Sarvasri
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Posts posted by Sarvasri
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Some background. I downloaded this photo from pexels (free, no restrictions) as part of my drawing class. I needed a profile photo. It came as a jpeg. I opened it in Preview on Mac. It looked great. I cropped it to the current size. 942 x1300 pixels. Printing on 8.5 x 11 paper. Printing from Preview created the same ugly magenta tint. Printing from Affinity does the same. It prints exactly like the print preview shows it will print. But it looks beautiful on screen.
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When I go to print this photo, the print preview turns it magenta and it actually prints this way.
What could be wrong with the file and how can I fix this photo so it will print like it looks on screen.
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Using the node tool, I need to be able to align nodes and distribute nodes within an object. I can't figure out a way to do that.
I don't want to drag nodes one by one to a guide or to snap to another object or point. It is tedious to drag 30 nodes one by one.
I want to select all the nodes and align them vertically to the uppermost node just as I would align objects and then distribute them horizontally, just as I would distribute objects horizontally.
I used to do that in Canvas all the time. I can't figure out how to do it in Designer.
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I would like to use Affinity Designer for scaled drawings and designs. Examples include: Architecture, Carpentry, Landscaping (hardscaping, garden design, etc.), Mapping, etc.
In these applications I need to scale the document to match real world dimensions in feet, yards, kilometers, miles, etc. so that 1" or 1 cm = some larger unit of measure i.e. 1:125,000 or 1:12 or 1:1000.
There are plugins for AI to do this for mapping, etc. Example: http://www.avenza.com/mapublisher
Can Designer use AI plugins like Photo can use Photoshop plugins?
Can Designer scale documents? I can't find it. I only saw a request for this from 3 years ago and no follow up since.
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Thank you. This helped me understand a little more about the program.
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I'm trying to do what I think is simple drawing, but I can't do it.
For example.
I want to make a cup, so I draw an ellipse for the top rim of the cup.
I duplicate the ellipse and reduce its size to make the bottom rim of the cup.
Then I draw two lines to connect the rims to make the sides of the cup.
I cannot find any way to combine the two ellipses and two lines to make the cup.
Combining cuts the top rim. The lines can't connect to the bottom rim to make a shape.
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I would like to see the brush identified somewhere. On the current Mac version, if I use a brush, then another tool like the lasso, and come back to the brush tool, the highlighting showing the current brush is gone. (It's not supposed to do that, it's broken)
Even if it were fixed, it's not enough. Highlighting is good, but a better method would be to show the category and brush name (plus the highlight). For instance, a box could show a breadcrumb trail similar to how it is done on some web sites and file systems. Then if I go to another category I would still know which category and brush is active. I could get back to it. Otherwise, I'm lost. (Especially, when the highlight disappears.)
Having to mouse over the brushes to get the name is also cumbersome. I have to mouse over all the them looking for one I might remember I liked. We should be able to see the brush names displayed in the panel without having to mouse over them. Apple is really doing us a disservice by hiding the user interface so much and making us have to go hunting to find invisible features. In the name of reducing clutter they encourage hiding useful interface options. Dumb.
- AlinaLit and Jeffreydah
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••• The name of category is not a problem: you see the name on the top of your brushes panel and you stay, whatever you do, in the same category (except you change it manually in the pull-down of the panel).
••• The name of brush as such is also not a problem. Mouse-over in the brushes panel and you see all the names.
This is a problem for finding the brush you are using. If you go somewhere else in the brushes panel, unless you remember both the category and the brush, you have trouble finding it again. Yes, you can see the brush names, but you have to mouse over all of them one at a time to locate a name. And you would have to do that for every category. Not a good solution. Breadcrumbs is the best solution.
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I have the same problem MacBook Pro Retina, Mid 2012 15 in. OS X 10.11.6, El Capitan this is a real PITA. needs to be fixed.
Yes, mine is a 2011 MacBook Pro, El Capitan 10.11.6. This is definitely confusing. I always lose the brush highlighting.
I would like to see the brush identified somewhere. Highlighting is good, but a better method would be to show the category and brush name, plus a highlight. For instance, a box could show a breadcrumb trail similar to how it is done on some web sites and file systems. Then if I go to another category I would still know which category and brush is active. I could get back to it. Otherwise, I'm lost.
Do the developers monitor these posts? Should this go in as a suggestion somewhere?
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It should already identify which brush is being used. The fact that it doesn't (on Windows) is a bug.
When I select a brush and use it, the brush is highlighted in the brushes panel. I know for sure which brush I'm using.
Then let's say I use the lasso tool to make a selection. When come back to the brush tool, the same brush is available, but it is no longer highlighted in the brushes panel. I can see the "footprint" of the brush, but now I can't associate that brush with the panel. There is no selection. So I don't know which brush I selected last time because there is no indicator of which brush is being used right now. I am left guessing. This is on a Mac. Is the brush choice indicated somewhere else and I just don't see it? Try it and you'll see what I'm talking about.
