Cant change vector stroke colour Affinity Photo

[Affinity Rat]

I was working on a relatively small file, a simple vector line I made I couldnt change the color or line thickness. Other lines in different layers were ok.
 

Copied the layer then created new layer from the clipboard, couldnt change color here either, opened it in Designer could change colour there either.

• Ipad Pro 14.7.1
• Version 1.10.3
• Build 267

After trying unsuccessfully several times I change the color to transparent and it worked after that I could change the colour. 
Upon going back to my original file the thickness and colour had changed, now working too.

The file here was another copy I made and dont think can change colour or thickness at least last time I opened it.

Shutting down and restarting Ipad had no apparent effect.

Untitled.afphoto

[walt.farrell]

Just to clarify: You've posted this as a Designer bug on iPad. Did you intend to post it as a Photo bug, instead? If so, a Moderator can move it for you.

3 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

opened it in Designer could change colour there either.

Did you mean could not change colour there either? I think so from the context, but it would be good to know

[Affinity Rat]

Oops, correct,  couldnt change the colour in Designer or Photo, but initially created in Photo. Meant to post in Photo bugs.

[walt.farrell]

Thanks for the clarification.

[Affinity Rat]

Went back to editing original file, created about 10 lines ok, now another cant change colour or width.

tooth.afphoto

[Affinity Rat]

Went back to editing original file, created about 10 lines ok, now another cant change colour or width.

Moving the HSL sliders changes recent colours but not the line colour.

Again changing to transparent fixes the immediate problem.

 

 

[NotMyFault]

It seems a vector brush has been assigned as stroke in Designer, this leads to issues as Photo on iPad lacks the UI to correct the situation.

To rectify the situation: create a style from an existing tooth. Then assign this style to the misbehaving object. Immediately solves the stroke issue.

Styles panel can be found as submenu from Layer FX panel.

 

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

It seems a vector brush has been assigned as stroke in Designer, this leads to issues as Photo on iPad lacks the UI to correct the situation.

While I agree that that is one reason this could happen, if I open the latest file in Photo on Desktop, and look at the stroke, it shows that it is not a textured brush, but a standard line:

So, if @Affinity Rat has actually uploaded one of the broken files, I'm not sure why he would have problems. It looks like that file should work OK in Photo on iPad. (I have not actually tried that document there, however. I'm just pointing out that from the desktop version I'm not sure your explanation fits, this time. Or something else I don't understand is going on.)

[Affinity Rat]

I downloaded the file I uploaded, still cant change line colour or width.

[Affinity Rat]

Doh! It appears the opacity is set to zero! but when set to zero the color slider shows white not a thin blue line. So zero opacity with a colour selected is different than the thin blue line, from the recents.

Dont know how opacity of line got set to zero.

Discovered this on desktop version.

[NotMyFault]

28 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

While I agree that that is one reason this could happen, if I open the latest file in Photo on Desktop, and look at the stroke, it shows that it is not a textured brush, but a standard line:

So, if @Affinity Rat has actually uploaded one of the broken files, I'm not sure why he would have problems. It looks like that file should work OK in Photo on iPad. (I have not actually tried that document there, however. I'm just pointing out that from the desktop version I'm not sure your explanation fits, this time. Or something else I don't understand is going on.)

Photo on iPad is missing some UI elements (vs. Desktop) so it is sometimes impossible to correct on iPad.

never the less, applying a style solved the issue on iPad.

Actually i don’t know what caused the issue, but non basic brushes show a tendency to break some functions. Only a guess.

[NotMyFault]

2 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

Doh! It appears the opacity is set to zero! but when set to zero the color slider shows white not a thin blue line.

The thin blue line is only the shape of curve itself, not the color of the curve. Only shown if selected. Otherwise you would be unable to handle fully transparent curves (fill and stroke).

[Affinity Rat]

I understand that, but I thought the thin blue line equated to transparency of zero, but was just an indicator of where the curve would be if it were visible.

 

[NotMyFault]

20 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

While I agree that that is one reason this could happen, if I open the latest file in Photo on Desktop, and look at the stroke, it shows that it is not a textured brush, but a standard line:

This is no reliable indication. Once you assigned a vector brush, it stays even if you switch back to standard line (on iPad). We all know that Affinity apps don’t easily disclose which brush was used / is active.

