Working with decorations

[Nikki333]

Hi all, happy new year. I have spent 3 frustrating days trying to work out how to add decoration to my chapters, like text frames for the title, chapter separators and end of chapter decoration. I have been downloading vectors and trying to work with them, but they act differently to what I am used to. I understand they have to be opened with certain software. I don't have designer or anything like that, is there an inexpensive and easy way I can get these elements onto my pages. For example, they normally come in sheets. I managed to separate one and have saved it as an asset (in 2 halves though, unfortunately), but can't seem to scale it. 

I have looked around online but can't find anything much for a non-techy person.

TIA, Nikki 

[firstdefence]

Firstly what file format are they in? .EPS, .PDF, .Ai Obviously you can buy Designer or even download the Trial which is fully functional for 10 days.

Free apps you can use are Inkscape for vector formats, like EPS and GIMP for Raster formats like PNG, JPEG etc.

Affinity Publisher should be able to open EPS and PDF.

Opening an EPS file can be a messy affair and a bit of time grouping the elements of a divider can help organise graphics prior to making them Assets.

An example would be, opening an EPS and finding a Layer with elements of dividers as children of that layer and also a Group with elements as children of that group, but... a single divider could have a lot of elements under the Layer and the Group, in the example shown below there are 16 elements.

This makes trying to select that divider awkward unless you know how to use select + Cmd/Ctrl, so this is what you can do

1. Select the Move Tool (V)
2. Left click and drag around the divider
3. While keeping the left click down, press Cmd/Ctrl (this will select all the elements within the bounds of the selection regardless of group or layer
4. Now release the left click and then the Cmd/Ctrl button
5. Press Cmd/ctrl + G to group the elements

[Alfred]

32 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

download the Trial which is fully functional for 10 days

Go here: https://affin.co/designertrial

Please note that the trial clock runs continuously from the moment you first launch the app.

[GarryP]

In addition to the advice above, SVG vector art can be used very easily in Publisher.
You can find lots of free SVGs all over the web but you can try here for some examples of decorations (just page through until you find something nice): http://cliparts101.com/search/flourish
Simply download the SVG file, then use “File → Place” in Publisher to add the SVG art to your document. Then you can resize it as you would any shape.

[Nikki333]

Thanks, I am now downloading fancy fonts that come with decorations. I am downloading .EPS files, which are the files I am struggling with. I don't want to rearrange or change anything, other than the size, so maybe I should try downloading a PDF to Affinity.  

Thanks for the replies. I just want the easiest way to decorate as I don't have time or energy for anything too complicated. I have already used up a free trial for designer, but didnt get time to look into it in much depth. It looks great, but i am lacking the funds right now. 

Regards, Nikki 

[Nikki333]

I will also look at the SVG's, which also looks pretty easy. Thanks again. 

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Nikki333 said:

I have already used up a free trial for designer, but didnt get time to look into it in much depth.

When version 1.8 is released to retail, the trial will be reset so that prospective purchasers can try out the new features.