Can the brush overlay be turned off?

[CL Russ]

I understand you can turn off the brush preview in preferences. I want to be able to turn off the white overlay of the brush shape. It gets in the way and I can’t see the preview on complex brushes. Thanks

[stokerg]

Hi CL Russ and Welcome to the Forums,

 

It's not possible at the moment. 

 

I'll move this over to the Feature Requests section of the Forums.

[whitehead]

In truth, I've been banging on about this for months and months without, it has to be said, really any meaningful feedback from Affinity staff - it pains me to say it, but customer support seems incredibly variable and has affected how I view this software. I really want to support a home-grown Adobe-thrasher, but being ignored just doesn't help at all, and I'm reluctantly on the verge of seeking refund. The money is academic: I just don't really want to reward such complacent and disappointing customer service.

My thread over at 

details the state of play in both Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer, but predictably these comments were ignored too.

By way of example, a small issue I had with (let's face it) a competing application - I'll spare their blushes - was responded to with three personal emails within 24 hours. That is how it is done.

Currently, for Windows, the brush engine is not fit for purpose for digital painting. My problem is present on two different machines with entirely different architecture, so I know it isn't anything to do with my configuration. 

[SrPx]

It is a small company in comparison to Adobe (a number of us are aware of this sort of issues since long (and have seen improvements of very large scale, in just months, I can assure it to you), know the trade, and just are prepared to some differences, even lacks, in some cases (for now). You can't get all at once... it's the dilemma: A large company's level of service in exchange of not allowing you to go for a real license purchase and for ever limited to renting stuff of variable price tag (and btw, I've seen how features requests work there...   ), or the old great way, fully purchasing it (at a ridiculously low price), with a small company and its issues (yes, but these are small, sorry. No offense intended, though. I'm a painter, illustrator, comic artist too (professional... money depends on quality, speed, etc)...) and still, I prefer the latter. ).

So, I guess bugs or improvements are attended following an order (surely a roadmap + high priority for total crashes), but again, with limited resources. (also we are on the weekend, I suspect they don't work till Monday, for some sentences I've read sometimes...even if the forums seem to get replies on the weekends, too) . If it were a fatal crash, though, or the like, the issue would become very first priority, running on top of the list for the few developers. That they don't attend own's "preferred" issues is a very common thing in other packages, anyway. And they attend issues on the forums way more than other companies (and with a lot more patience) I've been customer of -or even I have worked at- . BTW, am curious, it seems you have been already user -previous to Affinity- of at least CSP, Art Rage and Painter. Just curiosity... (I myself use Krita and CSP, besides Designer, planned purchase of Photo, after overall very convincing heavy beta test (very intense) with the first windows betas of both, mostly Photo) .Indeed, in my beta times, I made way more detailed posts (lots of images, videos, etc) about issues with the brush engine. Not immediately, not at the following day, it took months, but they have been solving a lot of those issues. (And even adding line smoothing! did not see that one coming). And am sure, certainly not because I asked for it, but, as happened to me in Blender, because one might detect these things faster specially if the issue affects one's professional area, but the developers end up "seeing it" after a long process of different individuals feedback, tests, interaction, and often, the improvements to be applied, need other areas to be attended, before even being possible to solve that particular issue. I mean, sometimes it just need a previous step, is not that they are not willing to make a perfect application in every corner. So, maybe just the roadmap order, or that it needs other library related or whatever, general fix or change.

Also, remember the app is called Photo, (not Art rage, nor Painter, neither Clip Paint Studio) and the other is a vector tool. Is not rare that there is less attention for painting features, and more for photography related ones (and in the other app, for graphic design). I realized that after some time, and it's perfectly right. Each app tends to target a certain audience mostly. Like any product/business does. If  you see, there's obvious majority of Photography related posters (a ton of advanced hobbyists ). And the software has an amazing lot of features related to photography and general image editing. Which is great, because there are several GREAT painting apps already (a  bunch more not even mentioned here), but not so many this complete in professional image editing. Indeed, the business plan, which people tend to forget often, is important. And it all seems to me, and this is just my mere imagination, btw, that they have a huge opportunity with mostly the lowest end (meaning, people not willing to put that much money in the editing tool, not implying being less professional, or poorer, is probably the opposite, in both matters) customers of the "Photography Plan". Not really with diehard fans purchasing the entire suite since...always. Or companies needing the entire suite. Those are other prices and other wider focuses. So, makes a lot of sense their focus on photography. We must not miss that aspect, imo, even if there's zero evidence of what I am saying here (like about most cr4p I speak about... ).  Even more: they come from producing a non-pro (VERY arguable naming it so, though, I've used some of the legacy ones: very capable ) app covering needs in the range of image editing and photography (PhotoPlus). It was not called either Painter Plus, or comic Plus, or... you get it.  

