Mediafuel

What do you do boxing day evening when the kids are tucked up and Netflix has been exhausted? You test how many layers, groups and masks you can squeeze out of Designer thats what :)
This is a piece thats been on my desk for a while and finished up with excitement last night. (Items you can't see that are included are a toilet and bunkbeds).

I searched high and low for a Hello Kitty sticker for one of my kids cars for Christmas. Could not find one anywhere. So I did a quick drawing in Affinity Designer and had our printer sneak it into a last minute job.  :D

Hi natclass313,
WWelcome to Affinity Forums :
You have to reduce the image size (pixel size) to a reasonable value. Depending on the camera, the image size in pixels can be extremely high. You can check the size of the images produced by your camera on the top left of the interface (see attached image) in Develop Persona. That info is also available in the same area in Photo Persona - just make sure you have the View Tool selected (hand icon).
 
Here's how to do it:
- open the RAW file, do any adjustements you may need there then click the Develop to go to the Photo Persona where you can process the image further if needed;
- in Photo Persona, go to menu File ▸ Export. Set the Size to 1500px x 1000px (this value is totally up to you and depends on how big you want to show your image when posted on a website), Resample to Bicubic or Lanczos and Quality to around 85, for example. If you look to the Estimated File Size near the bottom you will have a close idea of the size of the exported image. The values i mentioned should produce a JPG around 500kb (depending on the image).
- you may also want to remove EXIF/metadata from the photos before posting on the web. If so, on the Export dialog click on the More button and uncheck Embed metadata and only then click Export.

I have a series of paper craft robots. Three years ago I made a Santa Clause robot, then a reindeer robot, and this year I've added elf robots. The fold patterns were created in SketchUp, and the artwork was done in both AP and AD. All the textures are assembled from photos that I am constantly shooting.

I see someone else has also noticed this jump in PDF file size in AD 1.4
The last PDF I exported for print in AD 1.3 was; 75cm x 150cm and produced a PDF file of 1.8MB
The same sign exported from AD 1.4.1 beta now makes an exported PDF of 2.8MB.
It also takes an age now for AD to calculate the estimated file size and the actual export takes longer too.
I'm running OSX 10.8.5

Provide a little info. What is file? Does it contain fonts, is it rgb or cmyk? What are the export settings? You haven't provided enough info to get a good answer.

Hi ejmdesign,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
There's no way to set a custom colour for the background/canvas. You can set it to transparent going to menu Document and check Transparent Background, or if you want to pick a custom colour go to menu Layer ▸ New Fill Layer then select a colour for it in the Colour panel and place that layer at the bottom in the Layers panel.

Embedded Documents seem to be the way to go.
 
"Embedding documents allows you to place any Affinity (Designer, Photo, etc.), Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, SVG, EPS or PDF document into your current document without the need to open each file in turn... Once you've added embedded documents onto your page, you can edit each document without leaving your current document."
 
So by creating and saving each of my assets as separate AD files and placed in a Finder folder with an appropriate name, I can use Finder to view the collection and place into a new document. So easy!
 
Cheers

I'm on thin ice now, but..
If you go to export persona and make slices of the objects.
Export them to a folder in finder. Then you can use the veiew>media browser to "pick from".

Really amazing Software i feel happy and now this software is my daily driver

Thought I would share a lovely little project I have been working on this last couple of weeks.
 
Two 30page page educational books for UK charity Epilepsy Action. The story has been adapted for both a Dad and mum version.
To be published in hard form in 2016 also to be released as a digital download sometime before Christmas.
 
Artwork had to adhere to many readability standards and fonts had to follow NHS guidelines for accessibility.
 
All illustration was undertaken in Affinity Designer (of course) and page layout in InDesign (let change that soon hey, Serif Devs).

+1. Right now I am looking for tips on how to make white... white.
 
I have RAW images (taken with a Canon camera) of a small item on a piece of white card. When I open them in AP the background is heavily tinted blue. There must be a strategy for optimising whites and blacks in images before moving on to other tweaks. I am struggling to find any info regarding this topic.
 
Cheers

Please develop a tutorial for Develop Persona regarding Best Practice. As an example, in what sequence should you edit an image? Thanks for listening.

Thanks for the info and tips.
 
Probably waaaaay down on the list of dev work... but intuitively I wanted to copy and paste the details from the Guides Manager in one document to another. The other thing I wanted to do was resize the window or dock it somewhere convenient. If I had a second monitor then dragging it off the main screen would be nice. 
 
I do like how the Guides Manager stays open when switching between documents.
 
I have 12 of these composite images to produce, so have created a custom grid to overlay as a layer in each document.
 
Cheers

a small collection of my works with AD & AP.
 
 

Thanks for the info and tips.
 
Probably waaaaay down on the list of dev work... but intuitively I wanted to copy and paste the details from the Guides Manager in one document to another. The other thing I wanted to do was resize the window or dock it somewhere convenient. If I had a second monitor then dragging it off the main screen would be nice. 
 
I do like how the Guides Manager stays open when switching between documents.
 
I have 12 of these composite images to produce, so have created a custom grid to overlay as a layer in each document.
 
Cheers

Aren't guides just lines to aid with your art, I would create actual lines with pen tool and copy them over. Snapping features are the same as well.

Hi.
 
I'm not sure you can use this methode, but..
If your pictures are of the same size (or rezise them first):
Set up the guides the way you want them. 
Make a new pixel layer.
Use your brush tool and drag a line on the guide. (Click in the beginning of the line, hold down shift and click on the end of the line.)
 
Then you can copy the layer and use it as an overlay over the other pictures.

Hi Mediafuel,
No, currently this is not possible.

Was trying something different here, attempting to recreate the look of printed material. To this end I've create patterns of 1000s of dots to try and get that letratone/halftone feel.
 
What's impressive is that Affinity Designer's devs aren't kidding when they say the thing never slows down or runs out of memory. It really doesn't. I think this number of objects would have made AI weep tears of blood...
 
 

Hello.
 
Is there a method for adding a new layer below, instead of above the selected? For example, Option + Click to insert the layer below, or something similar.
 
Thanks
 

Mmmmm reformed porkmeat
 
 

Hi everyone, these are somme artworks done with AP, hope you,will like them.

Hey guys.
 
I'm loving Affinity Designer and Photo and switched over as my Adobe subscription ran out around Affinity's release day.
 
I am participating in the betas and am really impressed with the team's work and engagement with users.
 
I am currently working on a watch project in WatchUSeek's F71 (Affordables) forum and this is the result. An homage to the vintage and modern Seamasters and James Bond, we are partnering with Lew and Huey watch co to have this made into a real watch! This has been my first full project rendered completely in Affinity apps and am now not pining for AI, or PS in any way. lol :D
 

Thank you ABC. I will look into this as a solution. Cheers.