How do I warp text in Affinity Designer?

[TLeyva]

I think that it's less "kids acting like spoiled brats" and more like the parents knowing that their kids are capable of so much, yet disappointed when they refuse to grow up and be great.

[Kiarian]

You need to calm down TonyO. This is a forum. We have free speech. Get over it.
No insults from myself or anyone else here apart from yourself. 

[BIOSMonkey]

1 hour ago, TonyO said:

I have kids, and when they act like spoiled brats, I purposely don't give them what they want.

If you people think this software is so awful because of one missing feature in VERSION 1.X, then please just go back to using Adobe and stop being such a jerk in these forums. You won't get what you want by slinging insults.

I also have kids, and when they need something that will help better themselves, I get it for them.   It's not spoiling them - it's enabling them to succeed.

Justifying this missing feature because it has a 1 in front of the version number ignores the fact (again) that this was requested 5 years ago ... at least. 

While some of the comments may have gone a little sideways, I really believe the takeaway here is that Serif is seriously missing some important features that will ultimately cost them customers.  I would like to see these tools continue and improve ... but there are just some things that designers need.... and those that do feel ignored.

And let's be clear - it's not "text warping".  It's envelope distortion (or mesh distortion or mesh warp... it's not just text) - but AI is SO far advanced in this area especially the "make with warp" functions with different warping styles like arc, bulge,  flag etc.  plus the H and V distortion sliders.   I mean that dialog is sooo incredibly useful for logo design.   In addition you also have the mesh warp with custom row and column counts for anchor points.... ugh ... Serif really has some catching up to do.

So as for your advice to go back to Adobe?  Done.   At least for now.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Jowday said:

Back to the point. The product is going nowhere.

Actually, it is -- just not as quickly as everyone, myself included, would like.

One of the reasons for that is they are trying to maintain as much as possible seamless integration among three different apps across three different operation systems, including older OS versions that Adobe quit supporting years ago; and to do it all while maintaining an inexpensive non-subscription purchase model.

That is a very ambitious goal for any software developer, much less one many times smaller than the giants like Adobe.

[Geoff777]

I was using Aldus Freehand way back when......

According to this, warp / envelope was introduced in 2000 (notice they call it ADOBE freehand but it was Aldus that introduced it):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_FreeHand

However, I was using it well before then and am sure it was available much earlier.

But, then again, I am going senile. 😂

[Pariah73]

It's tiresome to hear the same folks whining and putting Serif down continuously but still showing up here.  Is it too much to be able to empathize with a company that is putting out a version 1x product after a few years, with a few dozen people making this happen? They aren't obligated to make x feature just for you or me, despite the fact that envelope distortion would make my life a zillion times better and make me an Affinity whore for life.. If you wish to support them with your money, do so. If not, Adobe, Corel, etc exist too.  We try to be a bit more professional here because many of us ARE professional (designers, painters, etc) and tired of the constant bombardment of hate from the rest of the 'net.  If you hate Serif that much, by all means, go pay 600 bucks a year and you will get every single feature you want (lol) custom made just for you by thousands of Adobe employees over the 20 years they've been pumping out these products.  You could always apply for a job and help get Serif on 'the right track'

In the meantime, useful solutions and tips for people to work around the issue would be a better use of time than waxing existential about how Serif is committing grave wrongs against your person.

Inkscape still does pretty much everything AI can do, albeit with an unpleasant UI to deal with.  Photopea is another one that is great for envelope warping.  Anyone else have useful suggestions for products that can help with this until the day some of us have been patiently awaiting?

 

[Jowday]

It would all make sense without this kind of marketing and the hype started by... Serif:

And yet boolean operators and expand stroke are not stable or deliver professional output after five years (and the company has 20 years of experience with vectors so lets count experience in!!!) and the toolbar offers no help for vector work.

All this from the ULTIMATE graphic design and illustration app (false), a pro-end workhorse (false), with all the tools you need (false), with five years of refinement (not of basic tools like booleans ops). No boundaries crosses, no revolution. 

If people come here and point out that they feel something is missing after reading this loud, inflated city market marketing - I understand why. Let people discuss freely in a forum. 

Regards someone who just returned from hard but satisfying day of results and few workarounds in... Adobe Creative Cloud. To a hobby project waiting for quite a few critical bugfixes in Designer to be released before I dare moving forward and saving.

[Mike W077]

Jowday: Perhaps you can help me with something. In Adobe Illustrator, there are two issues that keep me from using the program:

1) It does not seem (easily) possible to align a stroke on live text to the outside, only to the middle or inside, both of which intrude on the text itself. I do a lot of ad designs with busy backgrounds and need this feature (Designer has it and Corel Draw has it). Plus, I just don't like the look of text with strokes in it. 

2) When marquee selecting in Illustrator, it seems that every element the selection box TOUCHES is selected.To me, this is nigh on unusable. In Designer and Draw, only the elements entirely enclosed are selected — which is much preferable being quicker and easier with little de-selecting.  I use a lot of elements from one illustration as templates when starting another, so this a key thing for me. 

These functions seem so basic, yet I have not found any answers for them anywhere on the web. Am I just missing something obvious in Adobe Illustrator? Thanks for any help.

[Mike W077]

Pariah73: Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Serif and Affinity. I use their products daily to produce work. I even bought products (Publisher, iPad Designer and Photo) that I can't/don't use just to support the company and its wonderful efforts. Here's the concern: When we bring up these basic features that are missing, there is no feedback or response. Will they be added at some point or not? Is the company hearing daily users? Do they realize that while we can work around or live with missing features for a while, it would be nice to know that someone is listening and perhaps if and when they might be coming. Just that would make all the difference. In any relationship, communication is the key 🙂. BTW, the snarky comments from Affinity preview version testers — I am not referring to you — who seem to regard themselves as our betters, don't help and just turn people off. Just FYI. 

