Text Container Background Color

[cance440]

Is there a way to edit/create a background color within the text container? Also, I have an issue when I import text from another program, specifically text from a browser, and the text container box isn't transparent, but usually white. How do I remove that and how can I add it when I  want it? Is that possible? Example below.

[Seneca]

5 minutes ago, cance440 said:

Is that possible?

Make sure you have a Text Frame panel open. If not you can open in from Window->Text->Text Frame.

Then you can change the background colour of the text frame or remove it entirely in the General subdivision which is at the tip of the panel.

[cance440]

Not seeing that Text Frame option: 

[thomaso]

12 minutes ago, cance440 said:

Not seeing that Text Frame option: 

That's why it helps to tell the app together with a question.

Try this:
1. Create a new text frame.
2. Click the "Revert Defaults" button in the Toolbar.
3. Create another new text frame.

The second frame should have no background colour. Note, Affinity reminds some last used/set properties and tries to support you by auto-applying them to newly created objects.

In case this is not a frame background then check text background colour in the Character panel. Your very limited screenshot doesn't tell or give hints what object type(s) it shows. This is why the app interface elements are useful in screenshots, e.g. the Layer Panel & the Context Toolbar for most sorts of issues, or the Character & Paragraph Panels for text style issues.

[cance440]

Thank you for your response and accept my apologies for the lack of specifics. 

I am using Affinity Designer 2.0. 

I pasted the text from a rich email into an artistic text frame.

This screen shot should illustrate at least part of my dilemma. The text below is NOT converted to paths. 

If I convert it to paths and then ungroup it, I will get a white box with all the outlined text. 

I have had instances where I wish I could have a text frame with a solid background, but I cannot find a way to do that in Designer. 

Yes, I do know how NOT to do this. I can create a new empty text frame and then type in or paste in copy without formatting, and I will have a transparent background, but it seems to me that if I have a solid background in my text frame, I should be able to edit that background. It'd be a nice feature to have, anyway. 

Does such a feature exist?

 

[Seneca]

1 hour ago, cance440 said:

but it seems to me that if I have a solid background in my text frame, I should be able to edit that background. It'd be a nice feature to have, anyway.

To get rid of the background in a text box just click the Revert Defaults button or Edit->Defaults->Revert.

To apply a colour to the text background one would need to go through Publisher, which is awkward.

I completely agree with you that it should be possible to do it from within the Designer as well.

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, cance440 said:

I pasted the text from a rich email into an artistic text frame.

Strange. (it doesn't happen to me in V1 on mac).

– Do you get the same result if you paste the mail contents into a Frame Text frame?
– What style do you get if you simply paste with NO object selected?
– And what if you copied text from an .rtf document (not the email app)?

3 hours ago, cance440 said:

I should be able to edit that background.

Not really, respectively you should not get a resulting frame fill colour when working in AD only. I wonder what is causing this if it's not a last used style setting in AD. Do I understand right, if you create a new text frame and type some text it does not have the white background?

The missing option is quite likely a conscious decision with the goal to differentiate the 3 apps & reserve 'enough' features for APub which, compared to AD and APh, could be seen as an app to increase workflow efficiency rather than for creation (which can be done in AD / APh).

[R C-R]

10 hours ago, cance440 said:

I have had instances where I wish I could have a text frame with a solid background, but I cannot find a way to do that in Designer. 

In AD the 'traditional' way to do this is to group the text object with a filled, un-stroked rectangle, like this:

Text & background.afdesign

[firstdefence]

15 hours ago, cance440 said:

I have an issue when I import text from another program, specifically text from a browser, and the text container box isn't transparent, but usually white. How do I remove that

Wouldn't it be easier to simply use Copy then Edit > Paste without formatting ?

Where did you get this text from, which website, because I can't find any websites that have text with a white background and I'd like to test a few things out?

[cance440]

5 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Wouldn't it be easier to simply use Copy then Edit > Paste without formatting ?

Where did you get this text from, which website, because I can't find any websites that have text with a white background and I'd like to test a few things out?

I pasted it from an email.

Would it be easier? Well, no, it wouldn't. Simply using command-V is easier than option-shift-command-shift-V. 

