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fde101

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  1. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Krustysimplex in "Select All on Current Layer" added to Select menu   
    It is curious to me that you can't simply select the group and make the desired changes.  You can, for example, select a group of shapes and choose a color to apply that color to all of the shapes in the group, so why could you not select a group of text objects and choose a text style, or a font, to apply it to all of the text objects in the group?
    That omission seems both inconsistent and unnecessary.
  2. Like
    fde101 reacted to Pšenda in Show own grid has become very cumbersome in Photos 2   
    It could also address requests from many users who require inches/millimeters as document units when opening a raster image with pixels.
  3. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Kerwin in Show own grid has become very cumbersome in Photos 2   
    The problem with this is that the grid is a per-document setting - you can have different grids selected in different documents - it is not an application property.
    The canonical solution for this in the Affinity products is to create a template with the grid set up the way you want it, then use that template when creating new documents.
    There is a problem, however, when working with Photo, in that many documents are created by "opening" a RAW file or other raster image file, which in effect creates a new Affinity Photo document and imports the image into a new layer of that document which is then named "Background".
    Currently there is no opportunity to access a grid which is stored in a template when "opening" raster images in this way, and I believe that is the problem which should actually be solved.  Rather than a piecemeal solution for one property at a time (grid, etc.), I think the best way for this to work is to allow the user to specify a template of their choice to use when "opening" raster images or RAW files, perhaps with an option to use it (or a different one) when creating from a preset also (as this is something that is a bit more iffy).
    The user could then save a template with their desired grid settings, maybe a few adjustment layers for soft proofing (likely turned off but still set up and ready to go), and when they open a raster image, it would open a copy of the template, set the document size to match the image being opened, and import the raster image into a new layer on the bottom of the Layers panel.
    This would solve the problem for the grid, allow the user to rig custom adjustment layers to be ready to go for any new image they open, have custom document color swatches (even global ones) in place and ready to go, etc...  and it should be fairly straightforward as all of the underlying mechanics to make it happen already exist in the application.
  4. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Intuos5 in "Select All on Current Layer" added to Select menu   
    It is curious to me that you can't simply select the group and make the desired changes.  You can, for example, select a group of shapes and choose a color to apply that color to all of the shapes in the group, so why could you not select a group of text objects and choose a text style, or a font, to apply it to all of the text objects in the group?
    That omission seems both inconsistent and unnecessary.
  5. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Oufti in Publisher - Split paragraph styles and character styles into separate panels   
    Just to point it out, the styles can also be selected using drop-down lists on both the context toolbar (when editing text) and on the Character and Paragraph studio panels.  The drop-down lists do separate the Character and Paragraph styles from each other, so while it does mean one more click (to open the drop-down), using these might help to eliminate the scrolling.  Or, you could use the Text Styles panel for the paragraph styles, and one of the drop-down lists for the Character styles (or vice-versa)...
  6. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from walt.farrell in Publisher - Split paragraph styles and character styles into separate panels   
    Just to point it out, the styles can also be selected using drop-down lists on both the context toolbar (when editing text) and on the Character and Paragraph studio panels.  The drop-down lists do separate the Character and Paragraph styles from each other, so while it does mean one more click (to open the drop-down), using these might help to eliminate the scrolling.  Or, you could use the Text Styles panel for the paragraph styles, and one of the drop-down lists for the Character styles (or vice-versa)...
  7. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from walt.farrell in Greyscale and no FX view mode options added   
    Where this is unlikely to be sufficient is in certain categories of workflows in which continuous export is being used to update resources used externally during the design process.  For example, if using either Photo or Designer to work on images that are resources in a game engine, the continuous export feature could be used to export selected regions of the document constantly as they are edited.  These exported images could then be picked up by the game development software when they change on disk, allowing for near-real-time preview in context in the external software while the editing is being done in the Affinity app.
    This is something that cannot currently be supported in Publisher due to lack of that persona... but at the same time, something that Publisher and StudioLink are unlikely to be very helpful with.  I would think that working directly within Photo or Designer would probably be the better choice for those workflows anyway.
  8. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Iulian Onofrei in Add possibility to display texts under icons for the tool buttons   
    What I was referring to by the "modern" approach can be seen, for example, in Digital Performer (a digital audio workstation), in which Shift+Spacebar brings up a small window in which you can start typing to search through all of the tools, menu commands, etc., which are available in the program, and see their shortcuts, what they are, as well as triggering them right from the menu:

