Brush panel improvements

[GRAFKOM]

It just occurred to me, could the Managing Director sometime look at his Affinity programs in addition to the iPad Pro from the perspective of a Windows Surface Pro tablet?

[Frozen Death Knight]

After trying the new Brushes panel some more, there is one new feature that kind of bothers me. Switching tools now automatically shows the selected brush on the list, even other brush categories, which is fine most of the time. Other times however when I am using shortcuts and wish to select a specific brush that I already have visible (i.e. Smudge Tool, Blur Tool, etc.), I switch to a completely different list because that is the one that was selected for that tool.

Personally I would like it if there was an option to turn off the auto-find brush selection feature so it works like how it used to, at least when it comes to switching between categories. To me I find it disorienting switching to new categories automatically for certain projects, so being able to choose functionality would be much appreciated.

[gw_westdale]

Sounds as if you are asking for a 'recent / favs/  used in document' brush list as one has with fonts?

 

[Frozen Death Knight]

1 hour ago, gw_westdale said:

Sounds as if you are asking for a 'recent / favs/  used in document' brush list as one has with fonts?

 

Not really. We already have a recent brushes feature in the Layers panel. The two things I desire from brush management most of all is subcategories for brushes and an R click menu accessible from all brush tools. This however is related to jumping from brush to brush, regardless of where they are placed, and I want the option to disable it or parts of it.

[Ash]

11 hours ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Personally I would like it if there was an option to turn off the auto-find brush selection feature

Yeah we'll see what's involved with having an "Auto scroll" checkable option in the burger menu of brush panel (like layers panel) so you can turn that new behaviour off if you would prefer.

[gw_westdale]

20 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Not really. We already have a recent brushes feature in the Layers panel.

Thanks .....    just looked again hadn't noticed the way to use this feature of layers  as I mostly use Designer/Publisher.... 🙃

[RNKLN]

Hi,

My actual desire is to be able to mark a brush as a (sort of) favourite in an easy way. For instance, by being able to add a flag or other marker. I believe this is not possible.

Looking for a workaround (I really like the new option to show brush names), I decided to make use of the possibility to rename a brush and use a special character as a prefix for a brush. I found out that it seems like you can do that, however, the actual special character doesn't show up in the new brush name. See below (the 2nd screenshot is taken after I renamed the brush).

 

By the way, the pop up when you hover over the brush does show the special character, I just found out.

[gw_westdale]

23 minutes ago, RNKLN said:

My actual desire is to be able to mark a brush as a (sort of) favourite in an easy way

Sort of where I was headed with my 'brushes used in document' suggestion about 5 ago and I've been thinking more about it   - I realise I was more concerned with revisiting older documents - eg  a reissue of last year's charity concert with a new singer/date - when you find that the document cannot find the one brush (or font) from a list that was closed  - so 'brushes used in document' actually becomes a sort of favourites and packaging that travels with the document.   Apologies for straying off the beaten  (beta?) track  .... I know this is more something for 2.2 /3  🙂

[debraspicher]

I just thought of this, but maybe an easier/straightforward fix for developers to everyone's "favorites" request would be to just make Brush categories un-dockable... so that they can be pulled out... like individualized art trays... if time allows, maybe allow those trays to dock together (in tabs), but I don't think it's necessary right away.

 

Other: Maybe eventually also add ability to give a thumbnail/icon to Brush categories (very small formfactor) so that content creator's collections can stand out a bit better in the brush panel/palette area. Also not necessary or critical, but just a thought to give the content creator's to tag their tools. It's also possible to set "default" brush icons so that we can tag based on types... (pens, pencils, etc). Similar to other art programs I guess... but again, not critical.

[RNKLN]

2 hours ago, debraspicher said:

Other: Maybe eventually also add ability to give a thumbnail/icon to Brush categories (very small formfactor) so that content creator's collections can stand out a bit better in the brush panel/palette area. Also not necessary or critical, but just a thought to give the content creator's to tag their tools. It's also possible to set "default" brush icons so that we can tag based on types... (pens, pencils, etc). Similar to other art programs I guess... but again, not critical.

Exactly this.

[paolo.limoncelli]

I second @debraspicher...  the un-dockable categories and their custom Icons should be somewhere in these forums too... 😀

 

 

 

 

[paolo.limoncelli]

On 2/14/2023 at 1:11 PM, Ash said:

The new behaviour is as follows:

1. When you first select a brush it should be highlighted blue
2. If you change any temporary settings for the brush (e.g. width, hardness, etc.) the brush will remain highlighted but highlight colour changed to red
 

Hi @Ash as mentioned before I cannot reproduce this behaviour on my macOS Monterey 12.6.3.

No blue, no red, no dots... 

