Nothing worked. Then I used the lasso to copy and paste a small portion of the duplicated layer, and the Arrange menu items came alive. After that I was able to delete the temporarily pasted layer and then flip the duplicated layer.

Welp, I guess I just wasn't holding my mouth right the first time. After reading your email, I tried again, and this time the saved profile's thumbnail did show up, and I was able to apply it to another curve. Thanks for replying!

Wow! I always found it impossible to get useful results from Affinity's crop tool, but this new crop-to-selection default is a game-changer! Thank you, developers, and everyone who requested this feature!

I am using a mouse, not a tablet. I found that on the Stroke panel I can change the pressure profile to make a curve look more calligraphic, and I even saw there is a way to save a pressure profile I like. But oddly enough, after saving a pressure profile, I cannot then go and apply it to another curve. For some reason, the saved profiles don't appear on the Stroke panel when editing other curves. Is there a way to copy and paste pressure profiles? Or a way to see the saved profiles in the pressure pop-up when I'm working on a different curve?

Copy an image from somewhere else, for example the Windows Snip Tool or another art program--anything that will leave a bitmap on the clipboard. Start Affinity Photo and then from the main menu choose File > New from Clipboard. In the new document that appears, use a selection tool to select a small part of the image. Choose Edit > Copy. Choose Edit > Paste. A new layer will appear, and its thumbnail will be generated according to whatever you selected. In other words, everything appears to be normal. Make sure the pasted layer is selected and use the Move tool to move it. Surprise! The entire original image was copied and pasted, not just the part you selected! After copying a selection from such an image, if you again choose File > New from Clipboard, you will also get a new document containing the full image. In this circumstance, when I'm working with a document created New from Clipboard, the only way I've found to copy a small part is to choose Edit > Copy Flattened. I found this because I was never able to get good results with 1.0's Crop Tool, so I built a new workflow around selecting what I don't want, inverting the selection, copying, and then creating a new document from the clipboard. Finding the copy process all busted today was quite a nasty shock!

Ugh. That was it. Thanks! I never considered it because I have "touch only for gestures" turned on.

I'm using Affinity Photo 2 on an iPad. When I select the Clone Brush and touch the Apple Pencil tip to screen where I want to select my source, a little message tip pops up telling me that I'm using the Clone Brush and I must first touch and hold to select a source. But no matter how long or how still I hold the pencil there, no source is ever selected, and when I pick it up and then try to paint somewhere, I just get the same pop-up message again. What's the secret to getting the program to recognize that I really am selecting a source on the iPad?

First of all, I apologize for taking so long to reply. I didn't see the email notification that there were more responses. I agree with you all. It seems I am using incorrect terminology, and that particular settings screen isn't what I'm looking for. I need help finding what the correct terminology is. I have the "double-tap" setting turned OFF in both the iPad's settings and in Affinity Designer. For the purposes of this discussion, would you be willing to pretend that functionality doesn't exist? Since term double-tap is confusing, let's call two taps of the tip of the pencil on the screen "2-taps." Because with both those double-tap settings OFF, when I have the MOVE tool selected and intentionally 2-tap on the edge of a shape, the UI switches from MOVE mode to the NODE tool. Try it yourself and see. Because that's the problem: Pencil-tip touches are constantly being interpreted as 2-taps. When I'm trying to MOVE an object, suddenly I'm messing with nodes, I imagine because the pencil made the tiniest bounce when I selected the object. When I'm trying to SWIPE with the pencil to add an object to a selection in the LAYERS panel, suddenly I lose the rest of my selection, only that last object becomes selected, and the screen zooms to fit it, all because the iPad read the beginning of a swipe as a 2-tap. I totally hate that when an attempt to swipe causes me to lose what might have been a complex selection set!!! When I'm trying to drag the viewport using the little image on the ZOOM panel, I'll lose my scaling and it will zoom to fit the screen because it read an attempt to drag as a 2-tap. I never really for sure know what's going to happen when I put the pencil to the screen. I'm glad AD has such a robust UNDO. But UNDO doesn't cover annoying things like having the viewport sized perfectly and then losing that scale because something was misread as a 2-tap. If I could just turn off AD's reactions to 2-taps, I'd be in heaven. Failing that, I wonder if the API permits apps to control sensitivity by setting a minimum time between taps to be read as a 2-tap. Just adding a few milliseconds to overcome the bounciness of the plastic pencil tip on the screen would be good to prevent misreads.

These actions apply to double-tapping the tip of the pencil on the screen. I would edit my question to clarify, but it seems like the question is old enough that I can no longer edit it.

