How to Determine Current Brush Type, Size

[wwvuillemot]

I have noticed that the brush is highlighted in the Brush studio view -- up and until I make any modifications (e.g. size).

At that point, I have no idea what brush I'm using.  It would be awesome to keep everything highlighted up and until I materially change the brush type.

Otherwise, am I missing something?  

For point of reference, I'm trying to move from Procreate.app and iPad Pro to Affinity Photo on iPad and Mac OS X to have a more complete workflow.  But I'm finding Affinity Photo -- while functionality rich, sufficiently usability poor (this is a big one) -- that I'm stumbling making the transition.  I'm assuming the issue may be my lack of familiarity with the application, though.

[toltec]

12 hours ago, wwvuillemot said:

I have noticed that the brush is highlighted in the Brush studio view -- up and until I make any modifications (e.g. size).

At that point, I have no idea what brush I'm using.  It would be awesome to keep everything highlighted up and until I materially change the brush type.

Otherwise, am I missing something?  

For point of reference, I'm trying to move from Procreate.app and iPad Pro to Affinity Photo on iPad and Mac OS X to have a more complete workflow.  But I'm finding Affinity Photo -- while functionality rich, sufficiently usability poor (this is a big one) -- that I'm stumbling making the transition.  I'm assuming the issue may be my lack of familiarity with the application, though.

 

 

On the iPad, the brush in use is highlighted with a blue vertical bar, (like Spray 3, above). The size and everything is shown on the Context Toolbar.

If you want the Brush studio to remain on the screen, tap the pin icon (arrowed) and the Studio will stay until you tap it again, or you could just tap on the brush Studio while working to bring it up again. Saves space!

As you mention, the Desktop does not display an indication when you change the size. About the best thing you can do is to press More,

which opens the Brush Editing Panel. That does tell you on the top what brush you are using, such as Spray 2 (below).

[Polygonius]

Mostly you just "fast-surf" a category to find a single brush* without extra open this dedicated-brush-setting-panel. But as soon as you change some of the brush-settings, eg. size... via shortcut or toolbar the used-base brush gets UN-highlieghet (in desktop). So its often a try and error which one do i current hold. 

Changing via brush-panel, which really OVERWRITE an exiciting settings (wWITHOUT asking!!!!!), there the highlight is keeping, but juts TEMPORALLY changing via shortcut/toolbar... there it gets un-highlighted. 

BTW: The whole brush-system should be overworked (i often marked this, today i´m to lazy to repeat my points). * Just this point today: The stroke-view is very suboptimal if you just look for a texture... well there is a small-texture-view, but complete useless if the brushsize-setting is small.... and you do not get much brushes in one view... 

[wwvuillemot]

I completely agree.  The brush studio seems flawed in its implementation -- at least to Procreate where you can much more easily see what brush you are using.

As noted when using Brush Studio

1. Select Brush -- it is highlighted

2. Change any setting such size -- it is no longer highlighted

3. Return settings to original -- still does not highlight

4. Brush Name Not Shown -- it also hard to know since you cannot remember a name, unless, as noted, you go and fuss with the advanced dialogs for the brush.  Hovering will show the name, but as I am using a Wacom Cintiq this is agonizing hard to do.

I find this exceedingly frustrating as I am doing digital art.  Makes me want to look at other programs to see if they are better suited to digital art workflows.  My hope with Affinity is a single product between macOS and iOS ... but even something as "trivial" as this is a huge amount of friction to me -- especially as is only one of 3 studios I really care about:  1) brushes, 2) layers, 3) colors.

[Alice S]

I'm really surprised this still hasn't been implemented.

[SunnySaul]

On 11/1/2018 at 4:30 AM, toltec said:

About the best thing you can do is to press More,

which opens the Brush Editing Panel. That does tell you on the top what brush you are using, such as Spray 2 (below).

