[Solved] How to create a new document with transparency enabled by default in AP2

[Andrei D]

Whenever I create a new document, it ALWAYS has transparency off. I absolutely hate that, I often forget to go to the color tab and enable the transparency. Is there a way to enable that by default? I really like AP2 but it's doing so many annoying things that it always takes those few extra set of steps that you have to take in order to achieve normal functionality that every other software has.

Edited July 6, 2024 by Andrei D
Someone answered my question and I see no other way to mark this as solved other than editing and putting it in the title

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums.

You can create your own Presets for the New Document dialog, and set Transparent Background on in them. Or, you can update an existing Preset to have that setting, and Overwrite the existing Preset.

Help: https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/GetStarted/NewDocument.html

[Andrei D]

38 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Welcome to the Affinity forums.

You can create your own Presets for the New Document dialog, and set Transparent Background on in them. Or, you can update an existing Preset to have that setting, and Overwrite the existing Preset.

Help: https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/GetStarted/NewDocument.html

Thanks this is better than nothing but I wish there was a way to just tick a single box for that setting instead of having to manually overwrite all the presets. Either way this makes my life easier, too bad that new from clipboard is separated from new, I really wish they were in a single menu. Either way, thanks for the help.

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

You don't need to overwrite every Preset in New Document, of course. Just the ones you use (and if you're like me, that will just be a few of them).

Also, there is a bug logged against the Windows apps where (unlike on macOS) settings you change aren't being remembered, but that would only help you if you repetitively use the same Preset without using another one in-between.

[R C-R]

@Andrei D, if for any reason you don't use a preset that has transparency enabled, you can create a keyboard shortcut to toggle it on or off at any time. In AP on my Mac I have that set to SHIFT+T, which works fine as long as I am not in text edit mode. You might consider creating a different one if you work with much text in your AP documents.

Also, in addition to presets you can create & use Document Templates if you typically create new AP documents with the same basic properties.