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Boldlinedesign

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  1. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Bobby Henderson in Spiral Tool in Affinity Designer   
    My "daily driver" vector applications are Adobe Illustrator CC and CorelDRAW (just did the 2023 upgrade on my workplace license). I have Affinity Designer on hand in case I receive any customer provided artwork created in that format. I'm not very familiar with VectorStyler, although it does look like it has a pretty impressive set of features.
  2. Like
    Boldlinedesign got a reaction from _Th in Spiral Tool in Affinity Designer   
    Vectorstyler is indeed the best companion app to Designer in terms of covering as many tools and features as possible. Owning both means you don't have to waste time waiting for Affinity to catch up (if they would even attempt to since they are not trying to necessarily be a full featured vector app)
  3. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Andy05 in Can Vector brushes be vector brushes?   
    Well, you don't need the most recent version of CorelDraw as a "workaround replacement" for Designer's features. You can find licenses for older versions (OEM) for as low as 75-80 EUR—or even lower, if you use some versions from 4-6 years ago. Also with a perpetual license. That's even cheaper than VectorStyler...
    I'm not arguing about the user friendliness of VectorStyler. Though, I've been using CorelDraw since Version 1.2/the early 90s - so I'm used to their workflow and UI and that's one of the main reasons, for me personally, why I'd chose CorelDraw over VectorStyler.
    If a tool is missing basic features and essentials, which every other competitive app provides for ages, it's probably worth checking out if they should get added after a decade of development. In your analogy, one of the hammers has a huge hole in the front side. Yeah, might work, but it might not be the best option to use, because you might miss the nail with some of your hammering attempts.
    I still can't think of any good reason why a vector app was developed without true vector brushes in first place.
     
  4. Like
    Boldlinedesign got a reaction from Andy05 in Can Vector brushes be vector brushes?   
    Vectorstyler offers 100% vector brushes. Hopefully designer will catch up eventually. The 2.1 update is a good start
  5. Like
    Boldlinedesign got a reaction from animositysomina in Can Vector brushes be vector brushes?   
    I tried to use affinity as a replacement for illustrator when they went to SaaS and really wanted it to be the answer. Tools I've come to rely on and find standard were not and some are still not available. For the type of work I do designing t-shirts, features like text warp, flood fill, Boolean operations that can destructively merge down a final design for export, etc are what I'm used to having for my work to flow smoothly in illustrator. Yes I could warp text in photo by hand and trace back into designer, but why? There are other programs that can handle that. it's true that super old versions of the adobe apps and others lacked many functions, they were also not known or available in other programs at that time. Affinity today had the advantage to see all the great innovative progress made over the treats past and create their own version of said tools quickly.  
    It was good to see the 2.0 get released and the 2.1 updates are solid. Those who only need the smaller number of tools affinity designer offers are lucky in that they want for nothing. Those who rely on vector brushes, better Boolean operations, etc, advices like Vectorstyler fill the gap and man I'm not held hostage to adobe while waiting on affinity
  6. Like
    Boldlinedesign got a reaction from albertkinng in Can Vector brushes be vector brushes?   
    I tried to use affinity as a replacement for illustrator when they went to SaaS and really wanted it to be the answer. Tools I've come to rely on and find standard were not and some are still not available. For the type of work I do designing t-shirts, features like text warp, flood fill, Boolean operations that can destructively merge down a final design for export, etc are what I'm used to having for my work to flow smoothly in illustrator. Yes I could warp text in photo by hand and trace back into designer, but why? There are other programs that can handle that. it's true that super old versions of the adobe apps and others lacked many functions, they were also not known or available in other programs at that time. Affinity today had the advantage to see all the great innovative progress made over the treats past and create their own version of said tools quickly.  
    It was good to see the 2.0 get released and the 2.1 updates are solid. Those who only need the smaller number of tools affinity designer offers are lucky in that they want for nothing. Those who rely on vector brushes, better Boolean operations, etc, advices like Vectorstyler fill the gap and man I'm not held hostage to adobe while waiting on affinity
  7. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to animositysomina in Can Vector brushes be vector brushes?   
    Despite V. 2.1. now having some really cool features and I finally started working with the Affinity Designer for Ipad again, I have to say that I miss this "feature" too. I bought tons of so called "vector" brushes for AD just to find out afterwards, that they're basically raster brushes in the end. 
    And the response here:
    is not constructive or helpful at all. 
    Vector brushes should have been real vector brushes right from the start, and it wasn't clear to me as a new user back then.
  8. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to 2ddpainter in Affinity Designer / Seamless Tiles - Suggestion / Alternative   
    I'm not quite sure what you are looking for?
    A way how to create a seamless pattern ?
    Apart from using adobe illustrator ?
    Its possible with Symbols in Affinity Designer
    to create seamless patterns.
    But the problem is, as far as I know, you can only
    create Bitmap Pattern Fills in Affinity Designer.
    In Procreate as well.
    .
    .
    You mentioned the iPad, i think the option are a bit sparse
    on the ipad. you can look at "iOrnament Pro" and "Amaziograph"
    Also worth a look is "Nception - Distortion Effects" its a kind of
    live mirroring via the ipad/iphone camera with could result in
    interesting pattern.
    Also only Bitmaps.
    .
    .
    But to create true Vector based Pattern Fills PC/Mac is the only option
    i guess. VectorStyler (PC/Mac) offers true Vector based pattern fills
    and has many Tools to develope Patterns. There are some Examples
    in the Tutorials section at the VS Forum.
  9. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Chris Monty in CMYK separations/ Halftones for screen printing.   
    Hi Affinity Team
     
