（Affinity Photo) How to draw straight line?

[Patrick Gilmour]

Okay, this is very weird but it can be done - you can draw multiple straight vertical or horizontal lines without having them automatically connect. Haven't worked out of 45 degree increments are possible.

You'll need to get used to this.

On a Mac, pixel layer with Brush selected:

- Click and then release mouse at start of new line
- Press down Shift and hold
- Click again and drag to draw

A second option that works with a pen/pencil:

- Hold down Cmd (and keep it down)
- Click and hold with pen then start to draw a "very small" part of the line
- Immediately add the Shift key and continue to drag
- Repeat for a new line

Not perfect but it works. Photoshops implementation is much more intuitive and works better, plus can do 45 degree angles. But at least this gives Photo users an option.

[Ballonseide]

1 hour ago, Patrick Gilmour said:

On a Mac, pixel layer with Brush selected:

- Click and then release mouse at start of new line
- Press down Shift and hold
- Click again and drag to draw

You'd have to add that you cannot move the mouse between the first and second click even by one pixel, otherwise you can get a non-constrained connection line between the first and second click, like this:

Still really cumbersome, and I still don't get why we can't just have Shift + Alt + Drag as "Continue last stroke constrained" (and with 45° angles as well).

[Patrick Gilmour]

10 minutes ago, Ballonseide said:

You'd have to add that you cannot move the mouse between the first and second click even by one pixel, otherwise you can get a non-constrained connection line between the first and second click

Still really cumbersome, and I still don't get why we can't just have Shift + Alt + Drag as "Continue last stroke constrained" (and with 45° angles as well).

Agreed. It's a "least bad" option only.

[PEJ]

I have a question about drawing straight horizontal lines with the brush tool. If I press the 'Shift' key to make the line horizontal, Affinity connects the new line to the end of the last line.

If I click once where I want the new line to start (so it doesn't link to the last line drawn), then click again and 'Shift + drag', I get a splodge at the start of the line due to the first click. I'm using a 'Watercolour' brush and the end result looks a bit ugly with splodges at the start of each line.

Can someone please suggest a way to solve this problem?

Thanks.

[Ballonseide]

Do you have your brush set to less than 100 % flow? If so, it would be expected to get a more intense blob after the second click (if the second click is above the first). Nothing to be done about that as long as we don't have the above-mentioned "Continue and constrain" modifier.

Another workaround you could try is to click and undo every time (!) before you start drawing a new line. The undo breaks the "continue" chain, so after undoing you can click, hold, press shift, hold, and drag to get a straight, uniform line. This would probably win the prize for worst workflow, but if you must use AP, at least it should give the result you desire.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, PEJ said:

I have a question about drawing straight horizontal lines with the brush tool. If I press the 'Shift' key to make the line horizontal, Affinity connects the new line to the end of the last line.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Pressing Esc between lines should disconnect them.

[Ballonseide]

8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Pressing Esc between lines should disconnect them.

On my Mac, with AP 1.9.1, it does not.

Edit: Esc toggles "Deselect" (as the History window clearly shows) which has no influence on line drawing since there is no selection involved.

Edited March 20, 2021 by Ballonseide

[PEJ]

13 hours ago, PEJ said:

I have a question about drawing straight horizontal lines with the brush tool. If I press the 'Shift' key to make the line horizontal, Affinity connects the new line to the end of the last line.

If I click once where I want the new line to start (so it doesn't link to the last line drawn), then click again and 'Shift + drag', I get a splodge at the start of the line due to the first click. I'm using a 'Watercolour' brush and the end result looks a bit ugly with splodges at the start of each line.

Can someone please suggest a way to solve this problem?

Thanks.

Thank you to several members who have replied to me on this vexing issue.

I found the problem of the 'splodges' 🙂    Being verrrry new to Affinity (about 5 hrs - have used Photoshop casually in the past), I was not familiar with Affinity's 'Brush Properties', in particular, the Watercolour brushes. After discovering that there were 2 nozzles to this brush, turning off the 'blob' nozzle fixed my problem.

Thanks for the tip Walt, but pressing the 'Esc' key between lines, doesn't seem to stop the 'linking' of the new horizontal line to the previous line.

[Nivrot]

Bonjour,
Just want to chime in. It got to the point where I had to google "how to draw straight lines in Affinity Photo"...
I still don't know how to do it with transparency and without blotches. I settled for blotches just to get it out in time.

I am all for alternatives to PS and have "gladly" bought the whole suite, but I find myself stumbling, jumping hoops and googling for the simplest things. And I constantly forget because I am using Adobe CC and Rhino 3D at work. (This is the main problem!)
There is always (mostly) an explanation or workaround, but it takes time and effort to rethink everything since most of us (I assume) are coming from Adobe PS/CC 
If it is one thing this non-destructive approach destroys it is my workflow.

