(ADez) What does a blue vertical line to the right of a group of curves layer, indicate in the layers palette?

[Affinity Rat]

Title says it succinctly.

Thanks

[walt.farrell]

Perhaps too succinctly. Please provide a screenshot.

[Affinity Rat]

[walt.farrell]

Thanks.

Note that it is not "to the right of a group of curve layer" but "to the right of a Layer" (with a capital L).

A Layer has a "highlight" property which defaults to that shade of Blue. It can be set on the desktop versions of the Affinity applications, but I do not see a way to set it on the iPad versions. So, for example, I could make a Layer with a pink highlight on the desktop apps. Such as the one attached below.

The highlight color can be used to distinguish various Layers in the Layers panel/studio. But it also will affect the color of bounding boxes for objects in the document, too. So, a Rectangle on a Layer with the default highlight property is blue, but a Rectangle on a Layer with a pink highlight will show as Pink when selected. (You can add objects to the document below to see this; I didn't bother adding any.)

 

 

 

layer-properties-pink.afdesign

[Affinity Rat]

Ok, thanks for that, the significance of the colour is merely a flag to differentiate user determined groups of some import.

[Affinity Rat]

I imported a file from the internet that used these flags or markers, and couldnt figure out how they got there or what they meant. 🙂

 

 

[Affinity Rat]

Hmmmm layer with capital L vs layer?
 

The fact that the what I called a “group” has a little drop-down triangle next to it, I thot that meant a nested layers or group of sub-objects.

Not correct, could you please elaborate on my incorrect terminology. 😀

I didnt name these layers this was an imported file.

 

 

 

[walt.farrell]

Every object in Affinity is a layer (small l).

You can group layers into Groups. A Group is also a layer (small l). Groups can contain other objects.

A Layer (capital L) is a different kind of object that can hold other objects. It is also a layer (small l).

As we're talking about Designer, an Artboard is another kind of layer that can hold other objects.

[Affinity Rat]

A bit confusing a “Capital L” Layer is a container, that is also a small “l” layer. 

Since all objects are “layers” a Capital L Layer is a shell layer may contain many sub-layers.

Is there a list of layers?

• adjustments
• filters
• masks
• channels / selections
• Vectors or curves
• images
• pixels layer
• Symbols
• fills
• Text
• Group
• brushes
• artboard

What is an example of a big L Layer?

Is a group merely an empty shell layer until something put into it? I guess what I am asking can a group have properties itself that affect the appearance of contained objects, thinking about it of course, yes it has transparency, gamma etc are group properties.

 

 

 

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

What is an example of a big L Layer?

You have one in your document.

4 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

Is a group merely an empty shell layer until something put into it?

No. Groups have some similar characteristics and capabilities to Layers but are different than Layers. Groups also have some characteristics/capabilities that Layers don't have. And Layers have some that Groups don't have.

8 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

Is there a list of layers?

There's a discussion that mentions a bunch of them:

There's also a list in the Help, but it's a bit incomplete (or unclear), as it doesn't clearly distinguish some of the layer types that use the same icon.
https://affinity.help/publisher2/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Layers/aboutLayers.html?title=About layers

[Affinity Rat]

Quote

You have one in your document.

Yes I saw this, but this file was from an internet svg file, I didnt appreciate how it was created or the app that created it just used the name Layer as a default name for a layer. ie I didnt know if there was any significance attached to name.

How do you create a “Layer” in A Dez?

Just read the thread the Mystery of Layers, interesting, I suspect that many of these layers are built on layers of specific instances of metadata, that builds variant layers from common sub-levels.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

51 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

How do you create a “Layer” in A Dez?

There's an icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, or in the Menu, Layer > New Layer.

[Affinity Rat]

I think the confusion here is the result of sloppy non-technical terminology. So a capital L Layer is referring to a pixel layer

I am still curious about what is a pixel layer, that has expandable sub levels below it. Are these levels child layers?

Once a pixel layer has sublayers, the parent pixel layer (as I call it) (by default looses its independence as a editable layer and now seems to behave like a mask. 
Attempting to use blue brush on top pixel layer results not in blue brush stroke but rather red from underlying layer.

Below, the original pixel layer was an unbroken rectangle with cross in the middle in light blue.

New pixel layer added consisting of only a “red window” see icon on layers palette.

Now back to original pixel layer, a darker blue diamond drawn on overlays everything.

All blend modes set to normal.

What is going on here?

Note that this is A Pho not ADez

 

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, Affinity Rat said:

So a capital L Layer is referring to a pixel layer

No,. It is a vector layer. This is a feature of Designer or Publisher, not of Photo.

6 hours ago, Affinity Rat said:

I am still curious about what is a pixel layer, that has expandable sub levels below it. Are these levels child layers?

They may be Mask layers, or clipped layers. In your screenshot, they are clipped. https://affinity.help/designer2ipad/en-US.lproj/pages/ObjectControl/layerClip.html

 

[Affinity Rat]

Thanks Walt, no both of these layers were created by adding a pixel layer then dragging and dropping the 2nd pixel layer on top of the original layer.

Does that create a clipped or mask layer of the original “parent” layer? Certainly seems that way.

[walt.farrell]

12 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

Does that create a clipped or mask layer of the original “parent” layer?

Yes, but which is created will depend on where you drop it. There are tutorials for clipping vs masking that will explain it.

[Affinity Rat]

Thanks Walt