    Firstly i want to compliment you all for the update V.2 version of Affinity and they are a joy to use.
    As a screen printer, i really really wish we could do CMYK separations and Halftones to enable to print transparancies as easily as it can be done in Photoshop. For me this is really the only major functions that are missing from Affinity and their addition would make Affinity a real match for Photoshop etc. I am sure there are many screen printer who would come over to Affinity products if this was available. 
     
    Keep up the good work and hope you will be adding the above funtionalities soon.  
  10. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Ammoniteii in 1bit / bitmap mode colour format?   
    another bump for this feature - if memory serves at one point the team stated they would not support 1bit - I cannot fathom why, 1 bit images can have so many uses, and yet again I'm forced to go find and install another image editor to do something that i would much rather do in the affinity workflow, here's to hoping that some sustained requests may change their mind.
  11. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to BennyD in 1bit / bitmap mode colour format?   
    @Andy Somerfield  some more details regarding that statement would be great. Until now it's really hard if not impossible to understand why there shouldn't be 1Bit support in AF photo and AF publisher. I mean waiting for it would be ok. There are other priorities for sure.  But to dismiss it completely? Seriously?
  12. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Medical Officer Bones in 1bit / bitmap mode colour format?   
    I encountered this limitation too. I prepare comics work for print, and for that 1bit black and white high resolution 800ppi-1200ppi images must be created.
    While Photoshop has the option to work in 1bit image mode, most of the functionality is deactivated: layers do not work for example. And to composite the line art with the colour plate, InDesign is required to produce a PDF.
    After some trial and error I discovered that, as far as I could find, only one non-Adobe workflow option exists. This assumes the line art is inked in B&W at a minimum of 800ppi or scanned at that minimum resolution. I tried a combination of Gimp, Scribus, but while Scribus supports export to PDFx/4 with 1bit transparent images, I couldn't create a good transparent 1200ppi 1bit image in Gimp.
    So I do my prepwork in PhotoLine now, which supports 1bit image layers, and these can be combined in the same layer stack with the 300ppi colour work. First I open the 300ppi colour work, then import the 1bit 1200ppi line art, activate transparency for this layer, and remove the white background. Then I add the vector text balloons and other vector elements, and export a PDFx/3 document. PhotoLine miraculously seems to understand that I want a layered 300ppi PDF with a 1bit B&W1200ppi layer printed on top, which was unexpected when I first tried it a year ago. The result is a nice layered PDF which prints the page's colours at 300ppi, the line art superimposed at a crisp 1200ppi, and the vectors at the image setters max res.
    If you need to prepare 1bit images, just get PhotoLine for this. Work in Affinity Photo, and convert to 1bit with PhotoLine, and output. I use PhotoLine as a InDesign replacement for this type of work. It's an inexpensive solution to a very particular workflow requirement.
    One caveat with both Affinity Photo and PhotoLine: neither one supports an 8bit (or less) indexed image mode. For this I use Pro Motion NG - which is kinda the industry standard for indexed pixel art anyway. If I need to work on indexed images, I open the art or photo in PM, and it converts it nicely to an indexed image. And PM being a specialized indexed image editor, I get the best indexed image tools in the business. Good for textile print prep too, to get remove those anti-aliased edges :-)
    So three apps: Affinity Photo, PhotoLine, and Pro Motion NG combine to achieve an even more powerful workflow with indexed and 1bit images compared to Adobe. Not bad.
  13. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Medical Officer Bones in 1bit / bitmap mode colour format?   
    1-bit mode would be very welcomed.
     