Like just cropping an item/image on a layer, Esc-key not getting me out of Crop selection (only Apply/Cancel buttons), drawing straight lines, right-click select the lower of multiple stacked layers, icons way too similar/small even in large - not iconic enough (put name under) in default weird order. 

Hey, lots of great and improved stuff, don't get me wrong! Amazing what you have achieved. Bravo!
Its just that I think the "established basics" are remade way too clever with so many actions and "Oh, for that you need to do 1, 2, 3 and 4. Easy!".
Why reinvent the wheel with everything? Is it all patented or done for the sake of being different?

I know there is a good explanation for all I have mentioned, but as I said, switching back and forth between CC and Affinity I find more than a tad frustrating.

Ciao

[loukash]

50 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

"how to draw straight lines in Affinity Photo"

If you need to use a brush:

1. click to start
2. hold Shift key
3. click elsewhere

Otherwise use the pen to create strokes, or create rectangels or other shapes, then apply effects or filters to them, then rasterize them if needed.

52 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

Esc-key not getting me out of Crop selection (only Apply/Cancel buttons)

Yep, I get regularly confused by that as well. I'd consider this a bug.

But even though it's not exactly obvious, simply pressing a key to select a different tool, e.g. "H" for the View tool, will do exactly the same.

55 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

the "established basics"

We've all been brainwashed by the Schmadobe Mindset™ for decades.
That doesn't mean their method was always right and the alternatives are wrong. It's different workflows.

[Nivrot]

2 hours ago, loukash said:

If you need to use a brush:

1. click to start
2. hold Shift key
3. click elsewhere

Thanks Loukash.

Sorry, I meant straight as in Shift-Click vertical/horizontal, i.e. 90deg, even 45deg.

 

2 hours ago, loukash said:

 

We've all been brainwashed by the Schmadobe Mindset™ for decades.
That doesn't mean their method was always right and the alternatives are wrong. It's different workflows.

Couldn't agree more, but this is not the point. It is all about is what most people are used to/have at work, therefore the most common. (QWERTY is not the fastest keyboard layout, but still what everybody uses.)

"Common practice" should have been considered since most people will go back and forth in a transition period untitil Affinity has achieved world domination.

 

[loukash]

31 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

I meant straight as in Shift-Click vertical/horizontal, i.e. 90deg, even 45deg.

Yep, oddly, that's not possible. I noticed that a week or so ago as well. That's a flaw.
You could work around, however, by using the pen tool, then switching the document to Designer, apply vector brushes, switch back to Photo. Or straight vector lines, then modyfing them via Stroke Pressure, FX, filters, masks, you name it, then rasterize.

31 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

It is all about is what most people are used to/have at work, therefore the most common.

That's what "being brainwashed" actually means. Another similarly pejorative term that I can coin for you right on the spot: The Schmadobe Indoctrination® As in: "Never dare to question the divine Schmadobe authority or you become to feel our wrath!" 

Hey, don't get me wrong, been there done that for almost two decades, loved the transition from XPress to InDesign, but after Adobe has taken my beloved Freehand from me I had no chance but go through the Illfrustrator hell. The subscription being the last drop. I've been self-employed since over 30 years, but my meager yearly turnover as designer cannot pay for CC subscription cost, period.

Thanks to Serif for at least trying to literally think differently and "out of the Adobe box".

31 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

most people will go back and forth in a transition period

I'm still at it. Apart from some nasty flaws concerning PDF/X-3 export and a bunch of broken or missing vector features, I'm doing pretty fine. Learning and exploring new workflows is not what I'm having issues with, after I finally gave myself in after 5 years of owning ADe & APh and barely using it at all.

In other words, many of these alleged "workflow flaws" are likely located between the user's ears. (Me being no exception, haha)

31 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

untitil Affinity has achieved world domination

Nah, that's never a good thing either way…

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Nivrot said:

It is all about is what most people are used to/have at work, therefore the most common. (QWERTY is not the fastest keyboard layout, but still what everybody uses.)

The QWERTY keyboard is a perfect example of why we should be willing to adapt to new things when they provide a better or faster way to work.

[Alfred]

14 minutes ago, R C-R said:

The QWERTY keyboard is a perfect example of why we should be willing to adapt to new things when they provide a better or faster way to work.

Wasn’t the QWERTY layout deliberately designed to keep common letter pairs apart on mechanical typewriters, so that there would be less chance of the letter stalks jamming together?

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Alfred said:

Wasn’t the QWERTY layout deliberately designed to keep common letter pairs apart on mechanical typewriters, so that there would be less chance of the letter stalks jamming together?

Yep. The slower typing caused by the deliberately inefficient layout meant there would be more time for the arm of the last letter typed to get out of the way of the next one to be typed.

