CHANGE THE PAGE COLOR IN AFFINTY PUBLISH

[dsahwahnee]

Excused my igorance but how do you change the page color in Affinity Publisher

[thomaso]

To simulate a paper color you simply might place a colored rectangle on your master page.

I'd rather miss an option to set an object to not printable/not exportable in general, without the need to set it invisible before print/export.

[dsahwahnee]

i tried using the colored rectangle  on page and it changes color from white to correct color but leaves a big X and lines when page prints.........how can you just change the color of the page without the lines.........................

[thomaso]

38 minutes ago, dsahwahnee said:

a big X and lines when page prints

A visible X on a printed result on a real sheet of paper? Or a print as a screnshot?
In case of a screenshot you might check the rectangle tool. The picture tool creates an X, the rectangle tool does not.

"and lines" – ? Can you show us?

[dsahwahnee]

yes a visible x on the real sheet of paper.................when I use the rectangle tool to change the color of the background for a page it puts an x on the page................all I want to do is change the color of the white page to a selected color and then have that print out with text and pictures in front of background..............basically change the page color...........yes picture tool put in x but so does rectangle tool for me

[dsahwahnee]

this is using rectangle tool and selecting color......................get these lines what print out...........................

[dsahwahnee]

Why such a simple task as changing the background color on a page be so complicated in Affinity Publisher..............that  is such a basic task

[thomaso]

Aha. Seems you call a screnshot a print. This result looks exactly like what you have initiated. You placed a Picture Frame (NOT with the rectangle tool) and that makes appear the X. Also you have a margin on your page, that makes the greyish rectangle.

This means, if you want to get rid of X and rectangle:

1. Create the rectangle with the rectangle tool.

2. Set the margin of your page to 0 (Zero) on all 4 sides.

 

[thomaso]

5 minutes ago, dsahwahnee said:

Why such a simple task as changing the background color on a page be so complicated in Affinity Publisher..

I am shure, to make it easier for more complex projects in your future.

Or, to answer with an everyday picture: You are in a cinema and go to the bathroom. There are two doors. You choose one. Now it is very simple to open the door but you need to read a bit signs to open the wanted only.

[dsahwahnee]

I created the rectangle with the rectangle tool (picture frame rectangle tool)  and get the x lines and box.  set margins with zero on all four sides.........still get x that will appear on a print when file is sent to printer.  Is there another different rectangle tool I am missing....................the only other tool like that is the picture placing tool and that will not change color of page.........will read sign on door  if  I could find the right door

[thomaso]

Go through the blue door. Avoid the white door with the X.

[carl123]

Use the Rectangle Tool in the shapes drop down dialogue screen

 

[Fixx]

5 hours ago, dsahwahnee said:

Why such a simple task as changing the background color on a page be so complicated in Affinity Publisher..............that  is such a basic task

This is quite uncommon task as we tend to print to white paper.

If you want to print the background colour, place a coloured rectangle to a page and arrange it to be backmost.

[James Mcilwraith]

I've just spent 2 hours trying to change the *1*@!* page background...hard to believe that such a basic feature is missing

[thomaso]

13 minutes ago, James Mcilwraith said:

I've just spent 2 hours trying to change the *1*@!* page background...hard to believe that such a basic feature is missing

It's not missing. It's just a slightly different workflow than possibly expected.

In case you want to simulate a paper color / texture throughout all pages of an .afpub you might want to use a master page to place the color object (or image) there, only once. If this shall not appear on output (print or export) set it's layer to invisible on its master page before output.

[James Mcilwraith]

Hi Thomaso, thanks for the reply. I'm converting to Affinity from Corel Draw (having been using Corel since version 3)  and mostly loving it. This was the first real fail I've come across. I just wanted to set the page background colour for a leaflet to take care of the bleed and now I have to make an oblong and fill that. I don't know if i need to oversize the oblong or should I set the bleed colour  separately (I wondered why that was an option). It seems very odd that I cant just flood fill a layer.

But still, over all very happy with the change.

[thomaso]

12 minutes ago, James Mcilwraith said:

I just wanted to set the page background colour for a leaflet to take care of the bleed and now I have to make an oblong and fill that. I don't know if i need to oversize the oblong or should I set the bleed colour  separately (I wondered why that was an option).

In which way is a background color required to take care of the bleed? By default a page is either white or displays a checkerboard pattern (if ticked in your document setup) – whereas the bleed shows in both cases the workspace gray (customizable in your app preferences) + a colored border (set in your document setup) for empty layout areas. The workspace gray will not appear on output. Layout objects which reach the bleed do appear to continue there, both in the layout window and on output with bleed.

So I don't see a need for or relationship between page color (background) and bleed.

If you place an object as page background with the dimensions of the page + bleed then the color(s) of this objects will appear on output with bleed. Objects on layers above this background can cover this background color.

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, James Mcilwraith said:

I don't know if i need to oversize the oblong

When I use that sort of thing I will drag the rectangle/"oblong" (or image/photo/drawing) out past the bleed without any worries. It will go to the canvas/page edge out to the bleed area and no further, even if it is several units of measurement past that bleed area.

[James Mcilwraith]

Thanks for the help

[James Mcilwraith]

14 hours ago, thomaso said:

In which way is a background color required to take care of the bleed? By default a page is either white or displays a checkerboard pattern (if ticked in your document setup) – whereas the bleed shows in both cases the workspace gray (customizable in your app preferences) + a colored border (set in your document setup) for empty layout areas. The workspace gray will not appear on output. Layout objects which reach the bleed do appear to continue there, both in the layout window and on output with bleed.

So I don't see a need for or relationship between page color (background) and bleed.

If you place an object as page background with the dimensions of the page + bleed then the color(s) of this objects will appear on output with bleed. Objects on layers above this background can cover this background color.

Hi Thomas.
You may be right, my workflows are based around Corel Draw's features as I been using it for 30 years. It is quite a challenge to move to a completely different set of tools.
It still seems very odd to me that I cannot apply a flood fill directly to a layer, but have to put an object on the layer first. No doubt I will soon get used to this. 
Thanks for your comments