  9. Haha
    fde101 got a reaction from Paul Mudditt in Scripting   
  10. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Iulian Onofrei in Add possibility to display texts under icons for the tool buttons   
    The classic way to handle this is to have a "Tools" menu in the menu bar which mimics the toolbar but lists the tools by name instead of using icons.
    A more modern approach is a searchable pop-up menu that appears with one keyboard shortcut you would learn, which you could then start typing the name of a tool or menu command in order to find and switch to / execute it.
  11. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Oufti in Add possibility to display texts under icons for the tool buttons   
    The classic way to handle this is to have a "Tools" menu in the menu bar which mimics the toolbar but lists the tools by name instead of using icons.
    A more modern approach is a searchable pop-up menu that appears with one keyboard shortcut you would learn, which you could then start typing the name of a tool or menu command in order to find and switch to / execute it.
  12. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Iajhy in Dear Devs | If you have a bad day, read this…   
    Not sure why this keeps coming up, but not necessarily the best use of Serif's time when they already seem to be stretched fairly thin as it is; if you are looking for motion graphics capabilities check out programs like Apple Motion or HitFilm; maybe add something like SynFig Studio for certain specific use cases.  For compositing work, take a look at Fusion from BlackMagic Design, or at Natron.
    Point being there are already several solid options out there to replace After Effects, including a few free ones.
  13. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from garrettm30 in All supported image files now available from File->Open in Publisher   
    If you are opening a document file (such as any native Affinity file) you should see an accurate representation of what was saved in that file.  If there was a locked background layer when the file was saved, you should see one when you open it; if there was not, then it should not be there when you open it.
     
    When you "open" an image file which does not natively have a concept of layers by itself, the content of that file needs to go somewhere, meaning a layer needs to be created for it (Publisher is not actually opening the image file directly, but rather creating a new Publisher document and setting it to match the content of the image file; a Publisher document needs a layer to store that content).  Traditionally (I believe originating from Photoshop), that layer is called "Background" and is locked to prevent the user from accidentally moving it out of position.
  14. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from keiichi77 in Allow node tool to select control points of shapes and text fields   
    I see this as a good thing because if you have multiple overlapping objects and want to reshape only a few of them it makes it easier to avoid selecting the control points of objects you don't want to manipulate.  I can see benefit to the behavior you are suggesting as well though, so perhaps a button could be added to the context toolbar to toggle between these two behaviors?
     
    Shapes in the Affinity products are special - they are not normal bézier paths the way they are in Illustrator and the like, but rather a completely different type of object.  You can already use the node tool and reshape them to the extent that they can be reshaped while still keeping them as their own special type of object; to go beyond that you need to first use "Convert to Curves" to make them into path objects.  Then you can distort them as you seem to want.
    There is benefit to keeping them as shape objects however, as there are additional control points you can use to manipulate them (such as adding points to a star or controlling its inside radius; you can turn a gear into a flower, etc.) and this flexibility is lost when the shape is converted to a curve, which is why that does not happen automatically, and should not happen automatically in the Affinity products.  I strongly disagree with what you are asking for on this point.
     
