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Cursor - Tool Icon Consistency


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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.

Icon-Cursor matching.png

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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.

Icon-Cursor matching.png

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.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

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@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.

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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.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

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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.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

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

 

 

invert.jpg

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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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.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

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