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Butler To Cats

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Everything posted by Butler To Cats

  1. I notice (in that video) your WLAN spiking at the same time, which can be a real bottleneck, whether it's an anti-virus checking the app signature against an online library, or something caching / syncing / comparing recent document versions with a networked service e.g. DropBox, Google Drive, any of the many competitors, or even a local NAS. Anything else that does network communication in the background can also potentially affect your computer speed, e.g. Windows checking for updates. Even if you are offline, an app's "check if there's a network available" behaviour can consume considerable time, rather than any actual network traffic - some apps can even slow down starting if you are offline because they spin their wheels repeatedly looking for a network connection that isn't there. We've seen something similar at work where most of our common documents are synced for backup, and have moved some time-response-critical data to non-synced folders. Not sure if any of this relates to your situation (particularly if a Windows re-install fixed it) or Affinity apps (checking for that licensing login? new products or news for the splash screens?) but I thought I'd throw it in as something to think about.
  2. Hi Brian Go back to the Gallery, tap the Preferences cogwheel in the upper right, General tab, turn off the Show touches switch, tap Done.
  3. Note: touch is built-in to the iPad (unlike Wacom and other drawing-only tablets) and I don't think apps can exclude it completely (how would you change apps or go back to the Home screen on those iPads without a Home button?), so to draw while resting your hand on the screen, I find it works best to use a drawing glove with a thickened edge panel, such as Elecom or DokiWear. The single-layer stretch gloves still seem to let some touch through for me. Apart from hand touch issues (which a glove can fix), doesn't this icon here do most of that already? Double-tap it to also hide the context-sensitive icons at the bottom of the screen and even then in some context they will appear (when you might need to refine a vector drawn with the pencil tool, for example).
  4. From the Gallery, Preferences (cog wheel), General tab, Show touches.
  5. They look very much like Artifex Forge's Outline brushes, currently free on Design Cuts, Creative Market, and other outlets. See https://artifexforge.com/product/free-outline-brushes-affinity-designer/ for the original brush creator. The desktop and iPad versions do not sync brush libraries, so is it possible you installed them on your iPad version of Affinity Designer but not on your desktop version?
  6. No rulers as such, I don't think (could be wrong), but there are certainly guides. Designer persona, Documents menu (hold down the question mark in the corner to see the menus/tools labelled) > Guides. Use the context options at the bottom to add a vertical or horizontal guide through the middle of the document. Use the Move tool to drag the guide into place. Depending on your snap settings (I think), guides will snap to existing objects. Also in the context options while in "guide mode": Numerically move/place a selected guide, create a guide using numerical positioning, and turn on Column Guides (regular divisions of row and column guides). Document menu > Snapping to turn on/off snapping to guides and other objects. (Use the horseshoe magnet in the toolbar to turn overall snapping on/off).
  7. Are you using Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer? Each is designed for specialised work and has tools the other lacks. Which persona (mode) are you in? (top left) The toolbar changes according to the persona you are using.
  8. Two-finger touch works as the Undo gesture in Affinity and other iPad software and, because the iPad is built for multi-finger gestures, you can't rely on palm rejection such as you would with Wacom-style or Windows tablets that are heavily stylus-focused. Not definitive, but this might be what is causing your symptoms if you're new to using an iPad e.g. a touch with the heel of your hand and a knuckle, or two knuckles, might read as an Undo gesture. If you're using touch, not an Apple Pencil, it's even easier to do accidentally (well, it is for me). The two simultaneous touches can be widely separated, they don't have to be side by side. Some users draw without anything but the Pencil tip touching the screen, like real-life media. I'm getting better at that, but I find an artist's glove, especially those with extra side thickness such as Elecom or, better, DokiWear, to be helpful for countering hand touches on the screen. Personally, I've found the thin single-layer Lycra ones to be considerably less effective, although they're usually cheaper. If you're left-handed, watch out for gripping the iPad such that you touch the screen where the Undo icon is located.
