Change user interface

[Telfen]

How can I change the colours of the user interface.
I find a grey text on a grey background to be a bad choice making it difficult to read
especially the ruler dimensions

[EdD]

There's some adjustment available through preferences. The next version of AP is supposed to be released around Easter and it's going to offer more options.

[Hokusai]

Preferences/User Interface/

 

 

[Telfen]

Thank you both for your replies. I was aware of this simple adjustment
but wondered if there was something else I was not seeing.

[Robert Cailliau]

Agree!  I want better user interface contrast especially for text.

I'm using Designer as my tool for technical drawings, so this puts somewhat of a slant on what follows.  I would propose:

 

(1) selecting the entire value when clicking in an input field, (especially in the Transform panel), or at least an interface option to choose whether clicking selects all or just places the insertion point.

 

(2) when pressing the tab key in an input field the next field selected should be of the same type. E.g. in the transform panel there are fields for position X, Y and dimensions W, H.  But pressing tab in X goes to W not Y:  the currently implemented sequence is XWYH but I would prefer XYWH.  This tab-order problem occurs elsewhere too I think.

 

(3) switching from text to the move tool by typing v usually inserts a letter v into the text (Illustrator had the same problem).  I know there is no easy solution but I bet most people, even experienced ones, fall into the trap of typing v instead of first command-clicking elsewhere.  I tried to assign a non-text key such as "page down" or "home" but that does not work.  I.e. all keys, even function keys, go into the text and some are then ignored.  The only way out of text now is to command-click elsewhere and then type v.

 

(4) whole numbers for type size.  I set type sizes to mm not points (what an archaic measure "points" are…) but then the list of sizes is not usable, it contains 1.76mm, 2.12mm, 2.47mm, … 101.6mm.  Which are just round numbers in points converted to mm.  Obviously I want a list with something like 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 4mm, … (does anybody ever really want to use letters that are 101.6mm high instead of 100mm?)

Actually, it would be even better if the size list (and some other lists) worked like the type font list:  keeping the values most used in the document at the top.

 

(5) ability to move an object by one of its corners. (have I missed something?)

 

(6) improved snapping. I like the basic ideas of Designer's snapping model very much more than that of Illustrator.  But sometimes there is no indication of which point will be used for snapping and sometimes it snaps not at all.  Also, with snapping on, when starting a polygon with the pen tool, the first point cannot be snapped at all. (or am I missing something?)

 

(7) numeric spline editing.  In Cinema 4D (Maxon) I can edit a spline point by point.  There is a "structure" panel which shows for each point its x,y coordinates relative to the spline's position, and the coordinates of the bézier curve handles relative to those of the point.  This list of numbers can be exported and also imported, which allows me for example to use a spreadsheet to calculate complex shapes accurately depending on parameters and then import them.  Obviously Designer already maintains such a list internally for each polygon.  It would be nice to be able to edit it and import/export it as a tab-separated list.

I used to use Illustrator to drawn shapes, then import them into Cinema4D for 3D work, but now I have to do the inverse…

 

(8) increment/decrement for numeric input fields.  They would profit from little arrows to increase/decrease their values in addition to the pop-up sliders.  I use this feature all the time in Cinema 4D to adjust values precisely.  It could work with the settings of the nudge distance and modifier nudge distance.  Then I could, say, increase by 0.1 when clicking on the little arrows and by 1.0 if holding down the shift key.

 

(9) nudge distances independent of each other.  In fact, I would set the modifier nudge distance to be smaller than the nudge distance, but I can't do that now (for no good reason).

 

:-)

 

(and btw, text contrast on the forums could also improve: the search box is almost unreadable because the two shades of grey are so close.)

[R C-R]

#3: Obviously there is no way to use any keyboard shortcut that normally results in a character being added to the text as a shortcut for anything else. (Otherwise, there would be no way to type that character in the text block.) However, tapping the escape key will take you out of text entry mode while leaving the text tool active & the text box still selected. Clicking the escape key twice in a row will leave the text tool selected but also deselect the text box. But the easiest way to deselect the text block & switch to the Move tool is just to double-click on an empty space in the canvas.

 

#5: what advantage would there to moving an object by one of its corners? 

[A_B_C]

In addition to what R C-R said: you can always click the label of an input field and the entire value will be selected.  :)

[R C-R]

In addition to what R C-R said: you can always click the label of an input field and the entire value will be selected.  :)

Hmmm. For me that works almost nowhere in AD -- so far the only place I have found that it does is in the Stroke dropdown in the context toolbar, & only for Width or for Cap/Join/Miter, with the latter three all selecting the Miter field.

[A_B_C]

Really?? Wow, that works perfectly here … everywhere …  :unsure:

 

Well, don’t be fooled by the appearances, R C-R. The input field sometimes will receive just a blue outline. But once it has that outline, you can simply start typing, and the entire value will be replaced. See below.

 

But goodness, yes. Clicking the label should highlight the value, not the input field … I am going to throw in a bug report here …  :blink: … (which has been moved to Feature Requests) …

 

Alex

[v_kyr]

Hmm, tabbing through the transformation fields (2) behaves different and correct for me here, the flow is XYBH and it jumps from X to Y and in the right order.

 

(8) Increment/decrement of field values works with arrow up/down for me.

 

Clicking a field label shows optically where the focus is and goes, to which input field. It's an indicator for keeping the overview and fastens input.

[R C-R]

I know about the blue outline. But at least on my system, getting it to appear by clicking on a field label often does not work, & sometimes even when it does a different field is selected than the one whose label I click on.

 

I know one of the reasons it sometimes doesn't work in the Studio panels: often when I move the mouse pointer from the workspace into the Studio area, the pointer changes to the double arrow with a vertical line through it (the one used to resize the width of the Studio) & remains 'stuck' in that mode. This occurs most often when I initially move the pointer into an empty space in one of the panels but it also happens frequently when I move the pointer directly into the Transform panel.

 

With the pointer in that mode, clicking on the field label has no effect, but clicking on the field itself does give me the blinking text cursor somewhere in the field's current value. Once I have done that, the pointer reverts to the normal pointer arrow if I move it & I can successfully click on a field label to select all of its contents.

 

Clicking on the field label also does not work correctly in the Studio Color panel when the labels are the one character values for sliders (like R, G, & B or C, M, Y, & K) although strangely it does (usually) in the color dropdown in the Context toolbar. Weirdly, in the Studio panel clicking on any of those one character field labels does not create a blue outline or highlight the field value but typing any number after doing that changes the "global opacity" of the document, according to the Edit menu Undo text or History panel.

 

There are some other anomalies I have not yet completely sorted out, like the click zone for the field label not lining up with the characters of the label or apparently selecting a different field than the expected one. I am not certain what causes this or how to reproduce it reliably, but some of it may have something to do with the OS X System Preferences > Accessibility settings I use. I know the "Increase Contrast" setting (which I use) causes the triangles in the disclosure buttons on the Layers panel to go dark instead of being the same light color as the circle that surrounds them, a confirmed bug I reported long ago, but I have no idea if that contributes  to the label problems I see.

[R C-R]

Hmm, tabbing through the transformation fields (2) behaves different and correct for me here, the flow is XYBH and it jumps from X to Y and in the right order.

For me, the tab order is XYWHRS & back to X. Of course, I have to click on something in the Transform panel first to focus the UI on it or the Tab key toggles the visibility of the UI instead.

 

Incrementing or decrementing field values on my Mac works with either the left/right or up/down cursor keys; using the Shift key changes values in 10 unit steps & using the opt/alt key changes them by 0.1 unit steps; with no modifier key the change is one unit step.

[Robert Cailliau]

Wow.  Thanks all!

 

(3) RC-R:  double clicking to switch from text to move is great.  I did not know.

(5) it would be easier to snap a corner to another corner or point.

 

A_B_C: no, that does not work for me either.  It does in the Transform panel.  And that raises another interface ergonomics point: a selected field in Transform is surrounded by a thin dark blue outline that is almost imperceptible.  I have great difficulty seeing it. The colours of the interface should be settable.  Again I refer to Cinema 4D, where all these things are customisable.  I do understand that some graphic designers sit in dark rooms all day, but I'm using AD for technical drawings and am in a normally lit room.  I would have stayed with Illustrator if it were not that Sierra broke CS6 and I firmly refuse to pay a subscription.

And I tried again but on my machine too clicking on field labels does not work: no blue outline, no nothing and starting to type does not work.

This must be a bug that is similar to the one by which the toolbars disappear when going to separated mode.  I absolutely hate single window (and full screen even more) but I can't have multiple document windows (not on my machine at least) because when I switch to separated mode the tool bars disappear (when I first installed Designer, in Mavericks, this feature did work).

 

v_kyr:  if the flow for you is XYWH, for me it is not.  There are quite a few behaviours that seem to be linked to some settings file being screwed up.  I'll try to reinstall completely this weekend and see what that does.

 

v_kyr & RC_R:  thanks for the arrows tip: that works indeed.  If it is in the tutorials or the manual, then I'm sorry for having raised it. The increment also changes from coarse to fine with the option key.  Good!

 

That leaves (4), (5), (6), (7) and (9).

 

I'll report on a re-install next week.

[Alfred]

(4) Font size preset values such as 101.6 mm are obviously not very useful, but since the dropdown list is a combo you're not restricted to the listed sizes. You can type any value in the box.

[Robert Cailliau]

Yes Alfred, obviously.  :rolleyes: (I hope that was a tongue-in-cheek answer!)

What I'm asking for is that when I indicate I want mm then I also want "round" values.

 

What I have now is similar to a particular idea of going metric:  writing 0.3048m instead of 1 foot and then being surprised that people object.  It's not just literal conversion that's needed for that list to be useful(*).

 

It would also be useful for all lists to show the set of values most used in the document at the top, as is the case for font selection.

Robert

 

(*) therefore going metric means retooling: the sizes of many objects need to be slightly adapted.  A can of peas that used to contain 10floz now must contain 10.144 so as to get a label of 300ml instead of 295.7ml.  And the signpost along the road saying "Edinburgh 12 miles" has to be uprooted and placed 687metres further, then re-painted to say "Edinburgh 20km".  It's no good repainting it "Edinburgh 19km 312metres"  This re-tooling is the only reason the US is still mostly imperial.  But even they have realised that if one uses base 10 to calculate then units had better come in multiples of 10 too:  most 3D printers move in metric steps.  That said, the really good solution would have been to change calculations to base 12 (needing two extra digit glyphs) and then use the metric principle.

[Alfred]

I completely agree about the round values, Robert. I only mentioned typing in the box because I know that some users are not aware that you can do this.

 

As for cans of peas and suchlike, tell me about it! Here in the UK they set up a Metrication Board more than fifty years ago (in 1963, I believe) but it was disbanded before they finished the job. We still have things which used to be sold in one pound packs but are now sold in 454g packs, instead of the pack size being changed to 500g or even just 450g.

[Robert Cailliau]

:-)

This is not for this thread of course, so we should not continue about it, but yes.

Here in shops TVs are marked with cm for their size, but displays are in inches.  Which is actually illegal.

OK, off topic.

[R C-R]

(5) it would be easier to snap a corner to another corner or point.

For snapping, it does not matter where you click on an object to move it with the Move tool. Try clicking anywhere within the selected object's bounding box, or anywhere on the edge of the bounding box besides the eight control handles (nine for Text Frames). Basically, as long as the mouse pointer displays the Move tool icon, it is in its 'move' mode, & whatever snapping options you have enabled will work the same. But the tool also has several scale, rotate, & shear/skew modes that automatically are activated when the pointer moves into/onto the appropriate control handle zone. Just stay out of those zones if you only want to move the object with the Move tool, whether or not snapping is enabled.

 

Regarding Separated Mode, there seems to be an obscure bug that may hide the toolbars (& Studio panels) when switching between normal & separated modes, but I have not worked out how to reproduce it reliably. But regardless, if either or both toolbars are hidden when in separated (or normal) mode, you can unhide them by going to the View menu & clicking on the appropriate 'Show' item. At least on my system, these settings are 'sticky' between app launches -- the visibility settings of these items when quitting the app are retained on the next launch.

 

Also note that the width of the toolbars in separated mode is adjustable & independent of the workspace width in normal mode, & that many UI settings like the customizable Tools panel contents & Studio panel layout & both their onscreen locations are stored independently for normal & separated modes. These settings also are 'sticky' between app launches.

 

Regarding reinstalling the app, this probably won't change anything -- most settings are stored on a per user basis in the user's home folder (in the ~Library/Containers folder), & reinstalling the app will just replace the existing copy in the root level Applications folder with a fresh copy. Try reinstalling if you want -- it won't hurt anything -- but there are several ways of resetting some or all per user settings to factory defaults that may be more effective in correcting any odd behaviors:

 

• Preferences > Miscellaneous has several buttons to reset brushes, fonts, styles, & all other (?) user defaults.

• Edit > Defaults allows factory resetting of the currently selected object tool properties.

• Holding down the Control key when launching the app brings up a dialog box with options to clear or reset various kinds of user data. This is easiest to do with Launchpad or by double-clicking on the app in the Applications folder, but if you have the app icon in the Dock it will also work if you hold down the Control key immediately after clicking on the Dock icon. Using the Select All button sets the 'nuclear' option -- everything will be reset to factory defaults.

 

Be aware that all of these methods will completely eliminate any previous user data they act on (there is no undo for any of them) so it is a good idea to export things like any custom or add-on brush sets, custom keyboard shortcuts, or Assets before using them. 

[R C-R]

I completely agree about the round values, Robert. I only mentioned typing in the box because I know that some users are not aware that you can do this.

Some users also don't realize you can use any units the app recognizes when typing text size values, not just whatever units the document is set to use. To do this, include the unit name or abbreviation along with the numeric value (like "0.1 inch" or "2 cm").

 

Regarding typographic point measurements, they are not as archaic as one might think, but there are many different standards in use around the world (many of them invented by the French). Like it or not, in the digital world the closest thing there is to a 'universal' standard is the so-called desktop publishing point (DTP point), which can only be expressed as a non-terminating decimal number in either the metric or imperial number system!

 

I am fairly sure Affinity uses the DTP point -- if it did not, it would make using documents created with Adobe or most other apps a nightmare. Apart from that, mm or any other metric based whole number units are not very practical for sizing type -- they do not produce fine enough steps for most uses. I think the most suitable one for that would be the "new Didot point (nd)" at exactly 375 µm (vs. the not quite 376 µm of the standard Didot point) but it is such an obscure variant of the unit that I doubt that anybody would be very interested in adopting it.

[v_kyr]

For me, the tab order is XYWHRS & back to X. Of course, I have to click on something in the Transform panel first to focus the UI on it or the Tab key toggles the visibility of the UI instead.

 

Incrementing or decrementing field values on my Mac works with either the left/right or up/down cursor keys; using the Shift key changes values in 10 unit steps & using the opt/alt key changes them by 0.1 unit steps; with no modifier key the change is one unit step.

 

 

v_kyr:  if the flow for you is XYWH, for me it is not.  There are quite a few behaviours that seem to be linked to some settings file being screwed up.  I'll try to reinstall completely this weekend and see what that does.

 

v_kyr & RC_R:  thanks for the arrows tip: that works indeed.  If it is in the tutorials or the manual, then I'm sorry for having raised it. The increment also changes from coarse to fine with the option key.  Good!

 

 

Hmm usually I would suggest that the keyb selection and tabbing flow for on a certain panel used widgets (text fields, buttons, labels, boxes etc.) should probably be overall the same, no matter of language localization. Since one usually when laying out and programming such things for localizations, just change dynamic string contents settings here which don't effect the overall control flow. Meaning you usually don't make an explicite panel for every localized language where things might then accidentally have a different flow. - So I wonder that pressing tab in X goes to W and not Y for the OP here.

 

However, when looking for a list of common used keyboard shortcuts, which I could reuse for that Affinity Keyboard Mapper tool, I've looked over those Serif keyboard shortcuts PDF files and realized that there are differences among certain language localizations and that sometimes also not all available ones are listed at all between the different language layouts (en and de) here. - So I for example just took over what those Affinity keyboard shortcut PDFs listed, even I saw that other sources had sometimes listed additional and/or other mode specific shortcuts instead, or that the Affinity PDFs strangely missed something between the shown localizations etc.  In other words, there wasn't any real trusty exact textual overview available, which then could be easily parsed and put into the needed JSON format structure here. So I took the lazy way and just used what those Affinity PDFs had shown.

[A_B_C]

In fact, I would set the modifier nudge distance to be smaller than the nudge distance, but I can't do that now (for no good reason).

 

Why can’t you do that, Robert? Don’t you have the preference setting below?  :unsure:

[Robert Cailliau]

R C-R: thanks for the move-by-corner tip.  But snapping still can be improved.  I repeat: I love the model, it's just that it does not always work well.

 

The separated mode bug: yes, I have also not been able to reproduce it.  I have reinstalled Designer and it's till the same.  In the view menu both Show Toolbar and Show Contect Toolbar are checked but nothing shows up.  I had already tried that.  Checking/unchecking those items does work when separated mode is off.

HOWEVER: starting with control and resetting "nuclear" did work:  I have the toolbars back in separated mode!  (I really really hate single-window mode for those applications that are used for multiple documents).  So thanks for that tip!

 

As to typing units in value fields: yes, good, and also something that Cinema 4D allows.

 

Typographic units:  there is absolutely no reason for them anymore. Millimetres are sufficient.  And yes, the French did invent a number of them (but note that I'm not French  :)  I just happen to live in France).  BTW, if any of you ever comes by Antwerp in Belgium, do not fail to visit the Plantijn museum.  It's a world heritage site and the house of printer Plantijn.  They have the oldest operating printing presses and the only surviving set of font punches for Garamond:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantin-Moretus_Museum

 

There is a weird thing about font sizes:  they measure the height of a font's capital letters, but there is no indication of the proportion between the upper and lower case letters, and that proportion is different for different fonts.  Thus, if you write a text in a mix of fonts and choose the same size for all, lower case words in different fonts still have different sizes!  Typography is an archaic mess.  Just like aviation.  People are proud to know the messy details because it makes them part of a distinct group, wielding a jargon.  I noticed that when I learned to fly.  But that's off-topic.

 

v_kyr: after re-installing AD, the flow in the transform panel is still XWYHRS on my machine.  This tab order should be independent of language.  Maybe some people would like it differently, but it seems to be logical to group the coordinates and group the dimensions.

 

Rotate: Another thing that needs improving:  when rotating an object by typing in the transform panel it rotates around the point chosen in the transform panel, but when grabbing it by the rotate handle it rotates around the rotation centre.  However, it is not possible to choose the rotation centre in the transform panel, only the nine predefined points (corners, middles of sides, centre).  That makes it very difficult to rotate with precision unless the rotation centre coincides with one of those nine points.  The rotation centre does snap however.

[Alfred]

Rotate: Another thing that needs improving:  when rotating an object by typing in the transform panel it rotates around the point chosen in the transform panel, but when grabbing it by the rotate handle it rotates around the rotation centre.  However, it is not possible to choose the rotation centre in the transform panel, only the nine predefined points (corners, middles of sides, centre).  That makes it very difficult to rotate with precision unless the rotation centre coincides with one of those nine points.  The rotation centre does snap however.

 

Please see this post from MEB.

[Robert Cailliau]

Thanks Alfred.  I read that and tried to see how I could make it work.

Say I have a figure with a rotation point set.  For simplicity, just let's make a rectangle and put its rotation centre P somewhere near its bottom right corner.  I now want to rotate around that point P.

MEB's solution seems to be to construct an auxiliary object so that the point P coincides with one of the nine points of the transform panel.  In his example he makes an auxiliary line which happens indeed to do that. How can I do it for my rectangle?

 

Note another interesting thing: objects snap to parts of other objects, but the centre of rotation is not one of them!  So while MEB could construct that auxiliary line easily in that particular case, there is no way I can get a line to snap to point P.

What I can do:

• make a circle that is sufficiently larger than the object to rotate,
• draw its vertical and horizontal diagonals
• place the object to be rotated so that its desired rotation centre coincides with the point where the diagonals cross.  (this is at best approximate unless it's done from the beginning of the design of the object)
• keep these auxiliary figures with the object and hide them
• to rotate about the rotation centre, first make the circle visible again, select the group, rotate, hide the circle again.

You can't rotate a group as a whole, only its visible parts.

And what a workaround.

[Alfred]

Ouch! I see what you mean, Robert. :o

 

It looks as though MEB's solution only works when the centre of rotation lies outside the shape that you want to rotate. :unsure: