shortcut Brush size and hardness shortcut for windows

[Emskverd]

I read that the windows shortcut for brush size and hardness are holding Alt + Right Mouse Button and then dragging left/right or up/down. However this is not working for me. Am I doing something wrong?

[Callum]

Hi Emskverd

 

You should be able to use the [ and ] keys to change your brush size.

 

Thanks

C

[MEB]

Hi Emskverd,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

Yes, that's the correct shortcut keys but you have to press and hold both the ⌥ (option/alt) key and the right mouse button (keep the right-mouse button pressed as well) then while doing it left-click/drag horizontally to set brush size and vertically to set the brush hardness.

[carl123]

25 minutes ago, Emskverd said:

... Am I doing something wrong?

Yes, you also have to use the left click button as well as the right click button

Just practice getting the order right or grow some more fingers

[Emskverd]

well that helped!  Thanks a lot guys, you've been most helpful!

[juliencollee]

Hi guys

I keep trying to use the shortcut to change the Pixel brush size on Windows (10) with a Wacom (Intuos 5) tablet and pen on Affinity Designer 1.6.5.135 but can't make it work...

I defined one of the pen button to be the right clic. And try to use the Alt-Right-Click+Click (to mimic Alt-LMB-RMB) but I keep activating the Color Picker... My sanity would gladly appreciate any help...

EDIT with solution:

The trick was to NOT define a Right Click on the Pen button but to assign the button with a keyboard modifier (Right Click modifier)!
By setting the button to Keyboard/Modificator/Right Click it WORKS!
I put a picture. It's in french but the idea is there.

Once done the shortcut works.
Can't stop finding this hack unnecessary, dumb, and frustrating...

Hope that helps

Julien

Edited December 27, 2018 by juliencollee
Provided solution

[rorando]

Hey, I just installed version Affinity Photo 1.7.0 on Windows, but holding the right mouse button and the alt key on my keyboard doesn't let me resize the brush.

Do you have some ideas on what might be the problem here?

[bernard1980]

On 12/28/2018 at 5:17 AM, juliencollee said:

Hi guys

I keep trying to use the shortcut to change the Pixel brush size on Windows (10) with a Wacom (Intuos 5) tablet and pen on Affinity Designer 1.6.5.135 but can't make it work...

I defined one of the pen button to be the right clic. And try to use the Alt-Right-Click+Click (to mimic Alt-LMB-RMB) but I keep activating the Color Picker... My sanity would gladly appreciate any help...

EDIT with solution:

The trick was to NOT define a Right Click on the Pen button but to assign the button with a keyboard modifier (Right Click modifier)!
By setting the button to Keyboard/Modificator/Right Click it WORKS!
I put a picture. It's in french but the idea is there.

Once done the shortcut works.
Can't stop finding this hack unnecessary, dumb, and frustrating...

Hope that helps

Julien

BRILLIANT U MAKE MY DAY !!! 😀😀😀

[miguelcoelho]

On 10/10/2017 at 2:49 PM, Callum said:

Hi Emskverd

 

You should be able to use the [ and ] keys to change your brush size.

 

Thanks

C

 

Hello. After several attempts I realized that on windows we have to use Alt key + both mouse buttons simultaneously. To increase / decrease the brush size, we move the mouse sideways. To increase / decrease the hardness we move the mouse up or down.
It works well for me (finally!)
I hope it will be useful for everyone. Stay safe.

[Quentin PRIGENT]

 

"Hello. After several attempts I realized that on windows we have to use Alt key + both mouse buttons simultaneously. To increase / decrease the brush size, we move the mouse sideways. To increase / decrease the hardness we move the mouse up or down.
It works well for me (finally!)"

Hello this is working well but for me it's a loss of productivity when I'm working with my pen. 
It's as fast to do as cliking on the brush size bar and modifying the size manually. Is there any way to increase/decrease the brush size like in Photoshop ? 
You know, when you press alt + right click, when you drag the pen it increase/decrease the size of the brush. 

Thanks ! 

[salvemmi]

On 4/9/2020 at 10:05 AM, miguelcoelho said:

 

Hello. After several attempts I realized that on windows we have to use Alt key + both mouse buttons simultaneously. To increase / decrease the brush size, we move the mouse sideways. To increase / decrease the hardness we move the mouse up or down.
It works well for me (finally!)
I hope it will be useful for everyone. Stay safe.

Miguelcoelho, thanks a lot, after 3 years of disappointment, I am happy someone found the solution. No mention of that in the help section or preferences.

Also Manual and Workbook should be corrected

[zazomazzo]

On 4/9/2020 at 10:05 AM, miguelcoelho said:

 

Hello. After several attempts I realized that on windows we have to use Alt key + both mouse buttons simultaneously. To increase / decrease the brush size, we move the mouse sideways. To increase / decrease the hardness we move the mouse up or down.
It works well for me (finally!)
I hope it will be useful for everyone. Stay safe.

