Dynamic Texte frame height and width

[orowbiranu]

Hi👋

Pretty new to affinity, I might be missing something, sorry in advance!

Same for the forum topic, might be in the wrong one

I want to up the subject created by @JuSchu (2020) on the 1.5 version which did not receive any answers.

Here are the situation (copy paste of his, very well explained)

First, yes I know that if you double-click the size handle the text frame automatically resizes to fit the text.
Also, if I want to have a text that is not restricted to any text frame I could just use artistic text.

But there are still problems without a dynamic size option just like the one in InDesign.
Most obviously it's just more convenient to tell the text frame to dynamically resize to it's content than double clicking the size handle every single time.
When I want to give the text a colored background of course, I want to have a margin between the text and the background. You can only have this margin with a text frame and not with an artistic text.
An artistic text automatically sets its with AND the height. You can't tell it to only set the widht OR the height.
You can't just click the size handle to resize the text when the content of the text frame is not text you manually enterd but a field (Text->Insert->Fields or View->Studio->Fields). The lenght of that text can change, so setting the text frame to a fixed size, manually or atomaticcaly, isn't a good idea.

Here's a use-case why we need a better solution.
I was using named sections in my document and I wanted to show the name of the section in the top left corner of the pages. So I made a master page and there I put a text frame and inserted the section name as a field. Of course, on the master page I only see the placeholder "<sectionname>" and when I double-click the size handle, Publisher will set the size of the text frame to the size of the placeholder, which doesn't make any sense. When I look at that text frame on the actual pages the size is always the size of the placeholder, no matter if the actual section name is longer or shorter.
I wanted it to have a colored background to be more visible. That's why I couldn't just use an artistic text. I could still set a colored background there but I can't set a margin between the text and the border of the colored background. That way the text looks like its squished into that colored rectangle.

 

Could anyone help me please?

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[carl123]

40 minutes ago, orowbiranu said:

That's why I couldn't just use an artistic text. I could still set a colored background there but I can't set a margin between the text and the border of the colored background.

Artistic Text can have a margin/border on all 4 sides and even rounded corners.

Just use the Decorations section in the Paragraph Panel

 

 

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

Just use the Decorations section in the Paragraph Panel

From the OP's mention of InDesign, it would be reasonable to assume this is about APub, but for anyone (like myself) initially confused by this, note that only in Affinity Publisher does the Paragraph panel have a Decorations section.

[orowbiranu]

Hi @carl123 and @R C-R

Thanks a lot for your quick answers!

Indeed, I found the background color of artistic text, thank you!

But I cannot find the radius of rounded corner... I found a workaround using rounded stroke but it cannot have a defined radius.

Thanks for your help again!

[R C-R]

34 minutes ago, orowbiranu said:

But I cannot find the radius of rounded corner... I found a workaround using rounded stroke but it cannot have a defined radius.

Not sure but I think that workaround is the only way to do that if you do not want to use an additional Rounded Rectangle behind the text.

[thomaso]

22 hours ago, orowbiranu said:

But I cannot find the radius of rounded corner... I found a workaround using rounded stroke but it cannot have a defined radius.

To maintain flexibility regarding the frame corners when automatically resizing a coloured text frame, a workaround consisting of 3 objects can be used: 1 text frame + 2 shapes for the ends, at least one of which is pinned to the text to automatically move with the text length. Like so:

Here's a sample document from last year:

[carl123]

On 12/29/2024 at 6:04 PM, orowbiranu said:

but it cannot have a defined radius

Why do you need one? Just visually set the radius to what you want

[orowbiranu]

On 12/30/2024 at 6:09 PM, thomaso said:

To maintain flexibility regarding the frame corners when automatically resizing a coloured text frame, a workaround consisting of 3 objects can be used: 1 text frame + 2 shapes for the ends, at least one of which is pinned to the text to automatically move with the text length. Like so:

Thanks for this tips, it seems a bit too much for what I need.
Three shapes for each text knowing that I have around 13 similar texts per file and 80 files to do, I am looking for something very consistent, coherent and easy to update.

