My frustrating experience with AP and the Pen Tool

[BrewNCode]

I really like Affinity Photo, or better said, I really want to like it, but the Pen Tool for me is anything but frustrating. I don't know how to put this into words so I'm going to give the example of "How I would do this if I'm using PS".

Problem: I can't trace a line.

Photoshop Solution: Choose Pen tool -> Click the 2 points you want to trace -> Switch to Brush Tool -> Choose the brush you want to use -> Hit Enter Key -> Line was created.

Question: How can I do this in Affinity Photo? Why I feel is so counter-intuitive?

Thank you beforehand.

[David in Яuislip]

Well I couldn't do it and this thread 

confirms it. All you have is the stroke option in the Context Toolbar. Solid and Dashes work, I failed with the Texture Line Style, it's the same as solid. Hey ho.

[BrewNCode]

2 hours ago, David in Яuislip said:

Well I couldn't do it and this thread 

confirms it. All you have is the stroke option in the Context Toolbar. Solid and Dashes work, I failed with the Texture Line Style, it's the same as solid. Hey ho.

And where is the context toolbar? I don't know much about the UI of AP. And aslo, as the OP from the topic you posted, this is a feature that AP SHOULD have implemented years a go.

 

EDIT: Found it. Thank, you.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, BrewNCode said:

And aslo, as the OP from the topic you posted, this is a feature that AP SHOULD have implemented years a go.

Since Photo uses only raster brushes, and that function requires a vector brush, it may never come to Photo. Like several other functions, it is only in Designer, and if you really want/need it you may need to use both programs.

[lepr]

16 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Since Photo uses only raster brushes, and that function requires a vector brush, it may never come to Photo. Like several other functions, it is only in Designer, and if you really want/need it you may need to use both programs.

The requested functionality is not in AD. I don't know if you've much experience of Photoshop, but the request is for the ability to tell any brush-based tool to use a vector path as if it were the user's hand movement, which is very different from AD's brushes which stretch or repeat a raster image along a path.

[lepr]

4 hours ago, BrewNCode said:

I really like Affinity Photo, or better said, I really want to like it, but the Pen Tool for me is anything but frustrating. I don't know how to put this into words so I'm going to give the example of "How I would do this if I'm using PS".

Problem: I can't trace a line.

Photoshop Solution: Choose Pen tool -> Click the 2 points you want to trace -> Switch to Brush Tool -> Choose the brush you want to use -> Hit Enter Key -> Line was created.

Question: How can I do this in Affinity Photo? Why I feel is so counter-intuitive?

Thank you beforehand.

Applying brush-based tools along vector paths is not in the Affinity apps yet. However, for brushing in a straight line with many of the brush-based tools, click wherever the line is to start and then shift-click wherever the line is to end.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, anon2 said:

The requested functionality is not in AD. I don't know if you've much experience of Photoshop, but the request is for the ability to tell any brush-based tool to use a vector path as if it were the user's hand movement, which is very different from AD's brushes which stretch or repeat a raster image along a path.

It's certainly true that Designer does not have true vector brushes. But I don't think that's what we're talking about here.

Draw a line (Pen Tool, or Pencil Tool). In the Stroke panel, select Texture Line Style, and the stroke width you want. Then in the Brushes panel, click on a brush. You have now stroked your path.

But that will not work in Photo, as it requires vector brushes (in the Affinity Designer sense) not raster brushes (which is all Photo has).

[Xzenor]

5 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

But that will not work in Photo, as it requires vector brushes.....

As far as I know, these don't exist in Affinity Designer, nor in Affinity Photo. But I would love to be told that I'm wrong.

 

[lepr]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

It's certainly true that Designer does not have true vector brushes. But I don't think that's what we're talking about here.

I certainly have not been talking about vector brushes of any kind!

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Draw a line (Pen Tool, or Pencil Tool). In the Stroke panel, select Texture Line Style, and the stroke width you want. Then in the Brushes panel, click on a brush. You have now stroked your path.

But that will not work in Photo, as it requires vector brushes (in the Affinity Designer sense) not raster brushes (which is all Photo has).

Of course I know that doesn't work in AP. You have completely misunderstood what I'm talking about. I'm well aware of the functionality in AP and AD, but you appear to have no idea of the Photoshop functionality that the OP and myself have been talking about.

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, Xzenor said:

As far as I know, these don't exist in Affinity Designer, nor in Affinity Photo. But I would love to be told that I'm wrong.

 

But there is a kind of brush that Serif calls a vector brush, in Designer. And (again, in Designer) if you draw your line then the way you get the stroke you want is via a combination of the Stroke and Brushes panels (or the Stroke setting in the Context Toolbar and the Brushes panel).

This is more cumbersome than in Photoshop, but it's the same function you described (as far as I can tell).

And, no, you can't do that in Photo. It's only in Designer. But it is in Designer, and if you have both applications, you can switch apps and get it (though, again, more cumbersome than in Photoshop).

[BrewNCode]

So, if AP wants to fight toe to toe with PS, why it doesn't have features that can make PS run for its money?

[Ulysses]

On 7/16/2020 at 10:28 PM, BrewNCode said:

So, if AP wants to fight toe to toe with PS, why it doesn't have features that can make PS run for its money?

For one, AP is a much newer product than Photoshop. Additionally, AP doesn’t need to cover absolutely every feature contained in Photoshop. The argument could be made that Photoshop is bloated and overly complicated. Therefore, it’s bound to have features and tools that a slimmer tool does not.

The developers of Affinity Photo are very in-touch with their core customer and what we need, and often they will also address our wants. If you feel this is a must-have feature, then hop over to the Feature Requests parts of this forum, and let the developers know about it. 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, BrewNCode said:

if AP wants to fight toe to toe with PS,

I don't recall them saying that they want to "fight toe to toe" with Adobe. And, realistically, they can't. (And that's for more reasons than simply not having some particular function in Affinity Photo that Photoshop has. It has to do with market share, and de facto standards, and proprietary data formats, and the size of the staff, and similar considerations.)

Serif is implementing their vision of how these applications should work, and if they prove useful to people, then people will buy them, and Serif will thrive. Or they won't be useful, and people won't buy them. So far, it seems that enough users are buying them.