debraspicher

@Westerwälder Psst. Tagging you in in case you haven't used up all your laugh emojis for the day yet.

Especially unhelpful when the customer is already confused.

This post warms my heart so much. I have both CorelDraw and Vectorstyler on trial atm.

I love the origin offset feature for setting up margins and columns with padding (not just gutters).

We may head that direction and hope there's a clearing. But if not, it's a day to get out and have a small adventure. On the plus side, I have filters now I can use for future solar shots... @Iphilpot I would've been living in the NE at the time (my husband's home state), but I do remember that. I don't think I have any photographs of it, just my memory. On topic: @awakenedbyowls If you are making use of OneDrive (built into Windows) at all, it is possible to move that to another disk as I have for every install of Windows. So that may free up quite a bit of space if you're using that a lot. I know not everyone uses it but surprisingly some I have talked to have, so I do often suggest that when system disk storage becomes a problem. I have never kept mine on the system drive (C:) as I'm on the 365 plan and I have quite a bit stored on it.

It'll be worth it, I think. Looks like cloudy weather here. We are planning to drive but it may not matter.

Can we not do the psychology crap again? We are not mental health experts. We push pixels around a screen for a living. I don't find the mental analysis either convincing or insightful.

Utilizing in-browser support for its native text support is very different than implementing an entire text engine into software... By the way, BRAVO Canva. It was super quick to jump right into registration (I used my Google login) and straight into a new design. Less than a minute. The text frame I created... The text "entry" itself... 100% browser-based. Convert these elements into a final bitmap image and "done".

I think you'll find when using too large of assets for a brush that typically will be used at a radius much smaller, you will not find the quality is better... it's best to pick a size that matches up with the intended use case of the brush. The only time maybe to use something super large is it is an "asset" brush in the sense that you are pasting large photographic-style elements on the canvas... so like a brush that prints nebulas, similarly highly detailed elements would use a large radius, but it would drop them in one at a time or very slowly/sporadically... something that you will use to render (ie. paint) on the canvas, you should pick the size closest to the size range that the brush is intended to be used at so as to not be too taxing and so that an appropriate amount of detail is still seen...

I don't know about Mac, but on Windows, if you click anywhere outside the filter dialog box (for example to pan), it resets the first option back down to "0" in the case of the Unsharp Mask. It's very touchy and when experimenting, I lose the setting that way. If you have clicked away from that dialog and closed it, it's very easy to not notice that the filter is now "off" because of this particular UX flub.

Yes and I find that particular quote you and @bbrother cited to be both stubborn and insulting when there are years and years of unaddressed efforts by the users of this forum. That's why I refuse to participate in the betas at this point. It's counterintuitive. They have rode off into the sunset after literally cashing out on all our goodwill but still only have vague insinuations production could be higher (relying again on our imaginings of what could be), but then insist "nothing will change". They were acquired, not as a blessing but out of necessity, so clearly a lot needs to change.

This doesn't go to the legal discussion, but I can see a time where kids, even adults, actually start believing the Masters added dinosaurs to their paintings because of the prominence of AI versions. Public education is in such a state where we are that we are closing schools and removing school days because so many are transferring to private/charter. Anyway, the point of mentioning that particular bit is one of the benefits of having the ability to quickly create graphics by hand is that we can create materials for home use because the schools are so lacking now. So I think there will always be a need for hand-created materials, especially those where context is critical to the presentation of such knowledge. The computer doesn't understand child development and the nuances of that. Medical knowledge, matters that require great sensitivity in addressing and presenting, etc.. Example: I would never trust ChatGPT for giving me medical advice relevant to my own actual situation, for example. It may be that graphic designers may have to consider picking up a side focus so that they can produce materials/works for other people's benefits and also monetize their own unique specialty in presenting such materials. The popularity of YT, etc, is an example of that in video form. People have taken what they were paid to do as a trade for example, monetized their knowledge of it and made that knowledge more widely accessible through creative means. Companies may turn to AI en masse for their own graphics solutions, but on the other hand, they become dependent on these tools and it leaves the independent person to pick up where these tools fail to present information in a way that is relatable... so I think in the end, it's all in finding a balance and adapting to these changes in a smart way. I hope that makes sense... it may not...

Serif in a recent company statement shared by another user (see below) has stated they are putting resources into AI, so we may not need a plugin. I also agree with you, it's inevitable that this is where tech will go now as AI is the future. I don't have any particular issues with it being used to "enhance" work. My issue is when whole new pieces are created out of works that were added to a tool without consent. If someone wants to take one of my color palettes and use it in their own design, that's a legitimate use as a creative tool, I think. That's akin to exploratory use-cases and is a suitable use for AI as a creative tool. It wouldn't be very different if I had input that color palette manually and had the algorithm work it... or used other filters, etc, to adjust. Using AI to "restyle" ones work, for example, provided it's not a total replacement. So the difference for me would be using an image we created as a "prompt" (causing AI to redraw it entirely), versus using AI to "filter" through the piece and add 3d effects, shadows, recoloring, adding objects, etc...

