What are the lines that sometimes appear on my image?

[Janabanana]

Hello all and I'm so sorry if this has been covered in the forum already. It's just that my search term was so vague - 'blue lines' - that I got about 1000 posts in reply!

Anyway, I'm a real amateur, just do simple background blurs that sort of thing. I've noticed that every now and a line will appear - usually a green vertical one and a red horizontal one - they're obviously measurements of some kind but I don't know how to use them. I don't know what they're for.

I also get a outline in blue around the image I've selected (see picture of majestic yet dopey-looking dog) and I can't figure out what that's for either. Would really appreciate some help - would be great if you could link me to some very basic tutorials that cover these questions. 

Thanks very much

[GarryP]

The blue rectangle looks like the document margin. There’s a menu item to switch that off in the View menu.

The red/green lines are part of the snapping system; you need to change your snapping settings to get rid of these.

The red/green arrows are also part of the snapping system; they can be switched off but I can’t remember which setting. Maybe just knowing that they are for snapping will help you to find it.

Edited February 2, 2023 by GarryP
Added clarification.

[v_kyr]

I think it's always better to point people also the the relevant online help documentation for reference purposes, so they can read and know about it ...

Design aids

• ...
• Ruler and column guides
• Margins
• Rulers
• Dynamic guides
• Rotate canvas
• Snapping
• Curve snapping
• Construction snapping for curves
• Force Pixel Alignment
• Grids

[GarryP]

I generally prefer to make the key words fairly obvious – in bold italics – and let the other person figure it out from there. (Why do some of these words look different? And what is that telling me?)

That way they can hopefully find the information in their own way and maybe learn other things while they do it – “Teach a man to fish versus give a man a fish.”

Each to their own of course; neither way is right or wrong, just different.

[Alfred]

34 minutes ago, GarryP said:

“Teach a man to fish versus give a man a fish.”

“If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he will bore you to death with endless fishing stories and photos of himself on Instagram holding fish.”

[Janabanana]

Thank you all very much for your replies - they're all very helpful and give me a really good starting point. Much appreciated guys 

[GarryP]

You're welcome.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

That way they can hopefully find the information in their own way and maybe learn other things while they do it – “Teach a man to fish versus give a man a fish.”

Most Affinity newbies/rookies don't have a clue about what certain keywords do mean, or where to look after them at all. Thus pointing them to the only explicite documetation (aka the pseudo manual) where those keywords are named and explained is IMO useful together with naming them.

Thus I tend to give people the whole teching rules to fish, aka what fishes are available, what sort of fish they are and where to find more infos about certain fishes! - Since otherwise their next Q will be, where I can find that ... etc.

[GarryP]

People don’t need to understand what the key words mean, they only need to understand that they are things that have been highlighted in the text and are therefore probably important to this particular situation and thus may need further research.

For instance, if someone tells me “You need to change the QuatQuat settings”, I may never have heard of “QuatQuat” before but I should be able to guess that “QuatQuat”, because it was highlighted, is an important thing and is probably something I should be looking up in either the Help, or in the forums, or on the web in general.

If someone can’t understand that they are being given clues, or if they understand that they have been given some clues but can’t follow them for themselves, then that will give us some idea of how much further help they will need.

As I said above, you have your way and I have mine; yours won’t be best in all situations and neither will mine.
Just two different ways to do it and neither is worse or better than the other.
You can keep helping people your way, and I can keep trying to help people in my way, and I don’t see a problem with that.

[v_kyr]

10 minutes ago, GarryP said:

People don’t need to understand what the key words mean, they only need to understand that they are things that have been highlighted in the text and are therefore probably important to this particular situation and thus may need further research.

As said before, pointing them also to the specific research information is often more useful here!

[GarryP]

I think we have now arrived at the point in the discussion where things are simply being re-iterated and, because of that, I can’t be bothered to carry on with it any further.

[v_kyr]

1 minute ago, GarryP said:

I think we have now arrived at the point in the discussion where things are simply being re-iterated and, because of that, I can’t be bothered to carry on with it any further.

