New user, some questions...

[Alcane]

Hello all.

 

I recently purchased Designer. Looking to eventually to replace Illustrator with it. Realistically I'll have to become a lot more fluent with the program before using for live projects to ensure no disruption to my workflow. There are a few immediate questions I have whilst initially browsing with the UI and workflow of the program.

 

When I create a new document, do I have to create artboards using the tool?

- I see no way to do this automatically

 

Is there a way manage artboards like in Illustrator?

- At the moment it seems like I cannot view the active artboards without clicking on the workspace

 

I've added a bleed to my document but I'd like to see the bleed line, how do I display this?

- Illustrator displays a red line when I apply bleed in File/Document Setup

 

I've read Live Trace isn't available at the moment. Is this a long term omission or will this feature be added?

 

More questions I'm sure will follow. In the meantime I'll be spending my time going through all the tutorials on Vimeo attempting to get up to speed...

 

Thanks

Stuart

[MEB]

Hi Stuart,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

1. No. You can check the Create artboard checkbox when you create a new document right below the Document units dropdown on the top section. You can also just create a regular non-artboard document if you don't need them.

 

2. No, you have to select/click the artboard (if its empty) or the object(s) inside them on canvas to make the artboard "active". Alternatively you can also select it from the Layers panel or clicking on its name on canvas (on the top left of each artboard)

 

3. Currently there's no bleed preview. This will be added in a future update/version. Meanwhile you can use a stroked rectangle (with document + bleed dimensions) to simulate the bleed preview.

 

4. We do plan to implement auto trace if its output quality is up to what the dev team aims/expects. 

[eddiekimeera]

Hi.

 

We've also taken the leap as a studio with ditching Illustrator/Photoshop in favour of the Affinity products, but really struggling with things like no bleed preview and guides that don't lock. I've seen lots of comment about these coming in the future, but is there any indication of when please?

 

 3. Currently there's no bleed preview. This will be added in a future update/version. Meanwhile you can use a stroked rectangle (with document + bleed dimensions) to simulate the bleed preview.

 

I've created a stroked rectangle 303mm x 216mm (stroke is 3mm/8.5pt) and placed it on my A4 artboard, but the stroke doesn't appear as its off the artboard. If I make the document 303mm x 216mm I can see it of course, but then the trim marks when outputting it to PDF is now incorrect, because the dimensions are now not right. What am I not getting.

 

Thanks.

[MEB]

Hi eddiekimeera,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

You have to drag the rectangle layer (to simulate the bleed preview) to outside the artboard layer to be able to see it. By default objects placed over the artboard on canvas are automatically moved to inside the Artboard layer in the Layers panel clipping their content when they cross the artboard's boundaries. Moving the rectangle layer to outside the Artboard's layer will prevent this from happening keeping the rectangle visible.

[eddiekimeera]

Sorry MEB, thanks for the reply.

 

All makes sense now. It's a great app. Have you produced any guides that help with the transition form Adobe etc? 

 

Thanks

[MEB]

Hi eddiekimeera,

No, there's no such guide available but we do have an extensive set of video tutorials and a complete Help file covering everything in detail. There's also the official Affinity Designer Workbook which is project based and contains a set of tutorials for several types of projects step by step from beginning to end with sample files to help you follow along. Hope it helps a little. Feel free to post/ask questions on the forum whenever you find trouble.