AI takes other people's work, throws them into a wood chipper where it then applies it own signature to analyzed bits, then uses its unique algorithmic magic to interpret those works and thus their bits are used to "reform" new works based on previous works. It's a form of theft in the sense it takes other people's materials and uses it to feed the process... which it cannot do on its own without those references. The copying is merely the act of feeding something into the algorithm. It has less to do with the output, more to do with the fact that many creators do not approve their works being used to train computers against their consent. I get the feeling for some it is akin to identity theft, which I really can't blame them. That said, it's not illegal to trawl the public web and store people's information against their consent, so nothing will be done. People who hate to pay for things will welcome AI. Many people still pirate music. Just like many don't have any issue with search engines and social media sites mass collecting our information, they will be fine with it because it provides a free service in return.

I agree with @philipt18 on the benefits but the site needs a professionals area, in general. Typesetting (but a bright broader?... print design maybe?) could be one sub in such an area. May I also point out to staff it would not only better show to you how your users actually solve their daily problems, make proper use of the suite, but show painpoints and room for improvement in a more straightforward way. Right now we can only assume how others actually work. Anyway, it woukd show to everyday visitors the software and its real world usecase beyond just the occassional tutorial. Also, it allow users to interact more one on one without being lost in technical support jargon and exchange critical insights. Right now that energy is wasted because it often gets hidden in offtopic dialogue. The prominence of which just shows the community is being underutilized.

I've saved some AI eye candy from Pinterest, etc for myself, but yeah, the errors are glaring. I don't care for my personal usages, but I would never put it on anything commercial.

We can kind of achieve what is being asked for with Export Persona. I like that your example is all in one place and much easier to scan through and select in one go. I don't think the Export window needs that left side.. To do what is requested, one has to be aware of it to make use of it in EP. This requires inputting the specific width/height values into the Slice itself. That requires manually typing in "1500w" in the scaling field (nice, that input is truncated... ), etc, in this case. Once that is done, it's possible to set a Export preset to include both the scaling information and the export format settings. You would first select your format preset (the PNG dropdown), or set it up above this panel in "Export Options" manually for the slice... then to save it, you have to save it where it says "Export Preset" Then in the future, you will be able to select this specific setting in this dropdown: It is additional labor (not much once it is preset), but if you are using a template anyway, your EP setup will be included and so it will retain those delicate settings... I generally prefer EP because I can export assets quickly... but I do think that a streamlined panel like the above is critical for people who usually stay in editor portion of the program. There's tons of time savings in EP for use cases where the additional functionality is useful (and needed), but complicated for most users where only a simple one-off export would be necessary... By the way, EP can also adjust for your output Destination... it is also a relative path, like the above example.

Pure comedy

The tools we end up using in the grand scheme are not the be all, end all of what sets us apart professionally as designers. Those focusing on which tools were used ("I used these long before these other 4 things came along!") have missed the point entirely. If an artist is exclusively using Procreate, for example, to make a very decent living, then it doesn't matter in the end whether it is considered "pro" tools to that person. They balk at these discussions because they're often maligned by the elitist crowd as if they're exempt from the industry overall because they use an iPad over Mac/PC, etc. That discussion happened earlier and it is ironic given what gave Affinity its head start. Affinity benefited a great deal from embracing this crowd, but they risk falling into the same counter-productive rat race as Adobe trying to score points by packing on half-baked features but not refining the programs to keep intact what sets them apart from traditionally industry tools, practically speaking. One of the major reason programs like Procreate are so popular are because they are snappy, simple, yet highly polished and help produce deliverable productions with great UX. It is very accessible to people who need a workflow that works best with their creativity rather than being hobbled down with overbuilt functionality, needless knobs, dialogs, bugs, etc. I imagine its also why some people don't upgrade to V2. Just a thought.

Yeah the thumbnail is clickbait which is typical. I found the commentary quite mild on average, but YMMV.

Be careful with how you just worded that. Some companies charge for the right to post on their forums. (It's been brought up already) The user can look forward to paying for access to obscure Mac hardware references, bad software jokes and a chance to face off with a random Serif employee in a vicious death match over whether certain functionality is a feature or a bug. $5/mo. Free with paid Canva membership.

Same. I'm an optimist in many ways in my own living, but as far as software and the ways of the world, I save my energy for productive things and try to lead life with common sense. Common sense is that change is the only constant. I believe generally in my own capabilities at this point and whatever happens, I will adapt. That said, I really hope that the team that does remain, whether they stay or go, find some meaningful way to take the critical energies we spent here and put them to some good use. That's the most I ever expected, tbqh.

So I hear Patrick could be handing out buttons (of course, they'll be hyperlinked) for us to wear pretty soon... (It's a joke, watch the end of the video) Another angle for balance. Everything is still speculative, so this is just for side analysis... the above is a more positive take per a current Canva user Edit: Does anyone know if YT embeds can be resized?

It's become a chat thread at this point. If they want to keep it up, it'll help keep the Canva-related tensions off the rest of the forum as all discussions-related can be pointed to here...

Yes.