Transparent Image, Artboards

[davepete]

I recently bought your 3 main apps for my Mac (to replace Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign). So far they seem good value.

However, here is some feedback after trying a new project in Designer.

1) I'm not a graphics pro, and it's been a while since I did anything in Illustrator or Photoshop...still, when I tried to make a transparent gif (png also possible apparently), it was not at all intuitive. I couldn't find an answer by googling or youtubing and had to resort to asking in this forum. Someone quickly explained I had to first Rasterize the image before I could save it as a transparent gif. As I recall, the way to achieve this was much more obvious in Photoshop. I guess there may be a reason you do it this way, but it was frustrating.
2) Granted, I'm a beginning with Designer, but...I was trying to figure out how to make the background into a checkerboard (which is convenient when working with transparent images). I STILL haven't figured out where the command is for that. If it's in Preferences, it's not obvious where. I did eventually figure out how to at least change the color of an Artboard, so I could see the white image I was working on. Speaking of Artboards, it was very confusing to figure out the work area that shows in a new document is NOT an artboard (see attached). I spent quite a while trying to figure out how to select the default work area, when I finally figured out it is not an artboard.
Many basic things like this will undoubtedly become automatic if I continue to work with your apps. But as a 25-year Apple support tech, it seems these things could be made to work more intuitively.
IMHO,
DP

New document work area (below), looks just like an Artboard (below that).

Edited January 25, 2023 by davepete

[lepr]

Enable Transparent Background in the Colour tab of Document Setup to get a checkered background. (Also, an Artboard needs to have no opaque fill or the checkerboard will still be hidden.)

 

 

[Pšenda]

18 hours ago, davepete said:

Speaking of Artboards, it was very confusing to figure out the work area that shows in a new document is NOT an artboard (see attached). I spent quite a while trying to figure out how to select the default work area, when I finally figured out it is not an artboard.

 

P.S. For orientation in layers and their types, it is advisable to have the Layers Panel displayed. Viewing the Layers Stack is essential for organizing the document and the objects/layers/groups placed on it.