Publisher: -> TEXT FRAME -> FRAME FILL -> checking an justifying OPACITY

[RvS]

Hello Affinity Team,

I would like to color the "Frame Fill" in a "Text Frame" and set it for expample to 70% opacity. The text itself should not become transparent!

The problem:

In the input area for "Frame Fill" I can apparently only make the color transparent via a slider. But this slider does not show how much opacity is set. This makes it almost impossible to set the same transparent background for several identical text frames. Or is there somewhere a possibility to adjust the opacity value numerically for "Frame Fill"?

Thanks for the help; kind regarss,

Rüdiger von Schönfels

 

This is an example of a "Text Frame" on a picture. The background-color of the "Text Frame" should be transparent. The Font Color should not be transparent:

 

Here I am setting the Color for Frame Fill and the opacitiy with the slider which does not show any number to check or justify the opacity

[MEB]

Hi @RvS,
I will pass your feedback to the dev team to include an input/info field there. One way to work around it is to set the color you wish for the Fill as you usually do then select the Transparency Tool or the Fill Tool (linear gradient) and apply the same opacity value for both nodes. You can then Copy > Paste Style to other text frames (assuming the font size/text remains the same between them).

[RvS]

Thanks for the help. This does work. But a similar input-field for opacity would be great.

Rüdiger

 

[RyS]

Looking at the text frame settings in Publisher 2 it appears that the opacity of the fill still only has a slider and no imput field.

Also, corner options for text frames, as with images, would be nice.

[walt.farrell]

50 minutes ago, RyS said:

Looking at the text frame settings in Publisher 2 it appears that the opacity of the fill still only has a slider and no imput field.

Yes, that's still true.

50 minutes ago, RyS said:

Also, corner options for text frames, as with images, would be nice.

As a workaround, you can of course create any shape you want, perhaps a rectangle with the corners adjusted for example, and turn it into a Text Frame via Layer > Convert to Text Frame.

[prophet]

Just ran into this one today.

+1 for a regular input field to get precise control

[mocny]

Why is this still not implemented?! Using one global swatch is imposible without this.

I tried to create a new one with opacity, and even though this is not ideal at all, you are not even able to modify that opacity later! If you try to "Edit fill" for such swatch, it just jumps to the full opacity after closing the relevant modal, which is (I guess) because there is not support for "opacity" in that modal, in any color model.

There needs to be numerical input field next to opacity in Text Frame and also Table!.

Both for fill and stroke.

[mocny]

2 hours ago, mocny said:

Why is this still not implemented?! ...

So I found (a not as bad - but also not the perfect - temporary) solution to this, until we have a proper way. Instead of applying full color, apply Gradient (for both values), there you can set the opacity. Altought not as fast, it does work properly. Shame here is, that for some reason, you can not make a gradient swatch using Global swatches... it turns into regular swatch anyway and changes to global swatch won't reflect in such item.

So what I found (getting closer) is to COPY styles and PASTE them on different element, but I am using also gradient conical stroke and that one gets really messy when copied. It basically does not work! ... This Affinity software is pretty buggy if I must say.

Edit: So I also found a solution to this (that is useful in case if you have multiple elements)... altough that stroke is copied, it is not applied correctly... so you can select all elements that you want to fix, disable such stroke and reenable it by clicking on 'Mid point' input, press enter and there it is.

[Maskell]

The Text Frame Background Color/Swatch does need a percentage field on the Opacity Slider to accurately control Color Opacity Slider for the tool, as shown in the Tool Panel image, also on this thread. Otherwise a Color Box combined with a Text Box is the only way to make it work.

It looks like this bug has not been fixed for years.

[Ronald N. Tan]

On 4/18/2025 at 3:35 PM, Maskell said:

The Text Frame Background Color/Swatch does need a percentage field on the Opacity Slider to accurately control Color Opacity Slider for the tool, as shown in the Tool Panel image, also on this thread. Otherwise a Color Box combined with a Text Box is the only way to make it work.

It looks like this bug has not been fixed for years.

Yes to this!

I am slowly getting myself used to Affinity apps (I have the Universal License). Things like this irks me. I am on the current latest stable 2.6.X. Please implement some kind of an exact number guide to enter, etc.