[TonyO]

@whitewolf7070 you hit the nail on the head. I can think of one missing feature in affinity thats causing me a headache (this one, haha)... but we could all probably play the “what is missing in adobe after 20 years” game all day. 
 

InDesign is missing an HSL color pallet, the most fundamental of color pickers. Double click a color and what pops up is a joke, and it’s not even funny... 

You can’t copy paste vector objects into photoshop and edit them without that stupid cop-out smart objects feature. Smart objects are an excuse for incompatibility, they are not smart, they are an excuse. 

ILLUSTRATOR DOESNT HAVE A NODE TOOL. Let me repeat. ILLUSTRATOR. DOESNT. HAVE. A. NODE. TOOL. You want to compare fundamental missing features in a vector design app. 

Seriously, everyone comparing affinity to adobe, show me something even close to the seamless inter-app compatibility that serif provides with a shared file format and StudioLink.  

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Geoff777 said:

I was using Aldus Freehand way back when......

According to this, warp / envelope was introduced in 2000 (notice they call it ADOBE freehand but it was Aldus that introduced it):

Quite true, but that was done using an entirely different code base than the Affinity one, nobody ever updated it to run natively on Intel Macs, or tried to integrate it seamlessly with 2 other apps across three platforms, so it is something of an apples to oranges comparison.

After all, it is not as if Serif could just bolt on old code & be done with it.

[MikeW]

1 hour ago, whitewolf7070 said:

... 1) It does not seem (easily) possible to align a stroke on live text to the outside, only to the middle or inside, both of which intrude on the text itself. I do a lot of ad designs with busy backgrounds and need this feature (Designer has it and Corel Draw has it). Plus, I just don't like the look of text with strokes in it. ...

Open the Appearance panel in Illy.

1) In the flyout (upper right arrow) or at the bottom, Add New Stroke,
2) Set the Stroke Weight to twice the desired value,
3) In the main window drag the Stroke down below Characters.

This will set the stroke(s) behind the letter shape(s) so you only see the outside half of it. The below has a 10pt outline but has 5 pt outline that can be seen.

[lacerto]

(..)

[Geoff777]

19 hours ago, R C-R said:

Quite true, but that was done using an entirely different code base than the Affinity one, nobody ever updated it to run natively on Intel Macs, or tried to integrate it seamlessly with 2 other apps across three platforms, so it is something of an apples to oranges comparison.

After all, it is not as if Serif could just bolt on old code & be done with it.

Great, I'm not going senile..... yet. 😁

[InfoCentral]

On 3/3/2020 at 7:54 AM, Pariah73 said:

Inkscape still does pretty much everything AI can do, albeit with an unpleasant UI to deal with.  Photopea is another one that is great for envelope warping.  Anyone else have useful suggestions for products that can help with this until the day some of us have been patiently awaiting?

I use Xara when I need features missing in Designer.

[MarkusB]

Hard to believe this feature has been missing forever now, assuming that it would be a basic operation for a vector based program.

[TLeyva]

I just downloaded and installed the latest version of Designer. Still no Warp tool....THE SHOCK!!!

Still can't believe that this has been ignored for years.

[madame fleur]

Basic vector warping is still missing? Oh damn. I mean, Photo can warp just fine, but I want to keep working within the same program and also preserve geometry. I really hope this feature appears sometime soon! It's been 5 years since this thread's been open. And it's still open, so I still have some hope.

Edited September 4, 2020 by PhlixFer
finishing sentence

[v_kyr]

2 hours ago, PhlixFer said:

so I still have some hope

Hope dies last!

[Hewal]

Hello,
does anyone know if this feature will be available in the upcoming version 1.9?

[Jowday]

6 hours ago, Hewal said:

Hello,
does anyone know if this feature will be available in the upcoming version 1.9?

It wont.

[Hewal]

this is sad

[jashby3000]

I got all three programmes in the Black Friday sale and all the books to go with them.

I started going into Designer and couldn't find a way to put perspective on text.

'Surely I'm just missing something here. This is an essential' (warping objects that is, not specifically text).
Did a bit of digging and no. It's not possible and has been an issue for years with Designer users.

I'll be using Illustrator until Serif sort this out. A warp too is an essential in vector software.

[Mike W077]

Hey fellow Affinityites, serious question: What is the deal with this missing feature? I use all 3 Affinity products to design our monthly publication, but back in 1990s, we used Corel Draw to design our ads (I had a gap in my publishing career :-)). Draw had this feature back then. Affinity users have been clamoring for this feature for years now (times flies!). I didn't use it a lot back in the day, and I know there are work-arounds using Photo, but the fact that it is missing from Designer seems to diminish the reputation of the software. So, why is it missing? Is it difficult to implement in the code? Is Serif trying to give users a reason to pay for an upgrade to 2.0? (We would upgrade anyway.) It seems the same with the inexplicably missing "Span columns" feature in Publisher. It's a basic feature and the lack of it seems to diminish the reputation of the software vis-a-vis Adobe. Does anyone have any insight, or maybe some inside scoop on this? Any idea when, or if, it will be implemented? Are these features just hard to implement? No snark please. I am sincerely asking. Thanks.

[lepr]

27 minutes ago, whitewolf7070 said:

 Are these features just hard to implement?

No, but new cat shape tools have higher priority at Serif.