How to Increase Canvas Size?

[ADJusacruiser]

Whenever I start a new page, my canvas is about the size of a postage stamp.  How do I make my working area bigger??

[firstdefence]

Are you talking about the size of the document area or how the document looks in the workspace?

The former can be changed by going to File > Document Setup... On the Dimensions Tab change the Dimension settings to your required dimensions, you can also change the unit type from Pixels to, millimetres, centimetres, metres. and points, inches, feet and yards. https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/GetStarted/DocumentSetup.html

The latter is just a matter of zooming in or out, press the <Z> key to select zoom, once you have the document to your desired zoom level press the <V> key to select the Move Tool. https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/GetStarted/zoom.html

[Fixx]

Possibly OP is referring to this infuriating bug: New document just start in too small window: 

This affects all Affinity software. I suppose Affinity uses the screen size of laptop built in screen and ignores the main screen size.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Fixx said:

This affects all Affinity software. I suppose Affinity uses the screen size of laptop built in screen and ignores the main screen size.

I assume from your screenshot you mean opening a new document window while the app is in Separated mode. If so, on my 27" iMac, the window opens to about ½ the total screen size. That is many times larger than any postage stamp I have ever seen!

[ADJusacruiser]

6 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Are you talking about the size of the document area or how the document looks in the workspace?

The former can be changed by going to File > Document Setup... On the Dimensions Tab change the Dimension settings to your required dimensions, you can also change the unit type from Pixels to, millimetres, centimetres, metres. and points, inches, feet and yards. https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/GetStarted/DocumentSetup.html

The latter is just a matter of zooming in or out, press the <Z> key to select zoom, once you have the document to your desired zoom level press the <V> key to select the Move Tool. https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/GetStarted/zoom.html

Oops....I can see where that screen shot could lead to some confusion.  I was talking about how the document looks in the workspace.  So to adjust the size of the workspace, I just zoom in or out??

[firstdefence]

7 hours ago, ADJusacruiser said:

So to adjust the size of the workspace, I just zoom in or out??

yes

[hifred]

Something else: Is there a good reason that one can not change the canvas size with numerial (pixel) input from within the Crop Tool? I do this all of the time in Photoshop.
In Affinity there's pixel fields (when Crop is set to unconstrained) but it unfortunately read-only (marked in screenshot) Why isn't there a way to enter pixel dimensions in every mode where this made sense (should be all modes, except those presets which are already supposed to set the crop to some exact pixel dimensions). 

[firstdefence]

Under the Mode option select Absolute Dimensions then you can type what you want.

[hifred]

Thank you!  Is it also somehow possible to type dimensions (just one  if the one has a preset ratio active)?
Example: Active preset = 4:3, User types in 800 in the first box, Affinity crops to 800x600.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, hifred said:

Thank you!  Is it also somehow possible to type dimensions (just one  if the one has a preset ratio active)?
Example: Active preset = 4:3, User types in 800 in the first box, Affinity crops to 800x600.

No. While you can type in the box in that situation, you're changing the ratio if you do it.

 

[hifred]

7 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

No. While you can type in the box in that situation, you're changing the ratio if you do it.

 

Sorry - what I meant indeed would require a second set of input boxes. One defines the ratio, the second would allow dialing in one edge-lenght - without having to previously know the second value. I had wondered if that was already possible.

[firstdefence]

35 minutes ago, hifred said:

Sorry - what I meant indeed would require a second set of input boxes. One defines the ratio, the second would allow dialing in one edge-lenght - without having to previously know the second value. I had wondered if that was already possible.

No that's not possible but why not pop over to the requests section of the forum and make a request for this feature. 

[toltec]

48 minutes ago, hifred said:

Sorry - what I meant indeed would require a second set of input boxes. One defines the ratio, the second would allow dialing in one edge-lenght - without having to previously know the second value. I had wondered if that was already possible.

I think (but don't know 100%) that feature is coming soon.

[hifred]

Thanks. If one modified the dimension boxes in unconstrained mode, so that they don't just display the dimensions of the rectangle drawn in the viewpoint but also allowed Input one btw. could get rid of the absolute dimensions mode.

Coming from Photoshop I would not look for that separate mode - unconstrained means unconstrained, regardless of input method chosen. Now I'm waiting what R C-R has to say :o).