QoL things

[Abandon]

I'm a huge user of Photoshop and moving to Affinity Designer to do some logos and vector images felt like a downgrading in plenty of areas. Note : I have read a lot of tutoriels and forum threads before asking for these changes.

There are VERY obvious things that you could improve :

- Be able to move Fx from one layer to one another, which can be done in Shop by pressing Alt while dragging the Fx. In AD, you must click on the Fx, delete it, then click on the second layer and recreate it. There's a copy option for Fx, but seriously it's trash (it "adapts" the parameters to the size of the objet).

- When you create an Fx, it doesn't seem to save the last configuration used. For exemple when I add contours to several layers, but one by one, the option is set back to 0 thickness and have to manually re-adjust it. Can't have a quick look at Fx because options reset to 0 every time I switch layers.

- The way Dropper tool and dropper buttons work in AD is EXTREMELY counter-intuitive and inconvenient. Was it too hard to just copy the god tier retouching software? Why do you feel the need to reinvent the wheel? I struggle with colors in AD because of the way this works. In Shop, a simple Hold Alt and you can color pick. The color picked is saved into one of 2 colors that you can switch with X. In AD, the option is... well it's trash.

- When you uncheck the "Transparent background" option in the creation of a new file, it should add a background layer like in Shop, instead of... having a white board that cannot be deleted in any way because it is not a layer... Plus, if it was a layer, it could be easier to change the color.

Voila.

 

 

[Pšenda]

On 9/11/2020 at 1:27 PM, Abandon said:

When you uncheck the "Transparent background" option in the creation of a new file, it should add a background layer like in Shop, instead of... having a white board that cannot be deleted in any way because it is not a layer... Plus, if it was a layer, it could be easier to change the color.

If you use Artboards, then set your fill color directly. 

[Abandon]

2 hours ago, Pšenda said:

If you use Artboards, then set your fill color directly. 

Well, you have to use a specific tool to make that, while devs could just add a transparent layer on each new document. Easier for everything.

It's all these details that make me so mad when I use AD. I have to check for tuto every second because I have to use some secret ninja technic to do simple tasks. Even the save option is weird. Why can't we save directly in png and make the adjustments in this screen instead of having a separate option (export)? So many weird decisions.

[Pšenda]

5 hours ago, Abandon said:

you have to use a specific tool to make that

No, just check Create Artboard when creating a new document.

 

5 hours ago, Abandon said:

I have to use some secret ninja technic to do simple tasks.

Affinity isn't "copy" for Adobe products. It is therefore understandable and completely expected that various procedures will be used, which are quite logical and natural for ordinary Affinity users. Of course, if you insist on Adobe stereotypes, you will have a problem using Affinity.

[Old Bruce]

6 hours ago, Abandon said:

Well, you have to use a specific tool to make that, while devs could just add a transparent layer on each new document. Easier for everything.

 

But would I not need to use a tool to change the colour of the "transparent layer"?

[Abandon]

1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

Affinity isn't "copy" for Adobe products. It is therefore understandable and completely expected that various procedures will be used, which are quite logical and natural for ordinary Affinity users. Of course, if you insist on Adobe stereotypes, you will have a problem using Affinity.

There are some things that never change even on different products made by different brands. Why? Because you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time  ofc ! When a company finds a useful tech, process or concept that is not copyrighted, you don't have as a competitor to reinvent from scratches. Take for exemple video games. There are PLENTY of typical mechanics that all games of a same genre will use despite the fact that they're competitor, like scores, screen shake when something explodes, leveling, stats like intelligence strength and so on.

There is no shame to use some of the things that work so well for the competitors. Furthermore, if you make your product radically different, you alienate a lot of clients because of the adaptation required. I'm not saying that AD is radically different from Adobe products, but Shop and other softwares by Adobe aren't the best on the market for no reason. Why doing things differently, especially if it's made worst? AD can stand out with innovative tools, lighter CPU/memory usage, personas for sure. It won't with counter-intuitive and incomplete layer management, to name a few.

[Pšenda]

Surely you know that Serif has been developing graphic tools for more than 20 years, so he doesn't reinvent the wheel, but just continues the philosophy of his products. If you expect them to redesign their products according to your (PS like) ideas and habits, then you will probably wait quite a long time.