Kal

At this point, I think we might just need to conclude that our systems are behaving differently. I'm using Designer and Photo versions 2.6.2 on Mac OS, and it just ain't working. 😕

Thanks for going to all the trouble of sharing that very detailed tutorial. I see you're using Photo, not Designer. In Designer, I can follow all your steps (yes, using the gradient tool), until I get to creating the gradient swatch. Oddly, I do not have the 'Add Current Fill to Palette' command at all, so I have no other option but to click the icon. Otherwise, I am following your steps precisely, and I am still not seeing that behaviour. The first two shapes change as expected, but the third one does not change. I just tried it in Photo, and the results are exactly the same. I still do not have the 'Add Current Fill to Palette' command, so I create the gradient swatch using the icon button. Same result. The object that is filled from the gradient swatch does not change. It has lost all links to the global colour swatch.

Again, I'm not sure how helpful a video of the entire UI is, unless you can follow the cursor movement around. But here is a more detailed breakdown of the steps I'm taking: Create new document. 'Add Document Palette' from Swatches panel menu. (I named mine 'Document'.) Create two new global colours in the Document Palette (either from the Swatches panel menu or by clicking the icon). Select Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle. (You can keep the Rectangle tool selected or switch to the Move tool. The end result is the same.) Without deselecting the rectangle, click on the Fill box at the top left of the contextual toolbar. Switch to the Gradient tab. Select the left node, then click on the colour box, and switch to Swatches. Select the first global swatch you created (Global Colour 1). Repeat for the right node, and select the second global swatch (Global Colour 2). With the rectangle still selected, create a new gradient swatch by clicking the 'Add current fill to palette' icon in the Swatches palette. Deselect the rectangle. Create a second rectangle. With the new rectangle still selected, click on the gradient swatch you created in step 10. Deselect the second rectangle. Edit either of the global colours (by double clicking on them in the Swatches palette or clicking the 'Edit Global Colour' button in the Colour palette) and select the HSL sliders. Moving the hue slider back and forth produces the results I shared in my video, where the global colours change in the first rectangle, but not the second. I'm using Designer 2.6.2 on Mac OS.

I tried following your steps and cannot reproduce that behaviour. Any object that is filled by clicking on the gradient swatch stays unchanged when I edit the global colours. Not sure if I'm missing something. The video doesn't really help clarify the steps as it's very hard to tell what's happening when you can't see your cursor. For the record, I had not used the gradient tool when setting up my test. I had the move tool selected throughout, and just created the gradient from the fill drop down at the top left of the contextual toolbar.

Not my experience IF you have created a gradient swatch (non global as previously discussed) and then applied that swatch to an object. In the attached screen recording, the two bottom objects have the exact same gradient applied (I just duplicated the top object). The only difference is that I clicked on the gradient swatch after selecting the bottom object. Look at what happens when I then edit one of the global colours… Screen Recording 2025-04-17 at 10.46.44 am.mov A pretty major bug IMO, as it makes gradient swatches all but useless. (Apologies for the massive dimensions of the embedded video. I can't find a way to stop it scaling up like that.)

I don't know that I've ever taken notice of that little dot! Yes, thank you @R C-R for that very helpful tip. Another baffling and obscure Affinity UI 'feature' to add to the very long list. I'd still call the failure of the Transform panel a bug, since I have every available option set to 'Scale with object' in the panel's 'Scale Override' menu. I'm sure I'll find myself back on this thread one day after forgetting what the workaround was! 😂

Typical Affinity approach to UI. Here's how the design meeting probably went… Designer 1: How could we make guides as annoying as possible? Designer 2: I know… We could split guides into three different categories: margins, guides and column guides, and force the user to turn them all off individually just to preview their design! 😂 Designer 3: Yes, and let's not give them shortcuts for margins and column guides, so they have to navigate the menu with their mouse four times just to turn them off and on again! 🤣 Good idea. Let's wait another 6 years to see if anything happens!

I just tried it, and in practice it was a pretty frustrating experience, with all sorts of weird stuff going on as I edited the curve. Baseline shift didn't work either. So in the end I gave up on it, but thanks for sharing this creative workaround all the same!

Wow. Nice. I'd call that a workaround for a feature that should be in the Layers panel, but it's a good one. Now I just hope I can remember it!

Thanks for that, very useful! Requires the Measure Path extension.

Thank you, that was driving me crazy. I don't even try to understand the logic behind the UI anymore—I've just conceded that I have to search these forums regularly to solve mysteries like this one.

A much simpler way is to align the tops of the two circles, draw the line between their top nodes (anchor points), then rotate the group as desired. (I appreciate that this approach isn't always possible when the two circles are already precisely positioned.)

That video appears to be no longer available. Here's another one I found which explains the concept well:

This is but one of a long list of issues with colour swatches in Affinity apps. See this bug that I reported back in August 2023. I don't know if the 2.6 beta fixes it, but I doubt it—it's been around forever, and I've seen little evidence that the devs are taking these issues seriously. I talk more about colour swatch issues in the post Has V2 fixed Affinity's biggest issues?.

I'm surprised no one ever backed you up on this one. I agree, it's very annoying. Affinity's Node Tool seems to be the equivalent to Adobe's Direct Selection Tool, but this behaviour turns it into the Add Anchor Point Tool if you're not extremely careful. And then when you're using the pen tool—the tool one would expect to be able to add anchor points with—you can't (not without holding down a modifier key to select the Node tool anyway). Like so many of Affinity's UI oddities, it must have made sense to someone.