Text problems in Photo

[moshooter]

Attempting the simplest of things- setting a line of type in a photo. When I place text using the text tool, either artistic or text box, I get only a white box overlay and cannot see any. of the text. I want to make white text on a photo. This shouldn't be difficult. I cannot find any tutorial that clearly explains this on your video page. I cannot find anything this simple on the forum when I search it. Using Mac OSX 10.14.6 Mojave, 40GB ram on a 27 inch 2017 iMac. Using version 1.8.3 of Photo.

Can someone please produce a short video on text in Photo? It shouldn't be this hard to do something this basic. Thanks!

[firstdefence]

@moshooter You might have a Character style set that has white text with a white text background.

[moshooter]

Thanks so much! That seems to be the problem. Would still be nice if there was the most basic of tutorials on the typography in Photo.I searched and searched the forums and could find nothing this basic as a problem.

Really, really appreciate the  detailed response. Very simple once you know the controls. 

[moshooter]

Next problem. Now that I have type that I can see, the background color is still visible. My intent is to have only the type appear over the photo, and not show any background color at all. What am I missing to get this result? 

In every video I have seen, the user is able to simply type the text and have only the text appear without a surrounding color. Also, I see no control to set a drop shadow in Photo. Any help with that would be awesome as well. Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[GarryP]

Set the Text Background Colour to None, see attached image.

Shadows can be found in the Effects Panel.

[moshooter]

Thanks GarryP for the simple fix for both issues. I have the Affinity Photo Workbook, and even after extensive searches, could find no information on this other than a graphic on page 53 with some callouts. Even there, there is no explanation as to what the square with the diagonal red crossbar in it means. The two answers I have received from this forum post were simple, direct and to the point. There really needs to be a video produced by the Affinity Team ( are you listening James Ritson?) that explains the panels from the point of view of someone who has never seen a dialog box before, and does what you have done- show the item, point to the item, explain the item. If that were done, it would sure save people a great deal of time in learning how to use this otherwise excellent software.

 

Thanks to the members of this forum for their kind and quick help. This is better than hours of searching on Youtube for things that don't quite address this particular issue!

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.
Hopefully more videos showing people basic functionality will be created in the future, but I have a feeling that such an endeavour would take a lot of time and effort as ‘the basics’ covers a lot of stuff. For instance, how ‘basic’ do you go, and in which areas? Once you start to think about it you get an idea of what a large task it would be.
(I had a quick look in the Help on the Swatches Panel and I can’t see a mention of “None” except for where it gets listed as part of the Recently Used Colours. There seems to be quite a lot of text in the Help about selecting a colour but not a lot saying how you select no colour at all.)

[Ralph]

GarryP asks the right questions about the meaning of BASIC but I think Serif are already there - it's just that one or two tiny links in the chain are missing.

I have been using Serif software for a decade or two and have always found the same problem in the training material - a few minor, perhaps trivial, yet utterly essential procedures are left out. The tough stuff is always well presented, perhaps because the author recognises it as 'tough'. Some of the trivial is omitted, perhaps because it is 'obvious'; perhaps it takes up space/time which is "needed" to explain the intricacies of something really clever. There is a lot of clever stuff in the Affinity range!

The YouTube tutorials are likewise, in my opinion, 99.9% excellent, but occasionally I get the feeling that the presenter doesn't want to insult the intelligence of the audience  - and the mouse flicks across a control which is henceforth unknown and undiscoverable to the beginner. The entire tutorial from that point onwards becomes pointless! Believe me, beginners' intelligences cannot be insulted😁

I have always sensed that Serif's User Testing is done by people who are conversant with the material - and have been guilty of saying this to Serif over the previously-mentioned decades!  User Testing, axiomatically I suggest, needs to be done by people like Moshooter who are NEW to the software.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Ralph
I changed "topic" to "software" because I realised using the word "topic" could be interpreted as "new to any photo editing software. I meant "new to Affinity". Experience with other packages would be advantageous. Then I forgot to tick "Show edit" box!

[moshooter]

Thanks again for the replies from GarryP and Ralph. I think part of the problem with this particular issue is Photo is used mainly to edit images. I guess most folks don't set type against their work as I do frequently. I am not a complete newcomer to graphic design- I have been using Photoshop since version 2.5 before layers! Problem with PS is it is the Swiss army knife of graphics programs as well as the 800 pound gorilla of the photo world. I have used Lightroom since before version 1, when it was a beta called Shadowlands. Once the rental model came in and established the Adobe Tax as I call it, I went looking for alternatives. I really like the power of Affinity as it approaches and betters Photoshop with more modern code and less vestigial baggage. I now own the whole Studio Suite of Photo, Designer and Publisher since Serif halved the prices during the Chinese virus attack on the world. I have the Photo Workbook, but confess I haven't read all of it or followed the examples yet. I really enjoy James Ritson's video tutorials, just wish they had the absolute beginner series I envision, or a comparison of tools and locations video between PS and Photo for those new to their way of doing things.

The other problem is newer competitors in the editing space. I have On1 photo Raw 2020 as well as Luminar 4. Both edit raw files well, have effects, and at least On1 has some limited text abilities. Neither are as extensive as Photo and that oddly enough is their strength. If you want to edit a photo, convert it to a .jpg and post it to social media, either program will get you there in no time at all with very little deep diving into the software. Photo has so much capability and is so different than the others, that I mostly rely on Luminar if I want a quick render of an image I just made to post for friends. Any real work I want to keep and print and show, I use Photo for the operations I know. The recent updates have made it faster and smoother and all around better. I am impressed with Affinity and have evangelized lots of people to their products.

Now I hope to spend quality time in front of a screen learning the other two programs so I can accomplish pretty much whatever I want in the creative space. As an American, I applaud my British brethren ( I am of both Irish and British descent) on their pluck to put out such an outstanding product and knock on Adobe's throne in the process!