Staff Ash Posted January 3 Staff Share Posted January 3 Apps: Designer and Publisher (+ some changes to the existing feature in Photo) Platforms: Windows and macOS We have now added the States panel to Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher which previously only existed in Affinity Photo. Layer states allows you to either: Capture the current visibility states of your layers across your document Create queries based on various criteria to use to make a selection or toggle visibility of layers This feature is particularly useful to manage different variations of your work. As an example, one of the social ad campaigns for our recent Black Friday promotion was created in Affinity Designer across multiple artboards. Each artboard had 4 variants for English, Japanese, German and French language. Previously if you wanted to toggle between the English and French version for example you would need to toggle the visibility of the appropriate layers on each artboard separately - not particularly workable when you have many artboards / spreads. The new states panel gives you a new way to work with designs like this. In this case I could set up a query with criteria which captures all my Japanese layers. From the states panel click "New Query" at the bottom, I called the query "JA" and set up my criteria to be "All Art Text and Frame Text layers that have a layer name which ends in JA" as below: Because on each artboard we had used the consistent naming convention that all Japanese text has a layer name ending in JA, all English text has a layer name ending in EN, etc. it made it easy to then set up 4 queries for each of the languages. We could alternatively have used a convention like all French variants are tagged yellow, English tagged Red, etc. So now to switch from English to Japanese across all artboards I can just turn off everything that fulfils my EN query, and turn on everything which fulfils my JP query using the visibility on/off buttons next to the queries in the states panel - so in two clicks end up with the below: While this example is only including text, of course I may have had different imagery for each locale and could have included those in the same queries to still have one button to toggle text and images of each language on and off. Also, as it's set up a query like this, should I add additional Japanese specific layers to any of the artboards and name them ending in "...JA" my JA query will automatically pick them up. In Publisher the same principles apply giving the ability to globally toggle different layers on and off across all spreads in your document which match the criteria you have specified. While building complex expressions is easy, you may also find you wish to have a query for something simple like "Layer Type is Images" giving you an instant way to turn all images on and off across your whole document. Additional Notes As well as toggling visibility of queries there is an additional button to make a selection of all layers which fulfil the criteria specified in the query. This is also a new function not previously available in Affinity Photo. For those who used the States panel in Affinity Photo you will notice we have changed the name of what were previously called "Smart States" to "Queries". This reason for this is in the future we anticipate adding a new feature to this which would be better described as a Smart State (this will be something you can build from multiple queries). This will be something which we add in a future update. There is other new functionality we plan to bring to this in the future - namely ability to create presets and some level of integration with export options - but again that will be something for a future update. woefi, Mark Oehlschlager, Mithferion and 30 others 24 9 Quote Managing Director Help make our apps better by joining our beta program! MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) / Apple M1 Max / 64GB / macOS 12.0.1 iPad Pro 11-inch 3rd Gen / iPadOS 16.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Affinity Info Bot Posted January 3 Staff Share Posted January 3 Known Issues in this feature A list of unresolved 2.4 issues for this feature, reported by users AF-1452 - States Panel: Scope is white in Light UI mode and hard to read AF-1461 - Layer states > Expand arrow not clearly visible - Light UI AF-1739 - Layer States > New State / Delete State buttons are incorrectly coloured in Light UI AF-1740 - Layer States > Show captured state's 'Play' button is white in Light UI AF-1741 - Layer States > General Query/Captured State buttons are too light in Light UI AF-1742 - Layer States > Selected item's highlight should cover the entire item AF-1841 - Redraw issue when used on symbols with show/hide others ticked AF-1758 - Layer states Select and Mask icons are hard to see due to small size Released Fixes A list of issues for this feature, available in the current beta build AF-1710 - [macOS] Layer states not working in Pixel Persona [Cannot Reproduce (fixed?)] AF-1745 - Layer States: Inherited tags are not considered by the query [Fixed] AF-1857 - [Win] Layer states not working in Pixel Persona [Fixed] AF-1762 - Layer states > Add "Layer" container to Layer type list [Fixed] AF-1725 - Layer States Panel queries text are different sizes [Fixed] AF-1519 - Layer states > Scope : selection doesn't work [Fixed] Upcoming Fixes A list of issues for this feature, which will be available in a forthcoming build Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithferion Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Yay! Best regards! Quote AMD FX 8350 :: Radeon HD 5670 :: Windows 10 :: http://mithferion.deviantart.com/ Oxygen Icons :: GCP Icons :: iOS 11 Design Resources :: iOS App Icon Template :: Free Quality Fonts (Commercial Use) :: Public Domain