  9. @kugimiya3, there are some instructions here (unfortunately also in English) for translating PDFs into other languages using Google Translate (with and without Google Drive): https://www.pdfconverter.com/resources/blog/how-to-translate-pdf-files-to-different-languages-free To translate a web page, paste in the URL and click the translated URL.
  10. Stroke Studio is a feature of Affinity Designer, not Affinity Studio. Affinity Photo, as its name suggests, is designed for image/photo work and only has limited vector controls. Photo's stroke and brush tools are all raster, whereas vector shape outlines require a vector stroke/brush. The shapes are great for masking and limited effects, but Affinity Photo is not a full vector design/editing app like Affinity Designer (which does not have all the image manipulation controls of Affinity Photo). You can: Select your shape, select the Pen Tool, then you will have some controls at the bottom for outline width and colour, but you won't have the range of controls in Stroke Studio in Affinity Designer.
  11. Any hardware that triggers keyboard shortcuts or mouse events, such as that ShuttleXpress (or its extended sibling, the Shuttle Pro) will work fine with Windows or macOS. I have used a Shuttle Pro before with no problems, and I have customised it for Affinity products on Windows. Yes, it required its own software/driver installation - this is important! The Adobe software does not have an API for these, it is only seeing keyboard and mouse signals! If the Loupedesk (or its software/driver) produces virtual keyboard or mouse events, it will just work (after software/driver installation). Since it works with a range of programs and the controls are customisable, I am fairly sure it will probably work fine on Windows or macOS (after software/driver installation). Bluetooth keyboards (and devices that directly imitate them) should work fine on iOS. With the iOS 13.4 update, that now also includes touchpad devices, such as Apple's Magic Trackpad. (MIDI controllers will also work, since they send standard signals e.g. https://sensel.com/pages/the-sensel-morph or the Orba on Kickstarter, but they are really best for music apps.) If those devices you mentioned used straight preset keyboard/mouse/trackpad imitation, they would work fine, but (as far as I know) each device produces its own signals and requires its own API. For iOS plug-and-play without an app, these device manufacturer(s) would need to talk to Apple, especially if you need to customise the controls. Alternatively, these devices would need their own app (provided by the hardware manufacturer) to interpret the device signals, the same as other non-standard iPad hardware (some storage devices, some custom stylus hardware). As a workaround, something that converts their signal to a standard mouse/keyboard/trackpad signal would also work, e.g. https://www.newsshooter.com/2019/05/07/use-your-shuttlexpress-controller-with-lumafusion/ (seems to have died, or at least been postponed). The connecting link is device software (drivers, or app) that interprets their signal for the operating system to pass to the Affinity app, as @Fritz_H said.
  12. What DM1 said, and see the Help under the Node tool for all of those icons (leftmost 5 are snapping, rightmost 4 are about transform. Note: you're missing a couple of transform icons that may not show up in portrait view). Accessing the help on an iPad: go back to the gallery and tap on the question mark in the top right corner. Type node into the search box i the top left corner, and tap on Node Tool, scroll down to see the icons and their explanations. Not sure if this will paste properly (note: if you hold Ctrl, or Cmd on a Mac, and rotate your mouse wheel, you can zoom your browser for a better view): Action—Manipulates the curve(s): Break Curve opens the shape at the selected node. Close Curve joins the start and end nodes to create an enclosed shape. Smooth Curve modifies a line or shape, by adding and removing nodes, to make it more aesthetic. Join Curves connects two separate curves together to make one curve. Curves need to be both selected with the using either the Node Tool or as you draw. Reverse Curve lets you draw from the opposite end of the curve—The start node becomes active, ready for further drawing. Transform—Transforms the selected node(s): Transform Mode—when selected, creates a bounding box around the selected nodes, allowing them to be transformed as a grouping. Enable Transform Origin—displays a movable transform origin about which the selection box can be rotated. Hide Selection while Dragging—when selected, the selection box is temporarily hidden when transforming. If this option is off, the selection box remains visible during transformation. The selected behavior persists across all objects unless it is manually switched. Show Alignment Handles—when selected, displays alignment handles at the center and edges of the selected object. Hovering over these handles displays a floating guideline across the page. You can drag the handles to position the center or edges of the selected object in line with this guide. Transform Objects Separately—when selected, where multiple objects are selected, they can be be resized, rotated and sheared independently of each other instead of transforming the bounding box. Selection Box From Curves—when selected, the selection box encompasses and includes all curves that extend outside the array of currently selected nodes. Cycle Selection Box—after reshaping, rotating, or shearing the shape, this option resets the selection box to vertical. Snap—Controls node snapping: Align to nodes of selected curves—aligns any moving node you drag to any other node on the same or a different curve. Snap to geometry of selected curves—will snap moving node to the same or different curve's path or node. Snap all selected nodes when dragging—will snap multiple selected nodes, when dragging, to a "target" node on any selected curves. Align handle positions using snapping options—will snap a control handle to a curve's path (or node) or shape's geometry. With global snapping's Snap to Grid enabled, you can also snap control handles to grid. Perform construction snapping—allows control handle snapping: inline with adjacent node. to 90° from inline. to reflected angle with adjacent control handle. parallel to adjacent control handle. 90° to parallel control handle. to logical triangle. These options are independent of the global snapping options.
