Vector brush names

[Alex A.]

Hi folks,

I've been using Affinity Designer & Photo on PC for two years and both became main apps of my choice for graphic design, drawing illustrations and photo editing. I abandoned Adobe CC and didin't regret my decision! Thanks a lot for all your efforts – at Serif and on the forum – and keep my fingers crossed for a new version to come.

There are really great tools in Designer but I found something that I'd love to find improved someday. When working with vector brushes in Draw Persona it's impossible to identify what brush is selected for a particular vector object. It's not highlighted in the Brushes Panel so finding the right one is a real problem, especially when working with 100+ of very similar looking brushes (eg. Grave Etcher by RetroSupply). I know it's easy to copy attributes from one object to another but I still can't figure out what brush name is selected. It would be great if one of the following is implemented:

- show active brush highlighted in the Brushes Panel when particular vector object is selected or

- show the active brush name in the Brush Properties window (it is actually present when you select particular brush in the Brushes Panel and start drawing – see attached picture A – but if you change object that has another vector brush and open the Brush Properties window (see picture B) the name is gone.

Is anybody experiencig the same and perhaps you'd love to share how you deal with it?

[Pšenda]

It has been requested long ago, and unfortunately still nothing.

For example:

 

[voom]

Is there any news on this? I created a logo that needs to be refined, I had to search a long time for the right brush. Now I had to reinstall and the copy I made for the brush ist thus gone. Now I have no clue, what brush is used... This could surely be easily fixed; how come this has been asked for for years and nothing has happend? I'd think this is rather a bug than a feature request... 

[Jowday]

Still badly needed, agreed.

[PXLated]

Yep - Really, really need this.

Am totally surprised this simple thing has not been addressed.

[Allan Windmill]

Seriously someone got to take care of this (for me especially in Affinity Photo). For library with lots of brushes it's almost not usable.

Also here is what will be great: Make there a popup and we can just type in (partial) name of the brush and filter brushes automatically. This is something Photoshop doesn't have and everyone would love to have and that would make Affinity Photo several million times even better.

Happy new year!

Edited January 3, 2020 by Allan Windmill

[Kuttyjoe]

On 1/3/2020 at 12:10 PM, Allan Windmill said:

Seriously someone got to take care of this (for me especially in Affinity Photo). For library with lots of brushes it's almost not usable.

Also here is what will be great: Make there a popup and we can just type in (partial) name of the brush and filter brushes automatically. This is something Photoshop doesn't have and everyone would love to have and that would make Affinity Photo several million times even better.

Happy new year!

That's true.  Brush tracking is difficult I suppose for raster based programs.  Corel Painter tracks and shows the last handful of brushes used so that's helpful, but there's no reason why a vector based program can't do it.  Serif's discontinued DrawPlus certainly did it and did it very, very well.  If you clicked on a brush stroke in DrawPlus, not only did it select that brush in the panel, but it also would go on to paint/draw with all the characteristics of the strok you clicked on.  Additionally, it had an option in the brush panel to show only the brushes used in the document.  That stuff was brilliant.  On the surface, the brush tools in DrawPlus and AD look almost identical, but there is a lot of differences in how they work.  DrawPlus was a lot better in this dept.

[fde101]

Just a hunch, but I suspect that the brush presets (which have the names) are never actually selected.  "Selecting" one may actually copy its settings into the active brush, after which the preset itself becomes irrelevant and thus forgotten - this would make the entire concept of a "selected" brush invalid and explain why this is not being done.

 

A "most recently used brush preset" list should certainly still be possible, however, even if my guess as to how this works does turn out to be correct...

[leuveg]

+1 that is a needfull feature!

[EssaEll]

Still nothing? The brush management in Affinity Photo really drives me insane and makes me reconsider the subscription software, which I wanted to avoid with this otherwise very well done app.

[voom]

This seems to me such a small thing to change, yet it makes so much of a difference!

