Improvements request

[Hummanoid]

Greeting Affinity Designer developers!

First of all thanks a LOT for your such cosy and powerful tool.

Second one - sorry for my little english, i'm not common english speaker.

I'm designer and illustrator with 13 years experience and did tried and use a lot of vector editors, but most of them didn't get so close for my needs as your AD, so i even switched my working platform to Mac. Before my favorites was (in order of history) Freehand 11MX, Fireworks and sometimes Xara. Adobe products make me sick (fireworks is totaly Macromedia product, conception at least).

 

So, close to topic. The most important things when you working with vector is - vector editing and color editing. Everything else is not so important (effects, brushes, etc). You made it well, but still not perfect. So here is my suggestions to improve.

 

Color chooser

I always working with open color chooser window, because panel - Colour is TOO TINY for working with color, it don't have valuable precision. Default size of color picker in this panel is 224x40 px! So it's less than 1px for 1 hue step and 2,5 times (!) less for Saturation and Lightness. It's not acceptable! So Color Chooser window is solve this problem , but it haven't Fill/Stroke switch. Think about it. But what I did in this case ? TWO color panels (default size 256x256 px): one for Fills and one for Strokes. It will save a time and reduce mistakes, because you always forget in which state Fill/Stroke switch is. And it's not bad if Layer panel will get smaller, in good editor nobody cares about layers. Everything you need to know about object state is it on the top or below current. Strictly define object position is not necessary. You always can send it back or bring it on top, or adjust it by hotkeys.

 

Color eyedroper

Why it does'nt works instant? Why we need first take the sample and then click on the color to apply it? Make it instant or at least make new tool, that instantly apply eyedroped color. 

 

 

Knife tool

Need it so much you can't even imagine. I always need to cut or split path in different places and how i do it now: Add one point at start and one at the end of supposed  segment I need to cut. Break Curve Appart at the "Start"  and delete segment from there. And I need to do it exactly in that way that path follows. Isn't it extremely hard? What i need is the cutting line that split path in points of intersection. I think it's not a big problem for you

 

Smart Add Boolean

Common problem two mirrored square triangles that have one conjoined hypothenuse, you make Boolean Add, and hope you get the Rectangle. But what? It's still two triangles joined in 1 object? But why ? It have 4 conjoined vertex and 2 sides? That bug have a lot off editors. But it solves with adjustable precision of boolean operations. I think.

 

Close points welding

Almost same situation, but now i have "booled"(made from boolean operations) Rectangle. And i pick a vertex (any that was on hypothenuse), and want to curvate it with (super awesome, i can't express how i love it) Corner Tool, and... I can't . Why ? Because here is two (!) points in same position! Why you always did'nt weld point at least if they have same coordinates? Every editor do. Please do something

 

Next few suggestions is not critical but it improve workflow for good.

 

Outside artboard object visible.

I can't understand why you hide object outside artboard? I'ts Abobe alike. It's not useful.  Space outside artboard designers use like asset place. Here we save our variations and parts for work. It's very cosy. Inside art board we assemble composition, outside it's holy place that you was just throw away from us. At least make it adjustable to see.

 

Line preview

Typical situation : Place one point, and set place for a second, but wait, why i can't hypothetical line preview between those to points? Is it so hard to make? I want to see what it be during drawing. 

 

Text bounds

Oh, that's heavy. Did you ever tried to edit or adjust text of any size lower than 32? Frame around text overlaps text so nasty and bad i can't even express :) I can't say what the font it's, I can't sometimes even read what i wrote, I can't fast check my text composition. It's bad. Please - remove those damn bounds or make them on demand or toggle.

 

Vector Brushes

Now you have bitmap brushes but they a so unuseful, wofff. Why i simply can't paste part of brush from artboard? You always need to save bitmap, load it, swear, save-load again, and so on. Make it simpler. Just paste it. Freehand have it more than 15 years ago. :) Look there

 

And bugs for a dessert.

 

8 last edited path are always perform with sick purple bound with a center in stroke (just right around fill margin). It's off only if you toggle Pan or Zoom tool.

 

Thank's for being patient to my nagging :) But I love you'r app, and I want to make it better. Hope one day you kill Adobe :)

Any one who agreed with my positions - thumbs up! :)

[MEB]

Hello Hummanoid,

Thank you for your feedback. Some comments about your notes:

 

- Color chooser:

The Colour panel has some more display options that may suit you better. Click on the top right menu and select Wheel or Boxes as an alternative way to display colours. You can also drag the Colour panel out of the Studio (dragging it from its tab) and increase its width. The Layer panel serves more purposes than simply change layer's positions. It's a way to organise complex projects, manage adjustements, layer effects, layer clipping, layer masking etc. For some of those operations you need to strictly position layers/sublayers in a specific way. It also lets you manage locked objects without unlocking them.

 

- Color eyedropper

This was already requested several times. Check Color picker improvements in the Common Feature Requests index thread. We are considering rethinking/improving it later.

 

- Knife Tool

This is already planned. Check Affinity Designer's roadmap for more info.

 

- Smart Add boolean

If the object's nodes are overlapping you should get a perfect rectangle. Snapping the bounding boxes may not be enough in certain cases. The Affinity Designer Customer Beta also improved boolean operations precision considerably. You may want to install it. Just remember to keep the Mac App Store version installed since its needed to run the Beta.

 

- Close points welding

See my reply above.

 

- Outside artboard object visible.

The pasteboard area will be available soon in a future update.

 

- Line preview

No comments

 

- Text bounds

Yes, some users also noted this. For now the only thing i can suggest is to go to Affinity Designer ▸ Preferences, Tools section and change the Tool Handle Size to Smallest. It's not a perfect solution but it may help reduce the size of the controls.

 

- Vector Brushes

The vector brushes implementation just covers the basic for now. They will be improved later. The bitmap brushes are currently much more developed and are quite powerful. One of the advantages of Designer is the ability to mix both vector and raster data to offer new creative possibilities. Some illustrators are already taking advantage of them and producing quite interesting work.

 

-Bugs dessert

Go to View ▸ Snapping Manager... and uncheck Show Snapping Candidates.

 

Thanks for your words and Welcome to Affinity Forums  :)

Let me know if you still have trouble with something else.

[MEB]

In version 1.5 there's a new Colour Picker Tool on the left toolbar. Have you tried it? It should change the active colour immediately as you want.

[Hummanoid]

In version 1.5 there's a new Colour Picker Tool on the left toolbar. Have you tried it? It should change the active colour immediately as you want.

Yes i did, but it's still not so usable. It's working only with flat fills, but not working with gradient nodes, but it is a very common operation. How it suppose to be (IMHO) - When i choose the node on gradient I press and hold ALT, and pointer toggle to Eyedropper, then i choose a colour from donor, and it applies to this very knob (not to whole gradient), and don't  switch my gradient to flat fill. Release ALT and eyedropper toggles back.