 

On 5/21/2020 at 12:01 PM, salvemmi said:

Miguelcoelho, thanks a lot, after 3 years of disappointment, I am happy someone found the solution. No mention of that in the help section or preferences.

Also Manual and Workbook should be corrected

Hello, I am using the latest version 1.8.5.703 and having troubles using the mentioned key-mouse-combination.
When pressing ALT + left mouse button + right mouse button and moving the mouse all I get is a color picker. The same happens when just pressing ALT + left mouse button and moving the mouse.
It simply doesn't matter if I press the right mouse button too. All I get is the color picker.

 

Edited September 17, 2020 by zazomazzo
Removed attached image, because it was unnecessary and oversized anyway.

[Andy05]

On windows, this usually works: Try to click/press (and hold the keys!) in the following order: [ALT]+[CTRL] -> [right mouse button] -> [left mouse button]. As long as you keep all those keys pressed, you can move the mouse left and right for changing the size of your brush, whilst moving vertically edits the brush's hardness.

And, as @carl123 already suggested, it might be very, very useful if you'd grow yourself some more fingers for this stupidly difficult procedure. But I'm not complaining as it could have been worse (i. e. additionally drawing circles on a touchpad with the nose in order to activate the "shortcut" mentioned above).

[zazomazzo]

35 minutes ago, Andy05 said:

On windows, this usually works: Try to click/press (and hold the keys!) in the following order: [ALT]+[CTRL] -> [right mouse button] -> [left mouse button]. As long as you keep all those keys pressed, you can move the mouse left and right for changing the size of your brush, whilst moving vertically edits the brush's hardness.

Thank you so very much, that did the trick! You are the first one that mentioned the CTRL key.
And yeah, that combination is really ridiculous. Maybe they will change it one day or make it freely configurable within the settings.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Andy05 said:

On windows, this usually works: Try to click/press (and hold the keys!) in the following order: [ALT]+[CTRL] -> [right mouse button] -> [left mouse button]. As long as you keep all those keys pressed, you can move the mouse left and right for changing the size of your brush, whilst moving vertically edits the brush's hardness.

You don't need to hold both mouse buttons if you're running a current Affinity release.

Ctrl+Alt+LeftMouse then drag to change the current attributes that are shown.

Or

Ctrl+Alt+LeftMouse click to change to a different set of brush attributes, then Ctrl+Alt+LeftMouse Drag to change the new set of attributes.

(On Mac, use Cmd rather than Ctrl.) Wrong. See below.

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/Painting/painting.html (See the Modifier Keys section)

[zazomazzo]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You don't need to hold both mouse buttons if you're running a current Affinity release.

Ctrl+Alt+LeftMouse then drag to change the current attributes that are shown.

Thank you for clarification. And yes, I tested it right away and it works exactly as you described it.
So over the last versions they changed it from ALT+LMB+RMB (old) to CTRL+ALT+LMB (new) it seems.

(I am not using it on a regular basis, more like on demand. So I don't recognize every change right away)

[h_d]

40 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

(On Mac, use Cmd rather than Ctrl.)

Generally speaking, for keyboard shortcuts, yes. But not for these brush action modifiers. On Mac, the shortcuts are also control-alt-click and then drag left-right to modify width, or drag up-down to modify hardness. Just to add to the fun, on UK (and possibly other European keyboards) the "alt" keys are labelled option.*

*EDIT: except when they're labelled alt 

EDIT 2 (and slightly more serious): on Mac, with the brush tool selected, holding down ctrl-alt (or ctrl-option) and repeatedly clicking cycles through three options:

Width-Hardness

Shape-Spacing

Rotation

Not sure if this works on PC?

Edited September 16, 2020 by h_d
Amendments and annotations

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, h_d said:

EDIT 2 (and slightly more serious): on Mac, with the brush tool selected, holding down ctrl-alt (or ctrl-option) and repeatedly clicking cycles through three options:

Width-Hardness

Shape-Spacing

Rotation

Yes, that's the way it's supposed to work, and it works the same on Windows.

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, h_d said:

Just to add to the fun, on UK (and possibly other European keyboards) the "alt" keys are labelled option.*

FWIW, on current U.S. Apple keyboards like this Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad model I have, & the latest Magic Keyboard one, the alt key is also labeled "option." They also have wider Escape keys labeled "esc" & all the top row function keys are the same height as the regular keys.

Not particularly magical but an improvement on the older ones.

[Baaaaaaatz]

Never worked for me on a German Keyboard Layout on Win10.

Now I found a solution:
Left mouse Button and the "alt gr" key works. Regular "alt" key doesnt work. Wich is a bummer, since I have my left hand on the keyboard and can only use the alt on the right hand side of the keyboard. Its something at least.