Right, or as we tend to say in german "Jedem das Seine und mir das Meine..." (aka "To each his own and to me mine ...")!

[Ade H]

Sorry for butting in to your debate, but as someone who asks questions, I think that just copy-pasting a link to documentation is nowhere near as helpful as a properly considered and insightful answer can be. It also seems a bit lazy and may not directly address the query. Speaking only for myself, I will already have checked the docs and very likely found them wanting. If I ask something here, I'm looking for a knowledgeable person's insight, as that's surely the USP of a forum. Those are the answers which I most appreciate.

[Granddaddy]

I agree with @Ade H.

I was a librarian for nearly 40 years at two large state universities. I always told the students, and the faculty as well, that when you need information the last place to go is the library. Start by asking someone who knows about your topic. You can go to the library later to fill in the holes and document what you've learned from someone who knows and understands the issues.

To be sure, you may ask a lot of people who actually don't know very much or who don't understand the question. But eventually you will encounter a truly helpful person who really understands your question and knows the most useful answer.

You do have to be willing to broadcast your ignorance. Most often it is a very satisfying experience.

[v_kyr]

3 hours ago, Ade H said:

Sorry for butting in to your debate, but as someone who asks questions, I think that just copy-pasting a link to documentation is nowhere near as helpful as a properly considered and insightful answer can be. It also seems a bit lazy and may not directly address the query. Speaking only for myself

Gary had already answered your Q and I added just the corresponding LINKS in this case, so why should I textual repeat what he already told you? - If nobody had answered your Q, I would have wrote one or two explanaition sentences instead too, together with those LINKS!

[v_kyr]

13 minutes ago, Granddaddy said:

I was a librarian for nearly 40 years at two large state universities. I always told the students, and the faculty as well, that when you need information the last place to go is the library. Start by asking someone who knows about your topic. You can go to the library later to fill in the holes and document what you've learned from someone who knows and understands the issues.

The student (the OP in this case) already got an inital and correct answer, I added just the library references to that! Which BTW Gary could have done too, but he uses slightly different teaching processes than I.

If people generally don't want any such help, I can leave them entirely on their own in future, I have absolute no problem with that!

[Ade H]

1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

Gary had already answered your Q and I added just the corresponding LINKS in this case, so why should I textual repeat what he already told you? - If nobody had answered your Q, I would have wrote one or two explanaition sentences instead too, together with those LINKS!

Possibly a slight issue with reading comprehension there (it was not my question), or just being too quick to fly off the handle? I was merely giving my perspective, in the context of your argument with the other respondent, about why linking to help files is not actually very helpful. There is absolutely no need to be snippy about it.

[v_kyr]

8 minutes ago, Ade H said:

Possibly a slight issue with reading comprehension there (it was not my question), or just being too quick to fly off the handle?

I got that. - Though in my longer time experiences here in the forum, it's always also helpful for people (and the forum volunteers here) to also point people to the corresponding online help parts. Since those often explain in much more, or better detail, all the relevant options and their meanings and sometimes also show additional screenshots of the settings panels etc. which people can then look after in their app installment. Beside being available in several languages. - Further, most new users are even not aware of where to look after or to find certain informations about the apps (be it in forum sections here, help files, tutorials or the like). Thus pointing them into that direction should be helpful for them on long term too, so they know next time where to look after certain related things.

Beside all that and honestly without meaning to be snippy here, I doubt that you ever looked before into the help files for seeing if there is maybe some explanations of what those lines might be or (?). - I was going to help you by additionally pointing you to the relevant parts where to find more concrete informations and explanations about your question. - So if you don't need them (the links) then it's fine, just ignore my answer and the links!

[Ade H]

You're still having issues with reading comprehension... Check and compare my username with the username of the person who originated this thread.

3 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

I doubt that you ever looked before into the help files for seeing if there is maybe some explanations of what those lines might be or (?). - I was going to help you by additionally pointing you to the relevant parts where to find more concrete informations and explanations about your question. - So if you don't need them (the links) then it's fine, just ignore my answer and the links!

