Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Recommended Posts

Any new thoughts on this? Are you buying up Astute Graphics to get all their cool plugins straight into AD?  :ph34r:

 

I thought some more about the line/ stroke width tool in AD as it is.

What makes it "not work" for me is that it takes way too many steps/ actions before I can get going.
And once you've started, if you want to do another line you have to go through all the same steps again. 

 

In AI

 

Steps needed.

  • Shift + W shortcut
  • Edit any point / width on any line 

You get direct feedback to what you're doing, while not needing to move to any menu bar and open multiple things. You stay "in the creating zone".

 

Steps needed to continue editing other lines.

 

  • None  :rolleyes:

Once you entered the line width mode with the shift + W shortcut you're good to go. You've entered the realm of uninterrupted

 

In AD

 

Steps needed.

  • Select the line you want to adjust
  • Click the linewidth bar on the top of the screen 
  • Click the pressure bar in the next popup
  • Select/ add a point on the pressure curve

Then it's looking at the curve and then looking at your line, what is my action giving me as a result.

 

Steps needed to continue editing other lines.

  • Select the line you want to adjust
  • Click the linewidth bar on the top of the screen 
  • Click the pressure bar in the next popup
  • Select/ add a point on the pressure curve

 

That's a lot of moving/ clicking / time difference.

Especially when you use the function a lot.

I think as a user you want to see / click through as less interface as possible, staying with / on / in your art environment. 

 

Might be insightful to have 2 people in your office make a illustration based on an example with a lot of different lines (sizes/ lengths / positions).

One in Ai and one in AD, have them sit next to each other and film / watch every move they make.  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hello tigerchick,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

This is still being worked on. It requires considerable changes to the code, so it may take a little.

Bear with us while we get there.

Thanks for your super fast response!  I took a look at the pressure graph tool and I think it will be ok for the simple job I have in the meantime - looking forward to the new tools though!  Thanks again

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

Hi, I was just wondering if you had any updates on this?  

I was using Sketch to achieve this but they just removed the tool entirely!  Now I'm having to look for alternatives in a hurry - hence I found Affinity - and don't want to fork out for Illustrator.  Would be great if you're able to help!

 

Sorry to be a silly-billy, but which tool in Sketch lets you (or rather, used to let you) affect the width of a vector line? I've not found it yet? Feel like I'm missing out!?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems they removed it...

Sketch started as a Vector Illustration tool, but switched rapidly to a UI Design tool...

So I suppose they are removing unused functions.

 

I'm not so happy with this sort of decisions...

Yep - it's gone. It made me furious too as I shelled out $100 to upgrade to v3 recently. Then on the sly through an app store "update" they removed the one tool I actually use all the time (for logo design stuff) . Not cool - especially as there is no way to downgrade. Oh well - at least I found Affinity Designer!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep - it's gone. It made me furious too as I shelled out $100 to upgrade to v3 recently. Then on the sly through an app store "update" they removed the one tool I actually use all the time (for logo design stuff) . Not cool - especially as there is no way to downgrade. Oh well - at least I found Affinity Designer!

 

Me too... I can hardly bear such sort of decisions...

If you improve the workflow and find a better way to do the same thing it's ok, no matter if I need to learn this new approach.

But if you remove something and don't replace... It's a downgrade to me.

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep - it's gone. It made me furious too as I shelled out $100 to upgrade to v3 recently. Then on the sly through an app store "update" they removed the one tool I actually use all the time (for logo design stuff) . Not cool - especially as there is no way to downgrade. Oh well - at least I found Affinity Designer!

 

Just an FYI, I asked Sketch customer support about it, and this is a feature they will be bringing back.

 

YzdiVa2.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...
  • 10 months later...

I too would love this feature to be implemented. For illustration, precise control over variable stroke width is a must.

In the meantime I can appreciate the pressure tab workaround, but for larger lines or illustrations this isn't really viable.

 

One possible idea would be to have a visual indicator visible along a path to edit a width profile. These changes

could be made then updated in the profile window also. As mentioned earlier in the thread, abrupt changes in the width
could be mitigated by adding anchors to the profile points, and along this path indicator. One problem with Adobe's Illustrator

implementation is the sometimes unpredictable behaviour of stroke width that occurs at tight corners on a path. Perhaps

adding a parametric option to the pressure/width profile editor would eliminate this problem.

 

Looking forward to how this goes! Buying my windows license this week :3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't know this topic existed. The width tool is a great tool. I too really want this, and I'll explain why. When multiple shapes are closed, it can be difficult to determine where the paths started when working in the Pressure window. Therefor, knowing where to have the line be skinnier or thicker takes a little long to figure out. A width tool would be able to do it manually. I hope Affinity does pull it off, because I never liked the limitations of it in Illustrator. No brush lines and no live paints.

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...
  • 2 months later...
6 hours ago, MEB said:

Hi Bubily,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

No, sorry. There was several improvements to the app since then but there wasn't changes here yet.

 

Right, well that's a bummer. Stroke width tool, shape builder tool and Photoshop's rotate canvas tool are probably the most important things missing from Designer for me (and probably many others).

 

Do you have any estimate when these tools might get implemented? It's already been 3 years since just the width tools has been mentioned heresooo.. yeah

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, Bubily said:

...Photoshop's rotate canvas tool are probably the most important things missing from Designer for me

 

For this much, you can assign keyboard shortcuts for canvas rotation, and you can enable finger gestures if you have a touchpad. I hope this helps.

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, bleduc said:

 

For this much, you can assign keyboard shortcuts for canvas rotation, and you can enable finger gestures if you have a touchpad. I hope this helps.

 

Didn't know that. I'm used to taping the R key in photoshop all the time and rotating the canvas with the mouse. I guess I gotta give a shot to the custom shortcuts thing then. Many thanks 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.