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That only tells you which tool you are using (e.g. the Paint Brush Tool). It doesn't tell you anything about the brush stroke. ;)
So is there any way to identify which brush is being used after going somewhere else? Could this be something easy for the developers to include?
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Hi Alfred, Great Post!
So what I think Mr. Limoncelli did was create several grass, leaf, branch, and stem shapes, position them connected to his underlying large trees & ground outline shape, and then clicked the add button to connect them all together. Brilliant!
In the book tutorial he had us use the pen tool in polygon mode to create the underlying ground and tree shapes, which gives a stilted unnatural linear shape to the trees and ground. I bet that he selected all points and converted them to pen mode shapes afterward to smooth out all of the outline points. His outline is all pen mode points.
I learned a lot about sequence and process for creating pen shapes.
Originally, I thought he drew the large background, broke the line, created the leaf and grass shapes, and then connected the curves. That would have been tedious to say the least.
This idea of
1) making basic shapes,
2) duplicating them,
3) reshaping copies as desired,
4) placing them as desired, then
5) Adding them with the Add Operation,
Neatly combines the whole group into a single efficient curve!
Super!
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Here is the file (if it works)
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My wife and I are both going through the book. We're on Whittler.
The pen tool has some secrets that we don't understand
I zoomed in on the 3rd file: whittler_03_shapes.afdesign
I found amazing economy and skill in the use of the pen tool that we can't duplicate.
We can't even figure out how it was done.
If you look closely at the file, you'll see how few points create the leaf pattern.
But also, look at the grey "through the leaf" holes in the leaf pattern.
These seem to be independent, but there are no independent curves.
The whole background appears to be a single curve.
How do you do that?
How was this background pen tool file created?
What are the secrets to such economy of the pen tool?
How was the gray "holes" in the leaf pattern created?
We notice overlapping lines reverse light/dark tints.
Thanks.
(I included a graphic file, but I don't see it. Now trying to include it in the original post - learning the forum)
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I find the process described above to be maddeningly complex.
All I wanted to do is select part of an image, copy or delete it, and paste it into another part of the image. Or even select and option-drag it to another part of the same image -- or even paste or drag it to a new layer so I can move it around.
For a long time, I could not find a way to do it in Affinity Photo and had to use another program (Pixelmator) to do it.
Every time I tried to copy the selection in AP, it copies the whole pixel layer, not the selection. Cutting deletes the whole layer.
After much trial and error. I found a simple way to do it. This writeup seems long, but only takes 1 or 2 seconds once you know how (and know the pitfalls).
1) Using the Marquee tool (press letter M), select what you want. Or use any other selection tool like oval, lasso, etc.
2) Select "Copy Merged" from the edit menu (shift-cmd-C) -- Copy (cmd-C) or Cut (cmd-X) won't work. These will only copy or cut the whole layer.
3) Select "Paste" from the edit menu (cmd-V) Nothing will look different, but this creates a new layer automatically and pastes the selection into that layer.
Now, if you try to use the marquee move tool (4 little up-down-left-right arrows) to move the selection, you only move the marching ants selection, NOT what you pasted.
4) Switch to the black arrow Move Tool (press letter V) Now things look different. The selection now has a solid box around it and you can drag it where you want.
5) Drag the selection with the black arrow MOVE tool (letter V) to where you want it. You can also use the keyboard arrow keys for fine movements. BUT you can't do both, not yet. If you use the Move tool (black arrow) to move the selection and then try to use the arrow keys for fine movements, the selection jumps back to where it was. This is because the Marquee selection is still active. Bummer, but there's a fix.
6) To fine-adjust the position, Deselect the marque selection (cmd-D), You won't see any difference. But, then you can drag it with the Move tool (letter V) or move it with keyboard arrow keys, or both.
NOTE: If you use the Move Tool without deselecting the marquee, it will allow you to do it, BUT if you then use the arrow keys on the keyboard for fine movements, the selected object will jump back. If you initially move the selected object with keyboard arrow keys, it will also let you. BUT if you now try to use the Move Tool it won't let you. It reverts back to the marquee selection. In both cases this is because the marquee selection is still active. Conclusion: If you deselect the selection (cmd-D) either before or after moving with either the black arrow Move tool (letter-V) or with the keyboard arrow tools, then you can reposition with either the black arrow Move Tool or keyboard arrow keys. So deselect the marquee selection if you want to use both the Move Tool or keyboard arrow keys to reposition your pasted object. You can also use "Paste Inside"(option-cmd-V) instead of Paste (cmd-V) and the object is pasted into a new layer nested inside the original layer instead of above it. This also works the same way and it keeps the layers together.
6) Merge the layers if you want to.
Perhaps not quite as efficient as Photoshop, but only takes a couple of seconds once you know how.
I hope this helps remove the frustration of trying to do this simple task. It is simple if you know the secrets.
Windows users, of course, will use control-letter instead of command (cmd) which is used on the Mac
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When I use a brush I know which one I'm using because it's highlighted.
If I then use a selection tool - L and come back to the brush tool - B, the brush is no longer highlighted, now it's no longer identifiable. What brush am I using? How can I know?
Is there a way to know what brush is currently being used?
