Coloured page

[jackamus]

Is there a way to colour a new blank page without drawing a colour filled rectangle?

[walt.farrell]

Other alternatives in AD:

• Add a Pixel layer, switch to the Pixel Persona, and Flood Fill it with a color.
• For an Artboard, select the Move Tool or the Fill Tool and adjust the fill using the color well on the Context Toolbar

[Pšenda]

7 hours ago, jackamus said:

Is there a way to colour a new blank page without drawing a colour filled rectangle?

APh - New Fill Layer.

ADe - set artboard color.

[carl123]

15 hours ago, jackamus said:

Is there a way to colour a new blank page without drawing a colour filled rectangle?

Assuming you are using AD there are lots, but without knowing why you don't want to use a rectangle it's hard to advise on a solution best suited to your question

Here are 8 ways to do this...

1. Place a solid colour image file on the page 

2. Use the Pen Tool to trace all four corners of the page to make a curve then use the Colour Panel to fill the curve

3. Use the Vector Brush Tool to colour the page

4. Sorry, I got bored after 3 

[jackamus]

LOL! I got bored after 1!

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, carl123 said:

4. Sorry, I got bored after 3 

Awww. But I wanted to see how you'd explain #6, which is my favorite way

[R C-R]

Yet another way in AD is to cheat & use a file edited in AP to add a Fill Layer as a template or copy & paste source for your AD file.

Fill layer.afdesign

Artboard Fill layer.afdesign

(Does this count as one or two of Carl's eight?)

[carl123]

24 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Awww. But I wanted to see how you[d explain #6, which is my favorite way

Ah, #6 was using the Guides Manager to create 2 columns with a gutter value of 0 and your colour of choice

A true classic best used with documents with non-transparent backgrounds

[R C-R]

51 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Ah, #6 was using the Guides Manager to create 2 columns with a gutter value of 0 and your colour of choice

Wow! That is a very clever, 'out of the box' method I never would have thought of.

It also could drive someone bonkers if this was set up with no guides because then it is not obvious why the entire document has a color 'underlay' that does not appear on exports.

It also reveals a possible bug: if you do this in Designer & then use File > Edit in Photo, the guides initially reset to (defaults?) of 1 column & row & a 100 px gutter. If you then set up the same thing in Photo with a different fill color & switch back to Designer, Designer still has the original fill color, not the one just assigned in Photo. From then on, going back & forth via the 'Edit in' menu items, each app uses the color set in that app, & this persists even if one or the other app is quit & then relaunched, or if the file is saved & opened in one or the other.

Something similar happens if the AD document initially has no artboard & is converted to one using the Artboard tool. This resets to 1 column & 1 row & to some >0 gutter value.

Opening the file in Affinity Publisher also does the same thing so basically, it is possible to simultaneously have three guide fill colors in one Affinity document, depending on which app it is open in. 

[h_d]

On a Mac, you could also draw a coloured rectangle once (not strictly allowed I know), then close and save the document (say as "blue background.afphoto"). Then in Finder, locate the .afphoto document, display file info and under General tick the Stationery pad box. 

The original blue background file is now a template, and whenever you open it you'll get a copy with the blue background already in place. You can even recolour it without too much trouble.

 

[jackamus]

3 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Wow! That is a very clever, 'out of the box' method I never would have thought of.

It also could drive someone bonkers if this was set up with no guides because then it is not obvious why the entire document has a color 'underlay' that does not appear on exports.

It also reveals a possible bug: if you do this in Designer & then use File > Edit in Photo, the guides initially reset to (defaults?) of 1 column & row & a 100 px gutter. If you then set up the same thing in Photo with a different fill color & switch back to Designer, Designer still has the original fill color, not the one just assigned in Photo. From then on, going back & forth via the 'Edit in' menu items, each app uses the color set in that app, & this persists even if one or the other app is quit & then relaunched, or if the file is saved & opened in one or the other.

Something similar happens if the AD document initially has no artboard & is converted to one using the Artboard tool. This resets to 1 column & 1 row & to some >0 gutter value.

Opening the file in Affinity Publisher also does the same thing so basically, it is possible to simultaneously have three guide fill colors in one Affinity document, depending on which app it is open in. 

This has given me a headache and I haven't one of those for about 40 years!

[jackamus]

4 minutes ago, h_d said:

On a Mac, you could also draw a coloured rectangle once (not strictly allowed I know), then close and save the document (say as "blue background.afphoto"). Then in Finder, locate the .afphoto document, display file info and under General tick the Stationery pad box. 

The original blue background file is now a template, and whenever you open it you'll get a copy with the blue background already in place. You can even recolour it without too much trouble.

 

...and you haven't helped either!

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, jackamus said:

This has given me a headache and I haven't one of those for about 40 years!

If you are looking for a headache free solution, several have been suggested, from the very simple to the complex. Just pick one, take two aspirin & call us in the morning. 

[jackamus]

I sat here for a few minutes sure that I could come back with a witty reply but I can't cos I've got a headache!

[carl123]

15 hours ago, R C-R said:

why the entire document has a color 'underlay'

Technically I think Column Guides are overlays, not underlays as they seem to affect the true visual colour of everything on the page.

Which can be a tad annoying when trying to design something and not seeing the true colours of your design

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

Technically I think Column Guides are overlays, not underlays as they seem to affect the true visual colour of everything on the page.

Guides are overlays but I am not sure what column guides are because, at least for me, they do not seem to affect the color of page objects, nor is the guide fill color exactly the same as what I select in the Guides panel:

guides test.afdesign

[carl123]

Pretty sure it's on overlay on Windows

If I add a gutter (which is pure white) you can see how the primary colours of Red, Green & Blue are affected, also the image of the man is on a pure white background and the cute Hyenas are also on a whitish background.  Everything is affected by the column guide colours.

The document is attached, it will interesting to see if you (on a MAC) see it differently

 

columnguidecolours.afdesign

[R C-R]

39 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Pretty sure it's on overlay on Windows

If I add a gutter (which is pure white) you can see how the primary colours of Red, Green & Blue are affected, also the image of the man is on a pure white background and the cute Hyenas are also on a whitish background.  Everything is affected by the column guide colours.

The document is attached, it will interesting to see if you (on a MAC) see it differently

I do see the same thing on my Mac, but I was not clear what I meant about the fill color of the column guides, which is that they do not affect the 'real' colors of document objects, just the display; & that the selected fill color is not exactly what is overlaid in the display.

Sorry for any confusion that caused. 

I am also not sure what to make of each of the three apps retaining a different column guide fill color for the same or sometimes also for other documents -- it is as if once set, that color becomes an application default rather than a document one, but there is not "Revert Defaults" setting that changes that.

EDIT: The column guide fill color appears to be a 'sticky' application default.

Edited November 25, 2019 by R C-R