Show some love to the Styles feature

[iaing]

I'm talking about object styles here. What did they do to upset you Affinity? If Studio panels were children, social services would have been called long ago.

Just look at Text Styles - When you create one, a whole big dialog opens where you can name your newborn style, tweak its setting, choose who its parent is. Create one from scratch, or based on your selection.

Object styles? Create from selection, and.... nothing happens. Try again... nothing happens. But wait - there it is at the bottom of the styles panel, automatically named with a number. If I right-click I get to name it myself... or delete it. And that's it. No editing, no creating from scratch or nesting.

Come on guys, show it some love!

[Ed B.]

Rephrasing the above:

Text styles are great!

1. Once text has a paragraph or character style, changing the style also updates all text with that style.
2. Text styles are part of the document; I don't have a bunch of different "Heading 1" styles from different documents competing for space in the menu
3. Text styles can be based on other text styles, and don't have to define every attribute: a paragraph style could be "Whatever Body Text is like, but green."

Object styles... are not like that.

1. There does not seem to be a way to update an object style once it's been added to the panel (Screenshot 1)
   1. It's more like a "Paste Format" palette.
2. Object styles seem to be app-wide, not document-scoped
   1. There's a "Default" grouping menu, but I don't see a way to add other groups (Screenshot 2)
3. Object styles cannot inherit from each other

Suggested style-eligible attributes

1. Everything that can be set in the Color/Stoke/Constraints/Quick FX/Transform (etc.?) panels
2. Probably also Text Frame settings
3. (I would not have thought of this, but Paolo's "Picture Frame Styles" post particularly called out position-on-page as a useful attribute)

Screenshots:

1. Can't update object styles
   
2. Can't add new groups?
   

Other Threads

This has also been suggested as "Picture Frame Styles":

[Ally_B]

Definitely need picture and object frame styles. That this isn't currently already available is baffling.

[EricP]

The style feature was done long time ago, and since then we got new features like (the great) style picker that render the style panel even less useful. 

In addition to what was said in previous posts, I would love the option to combine styles when applying them, instead of fully replacing all attributes.

Imagine having styles for backgrounds (patterns, hash lines ....) and styles for borders. You could choose to apply a background style, then apply a stroke style instead of having to create as many styles as combinations. This can be done with the style picker.

But the real strength would be the ability to stack multiple backgrounds with blend modes (like in appearance panel). Apply successively a style for background color, then a png pattern, then a transparent gradient overlay. The style panel could keep a library organised and the style picker an effective way to "paint" style attributes

[Mariusz go]

Hi!,
It seems like a simple solution would be to add 3 simple features in the current interface usability. This working technique would be very helpful in managing object styles in the project.

Best Regards!

[walt.farrell]

23 minutes ago, Mariusz go said:

It seems like a simple solution

It would help the users, and be simple for them to use, but it is not a "simple solution" for Serif to implement, as far as I know. To start, items do not remember a Style that has been applied to them, and "Select Objects of Same Style" cannot be implemented until they do. There may be additional difficulties, but that's a big one for a start.

[Mariusz go]

I understand that objects in the program database do not have a planned record identifying the style?

And this solution? This is a new way to manage composition and build a project.

The solution is also to add a new technique for working with objects. It is required to add a new search field to the "Layers Palette". Search field with the option to automatically narrow the list of layers to search results by phrase. Example of use:
1. I give the layers (objects) my own names.
2. In the "Layers" palette, in the "Lupka" field, enter the phrase you are looking for.
3. Only the Layers corresponding to my phrase remain in the layer list.
4. I can select and edit layers, changing their styles, etc.

 

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, Mariusz go said:

I understand that objects in the program database do not have a planned record identifying the style?

That is correct. They have Fills, and Strokes, but not named Styles.

That's why the suggestion is not simple. It's a good one, just not a simple one to implement.

[Mariusz go]

And this solution?

The solution is also to add a new technique for working with objects. It is required to add a new search field to the "Layers Palette". Search field with the option to automatically narrow the list of layers to search results by phrase. Example of use:
1. I give the layers (objects) my own names.
2. In the "Layers" palette, in the "Loupe" field, enter the phrase you are looking for.
3. Only the Layers corresponding to my phrase remain in the layer list.
4. I can select and edit layers, changing their styles, etc.

[Mariusz go]

22 minutes ago, Mariusz go said:

And this solution?

The solution is also to add a new technique for working with objects. It is required to add a new search field to the "Layers Palette". Search field with the option to automatically narrow the list of layers to search results by phrase. Example of use:
1. I give the layers (objects) my own names.
2. In the "Layers" palette, in the "Loupe" field, enter the phrase you are looking for.
3. Only the Layers corresponding to my phrase remain in the layer list.
4. I can select and edit layers, changing their styles, etc.

The layer list filter field would have to have some overarching restrictions from the program's "logic" list, such as "Limit the search to only this "Artboards", Drop-down list of predefined parameters from the current "Select object" menu. In the future, simple conventional regular expression codes. In my opinion A lot of freedom and simplicity for the designer because it is the designer (User) who creates and manages the "logistics" of the project. Is this functionality too complicated to implement?🤔

[fde101]

They should really take a cue from QuarkXPress on this one.

You can, for example, set up an object style with a horizontal position and width so that applying it to a text frame places that frame in a specific column or within a margin, while at the same time setting its line style and the like...

 

 

[Mariusz go]

I'm not sure if these solutions can be transferred to Aff.  Designer, but certainly QuarkXPRESS is a great model optimization work tool.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, fde101 said:

They should really take a cue from QuarkXPress on this one

FreeHand could do object styles decades ago:

(Yep, that's my FH9 running in SheepShaver on MacBook Air 15" M2 Ventura… )

[Mariusz go]

Proven ideas are always good, but as Walt explained, the program architecture is different and it has value even if it does not allow you to copy solutions from other programs.

The advantage of this situation is the creation and creative interaction between programmers and designers, who can create completely new standards of tool-human interaction. For example, I am fed up with palletology as I described above.

 

 

[Mariusz go]

P.S.

The lack of inherited styles for objects in many projects disqualifies AFF design. due to the time spent working on the creation in the creative process.