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

Suggestion Underline options - confusing dialog


Recommended Posts

Is it possible to offset the underline of text, change the stroke type too, maybe dotted, or dashed? 

1208356825_Capture3.PNG.e25ff56e7298027903cbb201771c0e03.PNG

The interface for Text Decorations is looking like this. 

 

Confusing Dialog

You'd think adjusting the stroke weight would affect the weight of the underline - but this isn't the case - it adds a stroke around the text. 

 

There is no way to adjust the stroke weight of the underline - that or I'm missing something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Dave Harris said:

I'm afraid not. We get the width and position of the underline and stroke from the font metrics, so they are determined by the designer of the font and there is no way to override them.

How do other systems do it then? InDesign handles it quite well, as did Quark. 

Word even allows dotted or wavy lines. I think it's something that would be essential to a lot of workflows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Jeremy Bohn said:

What you're looking for is what InDesign calls Paragraph Rules. I see no evidence of Publisher having this feature which seems like it should be a basic necessity

I think the Affinity term you may be looking for, rather than "rule", is "decoration".

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, Jeremy Bohn said:

What you're asking for is a separate feature from the underline option, which is a text style like bold or italics.

What you're looking for is what InDesign calls Paragraph Rules. I see no evidence of Publisher having this feature which seems like it should be a basic necessity.

 

8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I think the Affinity term you may be looking for, rather than "rule", is "decoration".

 

 

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MickRose said:

I disagree with that. Indesign Paragraph Rules are more like Decorations. But Indesign can directly change the colour, size & offset of underlined text. APub definitely can't do that at the moment.

Exactly this - and quark could do it aswell. I used to underline words in kids books with dots, and apply a rainbow gradient... it was funky and easy to do with Underline.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Jeremy Bohn said:

What you're asking for is a separate feature from the underline option, which is a text style like bold or italics.

What you're looking for is what InDesign calls Paragraph Rules. I see no evidence of Publisher having this feature which seems like it should be a basic necessity.

I had a quick look what people are doing with Paragraph Rules and definetly learnd something new.

And I also realized that what is in InDesign done with an underline (see attached screenshot) is just the characters background color in Affinity. Sometimes it is easier as you think...

Schnappschuss (2018-09-11 09.58.15).jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can APub set character background colour? I thought that was just Pageplus.

"And I also realized that what is in InDesign done with an underline (see attached screenshot) is just the characters background color in Affinity. Sometimes it is easier as you think..."

Windows 10 Pro, I5 3.3G PC 16G RAM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MickRose said:

Can APub set character background colour? I thought that was just Pageplus.

"And I also realized that what is in InDesign done with an underline (see attached screenshot) is just the characters background color in Affinity. Sometimes it is easier as you think..."

Right next to the font color. The same in Designer and Photo.

Schnappschuss (2018-09-11 11.59.17).jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

I come to this thread after I discovered the lack of underline options, specifically offset and stroke thickness. On the current document that brought me to the forums for this question, I just want to adjust the offset for a font that is otherwise good. It looks like I have to go back to hunting for another font. Please add underline options to the roadmap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, garrettm30 said:

On the current document that brought me to the forums for this question, I just want to adjust the offset for a font that is otherwise good.

What font is it? Even if it’s a commercial font, some font designers are happy for users to modify their fonts as long as the modified version isn’t distributed (but you’d have to check, of course, that this applies to your chosen font).

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Alfred said:

What font is it? Even if it’s a commercial font, some font designers are happy for users to modify their fonts

It is Vollkorn.

I hadn't thought about modifying the font itself. If the font were essential, I might look into it (I currently do not have any font editing software). However, I think I do not want to do that for the sake of consistency across systems where the font is used elsewhere.

I cite this as an example of how extra controls on underlining could be useful. The document was originally set in Minion Pro (for some reason), but I need to move away from that since kerning with apostrophe in French is terrible on that font. I always used "optical kerning" in InDesign for that font, which yields better results in such cases.

Affinity is making me weed out the bad fonts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, garrettm30 said:

It is Vollkorn.

I hadn't thought about modifying the font itself. If the font were essential, I might look into it (I currently do not have any font editing software). However, I think I do not want to do that for the sake of consistency across systems where the font is used elsewhere.

Vollkorn is distributed under the SIL Open Font Licence, so you’re free to modify it if you want (and even distribute the modified version, as long as you don’t use the original — or ‘reserved’ — name) but that’s potentially problematic, as you’ve indicated, if you need consistency across multiple systems.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, garrettm30 said:

It is Vollkorn. 

How would you like to change the offset and stroke thickness?

I have been creating a Vollkorn specimen book to demonstrate the OpenType features in LibreOffice.
Vollkorn-Specimen-Book_p01.thumb.png.7c0b29ddbe24488b6f28a9144e390415.png

So you have me curious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I recall, the underline in Minion Pro is acceptable.

I have completed the particular layout about which I was talking earlier. In this thread I was just giving an example of how the feature request for these additional features could be used. In InDesign, if I saw an underline that is not to taste, I would just fix it with offset or altered thickness as necessary, but we don't presently have such an option in Publisher.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I compared Minion Pro and Vollkorn underlining and I see what you mean.
Minion Pro is closer to the baseline and crosses the decenders at a higher point.

I love Vollkorn but as I have become intimately involved with it I have found a few issues.
e.g. for some reason the designer thinks the narrow non-breaking space should be the same width as a regular space (he stated this). That would be a problem in some languages who use it a lot.

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.