Wishlist: Object Styles to behave same as Text Styles

[AllAppsUser]

On my wishlist:

Object Styles that behave the same as - consistent with - Text Styles. All Apps.

Meaning:

• They update; are amendable (currently not)
• They flow through to all objects where the Style has been applied
• In short: the same as Text Styles, but for Objects.

Yes, I'm aware you might be thinking "so when Symbols vs Styles?".

• Styles are concerned with fills, strokes and effects.
• Symbols are mini artworks.

…therein is the answer. Indeed you could have an Object Style applied to several Symbols, in theory, couldn't you? Scenario: Brand colour combinations comes to mind - a plc I worked for had six different colours, as well as two core colours in their brand manual. The six could be used in any combination or tint. No doubt a designer's choice of fill-stroke colour combination would be questioned by marketing, or the manager signing-off. Everyone has an opinion on colour. The value of being able to update a style once and let it flow through to multiple symbols and objects, in say, a 56 page company report nearing print deadline (as is always the way) - then change it back again when they decide they like the designers choice after all ....should be obvious. Hope that helps you grasp the "why". (Saves a designer having to do an all-nighter... again).

!! Consistency: Currently we have two features called Styles in Publisher that behave in very different ways? Why? What justifies that?

Maintain this consistency across all the Affinity suite too please. I've not checked Styles in all the apps, but the ideal is that all Styles, where ever they appear in whichever app they're in, behave the same and perform the same function -  across desktop and iPad too.

Thank you.

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Really good start to these apps btw, really shaping up well - am a total fan - lovin them on the iPad especially. Appreciate they are in early versions, so still much to do. More things on my wishlist as they occur. Hope this helps.

 

[AllAppsUser]

Another wishlist item for those interested.

[sfriedberg]

+10

Object styles are one of my most heavily used features in CorelDRAW, and no, Symbols are not even remotely a substitute when dealing with different shapes that need the same stroke, fill, line endings, etc.,  consistently throughout the document.  In fact, in a document I am working on right now, I have a myriad of little artboards with somewhat cryptic looking graphs.  It is an incredible waste of time to visit all the artboards, open up all the groups, select all the lines, just to make a consistent change of line width.  In CorelDRAW, I would create one graphic style, assign it to all those lines (actually, I would do two: one for the segments without arrowheads and one for those with, but even then I'd arrange for the properties of the former to be inherited by the latter), and then change all the related lines in the entire document by changing one graphic style property.

Diagram-02413.svg

Frankly, I remain somewhat baffled that the Affinity Suite only provides "preset behavior" for what it calls object or graphic styles.  Having graphic styles behave like text styles is pretty much standard across the industry.  Even LibreOffice Draw, which I do not consider an especially capable vector graphics application,  does this perfectly well.

Having said that, in the Affinity Suite graphic styles have the potential to be much more powerful than any other application I currently use.  Because you could capture not just basic stroke and fill properties, but the entire Appearance panel and Effects as well.

 

[AllAppsUser]

On 2/11/2021 at 7:19 AM, sfriedberg said:

Frankly, I remain somewhat baffled that the Affinity Suite only provides "preset behavior"

I was baffled by this too having clearly positioned themselves as aiming at the professional.

I believe it's a legacy philosophy left over from their PC days doing 'doodle' software. They might be affronted by me calling it 'doodle' software (especially twice 😉), but it's true.

They're now tackling professional level apps and on a steep learning curve - evidenced by their utter lack of comprehension of the role of Styles (beyond text). As you say, an incredibly powerful tool in professional workflow.

Their incomprehension of colour is huge evidence they're out of their depth: global colours is only just filtering through into all the apps and it's still only 'almost' there. Palette coordination - export/import and sharing. The lack of highlighting colours in selected. The 'Recent' colours thing is a big shout-out - it proclaims over a loud speaker that they only understand colour choices as a random decision like: "oooo, I like that colour I've just fiddled randomly with to create".)

They've a way to go, but as you say, there's huge potential here - and it's early days, relatively. I'm desparately hoping they don't get sucked into a focus on 'bells and whistles' which will mean it'll be years and years before they sort out what's important to daily workflow in these apps.

That will open up an opportunity for other software to beckon the user they want away. Apps go in fashions nowadays, and there's more choice than ever, so they really need to keep their cool and make these apps solid workhorses rather than chase the latest novelty.

I'm betting marketing are on their case all the time, understandably, asking for bells and whistles... but they need to fight the unforeseen pull it can exert on the direction their apps take. Being a 'workhorse for professionals' is actually a killer marketing message for the target market, especially studios. It's the most challenging to deliver on of course... and why it's a market beater.

 

EDIT: styles seem to behave correctly in Designer, iPad. Somehow Publisher has missed out completely. The inconsistency is doing my head in.

[jochoalions]

This is an Issue that was raised on February 2, 2019 

We are now on Version 1.10 (more than 2 years later) and this capability has not been addressed. One wonders why this is the case. Is it because the Product Manager does not understand the issue or does not understand the impact of lacking this capability?  If one had to guess, one would surmise that the Internal Architecture could not readily support such functionality without diving into some kind of massive re-write of some of the components. As a Software Architect, I appreciate the hidden complexities of such issues, and I will always chose "doing it right" over "doing it fast". As a semi-professional user of Affinity Designer, the lack of this capability is inexcusable!! Period. In the ABCD Scale of Priorities, A being "Product Critical", true Graphic Styles are an A. I trust Affinity Designer Product Manager is keeping this top-and-center.

[DieterW]

+1 is all I can say

[gafvert]

On 9/10/2021 at 9:31 PM, jochoalions said:

This is an Issue that was raised on February 2, 2019 

 

Yep, still very much lacking. Back when I raised this in 2019 I had just migrated away from Adobe Illustrator where I was doing a lot of UX/UI-prototyping, and I was hoping that I could start using Affinity Designer for the same purpose. But largely due to the lack of dynamic object styles I eventually gave up on that and I've stopped trying to do any UX/UI-prototyping in Designer.