Don’t know if this by design or a bug on its own.

[Dan C]

I can't see any bug here - the file has a 'Solid Line Style' applied and not a 'Textured Line Style', as Walt previously pointed out.

Increasing the opacity of the stroke above 0% resolves the OPs reported issue.

As you've mentioned, Photo doesn't have the same Stroke controls than Designer, but this is By Design and not a bug with the app. Perhaps it could be considered an improvement request, however

[NotMyFault]

If you have a pressure profile active, switching to solid gets indicated but not executed.

I would rate this mismatch as bug.

 

after switching to solid line:

When open such a file in Photo, you won’t see the pressure profile and are left stuck.

 

Clicking on a basic brush does not change the brush. 
 

stroke issue.afdesign

[Affinity Rat]

For me the issue is, why when the opacity is 0, is the colour white….it is not white! Attempts to change colour fail, they dont fail but colour still displayed as white! Increasing opacity show the true colour which was NOT white.

[Affinity Rat]

It should turn to a thin blue line when opacity set to 0, or transparent cross hatch pattern.

 

[Dan C]

10 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

If you have a pressure profile active, switching to solid gets indicated but not executed.

How was this stroke created? Using both the Pen Tool and the Vector Brush Tool on my iPad here I can create a textured stroke, then when selecting the Solid Line Style, the stroke returns to a default 'round stroke' as expected (same behaviour as desktop) -

15 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

When open such a file in Photo, you won’t see the pressure profile and are left stuck.

This is already logged with our developers

10 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

For me the issue is, why when the opacity is 0, is the colour white….it is not white!

The 'colour wells' within the Affinity app will always display a 0% opacity fill/stroke as white, this is expected behaviour and not a bug.

[Affinity Rat]

Maybe always displayed that way but makes absolutely no sense and leads to confusion.

Rationalize that for me please, its makes no sense!

It appears like something the designers definitely would agree is wrong, but are unaware or dont feel this warants fixing.

[Dan C]

A colour with 0% opacity has no saturation or hue value, so is displayed as white, that's simply the decision our developers made.

Perhaps a 'red line' across the white colour well could indicate this, however this symbol is usually reserved for 'no fill' - although 'no fill' and a '0% opacity fill' are essentially the same, as they produce the same results.

25 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

It should turn to a thin blue line when opacity set to 0, or transparent cross hatch pattern.

I'll be sure to raise this as an improvement suggestion with our devs!

[Affinity Rat]

Thank you

[Affinity Rat]

Quote

A colour with 0% opacity has no saturation or hue value,

In Affinity Photo this is not true, select any colour, and decrease opacity, the saturation and hue dont change, they still have value and nor do they revert to white at zero opacity.

Anyway, this irrelevant, just attempting make valid suggestion to make AP better for all.

 

[NotMyFault]

46 minutes ago, Dan C said:

How was this stroke created? Using both the Pen Tool and the Vector Brush Tool on my iPad here I can create a textured stroke, then when selecting the Solid Line Style, the stroke returns to a default 'round stroke' as expected (same behaviour as desktop) -

I created the line first with a basic round brush, and experimented with solid / dotted lines for a different issue.

As I had this file open, I switched to a vector brush, played with pressure profile and dotted stroke patterns and finally found the issue described earlier.

File with history attached 

 

PS:

Just tested on iMac. Same issue. Once you have assigned any vector brush AND a pressure profile, switching to solid / dotted is not executed unless you reset the pressure profile, or assign a basic brush, or use a style.

Stroke brush solid issue v2 w hist.afdesign

Edited March 7, 2022 by NotMyFault

[Dan C]

10 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

select any colour, and decrease opacity, the saturation and hue dont change

The values within the Colour Studio shouldn't change, as you haven't selected a different colour.
The colour values in the Colour Studio will only change if you are adjusting the colour of the fill, when setting the opacity to 0%, these physical values don't change, but the object itself on the canvas now has no hue or saturation values, so the colour well displays the fill as 'White' to indicate this