 

[cance440]

16 hours ago, thomaso said:

Not really, respectively you should not get a resulting frame fill colour when working in AD only. I wonder what is causing this if it's not a last used style setting in AD. Do I understand right, if you create a new text frame and type some text it does not have the white background?

The missing option is quite likely a conscious decision with the goal to differentiate the 3 apps & reserve 'enough' features for APub which, compared to AD and APh, could be seen as an app to increase workflow efficiency rather than for creation (which can be done in AD / APh).

I just reproduced it on a recently opened instance of AD 2.0.4 on a different computer.  

I pasted the text from a simple HTML email into a frame created by the Artistic Text Tool. Same thing. 

It's not a huge deal, but it's been a nuisance for quite some time, and one that until today I couldn't find a way to resolve. The Factory Reset option is hardly intuitive. In fact, it's rather trepidatious. It makes me wonder if I'm going to lose all my palette settings and other preferences.  

[v_kyr]

3 minutes ago, cance440 said:

I just reproduced it on a recently opened instance of AD 2.0.4 on a different computer.  

I pasted the text from a simple HTML email into a frame created by the Artistic Text Tool. Same thing.

Do you have under the ADe "Preferences -> General" the option ...

• Choose whether to create SVGs on the clipboard when copying objects for better cross-platform interaction

... already enabled when doing those copy & pasts?

[cance440]

9 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Do you have under the ADe "Preferences -> General" the option ...

• Choose whether to create SVGs on the clipboard when copying objects for better cross-platform interaction

... already enabled when doing those copy & pasts?

No. It's unchecked. 

[thomaso]

44 minutes ago, cance440 said:

on a different computer.  

I pasted the text from a simple HTML email into a frame created by the Artistic Text Tool. Same thing. 

Strange. – What text style do you get, if you …:

1. Create a new Artistic Text frame + type some text manually?

2. Paste the copied HTML email content into Affinity but with no layer (= no object) selected?

3. Paste via the menu "Edit" > "Paste Without Format…" ?

[cance440]

52 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Strange. – What text style do you get, if you …:

1. Create a new Artistic Text frame + type some text manually?

2. Paste the copied HTML email content into Affinity but with no layer (= no object) selected?

3. Paste via the menu "Edit" > "Paste Without Format…" ?

1. I get whatever is the default font when I open the document, typically arial. 

2. Default text against a white background. 

3. A regular frame with the default text against a transparent background. 

[thomaso]

22 minutes ago, cance440 said:

1. I get whatever is the default font when I open the document, typically arial. 

2. Default text against a white background. 

3. A regular frame with the default text against a transparent background. 

So it comes from the source, not from an (earlier) Affinity setting. – Which email.app are you copying from?

Can you upload a screenshot with an affected text frame selected + the Layers + Character panel?

[cance440]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

So it comes from the source, not from an (earlier) Affinity setting. – Which email.app are you copying from?

Can you upload a screenshot with an affected text frame selected + the Layers + Character panel?

Yes. I'm pasting from Airmail. If I paste from a text-based program such as BBEdit, there's no formatting. 

There's a screenshot above that I think shows what you're asking for. 

 

[thomaso]

4 minutes ago, cance440 said:

There's a screenshot above that I think shows what you're asking for. 

No, it doesn't show the Character panel.

[firstdefence]

5 hours ago, cance440 said:

Would it be easier? Well, no, it wouldn't. Simply using command-V is easier than option-shift-command-shift-V. 

Okay, so why not change the Paste without format shortcut, Ive set mine to ⇧+V (Shift + V) because I use it quite a lot.

[cance440]

20 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Okay, so why not change the Paste without format shortcut, Ive set mine to ⇧+V (Shift + V) because I use it quite a lot.

I think that after all this discussion, I'm just going to remember to paste without format. What bothers me more is that I cannot apply a background color to a text frame. This isn't a deal-breaker, and I still enjoy using Designer, but I wish Affinity would include this feature. Thanks. 

[thomaso]

2 minutes ago, cance440 said:

What bothers me more is that I cannot apply a background color to a text frame.

I still would like to see your Character panel with that text frame selected. What your two screenshots show may also indicate that what you are getting pasted is actually not a Text Frame Fill Color, but rather a Font Background Color, that can be set in all 3 apps, including AD.