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It would be cool if you could drive text, object sizes and table values by expressions. The way I see this is that their respective input fields could get a button to indicate they are expression driven. You could input an expression as "= A + B", which is different from the "A+B" input we use now to define/ calculate a value. The values that are defined should then be exposed as variables, which can be used to build expressions with. Example Say I have a document that is 280 mm high, I have top and bottom margins of 15 mm and want to structure my document using baseline grids. In that case I might define the baseline grid height as: (Page Height - Top margin - Bottom margin)/ Number of divisions for baseline grid. In turn, if I have text that 3/4 the height of my body text, I could would be able to define it as such. That way, you could more easily make changes to the document and update all of the properties that are driven by expressions accordingly. Similarly, this would enable the creation of a adjustable layout for UI designs. A bit like using an app like Penpot, I suppose.

The attached Affinity Designer project illustrates how different drawing techniques can result in pdf export files that differ is size substantially. I discovered this while developing images that are to used in an iOS app. Of course, we can expect the size of the pdf file to impact the performance of the app. The attached AD project has three artboards. Each artboard has a separate drawing of a flower - all of which look much the same: Yellow-Flower: The pdf for web file size is 282 KB. Each of the twelve petals is a separate curve object with yellow fill and a black stroke. The inner pistils is comprised of 27 brown ellipses imbedded inside a single black eclipse. Red-Flower: The pdf for web file size is 31 KB. The twelve petals is comprised four curve objects (each represent three leaves) with red fill and black stroke . The inner pistils is comprised of 27 brown ellipses imbedded inside a single black eclipse. (Same as yellow flower.) Blue-Flower: The pdf for web file size is 176 KB. The twelve petals is comprised four curve objects (each represent three leaves) with blue fill and black stroke (same as red flower). The inner pistils is comprised of a single black curve imbedded inside a single brown ellipse. Why are these file sizes so different? The yellow flower has only nine additional petal curve objects compared to the red flower. Yet, the pdf file size is also nine times the size. Note, the the pistils are the same. The blue flower uses the same petals as the red flower. However the pistils were refactored into only two objects, one complex curve and one ellipse. The complex object was created by subtracting the 27 ellipses from a single ellipse. The result of this distillation of the pistils causes the pdf file size to grow from 32 KB to 180 KB. is there a knowledge-based article that will help me understand why this occurs and how to avoid these problems during design? Flower-Yellow.pdf Flower-Blue.pdf Flower-Red.pdf Flowers.afdesign

I'm fairly new to AD and loving it! I've been designing patterns for a messenger bag to be made of leather and, before I knew how to use artboards, had separate documents for various bag parts (e.g., front, inside pocket). I designed a strap, for example, that will be riveted onto a pocket. The strap is in one file and the pocket in another. They are all drawn actual size. But, when I copy the strap to paste it onto the pocket, the strap appears huge compared to the pocket. I fear I may be missing something obvious but I don't know what it is. I've made sure both documents have the same print page size (A4) and made sure the units are the same between documents. Nevertheless, an object this is 11.733 inches in one document pastes into the other document at 33.665 inches. Thank you in advance for your help! --- AD 1.4 Mac OS 10.11.1

is it possible for example to draw a block then enter precise dimensions manually instead of having to drag to size?