On Dekstop (Windows) Affinity doesn´t reveal the brush name. For a minute I was happy about your suggestion. Thx anyway, was the best answer so far about this

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, SunnySaul said:

On Dekstop (Windows) Affinity doesn´t reveal the brush name. For a minute I was happy about your suggestion. Thx anyway, was the best answer so far about this

That has to be a bug. On Windows, that More button always shows this in the dialog header:

It should show the brush name, as it does if you double-click on a brush in the Brushes panel.

[markbowen]

Been having (I believe) the same issues too and it is a little bit of a pain.

Choose a brush and then make any changes to the size and you no longer know which one you're using. Thankfully I'm not too old and senile yet so I do remember but I agree that it would be nice to have that visual cue too.

[R C-R]

13 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

That has to be a bug. On Windows, that More button always shows this in the dialog header:

It should show the brush name, as it does if you double-click on a brush in the Brushes panel.

It is not a bug. The "More" button allows you to change any of the brush's parameters only for that use of the selected brush, without changing any of the brush's default parameters. If you double-click on a brush in the Brushes panel & change any parameters, then those changes become the default ones for that brush. That's why when you do that, the header shows "Brush - Editing [<name of brush>]" instead of "Brush - Selection."

It is also why clicking the "More" button deselects the brush in the Brushes panel & does not show a brush name -- it is no longer the same brush as in the Brushes panel, nor are you making any permanent changes to a named brush. If, while in the "Brush - Selection" window, you click the Duplicate button, you are adding a new brush to the Brushes panel, & the window header updates accordingly to "Brush - Editing [Brush Copy]" (which is also the default name given to the new brush).

IOW, if you use the "More" button (or change any of the parameters in the Brush Tool's context menu) you are not making any permanent changes (edits) to the Brush in the Brushes panel, so it (the panel brush) is not the current brush & thus that brush is no longer highlighted in the panel.

Considering that, the only way I can think of to improve things in this respect would be to change what the History panel step shows, so instead of just "Paint Brush Tool," it would show "<name of brush>" when you select it.

BTW, there is yet a third header type, one that shows something about changing the brushes just for the current document or something like that, but I can never remember how to get to it. 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

It is not a bug. The "More" button allows you to change any of the brush's parameters only for that use of the selected brush, without changing any of the brush's default parameters. If you double-click on a brush in the Brushes panel & change any parameters, then those changes become the default ones for that brush. That's why when you do that, the header shows "Brush - Editing [<name of brush>]" instead of "Brush - Selection."

Thanks. I remain somewhat confused, though, as @toltec, above, clicked on More and got a brush editing window that did show the brush name. (Though I also see from the signature line that it should also be a Windows PC, so it's not a Mac vs Windows issue as I thought when I posted.)

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Thanks. I remain somewhat confused, though, as @toltec, above, clicked on More and got a brush editing window that did show the brush name. (Though I also see from the signature line that it should also be a Windows PC, so it's not a Mac vs Windows issue as I thought when I posted.)

I'm confused too, because it looks like from your screenshot that you get the same "Brush - Selection" header on your Windows 10 PC that I get on my Mac. I wonder if @toltec accidentally posted the wrong screenshot or something ....

[rubanz]

I am a little sad that this feature wasn't added. It is very essential that you are able to easily identify which brush you are currently using when painting. I usually try to identify the brush before switching brush or tool so that I can return to it. 

[k_au]

Since I just came across this issue, I made an bug report out of this: 

 

I've no idea if the people at Serif prefer things like that as a bug report or somewhere else in the forum like here. It's probably a bit overwhelming in any way, so many topics and issues and wishes and suggestions... 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, k_au said:

I've no idea if the people at Serif prefer things like that as a bug report or somewhere else in the forum like here.

They would view it as a request for improvement, I think, not a bug. Bugs are generally existing functions that don't work correctly. Your request is for the addition of a new function, and as such it's more appropriate for a Feature Request.