Images How to do High Quality Art :: Mesh Warp / Distort Tool Considerations :: Select Same / Object - Suggestions :: Live Glassmorphism Effect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronnyb Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 YES! I've had to deal with the exact issue and this is a HUGE workflow improvement, specially the inclusion of live filtering/search criteria! Quote 2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Sonoma 14.4.1 2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbrother Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 I must admit, Mr. Ash, that this version management solution looks very well thought out and looks great. But does the "And show/hide others" option in the States panel works fine? I ask because there is a redraw bug when you use "show/hide other" layers commands [AF-1445]. Or am I wrong and these commands are not the same comparing to States panel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_shcherbakov Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 It looks really great! Just one question: shouldn't the user be able to move states from file to file or be able to set some of them as a default? I have already imagined how I would make some ready-made scripts for quick control of all locked objects or, for example, I will make a mnemonic rule for myself that I will start all auxiliary layers with tilde and then it will be easy to hide them all at once. shapelet 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stepaan Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 It may be helpful to indicate the current in/visible state of the query by a different colour of the eye icon... shapelet and Dave Vector 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 The Scope pulldown for the States panel in Designer (Windows) shows Document, Spread, and Selection. Spread seems appropriate for Publisher, but odd for Designer in a document without Pages. Edit: On the other hand, I see this is also true in Photo 2.3.1, so it's not new with the Beta. Still seems odd, though, for both Photo and Designer. Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Ash Posted January 9 Author Staff Share Posted January 9 40 minutes ago, n_shcherbakov said: Just one question: shouldn't the user be able to move states from file to file or be able to set some of them as a default? I have already imagined how I would make some ready-made scripts for quick control of all locked objects or, for example, I will make a mnemonic rule for myself that I will start all auxiliary layers with tilde and then it will be easy to hide them all at once. Yes agreed - I noted briefly on the post but we do intend to add the ability to save presets in a future update (but that will be after 2.4 release). Also to set up more complex rules based on multiple queries (e.g. in the example I gave in the OP you could set up a smart state which says "Turn all layers which fulfils EN query on AND turn all layers which fulfil DE query off AND turn all layers which fulfil JA query off". i.e. so in a single click you could get to your English version. StuartRc, Bryan Rieger, thedivclass and 4 others 7 Quote Managing Director Help make our apps better by joining our beta program! MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) / Apple M1 Max / 64GB / macOS 12.0.1 iPad Pro 11-inch 3rd Gen / iPadOS 16.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeTO Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 This is great, thanks! 2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said: The Scope pulldown for the States panel in Designer (Windows) shows Document, Spread, and Selection. Spread seems appropriate for Publisher, but odd for Designer in a document without Pages. It's this way in Photo, too, because all of the apps can edit multi-page docs. Quote Download a free manual for Publisher 2.4 from this forum - expanded 300-page PDF My system: Affinity 2.4.2 for macOS Sonoma 14.4.1, MacBook Pro 14" (M1 Pro) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 4 minutes ago, MikeTO said: It's this way in Photo, too, because all of the apps can edit multi-page docs. Thanks. And I see it is addressed in the Photo Help for 2.3: I guess I was just expecting it to be more substantive, with choices for Artboard rather than Spread when in an Artboard-based document, or Layer (when Layers are present), and to only include relevant options. MikeTO 1 Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxdanger Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Not related to the functionality of this feature, but more the usability/stability, I've noticed that when checking the "and show / hide others" option you get a flicker which isn't present on other check boxes: Show hide others bug.mp4 Quote 2021 14" M1 Pro Macbook Pro, 16GB RAM Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Current Beta versions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Bug: The States panel cannot be activated in ADe in Pixel persona, and in APu in Designer persona. MacBook Air 15" M2, Ventura 13.6.3 Mithferion and Gabe 2 Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aleale1 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 On 1/3/2024 at 3:27 PM, Ash said: there is an additional button to make a selection of all layers which fulfil the criteria specified in the query Does it work for multipage document in AP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Ash Posted January 9 Author Staff Share Posted January 9 24 minutes ago, aleale1 said: Does it work for multipage document in AP? It should do! aleale1 1 Quote Managing Director Help make our apps better by joining our beta program! MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) / Apple M1 Max / 64GB / macOS 12.0.1 iPad Pro 11-inch 3rd Gen / iPadOS 16.