It does not mean there's no focus in painting: Indeed, I believe there's A LOT, happily.  :). Also, I see this more as an alternative "through the time". Wont get a monopoly-killer in 4 weeks. Probably neither in one year more (and in any case, it'd compete always, IMO, as a combination of quality, flexibility and price, not in "raw power"). But give it time and patience, and you will for sure see it improving.  Anyway, I'm in no way connected to them, having the same clues about their roadmap, plans, way of work, internals, etc as you might have...I only say, that patience provides everything. Specially if coupled with using in the meantime other apps while Affinity matures, if really you can't stand some specific lacks in your area. Hey I have my pretty good "arsenal" of tools on my 'digital shelves', and sooner or later, I ended up using all..

 

[whitehead]

SrPx, I absolutely get your point - I've been involved in digital imaging software in one form or another since Quantel Paintbox (!) and I've experienced support from a myriad of companies over the years. I think I understand the scale of the current Serif/Affinity crew (i.e. modest) and my expectations have always been relatively low in terms of support. I think in various posts I have indeed sided with their position, fully taking it on board that the paint angle of both Photo and Designer is unlikely to be foremost in their minds when squashing bugs. The Affinity suite appears to want to tackle every front which is undoubtedly ambitious, and any software with a swiss army knife-like mindset is going to suffer somewhere along the line.

However, I do believe - with the emphasis on the pixel persona in Affinity's marketing - that a pretty basic element of the interface, common really to both packages, should work once out of beta stage. I followed Designer for Windows through its various pre-release tests and it seemed quite clear to me that Designer was released prematurely (the vector-path flickering redraw issue still isn't fixed, for instance) and Photo's release this year was a surprise, given the amount of dev work Designer still seems to need. 

The brush engine is a serious thing Affinity has going for it, particularly in combo with the vector tools: it plugs a gap not filled since Microsoft stuffed Expression and the brush engine itself (subjectively) has to be for me in the top 3 maybe in terms of its user experience. 

I honestly wouldn't have any issue at all if a) both packages were still in beta, and we were all still being used as guinea pig testers, and b) Affinity at least offered even basic feedback to the issues raised, but for whatever reason Affinity have pitched their hat into the Windows ring and have to be judged by that. Obviously in this thread, stokerg did offer a response, but it does seem in ignorance to the probably dozens now of comments elsewhere by me and others on precisely the same issue, including the designer of the Daub suite itself.

Believe me - my comments are actually borne out of my wish to see Affinity succeed. I'm glad they managed to draw a line between the Affinity products and the 'cover disk' Serif era, and there are clearly a ton of features on both Photo and Designer that are game changers. In the fickle game of software development, though, development and customer support have to be given equal support. There is no point developing a show-stopper package when users like me are having to spend time repeatedly flagging an issue in the hope that someone looks at it. And that is from someone who has some understanding of the developer's scale and all that: globally, the sympathy will be far less from those who have purchased a product and just expect it to 'work' alongside their Adobe CC suite and all that.

A year or more for an answer is fine by me - I never expected Affinity to move out of the Apple space anyway - but a response along the lines of 'yes, we understand your problem, we've seen it replicated on x number of machines, send us an error log, we plan to attend to this in Q4 when we're looking properly at the interface' etc. would go a long way. 

Anyway, thank you for your comments, I very much understand where you are coming from.

[SrPx]

I see your point.  Might not agree with all (mostly in the conclusions (I am much, much more optimistic with Affinity and the company), but all is very well explained in the above post), but I share at least the desire of providing the paint field inside the application, all the love and care possible. It is a large market, after all : Illustrators, digital painters (not necessarily same ppl... I'm thinking here mostly concept artists), comic artists (a legion among pros and hobbyists), pixel artists (many pros for that, am one  ) , fashion sketching/illustrating pros, story board artists (yep, whole profession apart), tatoo design artists (a lot of those use vector tools, tho), etc, etc. Not counting also on the fact that for good photo retouching you need excellent painting tools  . And what is very important, and not often mentioned, while Krita (BTW, just recently read from one of the main developers : It is a PAINTING tool, not a general editing tool ! Which is great and wonderful, but also, very important to know. Even while it serves well in other fields, despite that matter. Very far (less complete) from Photo in those other matters, logically.) , Painter,  Art Rage, etc, are superb for painting, they are NOT complete image editors, in the sense of "can compete with Adobe PS" in those features. The amazing thing is: Despite the issues, Photo can.  Simply, those painting tools don't have the focus there. And what is rarely mentioned, but crucial,  is: A lot of illustrators DO need those other features !! Even just for illustration ! Leaving aside the hard fact that any illustrator needs end up doing almost many tasks, not just illustration. If a gig comes which needs image editing, the almost never nice financial situation of an artist does not allow to leave that pass by....I have even been called to just crop some artwork and do levels/curves adjustments !  Dunno if stuff have changed since latest times I used Painter (which is fantabulous) and  and Art rage , but heck, only RGB mode !!! I dunno,  I send stuff to print a lot, and while the world has been taken (dunno if sadly, tho I love that almost anyone can do a printed product today) by POD printers, non cmyk workflows, I still need too often the other, high quality and accurate method. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. There's a ton of other matters .... the power/flexibility in selections, exports, layers handling capabilities, in general, the image editing features, etc. As sweet, gorgeous as Art rage and Painter are, a number of illustrators, we any day would prefer Adobe PS with the right brushes or like my case, just round brushes with certain settings ( I build my several styles so. I don't need any special brushes to render oils-like stuff. And I know is just me. (and certain really amazing and famous artist out there...)), rather than a  paint focused application with "some" image editing features. The triumph of Krita is that is taking more care of those other features (plus the zero cost, of course), is not so one-world-only, Affinity does this too, a lot (ie, the one pixel tool for pixel artists, great addition, I felt very well checking that  .) . And that's the right road if they want to compete with Adobe, don't have a doubt in that. Still, the text tool, layers handling etc, in these matters, and well, almost everything image editing related, Photo is way above than most painting-only tools, even if those are a tad better in its brush system.  And in the vector area, and said with a lot of sadness, as I like Inkscape and Open Source, Designer is way, way above it, too.

