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Ideas for Designer 1.7


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With 1.6 recently released, I would like to propose ideas for the next (or a further future) release. This is of course a lot to implement, but this topic is meant to share individual ideas that could possibly be added. Of course, that is all up to Serif. I was trying to think of features not actually in any other vector drawing program (with the exception of the last) but could still come very handy. This is what I came up with. I hope you like them. 
 
Gap Tool
Painting over a stroke region of a shape will hide the stroke of that region. It works similar to a mask. You can add and remove part of an erased region (Add and Subtract modes), but it will keep the fill as remained, and it will keep the strokes with the proper end caps. (This tool only works with strokes.) Just like the Gradient and Transparency Tools, this editing can be removed at any time.
 
There is a way to currently do something similar, but it is does not have the same advantages.
 
 
 
screen_shot_2017_01_08_at_6_02_37_pm_by_leduc_gallery-dauqcjs.png.5a83b8f589dda8af5de15090ad3379c5.png
 
 
Track Tool
This is another idea to add changes to a “region” of a stroke. This tool comes with a list of line presets (wavy, hairy, bubbly, zigzags). By brushing over a region of a stroke, that region of the line will update to that preset. This doesn’t just show two line presets on the same line, but it shows them forming as the fill stays in the boundaries. There is also a slider to adjust the distance. And changing the stroke pressure would adjust the size. This would be good for smooth water with a ripple effect in one spot.
 
Parallel Tool
This tool looks like a horizontal line with two small vertical lines on the ends. You must select at least two objects in order to use it. It will calculate the distance between the shapes followed by a slider to adjust the distance. While changing the distance, the shapes will either get closer or get pushed away. If three or more objects which are different distances are used, they will automatically be realigned. This tool would come in a “Space” mode and a “Trim” mode. The Trim Mode would adjust the distance by trimming the shapes, and not pushing them away or further. Of course, you would not be able to increase the trim pass the default shape size. (The different shapes must have a parallel region in order for this tool to be used. In doing so, the tool will adjust the distance from that parallel angle.)
 
Auto Color Studio
This is the idea to introduce a new tab that shows all colors of objects selected. By changing a color through that tab changes all selected shapes that use that color. For this, you can change the color from either that selection, or the whole document, but it must be the "exact" color properties.
 
A feature in TVPaint gave me this idea.
 
 
 
 

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When drawing with a tablet, I would like to have:

 

Brushes list - names

Show brush names permanently inside the preview area instead of the rollover tooltip.

 

Pencil or vector brush tool - close curve

An option to auto close the curve when coming back to the first node - snapping to the first node.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Maria said:

Pencil or vector brush tool - close curve

An option to auto close the curve when coming back to the first node - snapping to the first node.

 

Yes on that. I do sometimes drag the end point to snap in, but then the shape deforms.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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8 hours ago, Peregrin said:

As long as we're all just throwing things out there,

 

As far as I know, that's okay, since we are all just sharing ideas.

 

Quote

I'd like to add that one of your suggestions is something I've been requesting for a while: a roughening operation for vector paths.  I'd just like to say that such a feature usually functions based on a very simple algorithm called "midpoint displacement."

 

That would come so useful for objects with furry textures and such, and I agree with that topic. My only concern is how that would affect the fills. Currently, if we add a custom vector brush with perhaps a zigzag shape, there are gaps between the stroke and fill.

 

Not to just advertise my channel, but since we're talking about ideas, I came up with others. In another topic, someone mentioned the Adobe Illustrator plugin suite, Astute Graphics. I remember I used to use one of their products, DynamicSketch. The features in that plugin worked great at the time, and I think similar functions in Designer (without having to install a plugin) would really speed up workflow. This is my idea on how such tools could be implemented without hassle. (I know a vector eraser has been requested many times, but this function is a little different.)

 

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Please please these:

 

Pattern fill

Would be very nice to be able to use pattern fills next to gradient/solid fills. 1st step maybe a preset (lines, dots, grids) and later on custom.

 

Artboard title/border marking

I typically copy a lot of artboards to keep track of older versions and decision making. Next to that, each 'current' artboard could have several states/views. This results in quite a lot of artboards from which a lot are dismissed or not yet decided upon. I'd love to be able to either change the border of the 'current' versions or perhaps change the colour/background of the artboard titles.

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6 hours ago, MatthijsR said:

Pattern fill

Would be very nice to be able to use pattern fills next to gradient/solid fills. 1st step maybe a preset (lines, dots, grids) and later on custom.

