jackamus

It would be useful to be able to select which of the three Swatches, Colours, Gradients or Greys, to be the default one. If this is not possible then perhaps whichever Swatch is selected it will be saved when closing the file and then be automatically selected when a file is reopened.

Thanks Walt. I tried that but it still loads the Colour swatch. I will make a new feature request.

Following on from this, I never use the colour swatch, only the Grey Scale. When I do use colour I use the colour wheel. If I save a file with the Grey Scale selected and the reopen it then it will still default to the colour swatch.

Some time ago I asked if it was possible to change the default swatch from Colour to Grey Scale but I cannot find the thread. Sorry but I'll have to repeat my question. Is this change possible?

What I am saying is the modern technology is giving people who do not have the inherent skill a fake skill! Thus it is dumbing down real skill to a lower level. Its artificial whatever way you look at it. Here's another way to look at it. 1 Create a competition to find a good natural artist but also allow AD users. 2 Create a competition for a good swimmer but also allow the use of a small powered motor. You have a similar thing where men can compete against women just because they call themselves women. Its all artificial! Do you get my point?

Actually buying paper and paints is a very good idea! It will give people the chance to use the inherent skills that they already posses. Dumbing things down so that anyone can do it just simply is that 'dumbing down' and the loss of genuine skill. This Is where technology has gone wrong! It has removed the humanity out of being human. I would gladly do with out computers, cell phones etc and get back to when life was less stressful. All technology has achieved is a more controlled and stressful existence and all the name of profit. Its not about improving life but making money from it.

Hi Alfred, I have already posted a thread invloving typography some time ago and all this was heavily discussed then. Its too late to suggest 'intuitive changes' and if I did Serif would just ignore them. You are quite right about DrawPlus and I also started a thread, way back, why AD wasn't as good as DP. I never did use Page Plus even thought I had. I have an elderly friend (84) who still uses PagePlus to produce a monthly magazine although he has problems with it. Like me he feels he is too old to fit-in a new learning curve to use another app.

Quote 'Canva’s talk about democratizing design – so that anyone without skills can slap a design together – leads to idiocracy, where expertise evaporates and the world is forced to stare at even more Tupperware-style design' I'm 85 and I remember when DTP first became available to those who had an IBM Pc or as I did, purchased an Amstrad PC. At that I was running my own graphics studio using the old cut and paste method for producing artwork. Very rapidly I saw how the quality of graphic design deteriorated because companies no longer need to studios like mine. They bought programs like Quark Express and got the office junior to play around with it and create their brochures and manuals etc. Also the developers of these apps were not trained in graphic design and especially typography. To make graphics fit the space available they simply squeezed or stretched it to fit. As for typography they used as many different fonts and sizes just because they could. The quality at that time was abysmal! I was never able to afford a Mac and so I moved out of graphics. I think the way Serif's Publisher handles typography is very un-intuitive for someone with the traditional typography skills. However it is called 'progress'.

Well you're not mincing your words here! Its good to hear an opinion from a developer's side of the fence. Do you think that Serif's recent amalgamation with Canva will make any difference?

Sorry I did mean 'A Photo'.

Thanks for the 'how to' advice.

I do not think that a discerning designer, when choosing colours, would rely on what they see in a tab! I don't use colours to that degree so its not a problem for me. However when I do need to see accurately displayed colours I print a proof using a custom designed colour profile to suit my printer.

I would like to rotate the photo so that I can crop it exactly to the shape I want.

Brilliant! Its so refreshing to know that there are people out there who share my views about the way Serif developers don't seem to have bridged the gap between keeping usability as being paramount and making things look 'nice'. I see that this thread was started two and half years ago with no changes taking place. I have been campaigning ever since AD was first published to get them to allow bounding box handles to stay visible when moving a guide! The best excuse that Serif could come up with was, 'it was to reduce screen clutter'. How can it possibly be screen clutter when they are visible all the time, when selected, except when moving a guide to coincide with one? Another defence, mainly by users, is to switch the snapping on and off. I would never have to change my snapping settings if it wasn't for this problem. Serif developers seem to have a blind spot for users who want to do technical type drawings where lining-up guides with handles is a must. My drawings can be very large, 10 times full-size and there may be snapping points well out of view of my screen that almost coincide with the handle that I'm trying to align a guide with. It has been suggested that I use a free CAD app that is designed for this kind of work. For me to do this would be like learning to use a publishing app just to be able to change a font size! The learning curve to use the app would just not be worth it! This can all all be solved by keeping the handles in view whilst moving a guide. I bet it took more effort, by the developers, to get the handles to disappear than to leave them in view! Also there is the problem of 'Pride'. Nobody likes being told they are wrong. I would say that all the changes that Serif have made have not come from criticism. I know that I have made a nuisance of myself but that is the only way to try and get my point across.

I did a search on 'Rotate' and it did not refer to rotate layer! There were no rotation handles when I opened the photo.