  13. Oops, sorry, my advice was assuming you were working with .afbrushes (Affinity's own format). I have not tried any .abr (Photoshop-format) brushes. Ignore my post, hopefully others will have relevant advice.
  14. I don't think there is a web-based version of the iPad-specific documentation (at least, not yet). However, when you're in the gallery view on the iPad version, there's a little question mark icon in the top right of the screen. Tapping that will open up a help system very similar to the online help in your link. See this thread for a summary of feature differences between the desktop and iPad versions (very few). The full feature list here also lists "(for desktop only)" after any features that are not available on the iPad.
  15. I've found the best way to get brushes into Affinity Designer on the iPad (and I'm using an iPad Mini 5) is: Download (or move or copy) the unzipped brush set to an "On My iPad" folder (cloud folders never seem to work properly - maybe a result of a slow and inconsistent internet connection?) Make sure Affinity Designer is on gallery view (not working on an open document) Navigate to the appropriate "On My iPad" folder in the Files app (don't import directly from Affinity Designer) Tap once directly on the icon for the downloaded brush set file (not the name) It should switch automatically to Affinity Designer gallery view. Wait very patiently until the "Brushes Imported" notification shows up on the screen (always seems to take a minute or several, especially if I'm watching it) - Affinity Designer (and the iPad) seem somewhat frozen while this happens (no doubt working furiously behind the scenes) Note that there are two types of brushes, vector-based and pixel-based. Vector-based brushes will only work (and show in the brush lists) in Affinity Designer in Designer persona. Pixel-based brushes will work in Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer in Pixel persona (and will only show in the brushes lists in Pixel persona). Use pixel-based brushes on a pixel layer.
  16. You can use a vector shape for clipping. However, this is a non-destructive operation similar to masking (no pixels are erased, if you change the vector shape later it will hide/reveal areas). In the layers panel, drag the image onto the vector shape, you need to line up the drag so you see a blue line across the middle of the vector shape layer. The clipped image can then be exported with transparency (in the appropriate formats e.g. PNG) outside the vector shape. Note: unlike this example, don't use an outline on the vector shape if you don't want an outline on the final clipped area.
  17. Designer (Pixel persona) or Photo? Have you enabled the Force Pressure setting in the options at the bottom of the screen?
  18. Place-and-hold two fingers on the canvas. Draw the shape with your Pencil or another finger. Press-and-hold three fingers to get a constrained shape drawn from the centre (Rectangle tool draws a square, Ellipse tool draws a circle). Works well in Designer, in Photo I found it worked better if I set touch to gestures only (gallery > Settings cogwheel icon > Tools > Touch for gestures only).
