Drop Shadow?

[Sunset]

I am learning a lot! I don't need macros and styles much...... but this is good.

 

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

That's why there is Paste Effect which I mentioned together, use a style copy and apply the effect from that.

Yes, I know that can be done but it is a clumsy & time consuming workaround. Often, it would be simpler & take less time just to add the effect & adjust it manually.

[Move Along People]

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[walt.farrell]

19 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

That's why there is Paste Effect which I mentioned together, use a style copy and apply the effect from that. - Can't be that difficult to understand how to reuse instead what is already there in the software as a workaround for missing presets here or?

It's clumsy, though, because you have to

1. make another object, then
2. apply the style to it, then
3. copy the new object with its added style, then
4. paste the effect onto the original object that needed it, and finally
5. delete the object that you no longer need.

Using Assets would shorten that a bit:

1. Drag the asset onto the document;
2. Copy
3. Paste the effect onto the desired object
4. Delete the asset from the page.

[Joachim_L]

Still having problems to get the correct result. Say I have a square 50x50mm with a Outer Shadow (Normal, 100%, 40px, 0px, 0%, Black, 315°, Fill knocks out shadow, Not scaling with object). I make a new square 25x25mm, copy the bigger square and paste FX to the smaller square.

What are your expectations? That the Outer Shadow is Normal, 100%, 40px, 0px, 0%, Black, 315°, Fill knocks out shadow, Not scaling with object?

No, the pasted FX is now: Normal, 100%, 13,1px, 0px, 0%, Black, 315°, Fill knocks out shadow, Not scaling with object.

Bigger square with Scale with Object pasted to the smaller square: Normal, 100%, 19,9px, 0px, 0%, Black, 315°, Fill knocks out shadow, Scale with object.

Where is the logic behind this?

[v_kyr]

The OP said ...

Quote

The same preset could be used in any future document without having to save it. With the Affinity Publisher outer shadow effect, I had to play around with the settings, and these settings could not be saved as a preset for future use.

... we showed him some possible reuse workaround to this. Further one two clicks and a copy/paste effect (copy/paste here have keyb shortcuts too) shouldn't be more time consuming than fiddling around with settings.

But in case anybody is quicker with a manual reapply, than just use just that manual procedure, though I then wonder somehow while the whole discussion here about something banal like applying a drop shadow.

[Sunset]

14 minutes ago, haakoo said:

hence my old school approach,copy object make black, gaussian blur,shear,stretch,etc. put to back 

there aren't much settings to adjust with the simple shadow fx

It certainly works for me every time.

[carl123]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It's clumsy, though, because you have to

1. make another object, then
2. apply the style to it, then
3. copy the new object with its added style, then
4. paste the effect onto the original object that needed it, and finally
5. delete the object that you no longer need.

There is no need to make another object or delete anything

Just apply the style to the object
Copy the object
Undo the style applied
Paste FX on the same object

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Sunset said:

18 minutes ago, haakoo said:

hence my old school approach,copy object make black, gaussian blur,shear,stretch,etc. put to back 

there aren't much settings to adjust with the simple shadow fx

It certainly works for me every time.

I can't find it now but there was a topic a year or two ago about this approach, some of which was devoted to using Affinity Photo macros to partially automate & simplify the process. Unfortunately, much like with my macro experiments there were problems getting that to work as well as we had hoped for. 

[R C-R]

13 minutes ago, carl123 said:

There is no need to make another object or delete anything

Just apply the style to the object
Copy the object
Undo the style applied
Paste FX on the same object

Is there an extra step or something you did not mention? I ask because that is not working for me -- the paste step reapplies the style, including the unwanted stroke & fill properties to vectors, shapes, & text objects.

[walt.farrell]

23 minutes ago, Joachim_L said:

Still having problems to get the correct result. Say I have a square 50x50mm with a Outer Shadow (Normal, 100%, 40px, 0px, 0%, Black, 315°, Fill knocks out shadow, Not scaling with object). I make a new square 25x25mm, copy the bigger square and paste FX to the smaller square.

What are your expectations? That the Outer Shadow is Normal, 100%, 40px, 0px, 0%, Black, 315°, Fill knocks out shadow, Not scaling with object?