[Nivrot]

34 minutes ago, R C-R said:

The QWERTY keyboard is a perfect example of why we should be willing to adapt to new things when they provide a better or faster way to work.

I am not sure.

If the rest of the world uses QWERTY and you force people to use DVORAK on your software the gain needs to be pretty awesome to outweigh the pain of transition. Especially is QWERTY needs to be used in parallell.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/17/18223384/dvorak-qwerty-keyboard-layout-10-years-speed-ergonomics

[Ballonseide]

1 hour ago, loukash said:

You could work around, however, by using the pen tool, then switching the document to Designer, apply vector brushes, switch back to Photo. Or straight vector lines, then modyfing them via Stroke Pressure, FX, filters, masks, you name it, then rasterize.

Suggestions like these are the perfect example why some stuff in AP is just plain broken. That has got nothing to do with Adobe indoctrination (I don't care either way, I never used Photoshop). A bad workflow is just that, a bad workflow. Drawing straight angled lines on a pixel grid should be a matter of a few clicks and easy as pie. Period. If you need to first create a vector object, then rasterize it, something's already gone horribly wrong – let alone if you have to switch to an entirely different app and back again.

There may be tools in AP that work better than Photoshop's, or that just work differently. I applaud that. I have no preconception on how things should work, other than that they should work and that tools need to enable me to do my work efficiently. If that requires learning or re-learning, fine. But the pixel and brush tools are not examples of that. As far as line drawing is concerned, more than half a decade after AP was first released, they're simply still not working right, to the point of being useless for some types of work, as is well-documented in this thread.

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

the gain needs to be pretty awesome to outweigh the pain of transition.

All I meant is that if we are not willing to at least try to adapt to new ways of doing things we will never know if it is worth the effort or not.

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, R C-R said:

All I meant is that if we are not willing to at least try to adapt to new ways of doing things we will never know if it is worth the effort or not.

Or, as the old saying goes: “If you never try anything new you’ll miss out on many of life’s great disappointments!”

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Ballonseide said:

Suggestions like these are the perfect example why some stuff in AP is just plain broken.

And rants like these are totally missing the point of "suggestions like these".

If you need a solution now, either use a workaround or a different workflow in Affinity, or use the software that suits you better.
It's really that simple.™

3 minutes ago, Ballonseide said:

A bad workflow is just that, a bad workflow.

Your "bad workflow" is possibly thousands of users' who don't post in the forums "good workflow".
You can't please everybody.

I, for one, am a "vector guy", so I'll resort to pixel brushes only if I can't do it with vector paths. But that's just me, hence it took a while (as in: years) until I even noticed this flaw.

4 minutes ago, Ballonseide said:

Drawing straight angled lines on a pixel grid should be a matter of a few clicks and easy as pie. Period.

Definitely!
We're in agreement here.
Has someone posted a feature request in forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/55-feedback-for-affinity-photo-on-desktop yet?
That's where staff looks for suggestions.

[Nivrot]

16 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Or, as the old saying goes: “If you never try anything new you’ll miss out on many of life’s great disappointments!”

Hahaha!

I am not against trial and failure, but simple things are better left simple.
Like shift-click. Shift works as angular guide/lock all over the place.

It reminds me of the old tale about NASA who proudly showed the Russian cosmonauts their new zero-G-writing-fountain-pen that they had used serious manpower and dough to develop. The Russians calmly pulled up a pencil: "We use this".

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

... but simple things are better left simple.

Not always. Creating artwork using raster tools like brushes or pencils usually is considerably simpler than using geometric tools like vectors & parametric shapes, but often the benefits of the latter (like resolution independence & non-destructive editing) make that the better overall choice.

But this is not to say that shift-click not working is anything other than a flaw!.

23 minutes ago, Nivrot said:

It reminds me of the old tale about NASA who proudly showed the Russian cosmonauts their new zero-G-writing-fountain-pen that they had used serious manpower and dough to develop. The Russians calmly pulled up a pencil: "We use this".

I don't know if it is true or not, but supposedly NASA rejected pencils because they were worried that tiny bits of pencil lead could find their way into sensitive electronics in zero-G environments, with catastrophic results.

[Nivrot]

11 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I don't know if it is true or not, but supposedly NASA rejected pencils because they were worried that tiny bits of pencil lead could find their way into sensitive electronics in zero-G environments, with catastrophic results.

Aha, thanks for the theory. 
Anyways, I don't think a shift-click would have catastrophic results, even in zero-g 🤫

[Catshill]

13 hours ago, loukash said:

And rants like these are totally missing the point of "suggestions like these".

I see the smiley but I don’t interpret the users comments as ranting but frustration.

Sometimes there is an assumption that frustration is due to an unwillingness to learn a new way of doing things but as the poster says, this is not always the case.

[firstdefence]

Problem solved...