Anyway, I keep your workaround in case I cannot find other solution, thanks @thomaso

 

On 12/31/2024 at 7:37 AM, carl123 said:

Why do you need one? Just visually set the radius to what you want

Haha if graphism was that simple!
I created a graphic identity that set several design attributes like colors, margin, spacing, etc. and border radius.
Setting a fixed radius ensure the consistency between by shapes and my files.

As I said just above, I have around 80 files and ~13 artistic texts to manage... That's why I am looking something not "eye depending" but based on real values.

[Oufti]

12 hours ago, orowbiranu said:

Thanks for this tips, it seems a bit too much for what I need.
Three shapes for each text knowing that I have around 13 similar texts per file and 80 files to do, I am looking for something very consistent, coherent and easy to update.

This could be a good use case for symbols ! Once created with the 3 shapes as one symbol, insert it where needed and disable the synchronisation to change the text.

https://affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/pages/SymbolsAssets/symbols.html 

[thomaso]

16 hours ago, orowbiranu said:

Three shapes for each text knowing that I have around 13 similar texts per file and 80 files to do

I'd create the shapes with the required corner radius only once and use copies of this set for the 13x80 use cases, for instance via the Asset panel or as Symbol as @Oufti recommends. Even if I need just text frames without extra shapes or pinned objects, I suppose I'd prefer copies instead of 1040 individual frame creations.

Alternatively, in V2 it might work to enter all text paragraphs (+ pinned shapes) into a text frame and then convert this "frame text" into multiple "art text" objects without the need for multiple copy or create operations.

[orowbiranu]

Ok thanks for the tips, I'll try!

However, I still think it would be useful and more intuitive to be able to set the border radius as you can for all rounded square/box.
I searched about 1h before posting here because I was absolutely sure to find it as it is a basic option compared to other available options.

Thanks again, topic can be close or mark as resolved if it's the way the forum works

[thomaso]

4 hours ago, orowbiranu said:

However, I still think it would be useful and more intuitive to be able to set the border radius as you can for all rounded square/box.

I agree, there could be more intuitive or flexible ways to set a corner radius for different objects.

Nevertheless, you can define the radius of a text frame if you create the text frame of a rounded rectangle which got its radius set before its conversion into a text frame. I guess the Stroke Panel doesn't offer a corner radius because a stroke always follows an object's curve, which may lead to conflicts or user confusion, with stroke alignment for instance (inside/centre/outside) or if a curve stroke with rounded corners should get applied to a curve without rounded corners. Also it it's usually desired that a corner radius is visually maintained if an object gets scaled while it may lead to a different numerical radius. That's why the corner radius gets defined as a relative value.

Since the corner radius gets set as a relative value in % (which allows to set an identical radius for objects of quite different sizes), it requires some maths to do by the user if one needs a specific absolute value.  EDIT: there is an option for "Absolute sizes", see post below.

In this example the blue square is 100 mm, its corner radius = 20% = 20 mm. The pink rectangle has another width and stroke alignment but the same corner radius.

Edited January 2 by thomaso

[orowbiranu]

Thank for this explanation @thomaso

Indeed, you're right, it really depends of what we want to achieve, same visual or exact same radius.
Good to be reminded anyway!

Thanks again

 

[thomaso]

57 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Since the corner radius gets set as a relative value in % (which allows to set an identical radius for objects of quite different sizes), it requires some maths to do by the user if one needs a specific absolute value.

That's not true. I haven't noticed the checkbox "Absolute" before, so it is possible to set absolute values. Unfortunately, like relative values, it requires a single object selection and cannot be set for multiple objects at the same time. And it doesn't solve the problem of "identical" radius of objects with different stroke alignments, @orowbiranu.