No, the pasted FX is now: Normal, 100%, 13,1px, 0px, 0%, Black, 315°, Fill knocks out shadow, Not scaling with object.

Bigger square with Scale with Object pasted to the smaller square: Normal, 100%, 19,9px, 0px, 0%, Black, 315°, Fill knocks out shadow, Scale with object.

Where is the logic behind this?

When you say not to scale, I'm not sure what is happening.

However, when you say it should scale, then you've applied your 40px shadow to an object whose dimensions are 1/2 those of the original, and it has become a shadow that is approximately 1/2 the radius. I'm not sure why it's not exactly 1/2 the radius.

If you specify a non-zero offset, you'll see that it has also become approximately 1/2 the size of the original.

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Is there an extra step or something you did not mention? I ask because that is not working for me -- the paste step reapplies the style, including the unwanted stroke & fill properties to vectors, shapes, & text objects.

Works for me, but don't forget that the step was "Paste FX" not simply "Paste".

[Joachim_L]

5 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

When you say not to scale, I'm not sure what is happening.

A bug? Not scaling means not scaling in any way. And why do I have to define an offset to have exact values with Scale with Object?

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Works for me, but don't forget that the step was "Paste FX" not simply "Paste".

I was using the Edit > Paste FX item for the last step. IIRC, the Edit menu items are somewhat different for Macs than for Windows, so maybe that has something to do with it?

[carl123]

Just now, R C-R said:

I was using the Edit > Paste FX item for the last step. IIRC, the Edit menu items are somewhat different for Macs than for Windows, so maybe that has something to do with it?

Or a bug on MACs

Someone else should confirm that

[v_kyr]

12 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Or a bug on MACs

Someone else should confirm that

Works, though the Mac OSX Affinity undo chain might need two undo steps here.

[walt.farrell]

30 minutes ago, Joachim_L said:

A bug? Not scaling means not scaling in any way. And why do I have to define an offset to have exact values with Scale with Object?

As I said, I'm not sure what's happening when you say not to scale. I do recall seeing some bug reports related to pasting effects onto different sized objects, but I don't recall the details. You could try posting a bug report.

I didn't say that you need to define an offset to have exact values when scaling. I said that if you define an offset you'll also see that it is approximately 1/2 the size for your example. I was pointing out that all the scaling appears to be only approximate.

The approximately, vs exactly 1/2 when scaling, could also be part of your bug report.

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Works, though the Mac OSX Affinity undo chain might need two undo steps here.

Well, I don't know what (I?) changed other than quitting & relaunching APu, but now it is working on my iMac ... & with just a single undo. 

[Mbrinman]

On 11/3/2019 at 5:13 AM, walt.farrell said:

Not true. It's a shadow of the complete object, but the parts under the object are hidden by the object. To demonstrate, create an object that's partly transparent, and uncheck the "fill knocks out shadow" option.

Hey Walt, what OS are you using?  When I uncheck the "Fill knocks out shadow" option, I see no changes as I would expect to.

My understanding is that it's supposed to prevent the outer shadow from being seen that is UNDERNEATH the object it has been applied to.

See the attached image to see what I mean about it not making any difference.

[Old Bruce]

You have chosen a transparent colour for the fill. Set it to 100 % instead of the 50 % Opacity you have.

[Mbrinman]

This probably isn't the right place to post this, but I wanted to share.

On Windows 10, I see this same behavior in Affinity Designer, or Affinity Photo.

For the "Outline" I would expect it to actually outline the object and not be applied to the entire object.  But maybe this is just a bug for the Windows version of this program?

[Mbrinman]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

You have chosen a transparent colour for the fill. Set it to 100 % instead of the 50 % Opacity you have.

Well, that was my point.  Can't I choose for the object to be transparent, and then if I want the outer shadow to only affect the edges of the object, I can check "Fill knocks out shadow" and it would block the underlying shadow from being mixed with the transparent pixels of the object?  Or am I misunderstanding the purpose of "Fill knocks out shadow"?

[Mbrinman]

Okay, I discovered how this currently works.  This could use some improvement by the programmers.

When you apply a layer effect, then the opacity of the object needs to be controlled via the Fill Opacity option within the layer effects panel.  So, be sure to set the transparency of the object itself to 100% under the "Color" tab if you want to apply any effects to that object.

Watch the attached GIF to see how it works.