Archangel
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Posts posted by Archangel
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@Nanette2024 Welcome to the forum. I see we have another extremely talented creative artist in our midst. Very well done indeed.
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And now the application of the Little Planet procedural plugin for Affinity Photo (with Photo Reactor Player).
Quite a nice effect.
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16 minutes ago, Ryan Clarke said:
I've been following Mike Loader's incredibly comprehensive guide on Affinity Publisher. It is extremely helpful, but I am I gradually realising that Affinity Publisher has a far greater learning curve than I ever considered. As I am facing all sorts of compatability and reformatting issues it could take me a long time to overcome them.
So the obvious question is, do I even need Publisher? Given that my 120,000 word text book (with references) has no graphics or complicated layouts, what benefits will I get from using it that I can't get from creating PDFs directly from Word and sending them to the printers.
Of course, I want the highest standard possible from the final produced books, as they will be sold to the public. But thus far, I have perfected my layout in Word and I am very happy with it. I have managed to get around many of its limitations and I'm wondering if I shouldn't just go directly to PDF and then to the printers, thereby cutting out the need for another layout.
The drawbacks I do have with Word are creating an index, and linking to page numbers. Also, changing just one word can push a few lines so they overhang onto the next page, and I have to format the rest of that chapter again. It is constant formatting work, I admit.
So what are the most significant benefits that I would get from recomposing the book in Affinity Publisher rather than leaving my layout as it is in Word?
No criticism on the app itself is intended here. It just doesn't seem to be for me.The only reason you would prefer a desktop publishing app over a word publishing application would be the improved typographic controls, DTP will make you think differently about the way you layout your publication viewing it from a more editorial layout approach.
If your textbook requires things like citations, bibliography features, or some other usage like equations and such then stick with the word publisher.
Mind you using a DTP app can enable you to visualise your work more holistically and give you more precise control over its citations, bibliography features, or some other usage like equations then use the more feature-rich application for your needs.
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Just a note to tell you about Reactor Player. This is a PhotoShop-compatible plugin that works with Affinity Photo. Sadly, it is Windows only but may be of interest to some of you. I have purchased a copy of Reactor Player for Affinity Photo and the reactor application as well
I am still testing it out fully but I find it a useful addition to my tool set.
There is a trial version that can be downloaded for you to test it out if you wish.
Do I recommend it to everyone? It's too early to say but take a look and see if it is something you might be interested in..
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6 hours ago, Lee D said:
@Archangel I've installed the G'MIC plugin and processed some images within Affinity using the plugin and then used them in a HDR merge. But I'm still not getting any crashes occur on my Windows 11 system.
Could you follow the steps in this FAQ article to check for a crash report for when this occurs for you.
I tried to repeat the crash using the zipped images today (on my first post). It only goes wrong when the greyscale image is first in the HDR merge list followed by the colour image.
I finally got a crash report for you.
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One last tweak and edit in Affinity Photo with the G'MIC Polaroid plugin.
Test added in Affinity Photo using Artistic Text tool.
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Looks like a great pack.
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48 minutes ago, William Overington said:
Could you have another character added in, say, a lady, and she says that if they stop arguing and both work together to learn desktop publishing and become artists then that would be better for them as they grow older.
William
@William Overington Maybe they are fighting over the attention of a lady.
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A coloured background effect.
And a photo warm sepia effect in Affinity Photo.
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@William Overington The shadows coming forward make the images more menacing.
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1 hour ago, Patrick Connor said:
This thread is not for feature requests and barcodes are unrelated to QR code as far as implementing them, so this doesn't help advance Barcodes, sorry.
Thanks for clarifying this @Patrick Connor. It's good to know where both you and we stand. The only reason I asked is because I have an app which produces both QR and barcodes from the same utility code base. Although, I understand you focusing on one thing at a time. After all the algorithms would not be the same for each type of barcode.
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On 4/12/2024 at 1:54 PM, Ash said:
Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPadA new QR Code tool is now available from the shapes flyout in the toolbar, making it easy to add a QR code to your documents.
After creating or selecting a QR Code object you will find a 'Payload' option in the context toolbar. Here you can type whatever URL you want the QR code to link to when it is scanned.
