Shape Appearance panel concerns

[gabriel_komorov]

Genereally idea of appearance is interesting, but in current state flawed by some issues:

- When Designer file is imported to Photo, there's no way to change fill or stroke of shape with few appearances set. Why? Because there's no Appearance panel in Photo.

BTW disparity between obvious features are baffling to me in Affinity. Why Photo misses Stroke Panel? Or why Designer doesn't have proper document preview implementation as Publisher? Etc. It's all doable in all apps anyway, only is long and unconvinient.

- When Appearance item is clicked, then pressing DELETE key deletes... object. Seriously?

- Appearance item can be dragged on recycle bin icon, but dropping it there doesn't delete it.

[GarryP]

The Appearance Panel isn’t in Photo because it’s a Designer feature. If you want to use the Appearance Panel use Designer. (If every Affinity application had all of the tools that every other one has then there would only be the need for one application as all three would be exactly the same. Serif have to split the functionality up somehow and this one is just where they drew the line.) “File → Edit in Designer” isn’t too much of a hardship.

I miss the Stroke Panel in Photo but I can live without it. As above, it’s a Designer feature and it’s easy enough to swap apps.

I hope Designer will get a Preview mode in the near future too.

Deleting the selected layer when you press delete after selecting an item in the Appearance Panel can be frustrating. The Undo function comes in very useful but it could be better if we didn’t need to use it. I don’t know if making the delete button delete an appearance item instead of a layer would make the UI better or worse.

I don’t think – off the top of my head – any of the other Affinity icons can have stuff dragged into them so not being able to delete an appearance item by dragging it to the bin icon seems consistent to me.

[carl123]

48 minutes ago, GarryP said:

File → Edit in Designer” isn’t too much of a hardship

The only problem there is if you are sharing documents with someone that does not have Designer

Maybe it should work the same way as Symbols.

i.e. Currently, you can only create symbols in Designer but they remain fully editable in APhoto (you just can't create new ones)

 

So, for APhoto

Objects with multiple fills & strokes should remain fully editable in APhoto...so maybe a right-click on an object with multiple fills/strokes should have an Appearance panel "pop-up" option which allows you to edit existing fills/strokes but the 2 commands to add new Fills or Strokes are not available.

[GarryP]

This is probably a bit of an awkward subject for Serif: “How much of a document created with the facilities that only exist in one application do you allow the user to change with another application?”

Without putting too much thought into it I think I’d tentatively agree that whatever exists in a document should be editable (or deletable) in any application but you have to use the correct application (or a Publisher Persona) to create with the extra functionality.

However, if all the applications were able to edit any feature that was created in any other application there could be the possibility that someone could create a document that contained many layers, each with some functionality from another application, that could be edited anywhere, without paying for that functionality. For instance, someone could create a document with many layers each of which has a different Live Filter added to it. Then they could save that document and give it to someone who didn’t have Photo but they could then use it to give their images Live Effects without needing to buy Photo. I think that would be bad for Serif and, by extension, us users.

This is possibly a very twisty and complicated set of paths that I personally would not want to make the directional decisions about.

[gabriel_komorov]

On 1/19/2020 at 11:10 AM, GarryP said:

Serif have to split the functionality up somehow and this one is just where they drew the line.

Yes I get it, but the line is drawn in questionable place. No one expects painting tools in Designer, but if we already have shape tools in Photo, so why not give full control on effects they produce, like stroke?  It's just common sense. Spliting features just for sake of difference isn't best idea IMO. 

Quote

I don’t think – off the top of my head – any of the other Affinity icons can have stuff dragged into them

It works in layers panel, you can delete by dragging on recycle bin icon

[GarryP]

All we can do is suggest changes and see what happens, if anything.
If it was me I’d be tempted to put the Appearance Panel in all the Apps but I don’t earn a living from those Apps being sold.

1 hour ago, gabriel_komorov said:

It works in layers panel, you can delete by dragging on recycle bin icon

I did not know that. I’ve never tried it before actually.
Well, if you can drag Layers to the bin icon in the Layers Panel then you probably should be able to drag Strokes and Fills to the bin icon in the Appearance Panel too.