How do I warp text in Affinity Designer?

[TonyO]

Oh don’t get me started on Corel’s awful decision to go windows only, I’ve been livid about this for over a decade! Hahaha.

Affinity is a worthy replacement, and the developers are rocking it with the whole suite so far. Give them time, they’re probably reinventing the warp tool and it will be miles ahead of any thing Corel and adobe could possibly offer!

[Kiarian]

On ‎10‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 11:59 PM, Ballyshannon said:

Exactly. Corel Draw was able to warp text from the start MANY, MANY years ago. Basically Affinity is a good program but it's disappointing that any vector program in 2018 is incapable of warping text since it's such an important tool for any designer.

What Ballyshannon said...

[umanoid]

I've been an owner and user of Infinity design since it's the first Beta. I love the idea of the program, how it's fast and modern code but over the years I found really using it was difficult since I've been an adobe illustrator user for 25 years. You get used to certain tools and shortcuts, placement of tools etc. Every year I start to play with it and stop out of frustration. This year I'm putting in more time using it for some illustrations which have forced me to learn it's depths. I'm also now starting to see it's many shortcomings. I've tried a few things like starting in illustrator and then finishing and refining in Affinity, it gives me the best of both worlds but it's a pain AND I'm still using an older version of illustrator (5). I'd rather just use Affinity.  I was a huge Adobe supporter for years, doing Beta testing as well as lecturing for them at events. I felt betrayed when they went to a subscription model, It was a cheap cash grab and basically, they said FU to all of their core user base and longtime supporters. Their code has been sloppy and bloated for years and its patched together by chewing gum and string. So many features were never implemented the way they should have been, and even with their promise of addressing these things easily with CC it's still bloated and dodgey.

       Now that I've said this how does this relate to warping text?  You guys have had this feature on the roadmap for four years and still don 't have it. Your roadmap features are all seriously important to have and still no movement on implementation. Instead, you spend many of your resources making iPad versions of your programs. I love that you're developing your own version of InDesign (which I'm also beta testing) BUT YOU ARE NEGLECTING your core programs and promised implementations. This is really a shame because it's taking a page out of Adobes awful practices and if I wanted Adobe nonsense I would just stick with their programs instead of trying to migrate and learn yours. I understand as a company you have to earn money.I know you charge a modest amount and give updates for free but you also need to make sure your products are competitive and it feels like they're gathering dust.

[MEB]

Hi umanoid,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Thank you for your feedback and support. We are indeed taking taking a little more to release v1.7 of Designer and Photo. Part of this is related to the work being done in Publisher. We need to ensure that all apps of the suite are running on the same improved code/trunk (1.7) and that there will be no issues when exchanging files between them or between platforms (you can open any affinity file in any app of the suite/platform no matter where it was originally created). The roadmaps list thefeatures planned for all 1.x cycle of the apps so some of them are still being developed/will come in future updates. The public Betas of Designer and Photo 1.7 should be out in a couple weeks. As far as I'm aware there's no news regarding warping/distortion tools but there will be improvements in other areas. Please bear with us. As soon as Publisher is be out things should get a bit more balanced regarding new features across all the range.

 

[Mithferion]

On 12/12/2016 at 6:15 AM, MEB said:

Hi ThinkArgent.com,

Welcome to Affinity Forums.

This is already on Designer's roadmap (which covers all new features until version 2.0) so it will come with one of the next updates. I'm referring to mesh warp distortions not to something similar to Warp Effects in Illustrator just to be clear. There's no eta for any specific feature (it depends on the development goes) so i can't add much more details at this point.

So, MEB, when we look at the feature on the Roadmap for Designer, the Developers mean something like this:

But not something like this:

Is that right?

Best regards!

[MEB]

Hi Mithferion,
I believe it will be similar to the mesh warp you already find in Affinity Photo but vector based - I mean, it will change the geometry of the original objects based on the mesh grid displacements you make - but I may be wrong here. I don't know much about it at this point to be of much help, sorry.

[✨ƸЯΔƧƸᖇ✨]

This ignoring attitude, and that never progressing roadmap... All we know where it went to right?  R.I.P in advance!

[TonyO]

The Netflix video posted above is a proper envelope distort, which i think most of us are asking for.

Im not sure what the binary example is, but i like it! I'm sure an affinity designed tool could do both.

[Mithferion]

Thanks for your answer, MEB. 

Best regards!

P. S.: Yep, the example with the Netflix logo is what most of us expect, I believe.

[B13]

On 11/5/2018 at 1:39 PM, TonyO said:

The Netflix video posted above is a proper envelope distort, which i think most of us are asking for.

Im not sure what the binary example is, but i like it! I'm sure an affinity designed tool could do both.

I'll raise my hand in support of this statement. Having a non-destructive and quick way to slant, arch, etc a text element is important to many designers. Logos, flyers, ads. I recently bought an online graphic editor for quickie designs, on a chromebook, and that editor has this text ability. I'm still such a huge fan of Affinity but the inability to fully commit stops me from learning all the ins and outs of this program.

