Laying out text is a nightmare, and I’ll detail exactly why

[dantaylr]

After attempting to lay out some body text without reaching for my Mac I became furious with the process in Designer. This has been the case through my last 4 or 5 months with this tool. Here are a few thoughts on how it could be improved. 

• When tapping into a text box, the interface attempts to keep the cursor in view at all times in the most jarring manner. When the on screen keyboard is up, this results in unintended jumps that make it confusing to pan and scroll the art board while editing. I would prefer that the interface either doesn’t move at all when editing the contents of a text box, or opens a content editor that takes you out of the layout completely while editing.
• The OS-default editing cursor doesn’t exist. This means if I want to go back, select a word, edit a word, or select a whole paragraph I need to use a confusing combination of hip-shooting exactly where I want the cursor to go with my giant fingers and selecting text without being able to control the beginning and end of the selection. Adapting to the OS-default would be great.
• Controls for resizing the text box and panning are still available when editing text. From a UX perspective, I would appreciate text editing being a completely isolated process especially on a device that invites fingery clumsiness. Tap the box to edit, all you can do is edit. Tap a done button, you’re back to the layout. 

(I’m experiencing way more ease writing this post in your little WSYWIG editor on my iPad than in Affinity D)

Affinity is a great tool for comping up design ideas right on the iPad and I love it for that. But I DREAD when I have to put some text in there. Please consider these comments!
 

Love Dan 

 

[dantaylr]

Adding two details that would make a huge improvement to address.

When using the space bar cursor to navigate, it is impossible to move the cursor before the first letter of any line. This is possible when editing text anywhere else on iOS. 

Double-tapping the space bar does not type a period.

[BarKeegan]

I hear you, I actually used to use Illustrator a lot for design and typography etc., so not too much to expect other vector design programmes to be able to handle a range of work

[dantaylr]

3 hours ago, BarKeegan said:

I hear you, I actually used to use Illustrator a lot for design and typography etc., so not too much to expect other vector design programmes to be able to handle a range of work

It is something illustrator does pretty well. Most recently I downloaded Amadine. Despite having a more limited typography feature set than Affinity, it isn’t frustrating to work with. This would be a fantastic app to take cues from IMO. 

[BarKeegan]

Is it available on iOS?

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, dantaylr said:

Most recently I downloaded Amadine. Despite having a more limited typography feature set than Affinity, it isn’t frustrating to work with.

 

1 hour ago, BarKeegan said:

Is it available on iOS?

I’ve just found it here: https://apps.apple.com/app/amadine-vector-drawing-art/id1339199390

It’s compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, requiring iOS/iPadOS 13.0 or later.