[Jonopen]

+1

Yes, I would also very much like to see the handling of brushes improved, particularly so you can easily identify which brush has been used when a curve is selected, in both the brush studio panel and editing brush properties.

Additionally I would also dearly like the option for the brush tool to use the last attributes (including brush type) of a selected object (much like Xara Designer does). This is a real time saver.

For now, what I've done is create my own brush category containing copies of my favourite, most used brushes.

I also frequently copy and paste the brush style from one curve to another, for example:

Select curve
Ctrl-C
Select a new curve
Ctrl+Shift+V

 

[evtonic3]

+1

[keiichi77]

+1

[mattaudio]

+1, it's difficult to manage brushes on desktop

Edited August 16, 2020 by mattaudio

[matisso]

+1

Yes please, fix this, Affinity! I’m just getting acquainted with the Pixel Persona in AD, as I am mostly a vector guy, and this is a real productivity killer here, too. Even the smallest change to some of the tool’s parameters (as basic as width) causes the highlight in the brushes panel to vanish. I did a project a while ago that relied pretty much on brushes (both Designer and Pixel personas) and the only reasonable way to manage brushes was to create an individual collection so I could remember which one is for what, but that is not the way to do it!

However, with vector brushes you can always paste properties to a different object like @Jonopen had mentioned – which is a nasty workaround but does the job. Not possible for pixels, obviously.

cheers,
Matt

[DragonWhimsy]

+1. The brushes panel is the weakest panel in the suite right now. It needs an overhaul badly. I can never remember what brush I've used on something, even when I'm still in the middle of using it. I try to get around that by naming each layer after the brush I use in it but that is highly cumbersome and annoying.

And I know I sound like a broken record but I'd also love to be able to see the brush names without hovering the cursor over it. 

[manumella]

Hi,

I just wanted to ask this question about the name of the brushes, and I saw that it is still not solved.

I've always worked on the ipad version, and the names are visible there, so I think it's a doable change.

While the question of highlighting on the panel, of the name of selected stroke, is absent on both.

Save the forgetful artists, please!

[Kenneth Sookhai]

Hello, please add to 1.9, would be a great help

[Allan Windmill]

On 11/26/2018 at 6:12 AM, Pšenda said:

It has been requested long ago, and unfortunately still nothing.

For example:

 

I really wish they take it more seriously.

How hard it is to replace brush preview with just names?

This issue is clearly more political than technical. I have to purchase F**king Adobe Photo plan just for using my brushes!

 

P.S. I just discovered you can hover your mouse over brushes and it will show you brush names rather quickly. So it's really fine.

[Daniel91]

+1

[Rocky 2021]

+1, I'm trying to find which brush I used for a certain card design and I'm finding it impossible to find. If this development could be made I would be really grateful

 

[yurko]

+1

[2989]

Is there a way to add mark a brush as a “Favourite” ? Or a star rating ?  (in Designer and/or Photo.) 

This seems so very basic yet overlooked for much more complex additions.  
Can we please get ‘ease of use’ issues corrected first. As many other have said here, the old Serif products had many useful things included (like cutout studio, brushes listed and better assets and being able to drag and drop them to save) that the new Affinity programs do not.  
After working with Affinity Designer and Photo now for about a year, I find myself going back and using my Draw plus for many things instead of the new products.  It makes me wonder why I bought the New Affinity versions.  I thought new was supposed to also be improved.  Many times I feel the new Affinity versions are unnecessarily complicated and trying to be too clever for clever sake.
The latest 1.9 update was supposed to be fixes under the hood, so let’s hope the power and structure is there to make these ‘ease of use’ improvements that will benefit everyone! 

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, 2989 said:

Is there a way to add mark a brush as a “Favourite” ? Or a star rating ?  (in Designer and/or Photo.) 

You can add a new category alphabetically earlier than other category names, and copy your favorite brushes into it. Something like _fav, perhaps.