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaoloT Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 A powerful way of managing conditions. I hope it can be applied both at document level (to deal with chapters in different languages), and at book level, overriding the document query (for multilingual documents, where some language or variants may appear or not on a global scale). Paolo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aammppaa Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Panel background seems dark compared to other panels in the Light Theme. "Scope" label is in white, on light grey in the Light Theme. There is no way to rename a Query. Could the Layer Type be collapsible? Takes a lot of space if you aren't using the options. No confirmation for deleting Queries. woefi, Bit Disappointed and shapelet 2 1 Quote Win10 Home x64 | AMD Ryzen 7 2700X @ 3.7GHz | 48 GB RAM | 1TB SSD | nVidia GTX 1660 | Wacom Intuos Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bit Disappointed Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 36 minutes ago, Aammppaa said: Panel background seems dark compared to other panels in the Light Theme. "Scope" label is in white, on light grey in the Light Theme. There is no way to rename a Query. Could the Layer Type be collapsible? Takes a lot of space if you aren't using the options. No confirmation for deleting Queries. The user interface is very coarse-grained and the font is very large here on Mac. But yes, there is a lack of confirmation, which is extra bad because the action cannot be undone with undo either. Just early enough it entered beta, but nothing that can't be salvaged. 🙂. Quote I simply no longer believe that there are any professional graphic designers here. Everything follows suit. Just everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowerider Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Add me to the list of users for whom Layer states will be useful their workflow. Thanks! Quote What I do: Document design/typesetting; Stock photo images; Digital art | Apps I use: Publisher, Photo, Designer | My PC: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U; 16.0GB RAM; Win 10 Home (21H2) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benfischer Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Seems to work OK, but with regard to Ash's description, the button that probably should be labeled Add New Query in the tool tip is actually labeled "Add New Smart State" The follow up windows for name and so on reference Query, as in Ash's description. MacOS, fwiw Ash 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Gabe Posted January 10 Staff Share Posted January 10 5 hours ago, Benfischer said: Seems to work OK, but with regard to Ash's description, the button that probably should be labeled Add New Query in the tool tip is actually labeled "Add New Smart State" The follow up windows for name and so on reference Query, as in Ash's description. MacOS, fwiw Are you using English US? If so, it's just a "translation" issue. Not all labels have gone through the translation process yet (even though they mainly the same for English US, they still go through a different process) AdamW 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Is there a need for both the show and hide icons, would one togglable icon not suffice in the same way it does for Password Protection in the PDF Export settings to either show or hide the password? This would make it much easier to determine the state of any Query especially as currently there is no visual feedback in the States Panel to indicate when a Query is shown or hidden (other than looking at the canvas itself)... Perhaps white icons in dark mode and dark grey in light move for consistency and simple ease of viewing... A definite need, again as mentioned earlier in the thread, to be able to rename Queries... joe_l, Dazmondo77, TonyO and 1 other 3 1 Quote Affinity Designer 2.4.2 | Affinity Photo 2.4.2 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 Affinity Designer Beta 2.5.0 (2437) | Affinity Photo Beta 2.5.0 (2437) | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.5.0 (2437) Affinity Designer 1.7.3 | Affinity Photo 1.7.3 | Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 MacBook Pro 16GB, macOS Monterey 12.7.4, Magic Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 The Captured States thumbnails fail to update when clicking the 'Update' icon. The thumbnails only update when a new Captured State is either added or deleted... Captured State.mp4 aleale1 and Gabe 2 Quote Affinity Designer 2.4.2 | Affinity Photo 2.4.2 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 Affinity Designer Beta 2.5.0 (2437) | Affinity Photo Beta 2.5.0 (2437) | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.5.0 (2437) Affinity Designer 1.7.3 | Affinity Photo 1.7.3 | Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 MacBook Pro 16GB, macOS Monterey 12.7.4, Magic Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viktor CR Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I'd like to test changing words/terms within a larger portion of copy based on selected state. How would I do this without duplicating the entire text frame, which is also connected to a flow of further text frames, if visibility is decided only on the level of layers? PaoloT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudantu Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 For the beginners in the room, I'd love a little link to explain how Regular Expressions work. I love documentation though, just me. ronnyb, Like, would like more if…, Aammppaa and 3 others 6 Quote →MacOS (Latest), M1 Max Mac Studio, Designer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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