Brush size incorrect

[Merlina]

I keep trying to change the brush size and it pops up in the middle of the screen but it’s way way bigger than it’s actually painting so I can’t tell what size I need to make it. This is with Photo V2.

[DM1]

25 minutes ago, Merlina said:

I keep trying to change the brush size and it pops up in the middle of the screen but it’s way way bigger than it’s actually painting so I can’t tell what size I need to make it. This is with Photo V2.

Hi Merlina, the size of the circle will be dependant on the amount you have zoomed in on your image. When you adjust the brush width slider the circle size will change and will reflect the size of the brush at that zoom level. Eg a 16 pixel width brush at pixel view will be 16px high and 16 px wide dot and will look large but zoom out to 100% and the brush dot will look very small.

[Merlina]

I haven’t changed the zoom level after changing the slider. I changed the slider and it was showing really big and making a tiny dot. This is not how the brush worked in Affinity Photo 1. I went back to try to make sure I understood what you meant and now it is working correctly so maybe it’s a glitch. The size of the brush it shows should be the size of the mark it puts down at that zoom level but it just was not showing the size it was painting at.

[carl123]

11 minutes ago, Merlina said:

 it was showing really big and making a tiny dot

Changing the dynamics of a brush, such as size jitter to 100% and set to pressure, could cause the above to occur.

[Merlina]

Couldn’t take a screen shot and hold the slider still so what you see drawn is actually bigger than the size it’s showing (like 205.8) with the brush tip but you can see I drag the slider to get the brush that big and it’s still drawing tiny lines with the pencil. It’s not so bad when I’m drawing on a blank canvas, because you can see the “paint” as it comes out, but I mostly use this for photo editing and it’s making it really hard to get the brush size when I’m painting layers back or cloning etc. It doesn’t seem to do it all the time but it does most of the time. I’m not sure if it’s the zoom thing you are talking about because I don’t understand what you mean, but it’s not the way it worked in the first app. I should be able to drag the slider and see what size it’s going to come out of the brush at the zoom level I’m currently at.

[MEB]

Hi @Merlina,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Please turn off Force Pressure in the context toolbar (the icon that looks like a target). Does it now work as you intend?

[Merlina]

3 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @Merlina,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Please turn off Force Pressure in the context toolbar (the icon that looks like a target).

I assume for “off” I want the button black rather than gray like in the photo? When I changed it everything comes out the same pressure (but at the correct size). I think maybe the size of the brush it’s showing is with the absolute pressure? Because I messed around with it more without a photo background and if I press hard it goes that big. I want the opacity to change with pressure (which it was) not the size. I’m not sure what setting that is under.

[MEB]

In your screenshot right above my previous answer the button is On (depressed). With it On the size of the brush is dictated by the pressure you apply through the Apple Pencil. With it Off the brush size is dictated by the Width slider.

[Merlina]

3 minutes ago, MEB said:

In your screenshot right above my previous answer the button is On (depressed). With it On the size of the brush is dictated by the pressure you apply through the Apple Pencil. With it Off the brush size is dictated by the Width slider.

Thanks, I understand that now, and the size is correct with it off, but is there not an option to have the pressure apply only to the opacity? Or maybe i need to change the pressure setting so it’s not so far off? I get maybe you would want the size to change a little bitter with more pressure but I would have to be pressing really really hard to get the full size. I know there are pressure settings but not sure how it works and how I should change it.

[MEB]

Hi @Merlina,
In the context toolbar on top, tap the icon right after the Selection command - the one with a small number, to edit the brush properties. The attributes you are looking for to play with is the Flow and Accumulation mostly in the Dynamics tab: set the Flow and Accumulation to 100% to start then click the button right below them (that usually says None) and set it to Pressure, adjust/play the curves as you see fit (as I did in the video below). I also made a couple adjusts in the General tab to fix the spacing issue I got with the first stroke I tried. Check the video below, it should give you an idea of where/how to start.