    The only image editor that I am aware of that supports 1bit layers with high PPI resolutions and allows these to be combined with 300ppi colour ones in the same layer stack is PhotoLine.
     
    Crossing my fingers for Photo's next version that will hopefully support 1bit properly.
  14. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to madtho in 1bit / bitmap mode colour format?   
    I work in letterpress printing and screenprinting and use 1 bit mode every day. Please include this feature.
     
    Reiterating what others have said:
    Letterpress require a solid, no line screen image to make clean film for plates. We, too, scan calligraphy for invitations at 1200dpi for high resolution platemaking.
    In PS I  scan>convert to greyscale>play with levels, then Threshold>convert to bitmap. Then I colorize with spot (Pantone) colors in layout software.
     
    I've been doing this for close to 20 years (yikes) and am happy to consult to bring this feature to Affinity.
    thanks!
  15. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to haba in 1bit / bitmap mode colour format?   
    Please implement Bitmap colour format (2 Colors) selectable in Dokument-Menue.
    One of the few reasons why we still need to use Photoshop.  ;)
    Thank you.
     
     

  16. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Bauke in 1bit / bitmap mode colour format?   
    I too have a need for a 1-bit mode, in order to prepare images for letterpress, silkscreen etc. Also, the addition of duotone, tritone and quadtone would be fantastic.
  17. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Fixx in 1bit / bitmap mode colour format?   
    Ok here it is as request :-)
     
    1-bit bitmaps are used as line art (printed cartoons, illustrations), in silk screen printing and copydot printing systems. They also can (should) be used in coloured comics, where colour plates are overprinted with 1-bit black key colour. Possibly there are other technical purposes also (please list them in this thread!) There is not many apps that support 1-bit but for these uses 1-bit is crucial. 1-bit ensures that black image is NOT rasterized, resulting fuzzy outlines.
     
    Technically 1-bit colour space should be easy feat. You can convert greyscale image to 2 tones (b & w) by thresholding image where light areas convert to white and darker to black.
     
    Threshold should be adjustable so you can select how black or how white image is. (Scanners can scan directly to 1-bit but I think it is much better scan to greyscale and set the threshold manually.)
     
    Alternative to thresholding is dithered image – that is, using something like grain mask or stochastic raster or Atkinson dithering to build the greytones. I am not sure that is so much needed as it is just a special effect (imho). Besides, there is excellent HyperDither app available.
     
    There are some angles that are worth considering. Colour images are best at about 300 dpi when printed. 1-bit images display jaggies in that low resolution, optimum res is 1200-2400 dpi. Ideally 1-bit pixels would map 1-1 to device pixels but above 1200 dpi that is academic.
     
    Details are not needed in that high resolution range, meaning that true 1 pixel resolution is not needed. Resolution is needed for avoiding jaggies, making lines and shapes smooth and clean. That also means that you can upsample image to smooth jaggies out. It is perfectly ok (even when not really hi-fi) to take 300 dpi greyscale image upsample it to 1200 and convert to 1-bit. In photoshop you can upsample in convert dialog (doing 300>1200 AND 8-bit to 1-bit) but I think Photoshop did it wrong and resulted jaggies. I do not know if they have corrected that bug (I use PS CS5). I hope AP would upsample and convert at one go and do it right.
     