 

For this one, you can create patterns from bitmap images, but of course, they wouldn't be vector.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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2 hours ago, Bri-Toon said:

but of course, they wouldn't be vector

I would say that is the problem.

 

we are working in a vector space in designer and it is an advantage when we can so as much as possible in vector space.

 

also another reason why it's sad that many awesome things like texturizer come as pixel-brushes.

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I agree. I just wanted to point that out. If they follow a technique similar to the DrawPlus x8 approach of symbols and replicating, that would work much nicer.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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I wish there were a way to remove blend mode and render it as normal fill when you perform booleans. I just made a series of art pieces testing there features and I could not quite nail it down. Sometimes I could reduce blending, sometimes blend effect just disappears, sometimes blend stays the same. I did try saving with old PDF levels and also exporting resulting PDF from InDesign to PDF 1.3-1.6. I guess I keep experimenting.

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On 2017-11-14 at 7:04 AM, Bri-Toon said:

That would come so useful for objects with furry textures and such, and I agree with that topic. My only concern is how that would affect the fills. Currently, if we add a custom vector brush with perhaps a zigzag shape, there are gaps between the stroke and fill.

I wasn't actually talking about brushes that simulate that effect; I'm suggesting something that actually changes the vector points on the path itself.  Inkscape can already do this, but it would be great not to have to go through the trouble of converting an Inkscape vector image to an Affinity one.  I don't think fills would be a problem, as this is how it works in Inkscape.  I also think one should be able to define the seed manually so lines don't always end up looking the same (which has been the problem with Perlin Noise).

 

roughen-nodes-tut.png

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13 hours ago, MatthijsR said:

I'd love to be able to either change the border of the 'current' versions or perhaps change the colour/background of the artboard titles

 

@MatthijsR You can do this now…

 

5a0cd1c2e48e3_AffinityHighlightArtboard.gif.906beeb2ac187c7daeacc12fb1352eec.gif

  • Create a rectangle the same size as your Artboard
  • Give it a nice thick stroke, set Align Stroke to Outside
  • Now draw the Rectangle outside of your Artboard
  • Finally Group it with the Artboard so that they move / resize together.

 

 

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6 hours ago, Peregrin said:

I wasn't actually talking about brushes that simulate that effect; I'm suggesting something that actually changes the vector points on the path itself.

 

Oh, well then I'm down.

 

On the other part you said about perlin noise, I didn't understand that topic since I'm not as familiar with filters.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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I know you have a dimensional display between elements.

My suggestion is a dimensions/resize tool for a selected element, a point in case would be a 6 sided polygon. The polygon can be dimensioned/resized from apex to apex but it would be nice to be able to resize using selective dimensions like those shown below.

I have just worked out how to do the horizontal dimension i.e. by default the bounding box is based on the height of the element so you have a gap left and right of the element, by converting the element to a curve the bounding box clamps to the width as well as the height which now enables accurate resizing along the horizontal plane but it would be nice to be able to resize by the 6 facets (the external vertical arrow)

 

5a0d5e798e023_polygondimensionexample.png.90e1ba5b81f487b06ffb5030b493d82d.png5a0d5f6624930_polygondimensionexample2.png.b9c5937560bd1c8511400e285d9e7b07.png

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13 hours ago, firstdefence said:

by default the bounding box is based on the height of the element so you have a gap left and right of the element, by converting the element to a curve the bounding box clamps to the width as well as the height which now enables accurate resizing along the horizontal plane

 

By default the base box of a hexagon drawn with the Polygon Tool is based on the height of the shape, but if you press the '.' key on your keyboard you'll see the bounding box (which hugs the shape as closely as possible). The width value displayed in the Transform panel changes as you switch between the two views.

 

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On 2017-11-15 at 9:24 PM, Bri-Toon said:

 

Oh, well then I'm down.

 

On the other part you said about perlin noise, I didn't understand that topic since I'm not as familiar with filters.

What I meant was that the fractalized path should be truly random and not just repeat the same contours.  At the moment, when you use a Perlin Noise filter it always looks the same, but it needs to be random so patterns don't repeat noticeably.

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On 2017-11-17 at 3:48 PM, avicenna said:
  • Blend objects
  • Select similar objects

I think Affinity designer can look at the Inkscape features. And, since Inkscape is open source, Affinity can use Inkscape's algorithm instead of creating everything from scratch.

 

Inkscape certainly has a lot of features that Affinity should think about adding.  Of course, if Affinity added these features it'd probably do them better than Inkscape, which is a bonus.

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6 hours ago, Peregrin said:

Of course, if Affinity added these features it'd probably do them better than Inkscape, which is a bonus.

 

I lie down my money for this.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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