 

[v_kyr]

2 minutes ago, Ade H said:

You're still having issues with reading comprehension...

Yes you're not the OP and just gave your two cents in this thread to the online help links. But since I explicitely quoted from your postings, it might be clear that my later answers were more addressed to you here.

[debraspicher]

11 hours ago, GarryP said:

The blue rectangle looks like the document margin. There’s a menu item to switch that off in the View menu.

The red/green lines are part of the snapping system; you need to change your snapping settings to get rid of these.

The red/green arrows are also part of the snapping system; they can be switched off but I can’t remember which setting. Maybe just knowing that they are for snapping will help you to find it.

You know, I never "notice" these colors. I saw the very blue line ("ack, It's blue! I like blue but not that blue) today when opening a preset so was a bit amused upon seeing this topic. No idea if that is the color it's always been. It's just there and I've become accustomed to it.

[Granddaddy]

11 hours ago, v_kyr said:

I think it's always better to point people also the the relevant online help documentation for reference purposes, so they can read and know about it ...

1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

Though in my longer time experiences here in the forum, it's always also helpful for people (and the forum volunteers here) to also point people to the corresponding online help parts.

I also agree with @v_kyr.

Who could possibly disagree with the usefulness of reading the documentation?

In fact, when v_kyr's post appeared I made note of the links he provided and resolved to read them in the next couple of days.

I sadly admit that during my five years of using APhoto I have hardly ever read any of the Help files. That is my error. I've managed to get along by watching tutorials and stumbling around in my own editing. I enjoy figuring things out for myself by experimenting, but that can lead to lack of understanding and inefficient ways of doing things. Just because I can manipulate something doesn't mean I understand it or could explain it clearly to others.

So I do very much appreciate both verbal explanations and also links to official documentation and to tutorials both by Affinity and by the several people who have provided hundreds, even thousands, of excellent tutorials.

[v_kyr]

41 minutes ago, Granddaddy said:

Who could possibly disagree with the usefulness of reading the documentation?

No I'm always used to RTFM, since in my job the software (DBs, IDEs, prog language related Frameworks, Build & Opt Dev tools etc.) I commonly have to use is pretty huge & complex, as are some related things too. And as all that also tends to change quickly (...newer or other framework versions, updated tools ... etc.), and since you can't always remember everything over time here (due to the whole complexity of all that stuff), I always have to read over manuals, docs and search the net etc. on a daily base here. I also keep links, snippets etc. to all informations, so I can reread all those things on demand when needed (or when I've long time didn't dealt with something and have forgotten how to use it).

Thus it's (documentation) something which is pretty important to me, also as it is to know how to search and retrieve the needed informations on the net. - In other words, in the IT domain the train is very fast moving and if you can't reach it you will loose (especially in my job)...

The same applies here, though to some lesser degree (since not almost as complex), to the Affinity apps. They offer a bunch of hidden functionality and things which might be important to know initially and also commonly under certain working conditions. Thus I often, beside referencing to other threads which already might deal with a specific Q theme, also reference to the online help (which is the only freely documentation so far, beside forum threads, tutorials and some outdated workbooks). Since that at least describes most app related things and settings.

Finally the more you know, or at least here then know how to get the now and yet urgently needed information, the better for you and your overall workflow.

[thomaso]

11 hours ago, Ade H said:

It also seems a bit lazy

It seems.

I always wonder how fast and detailed @v_kyr does research related results AND turns them into links placed in a forums post – without simply pasting the URLs but reducing them to keywords. This is quite different from just pointing to the help or RTFM.

v_kyr's work can be even more verbose than a search within the help, which lacks relevant keywords, even proprietary Affinity terms or features. Try to find in the help search the feature "Lock Children" or the lock icon in the Colour Panel.

[v_kyr]

I'am often lazy, since I do all that just shortly beside my usual much much more important work here (so sort of multitasking, though not always successful as can be seen in this thread). Further I'm also getting especially lazy, if I see some Q's here in the forum which have been already answered hundred times before here, then I just point to and reference the threads. 😉