    Text boxes are generally built on the shape objects (or on a closed path object), and the node tool allows you to modify the underlying shape/path in roughly the same manner as if they were not acting as text boxes.  I'm not sure offhand if there is a way to "convert to curves" the shape behind a text box without impacting the text in that box, and I don't have it in front of me right now to play with it and figure that out...  if you haven't created the text box yet, you can create it as a path then convert that into a text box, so that you can reshape it later the way you are suggesting.
  15. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Alfred in Name 'Divided' Objects   
    Then why are the colors not mixed together?  Try it with two shapes where the opacity is reduced.  The color of the part that you claim comes from both shapes, is only the color of the upper shape, so the color of the one underneath is lost and ignored.
    What seems to be happening is that both shapes are simply cut at the intersections and the parts that are underneath are then deleted, leaving only the parts that were on top.  In the end, the effect of the operation is actually the same... thus the way I am looking at it is that there are two parts left from the upper shape, and one from the lower one.  None of the individual parts represent more than one of the original shapes.
  16. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from slizgi in Blend tool in Designer   
    Can't speak to Illustrator offhand, but in VectorStyler at least it updates dynamically as you adjust the objects on the ends.  You can also adjust the number of object in between, etc.
  17. Like
    fde101 reacted to Pšenda in Publisher V2 export - *please* remember settings!   
    ... or that it was requested a long time ago 🙂
  18. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Pšenda in Publisher V2 export - *please* remember settings!   
    While I do not disagree with this specific request (to remember that setting, most likely for a particular document), I do feel a need to point out that just because something is requested multiple times, does not mean it is a good idea.  People frequently ask for things they would later come to regret, which would cause problems for someone else, or which would get in the way of even better things they may not have thought of when making the request.
  19. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from PaoloT in Exporting into IDML please?   
    How many times have we heard this sort of thing before in the computer world?  Things change.
     
  20. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Alfred in Justify all and last line of paragraphs   
    In addition to what Alfred pointed out, you can adjust this within a text style to apply it by default within that style.  This is on the Paragraph -> Spacing page while editing the style; just set the space before/after to zero.
  21. Like
    fde101 reacted to Alfred in Justify all and last line of paragraphs   
    The comprehensive Help which is accessible from within the app is also available online.
    Affinity Publisher 2 Help: Leading and inter-paragraph spacing
    ‘Space After Paragraph’ is non-zero by default, so that you get a clear separation between paragraphs even when there is no first-line indent.
  22. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from tbaucells in Export persona in Publisher   
    The export persona as it exists in Photo and Designer have a number of quite useful features which are not available in the export dialog: the ability to export cropped portions of a document without actually cropping the document, continuous exporting, etc.
    There may be a few corner cases where some of that would be useful for Publisher, but very little of it would be relevant often enough to make it worthwhile in its current form, in my opinion.
    Much more useful would be a few other related features that don't currently exist in any of the Affinity products, but which would lend themselves to an export/output-focused persona, and most if not all of these have been discussed in other threads on the forum - in particular:
    Preflight checks (color space usage, ink coverage checking, font types and availability, overflowing text frames, etc.) Color separations Preview with the simulated color space of a known output device (what will it look like when printed on printer X...) - this one is currently possible using an adjustment layer but having it in a dedicated export persona would be a helpful alternative The ability to maintain multiple export presets for a given document. Each should allow the selection of pages and/or sections to be exported together as a unit.  Similar to slices in the export persona of the other apps, but instead of cropping a section of a page, you would be able to specify that specific sections of a document should be included in a particular pre-defined export so that multiple partial documents could be produced out of one master document. These could also have independent settings for things like bleed, color separations, output format (PDF / quality settings /etc.), imposition type and options, and so on.  This would allow setting up an export for print, another for a PDF to be distributed over the web, etc... There should also be an ability to do a batch export by selecting more than one preset in a list and clicking one button to export all of them in one step. For settings which are designed for print, it should also be possible to print directly from one of these presets.
  23. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Aammppaa in Make it easy to make each line segment has different thickness.   
    The joins may not be clean with that approach...  of course, if the change is done at a segment level, there are limits to how effectively that can happen regardless.  Most apps set line thickness at the level of specific nodes added for the purpose, or possibly just at the nodes joining the segments.  The Affinity apps set it... arbitrarily along its length, totally ignoring the nodes and segments...
  24. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Alfred in Make it easy to make each line segment has different thickness.   
    The joins may not be clean with that approach...  of course, if the change is done at a segment level, there are limits to how effectively that can happen regardless.  Most apps set line thickness at the level of specific nodes added for the purpose, or possibly just at the nodes joining the segments.  The Affinity apps set it... arbitrarily along its length, totally ignoring the nodes and segments...
  25. Like
    fde101 got a reaction from Paul Mudditt in Scripting   
    You mean like this (done in Designer without any need for a script)?

    Screen Recording 2023-06-05 at 09.03.29.mov    
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