[ADe] Fill Tool > Bitmap Fills

[Aammppaa]

Have been using a lot of bitmap fills on my current project and have queries / observations / feature requests…

1. With a bitmap fill it would be much more useful to default to Maintain Fill Aspect Ratio on. I rarely want to skew / distort the texture, and if I do there is a modifier to do just that, where there is no modifier to lock the aspect ratio.

2. Is there any way to move the bitmap fill other than dragging with the mouse?
The cursor keys nudge the parent shape (rather than the fill) so can't be used for precise alignment.

3. Is there any way to scale the bitmap fill other than dragging with the mouse?
Again I often want a tiny adjustment which is tricky with a mouse.

4. Is there any way to display the current DPI of the bitmap fill?
If I place a bitmap the context toolbar shows the scale % and effective DPI, but there seems to be no equivalent for bitmap fills. This makes it too easy to over stretch the fill and get a low resolution / blurry result.

5. Can the bitmap fill be locked to allow resizing, re-positioning, rotation of the parent object without affecting the fill?

6. Can I use a bitmap created within Affinity Designer as my fill (either in the Pixel  persona, or by Rasterising a vector pattern) without exporting to a file and reimporting as a fill.
Export > Import is painfully tedious to do repeatedly.

7. How to I copy bitmap fills between shapes without introducing distortion?
When I use Paste Style the bitmap fill is scaled and distorted by the ratio of the source shape and the destination shape, and unlike layer fx there seems to be no check box / option  to scale or not scale with object.

Sorry for the barrage of text and thanks to anyone who has answers!

[firstdefence]

All viable commonsensical questions Aammppaa.

19 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

1. With a bitmap fill it would be much more useful to default to Maintain Fill Aspect Ratio on. I rarely want to skew / distort the texture, and if I do there is a modifier to do just that, where there is no modifier to lock the aspect ratio.

I agree, it's most annoying having to continually click the aspect ratio icon.

19 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

2. Is there any way to move the bitmap fill other than dragging with the mouse?
The cursor keys nudge the parent shape (rather than the fill) so can't be used for precise alignment.

 

No, but with these questions and a few requests transform control could happen 👍

19 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

3. Is there any way to scale the bitmap fill other than dragging with the mouse?
Again I often want a tiny adjustment which is tricky with a mouse.

 

Again no... not yet 

19 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

4. Is there any way to display the current DPI of the bitmap fill?
If I place a bitmap the context toolbar shows the scale % and effective DPI, but there seems to be no equivalent for bitmap fills. This makes it too easy to over stretch the fill and get a low resolution / blurry result.

Nope

19 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

5. Can the bitmap fill be locked to allow resizing, re-positioning, rotation of the parent object without affecting the fill?

Nopey nope but great idea.

19 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

6. Can I use a bitmap created within Affinity Designer as my fill (either in the Pixel  persona, or by Rasterising a vector pattern) without exporting to a file and reimporting as a fill.
Export > Import is painfully tedious to do repeatedly.

Dopey nopey nope, been wanting direct selection control for this and also brush creation for a while myself. Exporting and then importing makes no sense to me at all, it's like using a bucket to fill bucket then pouring the water back to the first bucket, utter madness I tell you 😱

19 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

7. How to I copy bitmap fills between shapes without introducing distortion?
When I use Paste Style the bitmap fill is scaled and distorted by the ratio of the source shape and the destination shape, and unlike layer fx there seems to be no check box / option  to scale or not scale with object.

Until the bitmap fill can be an entity in it's own right and all the shape does is clip/mask to an area, distortion from the parent object will always happen.

[Aammppaa]

Thanks @firstdefence for the answers.

0 out of 7 - feels that bitmap fills are rather underdeveloped at the moment

Please could a mod ensure that all these get logged as feature requests? Thanks.

[carl123]

1 hour ago, Aammppaa said:

2. Is there any way to move the bitmap fill other than dragging with the mouse?
The cursor keys nudge the parent shape (rather than the fill) so can't be used for precise alignment.

Add a Fill Layer, add your bitmap fill to the fill layer, adjust size as required, move the Fill Layer to the cliping position on your object.

The cursor keys will now nudge the fill when the Fill Layer & Gradient Tool are selected

1 hour ago, Aammppaa said:

5. Can the bitmap fill be locked to allow resizing, re-positioning, rotation of the parent object without affecting the fill?

Yes, using the above technique, just select Lock Children when moving the object

1 hour ago, Aammppaa said:

7. How to I copy bitmap fills between shapes without introducing distortion?
When I use Paste Style the bitmap fill is scaled and distorted by the ratio of the source shape and the destination shape, and unlike layer fx there seems to be no check box / option  to scale or not scale with object.

 Once you have your Fill Layer setup with your bitmap fill you can just copy it and use it to clip other objects at will. It will not be distorted or scaled.

 

Note: The above is doable in APhoto not Designer as APhoto has Fill Layers. I did not notice the original post was about Designer.

It may be doable in Designer using similar techniques but I have no time to look into that now.

[Aammppaa]

Thanks @carl123 for the work-around ideas.

They do broadly translate to Designer, but I'd obviously prefer a more complete and robust tool that simply did the job well.

Before switching to Affinity I used Xara Designer for two decades - their bitmap fill tool manages all of the above without needing workarounds.

I hope that Affinity matures and gets to a similar point asap.

[carl123]

In Designer you can also convert the initial Fill Layer into a Symbol

So you can change/resize/rotate/reposition etc, the Fill layer and all objects with the bitmap fill will change accordingly. 

[shagarah]

On 3/4/2020 at 1:29 PM, firstdefence said:

2. Is there any way to move the bitmap fill other than dragging with the mouse?

This request is important for me too, please can you add it?

I purchased Affinity Photo and I love it, and this feature, along with any arrow keys precisions possible will be even more helpful.

 

Thank you.

Ahmad

 

[walt.farrell]

19 minutes ago, shagarah said:

This request is important for me too, please can you add it?

I purchased Affinity Photo and I love it, and this feature, along with any arrow keys precisions possible will be even more helpful.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Nothing in this topic is considered to be a request, as this is a Questions forum. For requests, the Serif staff look in the Feature Requests & Suggestions forums, and if you'd like to see a change that's where you should post. You might find an existing request, and you can post in that topic. Or you could post your own.

[shagarah]

Got it, thanks!

[jwst]

Quote

5. Can the bitmap fill be locked to allow resizing, re-positioning, rotation of the parent object without affecting the fill?

YES: Convert the shape to curves, then select the node tool.  Everything you do with the node tool selected keeps the fill static.