Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 I am brand new to Affinity Designer and I've been watching a lot of videos, trying to learn how to use it. I'm watching a video that's showing me how to create an animal figure and I noticed his transform tab on the bottom of the screen was set to pixels. Mine is in inches. I can't seem to find a way to change mine to pixels so if someone could tell me, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESPR Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 You have probably created a document for print at 300dpi. Next time, in the New Document dialogue, choose Web from the presets. To change the units in the existing document, go to File -> Document Setup and change the Units to Pixels. Sheryl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 If the ruler is showing in your document, you can right-click on the origin of the ruler (where it says "in") & choose any supported unit type from the menu that pops up. It is a quick way to change the document units without having to go to File > Document Setup & change the document units there. You can also enter values in the Transform panel using any supported unit type you want. Grimmjow80, Sheryl and ESPR 3 Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 Thanks both of you. I've been playing around with vectors and I have no idea what the best template is to use so I just keep picking "Letter." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESPR Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 8 minutes ago, Sheryl said: Thanks both of you. I've been playing around with vectors and I have no idea what the best template is to use so I just keep picking "Letter." One way to approach this is comparing you project with the resolution ofyour screen. For example: my screen has a resolution of 1680x1050px. If you are just having a bit of fun or want to upload your art somewhere on the internet, you could work with a canvassize smaller than that. Plus, since its vector, you can always resize at a later point if you must. Printing on the other hand, requires a lot more pixels than stuff you just want to look at on your screen. So unless you want to print it out (and/or include rasterelements) i wouldnt bother with 300dpi. 75-96dpi is good enough for screen. Sheryl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 Along the top of the New Document dialog there's a rather inconspicuous row of buttons that will let you choose between presets for Print/Press Ready/Photo/Web/Devices/Architectural. They come with their own units. Spoilt for choice... Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 3 minutes ago, ESPR said: One way to approach this is comparing you project with the resolution ofyour screen. For example: my screen has a resolution of 1680x1050px. If you are just having a bit of fun or want to upload your art somewhere on the internet, you could work with a canvassize smaller than that. Plus, since its vector, you can always resize at a later point if you must. Printing on the other hand, requires a lot more pixels than stuff you just want to look at on your screen. So unless you want to print it out (and/or include rasterelements) i wouldnt bother with 300dpi. 75-96dpi is good enough for screen. Thanks for that information. I'm actually trying to draw images with vectors, export them to svg and then open them in embroidery digitizing software. This is the main reason I bought the program. I just bought the program yesterday so I have lots to learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 5 minutes ago, h_d said: Along the top of the New Document dialog there's a rather inconspicuous row of buttons that will let you choose between presets for Print/Press Ready/Photo/Web/Devices/Architectural. They come with their own units. Spoilt for choice... I did look into some of those templates but SVGA is about the only format I'm a little familiar with. I have no idea what any of those other formats mean or where you'd use something if you used one of those templates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESPR Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 8 minutes ago, Sheryl said: Thanks for that information. I'm actually trying to draw images with vectors, export them to svg and then open them in embroidery digitizing software. This is the main reason I bought the program. I just bought the program yesterday so I have lots to learn. Well it sounds like this requires a physical outputsize, but im not sure what the required output resolution would be. If its the same as printing, then 300dpi, so choosing the letter template is not wrong. On the other hand, an svg can be exported at any desired size. I would check the manual of the embroidery software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 TBH it's almost overkill. The Web tab start you off with documents based on different monitor sizes and resolutions, the Devices tab starts you off with documents based on the sizes of different phone and tablet screens. If you're just experimenting then it doesn't really matter. If you're designing for a particular format then they may be useful. Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 3 minutes ago, ESPR said: Well it sounds like this requires a physical outputsize, but im not sure what the required output resolution would be. If its the same as printing, then 300dpi, so choosing the letter template is not wrong. On the other hand, an svg can be exported at any desired size. I would check the manual if the embroidery software. I don't think the size matters in my embroidery software but in order to digitize separate pieces of a design, it has to be an svg file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 Thanks. At some point I'm hoping to design a banner and understand that it's best to have your graphics in svg format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESPR Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 1 minute ago, Sheryl said: I don't think the size matters in my embroidery software but in order to digitize separate pieces of a design, it has to be an svg file. Then i would probably just choose a canvassize that fits your screen. Exporting as svg is standard, no matter what other values you used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 Just now, ESPR said: Then i would probably just choose a canvassize that fits your screen. Exporting as svg is standard, no matter what other values you used. