Pencil, Pen and Node Tool improvements

[tradivoro]

Just wanted to say some praise for the improved pencil tool.  Before I wasn't too happy with it, but now it really works well for regular drawing.  Another thing is, with the auto close, you have inadvertently created the equivalent of the blob brush in Illustrator.  This is very welcome.  I'm still hoping for the vector eraser.    I'm sure the developers have their hands full with other things. 

[Yuli]

15 hours ago, tradivoro said:

Just wanted to say some praise for the improved pencil tool.  Before I wasn't too happy with it, but now it really works well for regular drawing.  Another thing is, with the auto close, you have inadvertently created the equivalent of the blob brush in Illustrator.  This is very welcome.  I'm still hoping for the vector eraser.    I'm sure the developers have their hands full with other things. 

Doesn't the blob brush tool of Illustrator draw shapes instead of paths? Now I'm wondering if the devs could add a context toolbar toggle for expanding the stroke, so you draw shapes instead of lines.

[tradivoro]

Well, when you use the auto close, it resembles the blob brush in that you're drawing a shape and it remains a shape.  Unfortunately the pencil tool stroke only goes so far, so it wouldn't work that way.  But with auto close, you get something like it.  

[TonyS3]

On 10/22/2024 at 2:09 PM, Bryan Rieger said:

Sure thing @EmT.

In this video the toolbar starts with a black stroke and a width of 5.5, while the colour panel also shows the black stroke, the stroke panel indicates no stroke. Drawing with this results in a curve with no stroke or colour applied. Applying a colour (green) to the strokes makes them visible (0.2 stroke width), yet then drawing another line with a green stroke, 5.5 width in the toolbar results in a no stroke displayed in the stroke panel, and a curve drawn with no colour or width.

 

 

 

I see this behaviour too

[jespizua_]

Hi,

Thanks for improving the pencil tool, I've been waiting for this for a long time.

It is step in the right direction but I still find that even setting the smoothness to 0 applies to much of a smoothness. Maintaining the original strokes is important when you want to replicate the look of a loose sketch. Even with this new feature, I still have to rely on other apps like Concepts and Fresco to get this kind of results. Isn't it possible to get no smoothness at all?

Thanks,

José

 

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "The Stroke Style is not Maintained when Toggling Use Line Style Off and On…" (REF: AF-4781) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.3027). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Style Settings on context toolbar gets out of sync with other panels if buttons are toggled before drawing curve. " (REF: AF-4756) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.3027). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Pen Tool: Use fill/Use line style icons are missing on macOS Photo and Publisher" (REF: AF-4700) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.3027). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.

[JhonatanS]

 

 
 

Hi, I’m running into something that’s making my workflow harder than before.

In the previous version (before the Style Context update), all we had to do was turn off the outline on Color Panel, and the next line we drew would tay without an outline.

Now, even if we turn off the line in the color panel, it still adds the outline anyway.

So we have to go over on top Style new option — just to remove the line. And there’s no shortcut for it.

 

This leads to results like the one attached below, which is pretty frustrating.

[Hangman]

Hi @JhonatanS,

I believe the logic is that you enable or disable the Line and/or Fill using the Style Context options instead of via the Colour panel.

[JhonatanS]

Yeah, I see what you mean — I tested it too and it feels really redundant now.

Before, it was super easy to use shortcuts to remove the stroke or fill directly from the color panel, and I could also set the color for the next shape without any issues.

Now, there’s this extra step where you have to manually toggle things on and off from the top panel, which really slows things down — especially for someone like me who draws with my right hand using a pen. It’s definitely made the workflow more challenging.

I’d honestly love to understand how Affinity thought this was a good solution, because it feels like it’s fixing one thing by breaking another .

[Ldina]

35 minutes ago, JhonatanS said:

I’d honestly love to understand how Affinity thought this was a good solution, because it feels like it’s fixing one thing by breaking another

I agree, JhonatanS. 

The context Line/Fill works fine if you draw one object after another as @Hangman showed in his video. But, if I select a previously drawn object on another layer, the line/fill attributes of that object are then applied to my next object drawn. 

To my way of thinking, the Line/Fill Context settings should be 'sticky' for ALL NEWLY DRAWN OBJECTS, and not over-ridden by a previously selected object. So, for example, if I always want NEW objects to be created with NO fill and NO stoke, they should always just show the thin blue line path created by the Pen, Pencil, etc. If I then select an object with a stroke and/or fill, I can change the current object, but any new object should still be drawn with no fill or stroke unless I change it via the Context toolbar. I'm constantly having to reset that context Line/Fill. I far preferred it before that was 'feature' added. 

Maybe I'm missing something, and if so, I'd like to know.