ruler track tools

[designperson]

I apologize if this topic has already been raised, but I have no idea what terminology to search on, other than "ruler tool tracking." 

Some of the tools in Affinity Photo track on the rulers so I can see what coordinates I'm at in real time as I move the tool on the image area. Magnifier, mesh warp, rectangle tool, pen, etc., all track on the rulers, which is great. But knowing the position of the eraser, paint brush, burn brush, and other brush tools is very important too, yet none of these tools track on the rulers. It would greatly speed up some actions if I knew precisely where my brush tools are positioned at any point as I move them on the image. Is there a reason the center point of brush tool coordinates aren't shown on the rulers? Is it possible to have their coordinates appear on the rulers? Have I overlooked an option that will turn on brush tracking in the rulers?

[DWright]

To show this information from the View>Studio menu select Info and this will display the X and Y coordinates of the brush tool as well as the colour value below the brush, also in the UI section of the Preferences screen enable the 'Always show brush crosshair' the bush location on the linage will be shown.

[designperson]

Thank you DWright! This works pretty well. I was aware of the "Info" coordinates and had it engaged. I was not aware of the 'Always show brush crosshair' option, so I turned that on as well. I guess there is no way to get the coordinates to show up on the rulers, as the other tools do, though? That's my usual approach to watching and aligning things on the page quickly when using brushes. I think I'll have to develop a new habit (tremble), and place the "Info" tab somewhere on the image so I can watch it. That's slightly more awkward in that numbers must be read to be useful, whereas a simple line in the ruler can be easily discerned and manipulated against the incremental marks without having to read any numbers. 

You've been most helpful! Thanks!

[h_d]

19 hours ago, DWright said:

also in the UI section of the Preferences screen enable the 'Always show brush crosshair' the bush location on the linage will be shown.

I'm not seeing that - I get the crosshair, but not the tool position in the rulers:

macOS, Affinity Photo 1.9.3

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, h_d said:

I'm not seeing that - I get the crosshair, but not the tool position in the rulers:

Same for me, although I am not sure what @DWright meant by "linage."

[designperson]

"Linage" is a another word for "alignment". I don't believe lines on the rulers indicating x and y positions of the brush tools in Affinity Photo is possible. Only the non-brush tools appear to show ruler indications (the pen tool, for example).

[firstdefence]

I wonder whether people wouldn't find the line markers on the rulers distracting when drawing, a kind of peripheral vision thing.

The other consideration is a brush is more than just a point, so the centre of the brush can be accurately pinpointed but the rest of the brush is left, right, up and down of that location and brushes can be asymmetrical, then there is the transparency and edge feathering. I would however expected the lines when using the pixel brush at high zoom levels.

 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

The other consideration is a brush is more than just a point, so the centre of the brush can be accurately pinpointed ...

But can it be accurately pinpointed visually just from looking at a pair of lines on the ruler? Consider that AP supports an enormous zoom range so at really high zoom levels you might see ruler gradations labeled 3.13.625, 313.667, 313.75, etc. so the space between each gradation would be just a fraction of a pixel that could only be estimated.

Even at moderate zoom levels I doubt anything very accurate could be achieved just by referring to line markers.

[designperson]

firstdefence-- good points. I've never found location lines on the rulers distracting. I've used them for decades (in previous software), and of course all the drawing tools include them (the vector brush tool in Affinity Draw does not). So perhaps I'm just used to them. I can always turn the rulers on and off, if I wish (or if possible, turn the coordinate lines on and off) Placing the Info tab on top of the image for quick position reference is distracting to me until I become accustom to having it there. (Left and right studios are too far from the image for ease of reading the numeric coordinates while moving the tool.) 

Having more than one option is always helpful (as might be the case with asymmetrical brushes), and having a more efficient option at any given moment would be valuable. With crosshairs, I can see the darkest point of a "0" hardness brush (I notice the color of the brush will clear to just show crosshairs, but only after I position them, which lets me know that I wasn't actually where I intended to be. Any movement when the brush is clear will instantly cause the color to re-appear, and it's back to guesswork positioning. In Preferences > UI,  I can turn off "Show Brush Previews" which will then only show the crosshairs and the edge circle or shape., but without a hotkey to turn this option on and off, the option verges on inefficient.  

I've always prided myself in being able to produce better quality work in less time than my competition, so anything that slows productivity is frustrating. OTOH there are a lot of important considerations other than speed when it comes to the myriad of useful options for each tool, and not all can have a convenient hotkey. I still have much to learn and get used to with the Affinity suite.

 

[designperson]

17 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Even at moderate zoom levels I doubt anything very accurate could be achieved just by referring to line markers.

The ruler coordinate lines work well with all the drawing tools. Granted, you can utilize "alignment", "snapping", "force pixel alignment", etc., to ensure critical vector positioning, but I find the lines are pretty useful. Some images might not need precise tool positioning to be done well, e.g., airbrush retouching for a low-res web or screen printing image. An option to use or not use ruler lines seems useful to me, but that might just be old habits.

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, designperson said:

I've used them for decades (in previous software)...

I'm just curious but what do you use them for with the brush tools? IOW, why is it important that you see anything other than what you are creating with any of these tools directly on the canvas itself?

Consider for instance that many raster brushes include dynamics to control size, rotation, x & y scatter, & so on. They can even have multiple nozzles. So what they create can be as much about how they are being controlled as where on the canvas you begin to use them.

[designperson]

15 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I'm just curious but what do you use them for with the brush tools?

Honestly, I don't think about it much, given the number of times and countless ways I've used them (30+ years). What prompted my original post was the moment I realized the coordinate lines were not on the rulers-- I was surprised. I had added 3 yellow arrows to a photo with fade-outs at the top of each arrow. There were a several ways I could have created or cleaned up the fade-outs. I decided to just use the eraser tool set to "0" hardness. But because they were not all aligned at top, I needed to get a quick idea of where to place the eraser for consistency. I didn't know where the crosshairs option was, so I just eyeballed the eraser position for a quick clean-up (newbie). Then I posted this topic. This was a Q&D project. The finished image is attached (low-res photo is from a cam stream I follow). I was able to enhance the image in just 4-5 clicks with Affinity Photo, which is a big plus. Thanks for asking.

[firstdefence]

Note for the future...
Things like those arrows can be made into Assets for repeated use so make one and fade it out then you can just drag out an arrow asset, you can also include the text if you group the text and arrow and modify the text to suit. If you look in the resources section of this forum I dare bet you'd find Arrow assets already to use and or modify to suit your needs. It's a great place to find assets that have been made by others and Kindly uploaded by other members, check it out: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/11-resources/ 

Nice post by @v_kyr 

 

Yellow Arrows.afassets

[designperson]

56 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Note for the future...

Thanks, firstdefence! I've seen a video or two on using assets, macros, etc., and have not yet had the time to look into them, which will be added to my list! The yellow arrows assets you posted are great-- did you just now construct them? I've made a LOT of arrows in my time, so they go very quickly and can be easily created in specific ways for specific images. The things I keep on hand are such things as "outline of north and south america" because it takes me longer to draw that than arrows. But these arrows you made available will get a lot of use. And I learned how to add them to my Affinity Photo. I recently completed a full, isometric landscape illustration in Affinity Designer and they would certainly have been useful for that!