matt.baker Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 I am working on a design where the BG is very dark (#222222) and trying to draw shapes with the crosshair cursor is very difficult as I can hardly see it! Could the cursor change its colour based on the background pixels to increase the contrast? See attached screen shot, you can JUST see the cursor. Highly recommended open source screen capture software (useful for bug reports). https://getsharex.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Chris B Posted November 4, 2016 Staff Share Posted November 4, 2016 Hi mattb5906, This has been mentioned a few times. Can you try adjusting your sliders from Preferences > User Interface to see if that helps.I'm sure I saw one of the developers was going to take a look at this. On the Mac, the lines of the crosshair are denser so it is more visible. Thanks matt.baker 1 How to format a bug report | Learning Resources | List of V2 FAQs | YouTube Tutorials Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 What tool is this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Sean P Posted November 4, 2016 Staff Share Posted November 4, 2016 What tool is this? Any of the Marquee Selection Tools in Pixel Persona do it, as do any of the Shape Tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 The white outline appears OK on my screen... What OS are you on Matt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt.baker Posted November 4, 2016 Author Share Posted November 4, 2016 Thanks for the slider suggestion, Chris. Mark, this was on Windows 10 Pro x64. However, having tried this on another PC now (Windows 10 Home x64), the crosshair stands out much more than before. I'll check this again on Monday when I'm back at work to see how my main display is configured (ATI control panel wise) or if the application settings are different in any way. Highly recommended open source screen capture software (useful for bug reports). https://getsharex.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 The white outline appears OK on my screen... Does this ring any bells, Mark? On my system the outline around the cursor for the Shape and Text Tools in the Draw Persona, and for the Marquee Tools in the Pixel Persona, is grey rather than white, so it hardly helps at all. The black and white cursor for small brush nozzles is much better. Alfred 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 More sharing options...
matt.baker Posted November 4, 2016 Author Share Posted November 4, 2016 Third test: Just tried this on my home laptop now and it's back to the difficult to see cursor. I've played with my colour settings on the graphics card profile and now found out that this doesn't affect cursors due to how they are rendered separately from the main screen image. One thing I did notice though, is that the colour picker tool's cursor works well with all backgrounds. Could the shape and text tool's cursor be modified to something that more closely resembles that? Highly recommended open source screen capture software (useful for bug reports). https://getsharex.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 OK, I've just checked the cursors for these tools, and the white outline isn't actually white! At 100%, it's only 30% opaque, and at 200% it's 60% opaque! I'll see about getting these changed to improve visibility. Alfred, Patrick Connor, matt.baker and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt.baker Posted November 4, 2016 Author Share Posted November 4, 2016 Great! :) Thanks Highly recommended open source screen capture software (useful for bug reports). https://getsharex.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Is there any difference between Windows Zoom on your two computers Matt? I'm wondering if it's broken at 100%, but working at 200% (that's what I use, and don't notice a problem)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt.baker Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 Yes, the one where it worked correctly is definitely set to a scaling >100% (think it's 150, but can't be certain off the top of my head). My laptop and desktop work PC are both set to the standard 100%. I'll try altering the scaling in a bit to see what effect it has. Highly recommended open source screen capture software (useful for bug reports). https://getsharex.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Great thanks Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt.baker Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 I've just tried setting the zoom level to 125, 150 and 175% (can't go to 200% on my machine - lucky you with your high dpi screen! :P) and while it did make it easier to see, it still wasn't as good as the colour picker cursor. I also tried a restart of my machine after applying the new settings. The outline looks like it as some transparency as you mention before. Highly recommended open source screen capture software (useful for bug reports). https://getsharex.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Anything under 200% will just use the 100% cursor. I wonder if Windows has some issue with opacity < 50%? At least we have a method to reproduce it, so we should be able to tweak the cursor until it's right :). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt.baker Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 Found the custom text scaling option in Windows. Here are some more test cases: 100% 200% 300% 200 percent looks quite sharp, then 300 goes fuzzy again (guess thats using the 200% cursor and upscaling). Highly recommended open source screen capture software (useful for bug reports). https://getsharex.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Thanks Matt, that's really useful. You're correct about 300% - we don't ship a 300% cursor (only 100% and 200%), so it's just upscaling the 200% version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByronK Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 I found under >Edit >User Interface >Preferences Dialog Box. Make the "Background Gray Level" lighter (move cursor to the right) this will enable you to see the Marquee cross hair in the background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 The cursor is fixed in build 36. matt.baker and Alfred 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt.baker Posted November 14, 2016 Author Share Posted November 14, 2016 Thanks Mark. Finaly got a chance to try the latest .36 build and they are miles better! Tried all of the other tools including the pixel persona ones and those are good as well. The text tool still has the same issue though. Screenshot from .36 build @ 100% Windows scaling: Highly recommended open source screen capture software (useful for bug reports). https://getsharex.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 The text tool still has the same issue though. Screenshot from .36 build @ 100% Windows scaling: Designer_2016-11-14_23-42-06.png Oops! Good catch. Both text tool cursors (Artistic and Frame) are affected. The Artboard Tool needs the same fix. matt.baker 1 Alfred 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 More sharing options...
Mark Ingram Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 OK, we'll need to tweak those cursors as well. Thanks for the reports. matt.baker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt.baker Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 I've recently moved to a high DPI screen with scaling set to 150% and noticed the same problems again with a few cursors. See below capture with the move cursor (good) and marquee cross-hair (bad) Other affected cursors Artboard cross-hair: Shape cross-hair: Both text tool cross-hairs: Highly recommended open source screen capture software (useful for bug reports). https://getsharex.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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