Cursor - Tool Icon Consistency

[Dave Vector]

Greetings,

I am re-suggesting this to encompass all the Affinity products, especially Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher.

For the most part, Affinity cursor and tool icon shapes are very clear to understand and the cursors match well with their tool icons, except for the Move Tool. 

When switching between the Move Tool and the Node Tool with keyboard shortcuts, the two cursors are so similar they are quite visual ambiguous.

I suggest changing them so they are consistent and clear for the user.  My suggestion below is not the only solution— you may have a better one.

I really hope you can reduce the user interface ambiguity and increase the consistency.

[dominik]

On 2/28/2019 at 9:09 PM, Dave Vector said:

Greetings,

I am re-suggesting this to encompass all the Affinity products, especially Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher.

For the most part, Affinity cursor and tool icon shapes are very clear to understand and the cursors match well with their tool icons, except for the Move Tool. 

When switching between the Move Tool and the Node Tool with keyboard shortcuts, the two cursors are so similar they are quite visual ambiguous.

I suggest changing them so they are consistent and clear for the user.  My suggestion below is not the only solution— you may have a better one.

I really hope you can reduce the user interface ambiguity and increase the consistency.

Hi @Dave Vector,

at first look this seems to be a reasonable idea. But I am not sure if a black node tool curser would work very well on dark backgrounds. Even if it has a white outline.

By trying this out I just realise that the cursors invert their color according to the background color over which they are positioned. Then it is perhaps worth a try 

d.

[Dave Vector]

@dominik

I normally run in Light UI mode, so I switched to Dark to try out what wrote about. 

I am not sure how to replicate what you mentioned, but my cursors don't invert their color according to the background color over which they are positioned (both in light and dark UI mode).  My cursors stay the same color, except for the node tool.  It switches to black when you hover over a node.   So, I'd love to try what you are noticing but I am not sure how... 

Also the vector brush tool for me is only an outline and it seems to be fairly visible, so if the node tool was black with a white outline, I think it would work.  But like I said, my idea for a fix is not the only solution.  It would be nice if the tool icons and cursors were more consistent.

[dominik]

10 hours ago, Dave Vector said:

I am not sure how to replicate what you mentioned, but my cursors don't invert their color according to the background color over which they are positioned

Hi @Dave Vector,

I should have been more precise. It's only the arrow of the Move Tool that inverts its color. BTW, I'm on Windows in dark mode. But it behaves the same in light mode.

d.

[Dave Vector]

@dominik  I must have some other setting different from yours, because my Move Tool arrow does not invert color on either Dark or Light mode.  It stays the same color always.

I'll keep looking...

[dominik]

1 hour ago, Dave Vector said:

@dominik  I must have some other setting different from yours, because my Move Tool arrow does not invert color on either Dark or Light mode.  It stays the same color always.

I'll keep looking...

this is really strange. i have no idea what setting this might be.

d.

[carl123]

If you select this option in Windows your Move Tool cursor in Affinity Apps will change colour depending on the background it hovers over.

 

 

[Dave Vector]

@carl123 Thanks for helping us figure out what that can cause the cursor inversion.  @dominik, can you verify this?

[dominik]

1 hour ago, Dave Vector said:

 @dominik, can you verify this?

Hi @Dave Vector, hi @carl123,

this is an interesting find. I haven't been there (in Windows) at all. I'm on Windows 10 and it looks a little different. But I found the setting.

Here it is not set to invert anything. In other words, it does not seem to happen due to an external system setting but by something inside Affinity.

I can confirm this in this way: if I'm hovering the mouse around here in the browser window the cursor stays the same no matter what background colour is underneath.

d.