Stephen_H Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 I opened a PDF into Affinity Designer and saw something I didn't recognize or understand its purpose. There is a thin blue line between 2 layers. I can't select it, right click on it or any other number of alternate keyboard modifier key clicks. I also can't see any difference that it might be making to the document. It's not like everything above it is locked or invisible or indicating a clipping layer. It also seems to be attached to the layer above it as it moves when I drag layers around. Please can someone educate as to what it's for. Hopefully it's some awesome hidden feature I know nothing about, and not just a glitch from the PDF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted February 15, 2017 Staff Share Posted February 15, 2017 You can change the colour of a layer and this will affect the colour used by the tool when objects are selected on this layer. Simply right-click the layer and choose 'Properties' and you can see that the layer colour can be changed. If you select an object on that layer, you should find that your tool colour changes accordingly. This makes it easier to spot which layer you're working on, or to set a very obvious layer colour that's different to the content you're designing. Hope that helps, Matt Michael Sheaver 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen_H Posted February 15, 2017 Author Share Posted February 15, 2017 Ah-hah! That is a nice feature. I often struggle with the bounding box handle colour – it's too similar to sky so changing the colour is very useful. Putting that colour indication under the layer isn't obvious or intuitive because it doesn't look like an attribute of the layer above it, but rather the way the top layer interacts with the layer below. A thin line at the end of the layer would've made more sense and be more obvious. Like this screenshot: Rivka, AshTeriyaki, bures and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted February 15, 2017 Staff Share Posted February 15, 2017 Can't say I disagree.... and it does look nicer... :) Stephen_H 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCamachoDesign Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 This is pretty cool, I never noticed I could do this. A suggestion though, can the colours be randomized for each new layer created? That way we don't have to change each layer, which is time consuming, and makes this feature more obvious. I also think Stephen's idea of how to display the layer colour is much nicer. Thanks! Stephen_H 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen_H Posted February 15, 2017 Author Share Posted February 15, 2017 A suggestion though, can the colours be randomized for each new layer created? I think that would drive me crazy. I like consistency and uniformity. If my layers were suddenly pink and green and yellow I'd end up manually changing them back to a single preferred colour. Can I suggest, to speed up changing the colour, could we rather have a few colors as swatches as a quick-select. The custom colour mixer can still be in the Properties, but for a really quick 'n simple colour change, this would be nice. JokeRat 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JokeRat Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 +1 to both suggestions (line on the end, color quick selects) from Stephen! Very well thought through Stephen. Stephen_H 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 +1 to both suggestions (line on the end, color quick selects) from Stephen! Very well thought through Stephen. +1 (agreed!) Stephen_H 1 Quote ♥ WIN 10 AD & AP ♥ Lenovo Legion Y520 15.6" Laptop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogosByDim Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 I'm also for the line being on the right vertical side of the layers I still can't understand how the blue lines below each layer in the layers panel works. If the line appears only when I'm working on a current layer, why do I have blue lines on every layer in my document? Does someone know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogosByDim Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 Oh I figured out the meaning behind the horizontal line beneath layers. Here it is for those who also want to know. The blue line beneath each layer indicates the color of the "selection lines" that appear around the object when selected with the Move Tool. Here is an example where I changed the color of the layer to dark red using: Right-click a layer → Properties → Click on the current color to change it. Only layers will have such a line beneath them. Thank you @MattP for the explanation, it just took me some time to figure it out. Old Bruce, MattP and h_d 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazmondo77 Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 I like the way it currently works, as putting it at the side would be too much and a little hard to flag when you use colour to identify items and groups - the way it currently works makes it obvious to differentiate layers and groups which is great for us thicko's Quote Mac Pro Cheese-grater (Early 2009) 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC Ram, Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5, Ugee 19" Graphics Tablet Monitor Triple boot via OCLP 1.2.1 - Mac OS Monterey 12.7.1, Sonoma 14.1.1 and Mojave 10.14.6 Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo 1.10.5 - 2.2.1 www.bingercreative.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogosByDim Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 16 minutes ago, Dazmondo77 said: I like the way it currently works, as putting it at the side would be too much and a little hard to flag when you use colour to identify items and groups - the way it currently works makes it obvious to differentiate layers and groups which is great for us thicko's I do agree with that now. My previous opinion was because I wasn't fully aware of the functionality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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.