 

My main point is : In open source tools, which I used more predominantly before, in 2D (now mostly in 3D), you could wait for ever for a fix of stuff like what you ask for. If the developer wouldn't feel going for it, that'd never happen. Maybe I got by then a bad habit, having a lot of patience, even accepting that if a feature is never developed, opting for substituting that part of the workflow with another tool... Even sth like Adobe PS has had very much needed features (line smoothing, which Photo has added just some months after its initial Windows release) , tons of folks crying for that, mostly in the painting realm, -I've been waiting for that almost since PS 2.0, back in '95.... -  With zero attention to it in...decades. And man, do they have resources and human power... So, we get here a Suite for the price of 1/3 of even some of the _equivalent_ competitors (IMO, Corel, and little more than that can really compete in the full range of pro needs covered (and this if we consider the full purchase a combo including Photopaint and Paint Shop Pro, if not, not even Corel )) , and we get it with some areas still needing some polishing... I'd say I'll loose my patience if the situation continues so still in 2,5 years more. Even so, if by then it serves for me for "a part" of each of a number of projects, am good with that, for the price ! . It is not like the 800 bucks that PS used to cost by itself when forced renting was not yet here... Or the 700ish sth that costs the Corel suite (right now not even sure if includes PSP ! ). 

 

About painting issues. I don't know how much have you been reading the long threads, and beta times etc, I imagine a lot of time... In the threads where I did my own requests -all related to painting- in several occasions was mentioned by the developers that was (most surely, I believe it was not a "promise", but something likely to happen in the future) pending a full brush engine rewrite. I suspect it's yet to happen, reason why probably several fixes would come in avalanche with that. Probably knowing there's that, could be also a reason for giving more priority to Photography related features, for now, besides the obvious heavy reason of the user base so focused in photography, both for the number of posts (but I've been seeing a royal ton of posts related to painting issues, wacom and non wacom tablets, etc... is probably then as crowded with painters as other 2D communities are...) but also for the before mentioned Photography Plan "escapees"  . I can yet though imagine they'd be winning a large number of users (as a pleasant painting experience does the marketing for you  . ppl end up using what works right, that becomes the winner in an area, very fast) if the brush engine and painting stuff had frequent improvements. It has had a number of them already, in quite short time, though. But the whole painting thing has a lot of edges, is a compIex area by its own, in every package,  am not surprised that some aspects are left with probs, yet.

 

I can understand that if you need that fixed asap for working the way you prefer, you can't wait any longer, and you'd move, or have moved already (as business can't wait) to another tool, at least as for using it as your main painting tool. Still, as mentioned before, I see the purchase as a "must have", so I would not regret to have purchased it, in any case, no way. Even if at a point you paint with another tool, and edit with Photo, export with it. Heck, for what it costs... Anyway, I could paint with it very comfortably, after some fixes, and with some tricks. probably not my cup of coffee the color picking system (I'm a total fan of UI-less alt click just for that(programmed in my Wacom pen's side button)) But due to my projects, my combo can end up being painting in Krita and Clip Paint Studio (is what am doing right now), and export to Affinity Photo (and vectors, everything with designer, I have no real probs there) for absolutely everything else.  I'm just saying, once again, the mixed workflows might be better  than a bunch of artists could imagine.... Anyway, if you'd ask me, I'm ALL for Photo getting super powers in the painting area, and doing full projects only with it.    Gotta be cool doing so... :). Anyway, I'm too much in the extreme of the mixed workflow. Even a slight difference makes me trigger a specialized tool, then export and re-import again, and do that cycle as many times as needed or desired. 

 

But totally understand if you get back to Adobe CC subscription. It is all about each person's needs/situation. 

 

[whitehead]

I do broadly agree, but as I say this is more an issue of sheer customer support than, paradoxically, an issue with the application itself. Commenting on an issue once or twice without a response is kind of disappointing but broadly understandable: bringing it to the team's attention on multiple occasions with no resolution (actually, a 'solved' resolution, despite it being far from that) feels, eventually, like a rebuff. It's a sign of disrespect, of the time users take - at their own cost - to help make an application better. 

Inevitably, our exchange has gone on without comment from Affinity and I suspect that once again this thread will be shuffled to the back of the queue. Amazing support goes a long way toward software being adopted, that word of mouth: right now, I'm certainly talking about the software company who 'got straight back', but I'm not talking about Affinity.