FEATURE REQUEST - Proper vector brush support

[HydroJLW]

Hi,

Apologies if this has already been requested - I did search around for a while for this, but there were a lot of varied results.

I would like to request proper vector brush support. I feel like this is probably quite a fundamental feature for a lot of people and would be a highly valued addition to the Affinity suite (which I really like, by the way!)

Thanks,

Jack

[kittyridge]

+1 for real vector brushes

[fde101]

This has been requested many times.

[Mekkano]

It’s a necessary feature

without it i cant use affinity designer as a professional tool for my work

I am very disappointed by this serious shortcoming
 

Please seriously consider implementing it

[Meliora spero]

Totally missing, yes!

[Cuando]

+ 1.000.000

[HydroJLW]

Also, proper vector eraser, please! (rather than masking over the vector layer in the pixel persona)

[Reitei17]

vector eraser +1 and blob brush +1

 

[JariH]

Dear Affinity,
A real vector brush is one of the major features I miss in Designer. Call me a purist, but I want to stay in true vector form in Designer.
Proper brush engine with scatter functions, please. I understand it may be a huge fundamental change, but it would be a killer.

[Juhani]

I was almost heartbroken after I found out most of the vector brushes are not in fact vector at all. There's nothing purist about wanting a vector brush to stay vector throughout its life path. Without this feature none of these brushes are usable for any branding and logo design work. I hope Affinity can regonize how important this feature actually is.

[HydroJLW]

1 hour ago, Juhani said:

I was almost heartbroken after I found out most of the vector brushes are not in fact vector at all. There's nothing purist about wanting a vector brush to stay vector throughout its life path. Without this feature none of these brushes are usable for any branding and logo design work. I hope Affinity can regonize how important this feature actually is.

Yeah, I really hope they are actively developing this feature. Much needed!

[ThatMikeGuy]

+1

I know that Affinity could implement this so much better than Illustrator. It is a nasty surprise to hunt down info on the "vector brush" to discover, after some digging, that it only uses PNG sources. It should be made so that you can use it from the current document itself rather than an external file like it does now with PNG sources for brushes. I think it also makes sense to integrate it with Symbols. So that you can edit the original and all instances of the brush can be updated with it. That would be an improvement over Illustrator. 

[Juhani]

I mean, it would also help for starters if (instead of PNG files) we could just use a vector SVG file as a source for the brush, that the program then rerenders every time we decide to scale it up 2000%+ etc. Right now that PNG is totally locked and there are definite limits how large each individual brush stroke can get before it starts to become blurry. I realise I'm not going to use these kinds of more creative "vector" brushes for any logo design work, so that point is kinda moot from my part, but it's still not totally out of the question to want to brush real big for whatever reason.

Integration with symbols is also a must, yes, but this ties more into the discussion about vector patterns and being able to save them as swatches, also missing right now.

[Juhani]

I have now run into this exact limitation on a real world design project. Tried to use one of the "vector" brushes that I bought from Affinity Add-Ons store as a graphic effect on a quite large 1.5x3m exhibition panel design, and there's just not enough resolution there in the brush stroke. At 100% print size all I'm getting is a blurry mess. As a raster brush it is obviously also not "Expandable". Oh this is so frustrating…

[Juhani]

New beta is out and it's great to see that the Pencil tool has got some minor uplift, but sadly not a sniff about true vector brushes, which will remain my number one feature request across the whole Affinity suite. Without this Affinity Designer will never feel complete pro design application that could go head to head with other vector tools in the field like Illustrator. Would be great if someone from the Affinity team could indicate if this is on their radar at all?

[Raff]

I agree, and I add myself to the request!

[Taffe]

Canva: You bought out Serif so maybe now is the time to buy out a good 'image trace' program that converts raster to vector. This might even speed up development for true vector brushes in Affinity Designer (not bitmaps sitting on paths). The new software you buy out can be added to Serif apps.

[Thomas Lamkin Art]

I am discovering that this issue (lack of vector brushes) may be one of the reasons I've been disappointed by the Letter & Grid Builder bundle I purchased recently, and why all the tutorials and guides for it use nothing but Procreate. Please make this happen, oh genius programmers.

[D.E. Main]

+1 for TRUE vector brush capability.  I likewise feel that the Designer "vector brushes" are not true vector brushes.  They are raster brushes that follow a vector line.  REALLY need this to be a complete package.  

[D.E. Main]

2 hours ago, Thomas Lamkin Art said:

I am discovering that this issue (lack of vector brushes) may be one of the reasons I've been disappointed by the Letter & Grid Builder bundle I purchased recently, and why all the tutorials and guides for it use nothing but Procreate. Please make this happen, oh genius programmers.

I likewise am quite frustrated with this.  The disappointment in the letter and grid building bundle (which I bought too) is one symptom of not having TRUE vector brushes.  Rhat Designer has instead is a raster image that follows a vector line.  I vote for true vector brushes.  'And I am willing to PAY for a new version to get this included.  I too will pray to the programmer gods and pay for a new version.  (I would pay for 2x cost for a v3 with this included.)

[Juhani]

What are the chances that Serif does not hear or understand how badly we need better vector tools in Designer after a decade of requesting them? Is it because there are indeed more pressing issues to solve first? Multi spread feature perhaps, that they’ve been tinkering with for the good part of the entire last year (and it’s still not out of beta)? Really?

It is my guess that Serif is simply not capable of offering us industry standard vector tools in the framework of their Affinity suite, which is at its core built up mostly as bitmap, without completely redesigning and reworking parts of their software.

But without proper vector tools Designer will always feel incomplete, an unfulfilled promise, even a let down.

[Raff]

There is no point in deluding ourselves.
My (and not just mine!) impression is that our requests to the Affinity team for fundamental improvements to the Affinity Suite go in one ear and out the other in a micro-second!
For years (decades?) now the same “urgent” requests have been repeated from year to year without ANY RESPONSE from the developers.
It really seems that no one cares about making these software more professional and more responsive to users' work needs.
They remain nice “toys” which, however, satisfy no one.