Other Improvements in 2.6

[JhonatanS]

Is there any chance of improving shortcut options for brushes in both the Raster and Vector personas?

I have a large collection of brushes, and being able to switch between them using shortcuts would significantly improve workflow efficiency.
A radial toggle, for example, could be a great solution.

For future improvements, I’d suggest exploring ways to make the app even more efficient for users. This would be especially beneficial for iPad users, as it would eliminate the need to open and navigate through brush menus—allowing them to quickly access their favorite brushes with ease.

rough sample attached

[Benfischer]

2 hours ago, JhonatanS said:

Is there any chance of improving shortcut options for brushes in both the Raster and Vector personas?

I have a large collection of brushes, and being able to switch between them using shortcuts would significantly improve workflow efficiency.
A radial toggle, for example, could be a great solution.

For future improvements, I’d suggest exploring ways to make the app even more efficient for users. This would be especially beneficial for iPad users, as it would eliminate the need to open and navigate through brush menus—allowing them to quickly access their favorite brushes with ease.

rough sample attached

that's a good idea.  Having a Favorite Brush library or even a recent brush list available via a hotkey on desktop or a gesture on the iPad would be very nice.  Maybe that can be an option for the squeeze gesture for the Apple Pencil Pro.

[Frozen Death Knight]

8 minutes ago, Benfischer said:

that's a good idea.  Having a Favorite Brush library or even a recent brush list available via a hotkey on desktop or a gesture on the iPad would be very nice.  Maybe that can be an option for the squeeze gesture for the Apple Pencil Pro.

I concur. It would make it possible for me to work in fullscreen without any UI in the way while painting on my desktop. Needing to have your Brushes panel open at all times isn't ideal UX for a painter.

[Juhani]

A great start would be already an ability to "star" or "favourite" any brush without having to copy each and every brush that you use on a regular basis into a separate group.

[Frozen Death Knight]

15 minutes ago, Juhani said:

A great start would be already an ability to "star" or "favourite" any brush without having to copy each and every brush that you use on a regular basis into a separate group.

Folders inside categories would be nice as well. Just being able divide up brushes into subcategories just to specify even further their intended purpose would go a long way to sort things even further. Not to mention a search bar for brush names.

[JhonatanS]

Hi @Frozen Death Knight! Yes, I still strongly prefer working in full-screen mode since I do a lot of illustration. Keeping panels open just to switch brushes doesn’t make much sense from a UX perspective.

 

Even with a search bar for brushes "improvement", in practice, who’s going to interrupt their workflow just to type a brush name every time? It’s inefficient and breaks the creative flow in my perspective.

A much simpler and more intuitive solution would be: when using the Paint Brush or Vector Brush, a right-click should bring up a small catalog of favorite brushes—quick, seamless, and effective.

Affinity really needs to consult real daily users to understand their actual needs. Without that, I don’t see this working well.

[Frozen Death Knight]

33 minutes ago, JhonatanS said:

Hi @Frozen Death Knight! Yes, I still strongly prefer working in full-screen mode since I do a lot of illustration. Keeping panels open just to switch brushes doesn’t make much sense from a UX perspective.

 

Even with a search bar for brushes "improvement", in practice, who’s going to interrupt their workflow just to type a brush name every time? It’s inefficient and breaks the creative flow in my perspective.

A much simpler and more intuitive solution would be: when using the Paint Brush or Vector Brush, a right-click should bring up a small catalog of favorite brushes—quick, seamless, and effective.

Affinity really needs to consult real daily users to understand their actual needs. Without that, I don’t see this working well.

Actually, it can be even faster if done correctly. ZBrush and even Blender recently have on screen brush searching that makes it easy and fast to find any brush you want in a few key words. ZBrush in particular was built for efficiency in mind and you can access every single brush with just a couple of keys. Memorising shortcuts like "B-C-B" for "Clay Brush" makes it possible to switch to anything extremely fast through muscle memory. Blender also implemented a very similar system in the recent version and was very well received by users.

Also, my suggestion in no way hinders any other features for improving brush management. A search bar is hardly revolutionary, but it is very useful.

What do you mean by consulting "real" daily users? I have seen this system done before and done very well in other professional software as previously mentioned. The system exists and is tried and tested by professionals in other fields. Heck, Photoshop also has a search bar for brushes.

[JhonatanS]

14 hours ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Actually, it can be even faster if done correctly. ZBrush and even Blender recently have on screen brush searching that makes it easy and fast to find any brush you want in a few key words. ZBrush in particular was built for efficiency in mind and you can access every single brush with just a couple of keys. Memorising shortcuts like "B-C-B" for "Clay Brush" makes it possible to switch to anything extremely fast through muscle memory. Blender also implemented a very similar system in the recent version and was very well received by users.

Also, my suggestion in no way hinders any other features for improving brush management. A search bar is hardly revolutionary, but it is very useful.

What do you mean by consulting "real" daily users? I have seen this system done before and done very well in other professional software as previously mentioned. The system exists and is tried and tested by professionals in other fields. Heck, Photoshop also has a search bar for brushes.

Hi, I share the same logic as ZBrush— your suggestion is good, making switching seamless and efficient in shortcuts, which is essential when you’re constantly changing brushes.

When I talk about daily users, I mean understanding what actually works in the industry from those who use the app every day. Sometimes, the design decisions don’t seem fully aligned with real-world needs.

[Meliora spero]

On 2/12/2025 at 1:22 PM, JhonatanS said:

When I talk about daily users, I mean understanding what actually works in the industry from those who use the app every day. Sometimes, the design decisions don’t seem fully aligned with real-world needs.

This is exactly the knowledge I have repeatedly pointed out is lacking at Serif, and this insular forum for a specific type of customers and a small group of users is not the right primary source. That comes from handling usability and networking professionally. Clearly, that is not happening.

A forum is better suited for discussing Star Trek or small open-source projects.

[JhonatanS]

Hi, I’ve just played more with the affinity 2.6 beta, it’s running pretty smoothly.

@Patrick Connor an improvement suggestion, while using the custom shortcuts panel on iPad, I can’t find the options that I use very often like Flip or Insert inside,

in fact there are not many options to add in this custom, this is a feature that I really like it, but it seems that is not very complete at the moment in offering the accessibility, if you guys can bring more options it would be awesome.

thanks