Affinity Designer for iPad is an awesome program, but because of some of the defaults, it doesn't put its best foot forward for new users with the Apple Pencil. This thread is meant to share fixes and workarounds I have discovered as I've learned to use AD with the Pencil. I will add posts below with screenshots to suggest certain configuration settings that prevent problems. I fixed my worst AD nightmares with the configuration settings. But there were a couple of other problems I encountered early and often which I will try to describe here. PROBLEM: When I open the "..." menu by mistake, when I close it, I lose my current selection! SOLUTION: Yes, anything you do "off menu" gets treated as something besides just trying to get rid of the menu, so the solution to this one is: When you realize you've opened the "..." menu by mistake, click on the currently selected Fill Mode (Alternating or Winding, whichever one is currently highlighted). That's treated as an attempt to change it to what is already is, and will close the menu without clearing your selection. Selections can be super-easy to make by dragging around until the right objects are enclosed; but they can be super-painful to make if you're just selecting certain objects nested within others. AD is pretty cavalier about clearing the selections you might have struggled to make, but at least you can find workarounds like this one or use the UNDO system to restore your selections. PROBLEM: When editing in close quarters, the Node tool keeps switching to other objects, maybe messing up things I was finished with, rather than selecting the nodes I'm trying to tap! SOLUTION: There's no way to change the Node tool's behavior, but you can use layers to organize your document, and on the Layers Studio's menu, uncheck "Edit All Layers." This way you can make sure the objects you're working on are on layers separate from "finished" objects. As long as you have the right layer selected, the Node tool won't be able to mess with finished objects.

In your video, you repeatedly set the default export option--which as far as I can tell does not work for its intended purpose or any other--rather than selecting that "background" slice and changing its export setting. You have to actually select a slice in order to change that slice's export settings. Try once again with your file, but this time select that slice labeled "background" and THEN change the export setting. I think you'll see it will work this time.

VectorCat, I'm a noob with the iPad version, but as far as I can tell, AD offers only the Vector Crop tool instead of a "real," destructive Crop tool. (That's not a slam against the Vector Crop tool--it's great at what it does.) So far the quickest way I have found to make a document fit the art is to select the desired art and Copy, then close the current document, create a new one, and choose the the "New From Clipboard" option. The results have been what I wanted in the cases I've tried, but I'm not sure this will work as well if you already have a Vector Crop hiding pixels in a large image. There's probably a way to "freeze" the Vector Crop and make it discard hidden pixels when dealing with images, but as a noob, I don't know it.

I'm glad your problem is solved! In case it helps others having problems and looking at this thread: The Apple Pencil will stop working altogether, and be able to select from menus, if its battery runs down. You'll be working in AD as normal, then suddenly the Pencil just stops registering. Check the charge on the Pencil to see if this is the problem. Aspects of the Layers Studio will stop working normally if you are in the Export Persona. If you have selected a layer, but things don't work as you expect, check which Persona you're in. The problem may not have anything at all to do with the Pencil!

Chris, I’m not sure I understand your question. “Enable double-tap” is toggled off. I’ve attached a screenshot. The unwanted actions occur when I’m trying to tap or swipe with the Pencil in Layers Studio in order to make/add to a selection.

The Apple Pencil 2 registers double-taps too often, which I assume is Apple’s fault. The double-tap actions in Affinity Designer were driving me crazy until I found you can turn them off. (Thank you!!!) However they sometimes happen anyway when I’m trying to select a layer. Evidently the Layer Studio doesn’t respect the OFF setting.

If I understand the question, the way I do it is to select both nodes and tap the Break button. This turns one curve into three. Then I leave node-editing mode, select the unwanted curve from the Layers panel, and delete it

I hope positive feedback is welcome here. I’ve been using AD intensively for about a month now, and I just love it! Yes it has quirks to work around, but it’s amazingly powerful and easy to use, especially considering the limitations of the touch interface. I used to work a lot with Illustrator, and I would have never believed it possible to bring something like it to iPad. But Affinity is getting there, and with a UI that is better and easier to use than many desktop graphics apps.

+1

I wonder if recent updates may have improved this? I never have to use multitouch. I can’t think of any situation where I’d need more than the pencil (or just one finger).

I’d like to see the Align palette appear as an icon underneath the Resize one on that toolbar on the right. For me, it’s buried just one level too deep.

Single-taps being registered as double-taps and making the app do crazy, unwanted things was driving me mad until I found you can turn off most double-tap actions in Affinity Designer’s settings (behind the gear on the app’s home screen). What a blessing that Serif gave us the option to turn them off! I still have to contend with the Zoom level going nuts sometimes when I tap to select a layer, but that’s much less of an annoyance than trying to move an object and having the program blast into node-editing mode and start moving a node instead. Even with the app’s good undo system, it induces a mini heart-attack to find yourself accidentally ruining your carefully tuned pen curves!