Custom frames in text style decorations?

[MaiglSens]

Hey everyone :-)

I am wondering if there's a possibility to link custom frames (made in Affinity Designer) to a text style decoration?

I've attached an example picture to show you what I mean. I built the frame in Affinity Designer and just put it on top of the text with a really low opacity. But because I have my text in a textbox on a master page I also can't put the frame (and its coloured background) BEHIND the text, as it is on the master page...
To further tell you what I am working on: I am writing a rulebook for a RPG game. And some parts will be examples of how to play the game. I got my custom example text style but I would love to highlight it with a coloured background (that I can easily do in the decorations tab in the text style) AND a custom frame surrounding it. In the decorations tab I can only find a solution to frame it with a basic frame but no custom shapes.

Does anyone know if there's a possibility to somehow link/import or do whatever to use a custom frame in combination with a text style?

 

Thanks in advance.
Cheers

Michael

[thomaso]

There is no way to create this kind of frame borders as a paragraph text style decoration.

If you prefer to have all (text, background, frame border) in just 1 object you could export the illustration (background + border) as pixel image + use this as bitmap fill for the text frame (Gradient Fill Tool). –  For instance:

But I am sure this is not the most efficient workflow.

Note, it is possible to shift the Master page Layer in the Layer panel hierarchy simultaneously on all document pages.

However, I would consider to use a Symbol for the frame & background instead of a Master page object.

Also, if your AD drawing should be used in text frame with different aspect ratios but without its single elements getting stretched then it can be useful to combine them to a Constraints Group with the according settings.

The "right" decision and workflow will depend on your preferred handling respectively the planned instances in the entire layout across all pages.

[MaiglSens]

Hi thomaso,

thanks for the reply and all the suggestions.
The conversion to a pixel layer is a good idea but you are right when you say that I want to use the frame with different aspect ratios. So I don't think this'll work efficiently enough. (But I'll definitely keep it in mind)
I think I'll try the constraints groups idea. Although I'm not sure if I've ever used them before. But what are all the tutorials for!?

Thanks again for your suggestions.
I'll try the different options and will see which one works best for me.

Cheers

[MaiglSens]

Hi @thomaso,
I've tried out the counstraint groups and I must say I'm amazed 🙂 Thanks a lot, again.

I now only have a small problem with my constraint groups and maybe you or someone else could help me with it?
I've got my custom frame now and it's all grouped in a constraint but for some reason the constraint group cuts off part of my frame. (see pictures)
                                                   Detail1:

 

Detail 2:   

In detail 1 you can see that the left and the upper stroke are thinner then the rest. In detail 2 you can also see that it cut off one corner of the square. I've double checked the stroke width and even tried making it thicker to counter this effect, but nothing worked. Stroke width is the same as with all the others.

Do you by any chance have any idea why this happens and how I could fix it?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Cheers
Michael

[thomaso]

It looks like any parent bounding box crops the half of the stroke of these curves. For such situation screenshots which have an object selected + relevant panels included (at least Layers, here also Stroke for instance) can make it easier to the forum to interpret the description correctly. Otherwise, just a visual result is not a good indicator of how it was made/set up and what exactly we are looking at.

If not set already, you could try the stroke align option "inside". If that doesn't help maybe a separate rectangle can avoid this, slightly larger than your current group and with no fill/no stroke as a parent object for your various frame items inside the constraints group.