[TLeyva]

I 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th the comments above. I have an OLD copy of Illustrator that I've had for many many years that can do this. It truly is mind boggling that a central feature like this has been put on the backburner! And, I find it odd that Photo has warp tools for pixels, but Designer's pixel persona does not have those same features. Since the 2 programs can open a common file type, it just doesn't make sense to me.

 Today I am using Photoshop again for the 700,000th time, just because the tools I desperately need are there. Man, I hope that Affinity does not become vapor-ware! I really like the software so far. ugh

[Jpetrillo]

Is this possible in Affinity Designer?

Thanks

[dutchshader]

Not jet

[Jpetrillo]

Okay, hopefully they add it soon.

However, seeing that this thread was created in 2015, I doubt anything will change

[Dazmondo77]

NEEEEEEEEED

[Mike W077]

Stunning that this is left out. Corel Draw had this since the 90s. 

[TonyO]

10 minutes ago, whitewolf7070 said:

Stunning that this is left out. Corel Draw had this since the 90s. 

Corel also did it best! It’s a pain in illustrator, but Corel? Just grab the envelope tool and have at it.

Surprisingly, Corel just launched on the Mac after a 20 year hiatus. New Mac version feels good, just how I remember it... but that was years ago and the rendering and path editing is showing it’s age. If Corel was on Mac before Affinity, I’d probably still be a customer, but now that it’s late and has adopted adobe’s absurd subscription model (or you can buy it for literally 10x the cost of affinity one time !!!) it’s too little, too expensive, too late. 

[Joel_Cory]

I'd like to chime in as well. Over the 20 years I've been a designer I've used CorelDraw, Freehand, Illustrator, and recently switched to trying out Affinity Designer. I was actually a little shocked when I discovered that AD didn't have this rudimentary vector manipulation tool... As I stated, all these tools had this capability and this was 20 years ago.

I never even checked the specs before I purchased... because what vector illustration tool product would ever ship without it? It was inconceivable.

Please make a concerted effort to build this capability into your application, it's a crippling omission.

Basic logo work is severely hampered, and has forced me to go back to Illustrator CS2 (released in April, 2005 - 14 years ago...) to continue my design work that I had purchased AD to do.

[Kiarian]

10 minutes ago, Joel_Cory said:

I'd like to chime in as well. Over the 20 years I've been a designer I've used CorelDraw, Freehand, Illustrator, and recently switched to trying out Affinity Designer. I was actually a little shocked when I discovered that AD didn't have this rudimentary vector manipulation tool... As I stated, all these tools had this capability and this was 20 years ago.

I never even checked the specs before I purchased... because what vector illustration tool product would ever ship without it? It was inconceivable.

Please make a concerted effort to build this capability into your application, it's a crippling omission.

Basic logo work is severely hampered, and has forced me to go back to Illustrator CS2 (released in April, 2005 - 14 years ago...) to continue my design work that I had purchased AD to do.

- What he said. Again, please Affinity, can you include an extensive vector text manipulation tool? It's too far gone now to want a basic one. I can only hope you're working on a full bells and whistles one with the kitchen sink thrown in for good measure as I speak.

[Joel_Cory]

I just looked at Inkscape again... They have a warp capability, and text on path.... And it's free.

 

[firstdefence]

Not sure what's going off here but Corel for Mac has Sensual brush strokes  all they need now is some Barry White voiceover tips  a glass of wine and you're set for a very nice evening of arty love.

[Mike W077]

I used to use CorelDRAW for everything, but switched to Mac in 2012. DRAW had several key features that AD does not have: text warp, text wrap, numbered paragraphs, bulleted paragraphs, etc. Apparently AD does not even intend to have these features in the future. Wants people to buy Publisher so they deliberately cripple AD. Doesn't seem wise. I would buy Publisher anyway for layout work (though not until they have the feature to span columns in paragraph styles), but using Publisher to design most ads is like using a wrench to pound nails. You can do it, but its awkward, frustrating, and time-consuming. 

I design many ads and elements each month for a publication and these features are very useful. I know that everybody wants "their" features, but these seem pretty basic. I have been working around them in AD, but now that CorelDRAW has come to Mac, I may move back. People here make a big deal about not liking the subscription model (I'm not a fan either, but I have one), but the cost is not a super big issue for most designers, productivity is.  

Hope Affinity gets a clue before they start to lose momentum. 

[Alfred]

17 minutes ago, whitewolf7070 said:

I used to use CorelDRAW for everything, but switched to Mac in 2012. DRAW had several key features that AD does not have: text warp, text wrap, numbered paragraphs, bulleted paragraphs, etc. Apparently AD does not even intend to have these features in the future.

Bullets and numbering are definitely going to be added, but apparently not linked text frames. I’ll be surprised and disappointed if text warp isn’t included in the vector mesh warp feature which has been promised for an AD 1.x update.

[Mithferion]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

Bullets and numbering are definitely going to be added, but apparently not linked text frames. I’ll be surprised and disappointed if text warp isn’t included in the vector mesh warp feature which has been promised for an AD 1.x update.

That’s why I asked MEB about the functionality, but there is nothing sure for now.

What I believe is that for it to be successful, it’d need to be a mix of all of the Illustrator functions, for text (Arc, Flag, etc.) and free transform, with perspective included.

Best regards!

[Jowday]

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