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 My daughter is drawing up embroidery/tapestry patterns for Uni - from what I can tell, the document size is entirely up to you, and the resolution isn't that important, but what may be helpful is to set a grid that will match the mesh size of your fabric. You can then place colours within the squares to match the stitches. If you pull down the View menu and choose Grid and Axis manager, you can set the grid spacing to match the mesh spacing of your fabric. Y If you then set Snap to Grid: You can use the Rectangle tool to to fill out the grid. Not sure if that's what you want to do, but hope it helps! Sheryl and ESPR 2 Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 3 minutes ago, h_d said: My daughter is drawing up embroidery/tapestry patterns for Uni - from what I can tell, the document size is entirely up to you, and the resolution isn't that important, but what may be helpful is to set a grid that will match the mesh size of your fabric. You can then place colours within the squares to match the stitches. If you pull down the View menu and choose Grid and Axis manager, you can set the grid spacing to match the mesh spacing of your fabric. Y If you then set Snap to Grid: You can use the Rectangle tool to to fill out the grid. Not sure if that's what you want to do, but hope it helps! I don't think my program works the way your daughter's does. I don't try and match anything to fabric. I have shapes and then can tell my embroidery software to fill the shapes with different stitches and set the angle and size for the stitches. I can choose whether or not I want an outline and how I want the outline stitched out but as I said in another post, I can only do all that easily if I've imported an svg design into my software. Otherwise I'd have to outline a design and put the different pieces on different layers. In any event, I appreciate the information about the grid. I hadn't discovered that yet but I think it will be helpful when I'm trying to draw designs using vectors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 My daughter's not using digitising software - she's using Photoshop (she gets it free as a student!) and I'm just trying to extrapolate from what I've seen of her work and re-imagining it in Affinity Designer. Out of interest, what software are you using? She might find it useful too. Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 2 minutes ago, h_d said: My daughter's not using digitising software - she's using Photoshop (she gets it free as a student!) and I'm just trying to extrapolate from what I've seen of her work and re-imagining it in Affinity Designer. Out of interest, what software are you using? She might find it useful too. I have a Babylock embroidery machine and use their software. It's called Palette 11 but only creates embroidery designs that work on certain Babylock machines. Your daughter's luck that she can get Photoshop for free. I've been using Corel Paint Shop Pro for years. Works a lot like Photoshop but it's more affordable for me. I was tempted to buy their vector software or Corel's software so I could create vector images and save them as svg files but both are so expensive. I'm so glad I stumbled upon Affinity Designer. Seems to do what I'm trying to accomplish and at a great price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESPR Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 9 minutes ago, Sheryl said: Your daughter's luck that she can get Photoshop for free. I've been using Corel Paint Shop Pro for years. Works a lot like Photoshop but it's more affordable for me. I was tempted to buy their vector software or Corel's software so I could create vector images and save them as svg files but both are so expensive. I'm so glad I stumbled upon Affinity Designer. Seems to do what I'm trying to accomplish and at a great price. Not sure if i should post this here, but Inkscape is an open source, free vector graphics program and does all the things you'll probably need, plus a few things AD can not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 Once she's out of Uni she'll be on Affinity too, I suspect. And I reckon you've made a good choice. Looks like Baby Lock is Windows-only, which is a big shortsighted of them as far as we Mac users are concerned. Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheryl Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 2 minutes ago, ESPR said: Not sure if i should post this here, but Inkscape is an open source, free vector graphics program and does all the things you'll probably need, plus a few things AD can not. I actually tried it but couldn't figure out how to create images without a fill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h_d Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 3 minutes ago, ESPR said: Inkscape I've looked at it once or twice and found the installation process for MacOS utterly forbidding. Sheryl 1 Quote Affinity Photo 2.0.3, Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESPR Posted October 10, 2020 Share Posted October 10, 2020 2 minutes ago, Sheryl said: I actually tried it but couldn't figure out how to create images without a fill. Well then you are stuck with us Affinity fans h_d and Sheryl 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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