Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Affinity Designer - Bitmap / Pattern Fills


Recommended Posts

How do you resize the fill tiles while maintaining the aspect ratio? I've tried (in the Windows beta version) using the Ctrl, Shift and Alt keys, but I haven't discovered the secret to making the tiles any size I want without introducing some distortion.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

Alfred,

 

There ought to be a way to maintain aspect.

 

Being on my phone I have no idea, and can't check but have you tried the 'fourth key' of right mouse (at the same time as left). We needed a 4th key and that's where we are at the moment on windows.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Alfred,

There's a button in the context toolbar to Maintain fill aspect ratio (check screenshot). I believe it's already in the Windows version, but i'm not sure.

 

attachicon.gifaspect_ratio.jpg

 

Thanks, Miguel. Like so many things, it's easy when you know how!

 

And thanks to Patrick for the 'fourth key' suggestion. That would be fine on my trackball, where I use it frequently, but I think I would find it extremely awkward on my laptop's trackpad.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
  • 10 months later...
On 9/28/2016 at 11:00 AM, MEB said:

Hi hiddenloop,

In Designer select the Fill Tool, go to the context toolbar and change the Type dropdown to Bitmap, select the image you want to use as a pattern from the dialog and drag the tool on canvas to fill the selected object.

You are a spectre from the Gods! You have no idea how long I have been trying to figure this out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I haven't investigated whether AffDes can do this or not, but in CorelDRAW (the app I'm coming from), you can assign stroke and fill styles to objects (exactly like character and paragraph styles in AffPub).  When you change the properties of the style, all the objects assigned that style update with the new appearance.  That allows the fill bitmap or vector pattern to be referenced in just one place.  Whether AffDes would take advantage of that to optimize file size is a 2nd question.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I am a little confused.  
The use of the fill tool in a layer in Photo with a bitmap offers an extend option that gives the repeated pattern fill that I wanted.
The instructions given above are for Designer and when I go there to do the same thing, there is no Extend option on the fill tool -- and I get the single image with some rather strange extensions of it across the layer.

What am I missing ?

badfilldesigner.png

Win 11 PCs 64bit  Envy and Envy tablet + Filter Forge  Retired computer systems tester doing graphics for charities and politics etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There should be an “Extend” option on your Context Toolbar when using the Fill Tool (see attached image). Select “Wrap” to get the image to repeat.
If you cannot see the Context Toolbar, use menu “View → Show Context Toolbar”.

 

Annotation 2020-05-03 095256.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Gary - I thought I must be being dim. 
It's down to all the subtle differences between photo and designer which I haven't sorted in my head yet!  
In Photo, you create a layer to get this option; in Designer the extend option is not there on a layer, it only appears when one has an object.

 

Win 11 PCs 64bit  Envy and Envy tablet + Filter Forge  Retired computer systems tester doing graphics for charities and politics etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You’re welcome.
Photo works differently in this case as the Gradient Tool in Photo (called Fill Tool in Designer for some reason) has a ‘permanent’ action, meaning that you can’t modify it (as a fill) once applied, unlike in Designer.
P.S. I don’t know if Photo has a “Wrap” setting for Bitmaps fills. I can’t find one on Windows but I don’t normally use Photo for that sort of thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Photo, having created a fill layer and loaded it with a bitmap, it can be resized/rotated etc. [And extend = 'wrap' was what I was using.]
It can be 'reloaded' with a different bitmap by clicking the bitmap option in the menu again. So  yes it can be modified in these ways.
It can even be modified in both these ways after being placed within a mask (eg text filled with a pattern of flowers as was my test case).
It can't have layer effects applied - although it lets you try from the layer 'fx', they don't have any effect 🙂

Win 11 PCs 64bit  Envy and Envy tablet + Filter Forge  Retired computer systems tester doing graphics for charities and politics etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, GarryP said:

You’re welcome.
Photo works differently in this case as the Gradient Tool in Photo (called Fill Tool in Designer for some reason) has a ‘permanent’ action, meaning that you can’t modify it (as a fill) once applied, unlike in Designer.
P.S. I don’t know if Photo has a “Wrap” setting for Bitmaps fills. I can’t find one on Windows but I don’t normally use Photo for that sort of thing.

The tool is exactly the same in each app, except for the different names. (A Serif representative told me that the name Fill Tool could confuse Photo users, so the tool is named Gradient Tool in Photo despite doing fills that are not gradients. I am not joking.)

The tool behaves differently with vector object versus Pixel object, but each app supports both vector and Pixel objects.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love it !   Best intentions and all that....
I am reminded of when I worked with the military.
There was a problem with some small missiles needing to be stored upside down in their storage cases.
An instruction came round to say that "to avoid confusion, the bottom of each case has been marked 'top' "

Win 11 PCs 64bit  Envy and Envy tablet + Filter Forge  Retired computer systems tester doing graphics for charities and politics etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On Windows (don’t know about OS X), when you use the Gradient Tool in Photo (or the Fill Tool in Designer) on a Pixel layer there is no Extend option, and you cannot replace the bitmap or change the Quality. I can understand why you can’t modify the bitmap fill once it has been applied to a Pixel Layer but I think the other options should be given to the user before the fill is ‘baked’ into the pixels. This would make the tool work more similarly on different types of layer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It’s the same on Mac. Using the gradient tool, filling a pixel layer with a bitmap is no different to importing an image, the bitmap option seems to be another option meant for app interoperability not as a tool to be used specifically in photo.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filling a Pixel Layer with a bitmap is different, as I see it, to importing an image as there always seems to be an implied “Extend: Repeat” which, as far as I can tell, can’t be switched off. Not the most useful default as I think most people would prefer “Extend: Wrap”, if anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree Garry -- the extend option etc should be available to pixel layer in Designer for consistency between apps.
A pixel layer in designer, after all, is not a 'layer' in the 'folder' or 'home for other items' sense but is an item.
This discussion has been valuable to me in finding out how transparent png fills can be treated with effects and some quite surprising  (to me ) results 🙂 

untitled.jpg

Win 11 PCs 64bit  Envy and Envy tablet + Filter Forge  Retired computer systems tester doing graphics for charities and politics etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, gw_westdale said:

Love it !   Best intentions and all that....
I am reminded of when I worked with the military.
There was a problem with some small missiles needing to be stored upside down in their storage cases.
An instruction came round to say that "to avoid confusion, the bottom of each case has been marked 'top' "

I recall reading something about that but in my memory the "Bottom marked top..." was actually printed on the devices.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.