Big time-saving request for styles studio!

[countbasil]

If I apply a graphical style (say, "red arrow w/shadow") to an object and then tweak it some (eg, change the "radius" of the shadow), if I want those tweaks to happen when I use that graphical style in the future, it currently takes MANY steps to update my style definition. I would have to create a new style based on my selection, rename it to the old style name, and then delete the old style! It would be much better just to be able to right click on the old style and have an item that says "update style based on selection"

By the way, it would be nice to be able to assign and defined graphical style to objects the same way that paragraphs can be attached to paragraph styles. So if I changed the definition of my "red arrow w/shadow", all my red arrows would update. Is that something that seems feasible as an option?

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, countbasil said:

By the way, it would be nice to be able to assign and defined graphical style to objects the same way that paragraphs can be attached to paragraph styles. So if I changed the definition of my "red arrow w/shadow", all my red arrows would update. Is that something that seems feasible as an option?

I think its unlikely, because Styles are application-wide, not document-specific. To do what you're asking Affinity would need to remember what Style each object had (which it doesn't, though that could perhaps be fixed), and when you re-Open an existing document it would have to apply any Style changes to all the objects. That would be surprising to many users, so that would also have to be optional. Additionally, there's the possibility that a document you re-Open used a Style that you've deleted from the application, and in that case the link between the deleted Style and the object(s) would have to be removed.

Of course, only Serif knows what's possible, but that seems complex enough that I doubt it will happen.

[sfriedberg]

12 hours ago, countbasil said:

it would be nice to be able to assign and defined graphical style to objects the same way that paragraphs can be attached to paragraph styles. So if I changed the definition of my "red arrow w/shadow", all my red arrows would update. Is that something that seems feasible as an option?

It's the fundamental way that graphical styles work in CorelDRAW, and I routinely adjust stroke and fill properties on hundreds or thousands of objects at the same time, having assigned them all the same graphical style, by editing the properties of the graphical style.

There are major differences between Affinity's treatment of graphical styles and CorelDRAW's.  Corel's styles are defined in the document.  You can export and import graphical style sheets (sets of styles), but they aren't global across all documents.  Affinity's styles have many, many more properties than Corel's, basically all the layer effects stuff.  Corel's are "live", like text and character styles in both apps, while Affinity's are more like templates, applied once but not associated with the object after application.

So it's certainly possible from a technical perspective, and practical to implement and use, but I have no idea if Affinity has any intention to move in that direction.  I would like to see graphical styles in the Affinity suite be "live" as in CorelDRAW, but with the current full set of features and the addition of various scale-with-object (present in CorelDRAW) and transform-with-object checkboxes to control how strokes and fills are affected by object transforms.

[fde101]

9 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I think its unlikely, because Styles are application-wide, not document-specific.

They might need to go with a system similar to the way the swatches work: there would need to be both application or document style categories, and within document categories have the option of making "global styles" that would retain their links back to the definition.

 

That said, I think we need to go a step past this.  Consider how Item Styles are defined in QuarkXPress: practically every attribute of the style has a checkbox to indicate if it is present in the style or not:

In contrast, the current Styles in the Affinity products are all-or-nothing.  I think the entire Style system in the Affinity products needs to be revamped, replaced, or supplemented with a new type of Style which allows for more precise definition, expansion into additional areas (such as specific position/size attributes), and permits the option of having styles at the document level which maintain links to the objects they are applied to.

 

One place that it could take a step beyond QuarkXPress would be to retain links from multiple styles applied to a single object.  In QuarkXPress, if I have an item style set up that sets the horizontal position and size of an object, and another that sets its border (stroke) color and width, then I can apply both to an object, and because the attributes do not overlap it will obtain both sets of properties, but only the last one I applied to it remains linked to the object - if I update both of those styles, only one of them gets updated for the object.  It would be better for the application to remember which styles were applied to the object in what order, and go back and re-apply any changes made to the styles in that same order.

 

I would also like to point out that there could potentially be the option of reusing some of the underlying implementation of symbols in providing this functionality, depending on how it is actually set up under the hood.

[Jowday]

4 hours ago, sfriedberg said:

Corel's are "live", like text and character styles in both apps, while Affinity's are more like templates, applied once but not associated with the object after application.

Indeed. Perhaps Serif should rename their features so customers know what we are dealing with and what they are trialing/about to purchase:

• Element templates instead of styles
• Dynamic brushes instead of vector brushes

Etc.

It is just too simple architecture from the start of Affinity labeled with "expensive" better selling terms.

[sfriedberg]

13 hours ago, fde101 said:

 Item Styles are defined in QuarkXPress: practically every attribute of the style has a checkbox to indicate if it is present in the style or not

Oh, yes, this is important.  I forget to mention that aspect of CorelDRAW graphic styles.  They can define the fill and/or the stroke, and leave the other aspect unchanged, like the Affinity NoChange in text styles.

[countbasil]

Maybe there should be graphic effect templates [what exist now] and graphic effect styles--although implementing the latter would take a lot of work.

Either way, I'm at least hoping for a menu item that says "update based on selection" in the context menu on the current styles! 🙏 

[countbasil]

On 7/13/2020 at 9:05 PM, countbasil said:

 I'm at least hoping for a menu item that says "update based on selection" in the context menu on the current styles! 🙏 

Reminder for devs ❤️