In addition to URLs you can use other syntax as detailed below to have the QR code trigger other functions when scanned by a device:
SMS
Payload structure: SMSTO:number:text message
Eg. SMSTO:07513123456:Hello mate!GEO location
Payload structure: GEO:lat:lon:height
Eg. GEO:40.71872,-73.98905,100WIFI credentials
Payload structure: WIFI:S:ssid;T:type;P:password;;
Eg. WIFI:S:MyWiFiSSID;T:WPA;P:MyPassW0rd;;Great @Ash. Is their any chance of a more fully featured Barcode tool for book covers?
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1 hour ago, Alfred said:
The colour is better and the shear is better, but you need to tweak the heel area of the shadows so that they meet the boys’ heels. They might have one heel lifted slightly off the ground, but not both.
Hmm. I tried with Mesh Warp tweaking to get this effect.
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17 minutes ago, Alfred said:
A good effort, although that shadow looks very dark. Did you lower its opacity at all?
As @Ash Eldritch has pointed out, the boy appears to be floating: there shouldn’t be a gap between his feet and the shadow.
No, I didn't but that wasn't the final tweak.
This should be better with added shear. @Ash Eldritch, @Alfred @William Overington.
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Cheers @Ash Eldritch. I'm trying to achieve something like this.
This is how the shadow is done in DPX8.
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1 minute ago, William Overington said:
Are Affinity programs .exe files?
William
No they are either .msi or .msix. Affinity should be fine.
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2 minutes ago, William Overington said:
What, even though I have unlocked the S from a Windows 11 S system that was on this computer when purchased new?
William
Very probably. You won't be allowed to download .exe files and run them. This will include setup applications.
This is to prevent malware from spreading and make Windows more stable. The only malware allowed will be the type produced by Microsoft in Windows Updates.
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2 minutes ago, Alfred said:
No, I didn’t know about that! Very bad news for anyone who doesn’t have access to older versions of Windows.
I agree. It is all in the interests of security. Unless someone finds a way to bypass the feature or convert the .exe to .msi or msix.
Maybe they'll allow it from trusted sources but I doubt it. -
13 minutes ago, Alfred said:
One way would be to duplicate the objects, fill the original (i.e. bottom) copies with black, make them semi-transparent and apply a Gaussian blur, and then shear/skew as desired. If you really must have a perspective shadow, you would need to warp the shapes so that they taper as they stretch further away from the boys’ feet.
I was thinking something along the same lines. Thanks @Alfred.
P.S. Are you aware that the new Windows 11 update for the 24H2 will prevent .exe files from being run? Installing Serif's legacy software will probably not be possible in the new build. Along with a lot of other software that comes with an installer.exe setup program.
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Enhancement using Bevel/Emboss filter effect. Mainly I used inner bevel.
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4 hours ago, William Overington said:
Are they in dispute about which type of sauce is best on chips?
William
No, everyone knows that it is HP Fruity Sauce.
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Based upon some old clip art, I have decided to make it a little more interesting and add some textures in Affinity Designer to develop an improved image quality.
Blond Bully x 2 with added textures.
I would like to be able to add a perspective shadow but I am not yet sure how to do it in Affinity Designer. It was quite simple in Draw Plus with its feature to skew shadows automatically. I suppose it will be more involved with Affinity Designer 2.
Any ideas on how to achieve the effect would be welcome.
SVGs included for you to play with if you would like.
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@NotMyFault You were right. The output from the G'MIC extension seemed to be at fault.
Loading each into Affinity Photo and re-saving stopped the crashing. Changing to the same image format also helped.
Using the Stack function gave me the result I was looking for using the images.
@Lee DLooks like we've identified the issue, although why it causes some machines to crash and others to not crash remains a mystery.
As far as I'm concerned the issue is solved for now.
Thank you all.
Expressing One's Self using Art and Visual Riddles
in Share your work
Posted
Sometimes I use creative outlets to offload how I am feeling and hopefully separate myself from the intensity of negative thoughts and beliefs. This can provide respite for a little bit.
This was created in Affinity Designer using artistic text, clip art, Styles, and Quick FX.
Strangely, looking at the product actually helps, as it externalizes the thought in some way and makes it less overpowering and reminds me to practice some self care.
I12die.svg