    There are some massage you can do to makes 1-bit appearance better. You can play with local contrast to make darker parts lighter so there will be more meaningful black and white areas in image. You can do it manually, or you can use filter (I think high-pass filter is used here?) I am hoping Affinity team would find some quick and easy slider here to apply in convert dialog to reveal more detail in final 1-bit image.
     
    Tools: there is not much need for any special tools. (Or is there?) You can paint pixels black or white and that is it.
     
    One simple effect/usage mentioned also in Affinity forum is that 1-bit image is placed in page layout app and coloured with front and back colour tools.
     
    Last, you might want to consider comix artists' work flow. Old school draw black&white, scan b&w original (1200 dpi) and hand a copy to colour artist for colouring. Colouring is done to separate layer (well, sometimes physical "layer" with brush and paint). Coloured version is set in place in page layout and higher res lineart version is set in register with it and overprinted. Should colour image be CMYK? Or would it better be CMY, resulting brighter colours and less ink coverage, considering there is still black key 1200 dpi image being overprinted? How do you do CMY separation? Also, there are artists that draw with colours so that final artwork is coloured physical art board, and the either take the easy way out and do normal 300 dpi art production, OR filter out the 1200 dpi black key from full colour scanned original (not easy process..). Possibly Affinity can troubleshoot this process to simple and easy colour sep system for comix artists.
  18. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to gunbunny in 1 bit TIFF/Bitmap support please   
    I'm going to go ahead and +1 this topic.
    I started in prepress-land in the mid-90's. And I can tell you unequivocally that 1-bit TIFF support is crucial for production purposes.
    First, there is the need for "copy-dot" operations where you have a halftone that you don't want to rescreen. You'd scan this at 100% at a resolution of at least 1200dpi, but preferably 2400-4800dpi. When saved as a bitmap 1-bit TIFF, it outputs at the max resolution of the output device and is not rescreened, and hence, no moire pattern.
    Second, and similar to the First, is doing a "copy-dot" on engravings and lithographs. Again, you want those fine detail lines output at crazy-high resolution and not screened.
    Third, there is the need for "line art" illustrations. Again, once scanned at a high dpi and placed in the page layout or illustration program as a 1-bit TIFF, it outputs at the max resolution of the device. This yields nice, razor-crisp illustrations for things like instruction manuals, B&W catalogs, and cartoons.
    Fourth... this is a curve ball... there was a program waaaaaay back in the MacOS 8 days that I've never seen replicated. (And the name of which I can't remember.) You'd import your 1-bit TIFF, then you could colorize it: either paint the black or else "color inside the lines" in solid colors. It would then be saved as an EPS that would output at... you guessed it... the max resolution of the output device. It was phenomenal for super-crisp catalog work where you are given a hand-drawn lineart that needs colorized, not vectorized. (An example)
    Regardless, 1-bit TIFFs, when exporting as a PDF, the data becomes part of the vector data, as opposed to raster data, even though it's technically raster data. The RIP then processes it as part of the line file and it isn't halftoned (unless, of course, it's set to a tint of a spot color, or a CMYK color.) Either way, it's still output at ultra-high resolution. Which is the point. 
    Bottom line, this is a crucial missing feature in Affinity Photo, and I sure do hope that it's addressed sooner rather than later.
  19. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Chris L in 1 bit TIFF/Bitmap support please   
    I used to use the 1 bit bitmap tiff an awful lot as an Adobe user. I can't find a simple way to drop a bitmap into a document and colourise it within the document, and also have a transparent background. I know I can create a png with transparency and drop that into a designer or publisher file, but this is no good when working with line art. You simply can't do it with the same quality.
  20. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to AffinityMakesMeSad in No DXF EXPORT in Designer 2 ..are you serious!?   
    If not Affinity (Serif Labs) is supporting DXF, use something else…
    Affinity Designer lacks a few things, but, it is good at many other parts of design area…
    So, perhaps you go for Vectorstyler instead…
  21. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Dazmondo77 in Water / liquid brush?   
    Saw this earlier and thought I'd have a go at making a vector brush, which as turned out pretty well, although the two brushes (attached) are comped together from an handful of images from free image sites, and not great quality - I think, as the brushes may come in useful, I'll take some photos and do it properly at some point.   
    Screen Grab.mov Water Brushes.afbrushes
  22. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to 2ddpainter in Spiral Tool in Affinity Designer   
    Indeed, this is the case.
    My main vector graphics application was CorelDraw. I still have a
    copy of CorelDraw 2021, I like the symmetry feature and of course
    I have a copy of Affinity Designer on PC and Ipad.
    More than a year ago I discovered VectorStyler and it is now
    my main vector graphics program. Because of its features
    and i am still impressed.
    But more important the developer is very open for new ideas
    and how to make the Software better. Its sometimes already
    in the next build.
     