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The latest version of Affinity Photo (1.4.3 and maybe the 1.5.0 beta too) now show up directly in the Extensions menu.
Just click the "More..." option and then check the "Edit in Affinity Photo" option. It will then be listed in the Extensions menu and will take the image directly to Photo to be edited.
You no longer need the "External Editors" extension to get to Affinity Photo. Thanks Affinity!
This does NOT appear to be true. I only see Affinity Photo Extensions in the choices. Not the app itself. "Edit in Affinity Photo" does not appear in my list. I do NOT see a way yet to open Affinity Photo from within the Photos app.
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I too have a lot of difficulty working with this interface. I often can't tell which icon is selected. The almost black on black is extremely difficult to distinguish. Instead of making the selection black, it would be better at 50% gray or some lighter value. Or make the background lighter so the black surround of the icon is more contrasted.
I tried changing the gamma of the user interface all the way to the right, but it is not enough.
Also, the text is difficult to read. Likewise, Apple's new designs are terrible. The little darker gray on gray is a poor choice. We should not have to strain to read or recognize text or which icon is selected. It's like trying to read a book with white type on almost white paper. I can't understand these unclear user interface choices. When Jony Ive took over interface design, it was bad news. These barely distinguishable interfaces are horrible.
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I too have a lot of difficulty working with this interface. I often can't tell which icon is selected. The almost black on black is extremely difficult to distinguish. Instead of making the selection black, it would be better at 50% gray or some lighter value. Or make the background lighter so the black surround of the icon is more contrasted.
I tried changing the gamma of the user interface all the way to the right, but it is not enough.
Also, the text is difficult to read. Likewise, Apple's new designs are terrible. The little darker gray on gray is a poor choice. We should not have to strain to read or recognize text or which icon is selected. It's like trying to read a book with white type on almost white paper. I can't understand these unclear user interface choices. When Jony Ive took over interface design, it was bad news. These barely distinguishable interfaces are horrible.
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Please delete this post. it's in the wrong forum.
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Hi PixelPest,
Paolo also created some DAUB brushes specifically for Affinity. You can find them in the Brushes panel, in the dropdown on the top (scroll down a little).
He also provided additional brushes you can install yourself in the app. I've compiled them here (brushes section).
The link for the DAUB Vector Set Vol 1 (Affinity Review iBook Issue #1, page 73) no longer works. I presume the iBook is no longer available. But now the link to get the Vector Set Vol 1 is gone. Could that link be put somewhere?
Thanks...
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On the Mac...
It’s possible to insert “” ‘’ curly quotes, apostrophe’s etc. with keyboard combos.
Instead of ' and " you can have ’ and ” or ‘ “ by using keyboard combos.
Option + open or close bracket
Option-shift + open or close bracket, (actually open or close brace with the shift key pressed).
You can also make separate keybindings of your choice.
See: http://www.danandcheryl.com/2010/08/how-to-type-curly-quotes-in-mac-os-x
I, too, would prefer smart quotes. If I have a lot of text to enter, I'll use text edit with smart quotes turned on and copy and paste into Designer or Photo (paste without format). Especially, if I’m using Dragon to dictate -- because I’m not actually typing and I want the smart quotes to appear directly in my dictation.
I could also dictate in Designer and search and replace selectively to get my curly quotes.
Hope this helps.
I look forward to smart quotes in Designer and Photo so I don't have to fumble with the keyboard...
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When I merge selected. It does not merge destructively, leaving me with a single layer. It keeps both layers. They now turn on and off together, but there is not a single merged layer.
I want to create a temporary layer in multiply mode, do some shading, erase the edges of the shading, and then merge that shading onto the layer below.
I cannot select merge down. It is not visible/selectable in the menu. If I merge two selected layers, they still show as two layers, not a single merged layer.
I don't want a bunch of temp layers cluttering up the layers panel. I just want to commit the temp layer to a merged result.
If I merge visible, I'm still left with the two layers that I merged showing. Now I have to delete those two layers.
I just want a simple destructive merge without having to clean up lots of unnecessary layers. I want to destroy the layers I started with, or have the option to.
Any ideas on how to do this?
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How do you insert real quote marks in Designer, which doesn't have Edit/Special Characters?
Can we change default behavior to use real quotes, smart quotes?
Foot and Inch characters for quotes should never appear in typography unless you mean feet and inches...
Thanks.
Print Preview and Actual Print Turns Magenta
in Pre-V2 Archive of Affinity on Desktop Questions (macOS and Windows)
Posted
Problem solved.
It showed up the same way on two different computers. And it printed the same way on two different printers.
The reason was multiple problems on both printers.
1) The red preview means the image is too large for the paper
I hadn't encountered that problem on AP and didn't recognize what it was doing! - fixed by changing Fit Type to Fit to printable
That Fixed the preprint view.
2) Both printers had Yellow nozzle problems and one printer had an empty yellow cartridge.
Multiple errors that showed up at the same time led to the problem printing and viewing.
New Ink and multiple nozzle cleanings, and both printers are now working.
Thanks for your help!!!