-------UPDATE-------

Finally something "changed"  but I needed to use the brush for a brief time.

Also, when UI is Mono this highlight is monochromatic too...

 

 

 

 

 

Also... Why not placing an "Update Brush" here too?

 

[Ash]

@EmT Can you replicate this issue Paolo is having - I don't get it (and in mono UI have coloured highlights too).

34 minutes ago, paolo.limoncelli said:

Also... Why not placing an "Update Brush" here too?

Yes that makes sense

[aji]

  

On 2022/11/11 at AM2点17分, aji said:

绘画：画笔不透明度/累积错误仍在 Affinity Photo V2 中

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/126116-painting-brush-opacityaccumulation-buggy-in-beta/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/主题/156222-affinityphoto185-brush-vs-110-brush/#comment-882383

 

[paolo.limoncelli]

Yes @aji... Accumulation seems to be broken since earliest 2.0 releases... During 2.0 Beta the issues was solved.

I was about to open a new discussion.

[whitehead]

So... if brushes are finally getting some love (bearing in mind this topic first surfaced, to my knowledge, back in 2016...

 ...can this mean the absence of comprehensive brush cursor management will finally be addressed too? Posts date back to at least 2017 on this, and still the number one reason i do not habitually fire up Affinity.

Peter

[Ash]

Just to make sure you were aware we did add caps lock to toggle between brush outline and crosshair in V2. So the cursor options currently are outline only, crosshair only (caps lock on) or outline and crosshair (always show crosshair turned on in preferences). Plus of course being able to turn brush preview on or off. 

I thought that option at least covered the main subject being requested in that thread. What are the other main options you would like?



 

[whitehead]

Thank you Ash - I was not aware of the V2 caps lock toggle and this is a game changer for me; as a result, I've just spent the last four hours noodling happily with Paolo's DAUB brush sets and rediscovering what a subtle brush engine Affinity has. We can basically tick this one as solved... superb!

Wants I think would be subtle enhancements: nobody I am sure wants to copycat other platforms, but CSP obviously has a pretty mature context cursor system (i.e. eraser cursor for the eraser, the option to toggle the fill cursor to crosshair and so on) but these are possibly overkill. Obviously the likes of Rebelle, Artrage and the rest have their own solutions.

I'll pop a note in the existing brush options thread toward this solution.

Peter

[gw_westdale]

On 3/4/2023 at 5:57 PM, gw_westdale said:

I was trying to bypass it by adding transparent space at the right of the PNG and then trimming that in the brush editor.
I can also use this to space the images of an repeat image brush.
It occurred to me that it would be convenient (for the user, if not the developer!) to create space by allowing the tail in the editor to be outside the image area.

Just realised I can do it  (Designer 1714)  by typing a value in the tail,.  

However ....   that leaves a line between the instances of the brush rather than a transparent space 

[Ash]

On 3/6/2023 at 10:52 PM, Frozen Death Knight said:

Personally I would like it if there was an option to turn off the auto-find brush selection feature so it works like how it used to, at least when it comes to switching between categories.

In the latest update we have added options in the burger menu so you can choose if you want to auto scroll and/or auto switch category when changing tool. 

[Frozen Death Knight]

28 minutes ago, Ash said:

In the latest update we have added options in the burger menu so you can choose if you want to auto scroll and/or auto switch category when changing tool. 

Fantastic! Works great. Thanks a bunch!

[Hangman]

@Ash, I may be missing the logic of how Auto-scroll and Auto-switch category are designed to work but my assumption would be that selecting the relevant previously used brush from the respective layer in the layer panel would initiate both but thus far I'm seeing neither Auto-scroll nor Auto-switch category, how is this designed to work...

Edit: I see it's working for @Frozen Death Knight so I'm obviously missing the logic here...

[Ash]

Ah - as I think has come up before on this thread, there is no link maintained between a recent brush as shown in the layers panel, and the original brush itself so the behaviour you are expecting there just won't happen I'm afraid.

What the auto scroll option is all about is if your last brush in paint brush tool is in a different category to your last brush in eraser tool, then the new 2.1 means when you change between those tools the correct brush is highlighted in the panel, even switching categories if necessary. This addition in 1730 is purely to be able to turn that off should you wish.

[Hangman]

Ah, with you now and yes, all working as advertised, thanks for clarifying...

[Bryan Rieger]

Is there any possibility we might see the ability to bulk set the associated tool (or remove it all together via preferences)? Currently I have hundreds of 3rd party brushes all set to 'Paint Brush' just because that's the way they came, and I can't use them as other brushes (erase, replace, etc) without having to go into each one and change the setting manually. This is one of the main reasons I continue to use Procreate for Illustration as any brush can be used to paint, smudge, or erase.