  23. Haha
    Boldlinedesign got a reaction from Pšenda in Spiral Tool in Affinity Designer   
    Not really because if you're working on an iPad, you're still very much limited by what Affinity Designer offers in terms of features and tools - you're only gaining mobility of use.
    While Vectorstyler does not yet offer an iPad version, I'd much prefer a stable and feature rich desktop-only program like VS than one that has multiple platforms and a limited feature set
  24. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to Ash in 2.1 Beta Build 5 (1732) release notes   
    Hi All,
    We are pleased to make available the next update to the 2.1 beta (2.1.0.1732). This should now be available for you shortly on auto-update.
    To set expectations we are now at the point where no additional features will be added to 2.1 before release as we focus on final bug fixing and smaller tweaks to the features already added - the list of those included in this build are below (and also included in the main bug fix list )
    Bugs affecting all platforms
    Auto-Select Groups Failing to Cycle Through the Complete Layer Stack Drawing a new table does not take selected font into account Line width, column guides and distance from text do not scale when rescaling document Renaming global colour adds a history step of "Set global colour" Resampling/resizing text decorations on a master page increases the width of the decoration, relative to the number of pages Strip Camera Raw crs metadata on export to raster formats Brush accumulation fixes Bugs affecting Desktop (Windows and macOS)
    2 page facing document starting on the left cannot export page 2 individually to PDF Attached documents cause app to crash when added as a Book Chapter Edit Embedded PDF > Layer selection through the layers panel does not select the objects and ignores any edits made to it Hang printing a book Preflight Maximum ink setting can wrongly report an error Publisher hangs adding an Index on a book Running headers - add to main menu fields Snapping indicator is offset when drawing objects User File - importing IDML document with embedded EPS files opens with placed resource size of 0x0, EPS files are not displayed When cross-references are updated during export of a book, their values disappear from publication pages Bugs affecting Windows
    Expanding multiple entry in resource manager 'jumps' to last manually selected resource First Dash Pattern Gap no longer has a minimum value of 0.05 on Windows Font Manager - Fonts disappear after selecting substitute Running headers end on dropdown has no entries in it Text Contrast doesn't affect Adjustments or renamed layers on Windows Bugs affecting macOS
    Adjusting spinners in Character Panel can cause all spinners to stop working Blend Mode Shortcuts: Add is missing a shortcut on macOS Brush panel - brush selection lost when category changed Brush panel - name labels don't scale with font size preference Brush selection highlight is lost when switching categories  Edit Field... Right click option incorrectly available on some fields On the Books panel's Preferences menu, Update Cross-References seems permanently unavailable Bugs affecting iPad
    Allow multi-select place in Designer and Photo Add Status indicator to Style Picker Tool Context Bar Brush panel - reverts to Basic category on persona change Don't dismiss Style Picker menu when All / None selected Long pressing a Section Name field in document text displays unnecessary Edit option Menu can go offscreen PDF export issue / lock up on iPad Running headers - add as field on keyboard? Stock Panel - Pixabay has lost the vector option on first run Text Vertical alignment setting is not reflected in the UI
  25. Like
    Boldlinedesign reacted to 2ddpainter in Spiral Tool in Affinity Designer   
    @Bobby Henderson

    could recommend to download and try the demo of Vectorstyler


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