  19. Hi @hannabygrace, I'm a big fan of Frankentoon's tutorials (mostly for desktop, but most of it can be translated to iPad). If you want to use a purely raster approach, similar to Procreate, see https://www.frankentoon.com/post/little-warrior-artwork-break-down (desktop version, so some interface features will vary, but it shows what is possible). However, one of the key parts of Affinity Designer is its vector features, which are definitely worth exploring. There is no Procreate equivalent (except a microscopically tiny taste in the Quickshape features). So also see https://www.frankentoon.com/post/affinity-designer-ipad-alligator (for iPad, as the noted in the link). Key hint: create any filled areas as "flat colour" vector shapes, like cut-out pieces of paper that you can then paint onto.
  20. TGA - a vintage lossless format with optional transparency. Produces larger (less compressed) files than PNG. Its main advantage is that it is an extremely simple format technically (I know, I've written code to support it, decades ago), making it easy for game programmers and others (e.g. raytracing, animation hobbyists) to write their own handling code, something that was particularly important in the early days of game design and graphics, as there were no (or very few) standard libraries available for image handling. Still used in some legacy, open source, and home-made code for its simplicity, and often supported as "another lossless format with transparency" in commercial software that supports a very long list of image formats. From the graphics user point of view (as opposed to the programmer), usually no real advantage over PNG in modern software.
  21. There is https://affinity.help/publisher/en-US.lproj/index.html ... which is probably the same as the Mac help - as @walt.farrell says, this is the official documentation. Searchable, but quite concise and more a "reference manual" for the software than a "tutorial manual". @Folbo, do you have any examples of any feature missing from the help, or is it mainly a matter of wanting more how-to tutorial-style documentation? More tutorials in various forms will no doubt appear in due time, but from their prevalence it seems videos are quite popular for learning to use any software. If you don't like video tutorials, no doubt more static tutorials will appear: here, for example, is a step-by-step static tutorial over at TutsPlus. I suspect that, if a project-based tutorial workbook is planned (and I have no knowledge if one is or not) similar to those for Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo, that it might take time to complete, since it probably had to wait until the official release (and users comfortable with the release features). Update: Yes, a workbook is planned, but will be a while before it is ready.
  22. If you want to talk to people, show off your work, or see other people's artwork, go to the forum (forum: place of public discussion). You can have a forum account if you purchased your Affinity product through the Microsoft or Apple Mac stores (they do not share their customer information with Serif). You might have a forum account even if you don't have an Affinity product, if you want to ask questions before purchasing. Your forum account identifies you as an individual in the discussions, but is not linked to any purchases. If you want to purchase something directly from Serif, or download your purchase, go to the Serif store (store: a shop, a place where merchandise is kept). You will have a store account only if you have purchased something directly from Serif, and the email and password do not have to be the same as your forum account. If you purchased your Affinity product through the Microsoft or Apple app stores, you will not have a Serif store account, but you might have a forum account. For example, you might use a business email (for keeping your tax information separate) to purchase an Affinity product (store account) and a personal email for talking on the forum (forum account). Each account will have a different password. Even if you use the same email for both, your store account and forum account will (probably) still have a different password (you could use the same password for both, but it is not a good security practice).
  23. @DM1 Heh I didn't realise it was an option, thank you! Went looking for it (for other thread readers, Home/Gallery > cogwheel icon in top right = Preferences > General > Automatically update help), and it was turned on (I have delved through the Preferences before, but I did not remember that one).
  24. @LionelD - hmm, not sure if it's just my copy, but two of the icons seem to be missing from my iPad help file: Show Alignment Handles—when selected, displays alignment handles at the center and edges of the selected object. Hovering over these handles displays a floating guideline across the page. You can drag the handles to position the center or edges of the selected object in line with this guide. (Note: this is documented under the Node tool in my iPad help) Transform Objects Separately—when selected, where multiple objects are selected, they can be be resized, rotated and sheared independently of each other instead of transforming the bounding box. The above information is directly extracted from the online desktop version help at: https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Tools/tools_move.html?title=Move Tool
  25. @DelineatoR Probably redundant, but posting just in case it is one point of confusion: Your Serif Affinity Store account (purchases, product keys, downloads) and your forum account (questions, answers, discussion, tutorials, shared artwork) are two completely separate systems and not connected. You can have completely different email addresses and/or passwords, for the forum and for the store account.
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