Designer Text Frame border and fill

[vikingtone]

I have seen many references to:   Menu>View>Studio>Text Frame,  I would like to have a border around a text frame, and a fill. It would be good if the 'padding' was customisable.  I don't see 'Text Frame' in the Studio fly-out.  I have looked, I believe, very thoroughly, and see nowhere where I can add a border to a text frame. This is really important to me.  There are many time when annotating a map when I'd like a semi-transparent fill behind text so it stands out better against a noisy map background. A border would help as well.  But I simply can't find how. Thanks

[walt.farrell]

The Text Frame panel is a function in Publisher. Perhaps you're in Designer or Photo, which doesn't have it?

In those applications, you can create a Rectangle to get your stroke, and use its fill to set a background. Put it behind your Text Frame and group the Rectangle and Text Frame together.

[vikingtone]

Thank you for the answer. I said 'Designer' in my Q title.   I have been using the rectangle kludge all along  -  I just couldn't believe it wouldn't be available within text box parameters.  If it's in Publisher.......surely it can be put in Designer. The rectangle kludge is messy, the rectangles don't resize or reposition with the text box, and all in all it's really frustrating.  It seems odd, it's possible to do pixel stuff in Designer, and vector stuff in Photo   -   surely a suite which has such strong interaction credentials can do this?  Thanks again.

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, vikingtone said:

I said 'Designer' in my Q title

Sorry; missed that.

 

17 minutes ago, vikingtone said:

If it's in Publisher.......surely it can be put in Designer.

It could be, yes, if Serif wants to do that. On the other hand, there are many text functions that are only in Publisher, and one could say the same for all of them. They may be targeting features to encourage use of the different applications for different purposes.

20 minutes ago, vikingtone said:

The rectangle kludge is messy, the rectangles don't resize or reposition with the text box,

Grouping handles that, doesn't it?

21 minutes ago, vikingtone said:

It seems odd, it's possible to do pixel stuff in Designer, and vector stuff in Photo   -   surely a suite which has such strong interaction credentials can do this?

Or, you could use Publisher, which via StudioLink can do vector and pixel functions, as well as its more advanced text functions, if you own all three applications.

It's fine to ask for functions to be added to different applications, but where does it stop, and where do you end up with one monolithic application?

[tmd]

Here's a potential tip/workaround:
If you want to use Designer for the main file and also have Publisher, create and style the text and text frame in Publisher then paste into Designer. You won't be able to edit the stroke/fill of the text frame but can edit and re-style the text, as well as resize the frame (ie anything that you would otherwise be able to edit in Designer). If you convert to curves then, yes, you can edit the stroke/fill but will have separate elements and non-editable text.

I've not tested this beyond the ability to do it, so if it's is dangerous practice (eg for print production) please post and I'll remove/amend.

I can see many reasons for editable text frame attributes being useful within Designer - yes there are workarounds (like grouping) but imagine creating a map with each map label a separate group of two elements... let alone any other styling or control you might want to add to differing instances. However, I also see that there is no bullet-proof logic for how you split up features for vector, raster and text manipulation applications that works for all use cases while keeping application complexity and interface workable.

On 1/20/2022 at 2:31 AM, walt.farrell said:

It's fine to ask for functions to be added to different applications, but where does it stop, and where do you end up with one monolithic application?

Maybe one monolithic application IS the answer... but that sounds FAR too much like Adobe for my liking! 😉

[vikingtone]

Hi. Thank you very much for taking time to contribute to this discussion.  I agree there are workarounds, but I don't feel any are very practical. There has been feedback  -  some suggesting that what I was asking for is adding complexity etc to Designer. I don't accept this argument at all.

The notion that adding this extremely useful functionality is 'too much' yet there's an entire pixel-editing suite within a vector graphics package makes no sense whatsoever.

Publisher is not, primarily, a graphics package, Designer is meant to be. I believe that if the functionality is in Publisher - where it is less appropriate, and not in Designer, where it is more appropriate, it's a fail.

But as I say - thanks for your input.

 

[R C-R]

8 hours ago, vikingtone said:

The notion that adding this extremely useful functionality is 'too much' yet there's an entire pixel-editing suite within a vector graphics package makes no sense whatsoever.

Affinity Designer contains far less than a complete pixel-editing suite. Just compare it to Affinity Photo or to the Photo Persona of Affinity Publisher.

Besides, it isn't really about if it is "too much" to add any particular function to AD. It is about Serif's marketing strategy to distribute the functions among the 3 Affinity apps so to get the (more or less) complete package, users need to buy all 3 of them.

[SloMoPhoto]

On 2/2/2022 at 4:03 AM, vikingtone said:

Hi. Thank you very much for taking time to contribute to this discussion.  I agree there are workarounds, but I don't feel any are very practical. There has been feedback  -  some suggesting that what I was asking for is adding complexity etc to Designer. I don't accept this argument at all.

The notion that adding this extremely useful functionality is 'too much' yet there's an entire pixel-editing suite within a vector graphics package makes no sense whatsoever.

Publisher is not, primarily, a graphics package, Designer is meant to be. I believe that if the functionality is in Publisher - where it is less appropriate, and not in Designer, where it is more appropriate, it's a fail.

But as I say - thanks for your input.

 

I feel vikingtone did a great job of containing his frustration with this topic...I am 110% in agreement with his assessment.  This is extremely frustrating and ridiculous that we cannot simply create a line around a text box.  I want to do this all the time with floor plans that I open in Designer...not Publisher.  There are NO valid arguments as to why Serif doesn't add this to Designer.  I've already bought all 3 products...no low ball tactic to get me to buy their other products is needed because I already own it. It's great we can open DWG's in Designer, & I love the Affinity suite of products, until I have to bang my head against the wall with silly things like this... (see attaching ruler measurements to a drawing!)