Why is there no Artboard option in affinity Photo like in affinity Designer?

[ReyVersalles]

Guys, in my work I really need to create artboards for my sketches, but Affinity Photo V2 doesn't have the option to create more artboards. Please add the option

[Komatös]

@ReyVersalles

You can create artboards with Affinity Designer and save them as templates. These templates can be opened wonderfully with Affinity Photo.
 

[ReyVersalles]

@Komatös Thanks you for advice but I still think it complicates the job more.

Please fix that, Affinity dev team

[Alfred]

59 minutes ago, ReyVersalles said:

Please fix that, Affinity dev team

There is nothing to fix. Having a single canvas is standard for photo editing software, so being able to use artboards in Affinity Photo is merely a useful side effect of the Affinity apps’ shared file format.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, ReyVersalles said:

Please fix that, Affinity dev team

I think it is unlikely that Serif will add support to Photo for creating Artboards directly.

Photo is oriented toward working on single images. Designer is more oriented to the work you're trying to do, I think, and has Artboards to facilitate that kind of work.

[Pšenda]

19 hours ago, ReyVersalles said:

in my work I really need to create artboards for my sketches

Then the ADesigner application, which offers Artboards support, is far more suitable for you.
It doesn't make much sense for Serif to carry specific features and functions from one application to another, because then those individual applications would be meaningless.

[Alfred]

30 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

the ADesigner application, which offers Artboards support, is far more suitable for you

If you’re sketching instead of doing photo manipulation, Designer should be more than adequate. In addition to artboards, it offers a Pixel persona where raster brushes can be used.

[ReyVersalles]

@Alfred @Pšenda @walt.farrell 

Thanks guys, I had this problem with affinity photo because I come from using Adobe programs. In Photoshop you can do almost everything so I figured that if AF Photo is the direct competition it should do the same. Thanks for clarifying the purpose of Serif programs compared to Adobe ones.

 

[debraspicher]

1 hour ago, ReyVersalles said:

@Alfred @Pšenda @walt.farrell 

Thanks guys, I had this problem with affinity photo because I come from using Adobe programs. In Photoshop you can do almost everything so I figured that if AF Photo is the direct competition it should do the same. Thanks for clarifying the purpose of Serif programs compared to Adobe ones.

 

I understand why you would come to that conclusion. I don't think it's "unreasonable" to expect artboards in Photo, tbqh. I think, or at least I suspect, that Designer is meant to be the "illustrator-y" (no pun intended, jeebus) app out of the Affinity suite. There's some things that can be done in Photo that can't be done in Designer as far as manipulation (better for photo composites...), but in Designer, most brush engine-related tasks are available in Pixel Persona. I haven't run into serious shortcomings using it for this purpose.

The other consideration, is the mixture of vector/raster elements. Painting over/texturing vectors and fills. Creating a more "digital" look to illustrations. I think this is where Affinity stands out against the competition. So while I agree with you, it may have made sense to include functionality to make Photo more comparable to Photoshop... it could be that in this case they may not actually think it is beneficial for the suite to be so directly comparable, as that would make it harder for them to stand out amongst all the competition available trying to achieve very different techniques/workflow options to the Adobe suite.

A thought: What is your specific usecase for artboards exactly? Is it to make final production/output easier? Storyboarding? Laying out different options? Perhaps just use Designer for setting up comps (a file with an array of artboard options) and then utilize Place > [Linked] as a way to keep the editing phase separate, but updated live in that document. You would have to have both open utilizing more system resources, but my machine anyway can handle this just fine.

You can also utilize the Assets panel to save several artboard options there and then just resize within Photo. They're hard to see, you will have to show it as list... it's a workaround, but not really? You can adjust them after adding. (Make sure you pixel align them against the document grid)

Sorry for the long post. I had hoped to keep it concise.

TLDR: I can see where artboard workflow could be beneficial in Photo, but other than Pattern Layers, what is available in Designer seems to be suitable for the same tasks. Now if we start mixing in photos as artistic elements... maybe?... it gets more complicated to reproduce the same workflow just within Designer. It really depends.

[ReyVersalles]

@debraspicherCould you show me how to make the artboard in Designer and save it as assets to use in AF Photo?

[debraspicher]

35 minutes ago, ReyVersalles said:

@debraspicherCould you show me how to make the artboard in Designer and save it as assets to use in AF Photo?

Sure. ❤️

You will need to have the Assets panel open, a category, etc setup for where you will place it.

Option 1: For it to be accessible in Photo, just make sure that the category is set to linked. When it is linked, you will see a "chain link" next to the name: . If it's not there, click the Asset panel hamburger menu , and click "Link Category".

There is also an option in Preferences to have all categories linked by default. In that case, the option will be greyed out in the hamburger menu:

Option 2: You can simply export the Artboards as an asset file and import it into Photo. It is in Asset Panel  > "Export Assets". That might be the easier for you.

1. Create a document with an empty Artboard (or create it after document creation) in Designer. You can choose to rename the Artboard before you add it to the panel.
2. Select the empty Artboard and in the Assets panel beside your desired Subcategory, click it's hamburger menu and select "Add from Selection".
3. You can export your new Artboard assets to a file or you can take advantage of Linked Categories. Either should be fine. You need to import them into Photo obviously if you chose export using hamburger menu. I'm not sure if Linked Categories requires closing Designer to refresh. I just closed Designer and then opened Photo to save time.

Video steps: