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Hello there,

 

When creating new brushes or modifying existing ones, how is it possible to browse existing textures to use?

A. set texture launches file browser, textures are nowhere.

B. add nozzle, the same.

C. Bitmap fill, the same.

 

(by the way, bitmap fill is in a tool named gradient? really?? why not merging tools and adding tolerance to gradients as well? well.)

 

Wish i am missing something and this is not a giant developer, Ups, we did it again.

 

thanks for replying, in advance.

 

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Hi flatform,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
There's no textures included in the program. In all those cases the file browser opens so you can select a file from a folder where you may be storing your own textures/images on your computer. If you need a preview, change the view in the Finder window to thumbnails so you can see them as images (although for textures i admit it may not help that much since the thumbnails are way to small).

Regarding the Gradient Tool: you are probably using Affinity Photo since this same tool is called Fill Tool in Affinity Designer. Not sure why this was changed for Photo. It's probably an oversight.

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12 hours ago, owenr said:

A Finder window/tab in "icon view" mode can display thumbnails at up to 512 x 512 pixels (or 1024 x 1024 on a Retina display) - there's a slider at bottom right.

It is additionally possible on Macs to use Quick View Look to display images one at a time (by tapping on the spacebar with a file selected in a Finder window) & to view the embedded thumbnail or generated preview in full screen mode by clicking on the tiny button in a Quick View window next to the x shaped close button at the top of the window.

 

It is also possible to set the Finder icon view mode to "Show item info," which for many image file formats (but not the native Affinity one) will show the pixel dimensions of each image in the Finder window, which can be handy for choosing sufficiently high resolution images for textures without having to view each of them individually. It is even possible to search for images that are equal to, are not equal to, or greater or lesser than a specific image pixel height and/or width, but unfortunately this also excludes native format Affinity files from the search results & is more than a little convoluted to set up.

 

I do not know what if any similar aids are available in the Windows versions.

Edited by R C-R
Fixed "Quick View" reference, per MEB

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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11 hours ago, owenr said:

 

A Finder window/tab in "icon view" mode can display thumbnails at up to 512 x 512 pixels (or 1024 x 1024 on a Retina display) - there's a slider at bottom right.

That's only possible from Finder windows directly not from open dialogs inside Affinity apps.

R C-R,
Same thing as my reply above, except for the Quick Look feature (not quick view) which does help for previewing single files one by one using the keyboard keys (not browsing through files)

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1 hour ago, MEB said:

That's only possible from Finder windows directly not from open dialogs inside Affinity apps.

But that does not make it ineffective as a way to browse through the file system looking for texture (or whatever) files to use with the Affinity apps.

 

I frequently use the Finder to look for various kinds of files & then, with the Finder window visible in the background, drag an item or folder from it into the Affinity (or another app's) open dialog. In fact, because in the Affinity apps only the last file path used is "sticky" for all save, save as, open, & place dialogs (which is not very Mac-like) as a workaround for that annoyance I typically use this drag-from-Finder method any time that file path is much different from the one I want.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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6 minutes ago, MEB said:

That's not the point because you can't use an external Finder window to add a texture/nozzle to a brush or select bitmap to use as a fill for example.

??? I can use this method to select a bitmap to use as a fill -- I sometimes use it several times a day in AP.

 

I can't use it to add a texture to a brush only because the open window for adding that annoyingly hides as soon as I click outside the app, but I can work around that by preselecting the "sticky" file path, for example by selecting a bitmap fill -- even if I cancel that without selecting anything, Affinity retains that file path, as it does for regular open, save, etc. operations.

 

I have no idea why the various Affinity open dialogs don't all work the same way, but my intent here is, as always, to share what I have learned that makes the apps easier to use. I quite intentionally do not limit that to narrowly defined use cases because I have no way of knowing if those are the only ones another user reading a topic might encounter or if it might be useful to them in a related but broader context.

 

When other users do this it helps me learn a lot that I would not otherwise know anything about. I am just trying to do the same thing as a sort of "thank you" to them & everybody else who contributes to these forums. I hope other users will do the same. 

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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2 hours ago, R C-R said:

??? I can use this method to select a bitmap to use as a fill -- I sometimes use it several times a day in AP.

 

I can't use it to add a texture to a brush only because the open window for adding that annoyingly hides as soon as I click outside the app, but I can work around that by preselecting the "sticky" file path, for example by selecting a bitmap fill -- even if I cancel that without selecting anything, Affinity retains that file path, as it does for regular open, save, etc. operations.

Hi R C-R,
I'm referring to the open dialog that appears when you select a Bitmap as a fill for the Fill or Gradients Tools (depending on the program) - there's no way to see the files there other than choosing thumbnails (or using the Quick Look). As for using workarounds like the sticky path for this - there's obviously no problems with that - but these don't address the problems directly and shouldn't be considered a solution for the specific issue that the user is reporting/questioning. I assume the user know how to use the OS and Finder in particular to search/browse for the files he is looking for using an independent finder/browser window.

This has nothing to do with limiting the issue to "narrowly defined use cases". The user is not asking advice on how to solve a particular design/project issue. It has do to with addressing/acknowledging a workflow issue inside the program that may cause problems for users in general when selecting a file inside the application no matter if there's external solutions available/current workarounds or not. The use of such solutions or workarounds doesn't make the application any easier to use. It's just a way to work around the problem. While it's obvious fine (and desirable) to share them, i still have to be concise regarding to what features/functionality we actually have available in the program, otherwise how can i report them to be improved? Ideally it would be nice if the slider was also present/available inside the open dialogs in Affinity.

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3 minutes ago, MEB said:

As for using workarounds like the sticky path for this - there's obviously no problems with that - but these don't address the problems directly and shouldn't be considered a solution for the specific issue that the user is reporting/questioning.

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree about that. To me, a solution is a solution, even if it involves a workaround that is not "inside" the app. I find this particular workaround does indeed make the app considerably easier for me to use but I leave it to other users to decide for themselves if it would for them. I make no assumptions about that or about how much they might know about other OS-specific features -- as I said, I have no way of knowing that!

 

I do understand that you need to be concise when you talk about what features & functionality are actually "inside" the apps, but please take into consideration that we ordinary users do not. It is a big part of what makes participating in these forums so great -- it doesn't matter much if something is inside the app or not, or if it only applies to the Affinity apps or to other apps as well. If it makes anything easier to do it still is useful to learn about it.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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1 hour ago, MEB said:

It matters because improving/fixing workflow issues inside the app prevents users from relying on workarounds to solve these problems which are usually less effective than a proper solution.

If these "proper solutions" could be made available quickly, they would indeed most likely be the most effective ones. But realistically, that is unlikely to happen, leaving us with the choice to rely on workarounds if & when they are effective for us, or to put up with the problems until such time as a "proper solution" that works for us is released.

 

It is a choice each of us should make for ourselves, based on our own needs & preferences, immediate or otherwise.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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On 8/28/2017 at 10:31 PM, MEB said:

There's no textures included in the program.

 

Hello, thanks for answering. What do you mean there are no textures included in the programme? Every Brush has one or multiple heads and a Paper Texture. What if i like one Paper Texture in one brush and want to try it in another brush? What about filling with Textures?

 

All these Textures (brush heads, papers) should be available in an actual folder to browse from or at least available as a library from inside the programme.

 

Having used tons of graphic application that work as such, i find no reason to keep these Textures obscured from the user, if that is the case.

 

If that is the case, i urge the developers to change it and give us the opportunity to inspect (resolution, quality etc.) and creatively reuse (in other brushes, as fills etc.) all these textures.

 

Anything else, feels not logical at all.

 

We try to support Affinity and promote it, but such things feel very like talking about a tablet toy, and not a full pledged, desktop application that can compete photoshop, which in some cases, it can, that is why it is more of a pitty.

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  • 3 years later...

Hi, any update on this thread? There hasn't been a reply and I'm also trying to find where the texture / brush heads are located within affinity. I'm attempting to make a new brush using a mix of brushes already inside the program, but can't figure out how to extract the files in those brushes.

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29 minutes ago, EpicBlob said:

There hasn't been a reply and I'm also trying to find where the texture / brush heads are located within affinity. I'm attempting to make a new brush using a mix of brushes already inside the program, but can't figure out how to extract the files in those brushes.

All the information about brushes is stored in raster_brushes.propcol or vector_brushes.propcol, located in the user preferences directory for the respective Affinity application. The format of that file is not documented.

You can export brush categories into a .afbrushes file. The format of that file is also not documented.

No mechanisms are provided to extract the information you're looking for. You might find a request for that in the Feature Requests forum, or you could create your own.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
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