Designer, resize document without scaling objects

[Oxide]

This should be simple, but it is not.

I want to resize my document such that my objects, grid size, grid pacing, and grid position relative to objects remains the same. In other words, I do not want to lose the snap to grid relationships I carefully set. I also want to retain the original white document on black background look.

The Help is wrong. Under Resize document or canvas it instructs me to use the Document menu, but there is no document menu. That said, the description of resizing the canvas reads as if it does what I want. Too bad Designer does not mach the help.

An internet search on the missing document menu turned up a forum thread where the moderator pointed out that Designer has no document menu, and then goes on to suggest using the art board tool.

Artboards fail for the following reasons.

--- The white on black look is gone. The entire screen is white with the grid. This display is extremely distracting. It must have some purpose, but it is wrong for me.

--- I can not numerically set the document size like I can using the File > Document Setup menu. (which also fails because I can not turn off object rescaling).

I am tired of starting over from scratch (i.e. create a new document so I can get the Document setup menu). Hopefully Designer supports a simple document resize.

[markw]

Hello Oxide and welcome to the Affinity forums
Document Setup can be found under the app’s ‘File’ menu. Default key command; shift+cmd/ctrl+P.
There also is a ‘Document Setup’ “button” in the Context Toolbar. If this toolbar is not visible it can be turned on by going to View > Show Context Toolbar.
One more thing, the Document Setup button won’t be visible in the Context Toolbar if anything is selected within the document.

[Oxide]

Thank you for replying, markw.

The menu item and button you mention require me to rescale objects, as I stated originally.

Is there anything that allows the "canvas" resize without changing the size and relationship of existing content (lines, text, grids, ...)

Edited June 22, 2019 by Oxide
got auto sent before finishing original reply. :(

[markw]

Strange, this dose not happen for me. I'm not sure what might be the problem for you then
If I resize a document any and all objects in the document retain their size and spacing from each other. Grids and Guides are also unaffected.
Dose this happen with all your documents or just one in particular? I’m wondering if it is possibly a problem with just this particular file?

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, Oxide said:

I want to resize my document such that my objects, grid size, grid pacing, and grid position relative to objects remains the same. In other words, I do not want to lose the snap to grid relationships I carefully set. I also want to retain the original white document on black background look.

When you set up your Grid with size and spacing turn on the 'Show axis editing handles'. Then after you resize using Document Setup you can move that so it realigns the grid to where you want it to start. It is only available to be checked in the Basic, Advanced and Cube tabs.

[markw]

Ah, wait a min. Just thought of something...
In the dropdown menu have you ‘Anchor to Page’ selected? Try it with that selected.
Sorry it’s late here, the old brains getting a bit slow!

[Oxide]

Thank you both, markw and Old Bruce.

I hadn't realized that Anchor and Rescale were exclusive, and I gave up trying to toggle Rescale after a frustrating 5 minutes or so.

Pressing Anchor unselected Rescale, and Designer then behaved as I expected it should. (Affinity, please use a radio button, or change the wording to No Rescale ...and fix the Help, it is wrong.)

I also looked into the Show axis editing handles. In this particular case, they were unnecessary (Anchor worked), but I now know what the axis edit handles are for.

Thank you both. The answers were very helpful.

[Ozzie]

Hi Oxide,

I just had the same problem but I discovered that the problem only seems to occur when I select the document size from the "Page Preset" dropdown menu. (In "Document Setup")   However, by manually entering the document size under "Dimensions" it then leaves the objects unaltered and just alters the document size. Keep "Anchor to Page" selected. Give it a try and see if it works for you too.

Colin

[Trevor A]

Hello Oxide and other contributors

Here I am three years later, with the latest version of Affinity Design (1.10.5.1342) and with the same problem.  SERIF HAS IGNORED YOUR REQUEST.  Worse, on 17th March 2022 their help page is still wrong.  See here (if the link works!): https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/SizeTransform/canvasSize.html?title=Changing canvas size

It says, "From the Document menu, select Resize Canvas." but "Resize Canvas" is not an option in the dialog box that opens!

Sometimes, it is not the user who is the problem, but the programmer!

Trevor

[GarryP]

54 minutes ago, Trevor A said:

Here I am three years later, with the latest version of Affinity Design

 

54 minutes ago, Trevor A said:

Sometimes, it is not the user who is the problem, but the programmer!

Maybe not this time.
You have given us a link to the documentation for Photo, not Designer.
It’s not surprising to me that some of the Photo documentation doesn’t apply to Designer.
Try looking at the documentation for Designer if you are using Designer.

[Trevor A]

Thank you for the helpful comments.  I came to the "help page" by searching for "How to Resize Canvas in Affinity Designer", so the problem was not with me on this occasion.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Trevor A said:

I came to the "help page" by searching for "How to Resize Canvas in Affinity Designer", so the problem was not with me on this occasion.

It is up to you to make sure your search results actually are relevant to the app you are using -- the programmers can't do that for you.

Anyway, to resize the canvas in AD, open File > Document Setup... to the Dimensions tab. However, note that if your document contains artboards, this won't work -- the dimensions & such will be greyed out. For artboards, each can be resized individually using the Transform panel or the bounding box handles when the artboard itself is selected.

[Trevor A]

Comments noted, thank you.  However, we do seem to be back to instructions that won't work in certain contexts, which is indeed down to the programmers, not the users.  How difficult can it be to resize canvas, after all?!  Other programs seem to manage it easily.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Trevor A said:

How difficult can it be to resize canvas, after all?!  Other programs seem to manage it easily.

Photo has a canvas.

Designer may have a canvas, or may have one or more Artboards instead of a canvas. When it has Artboards, Resize Canvas makes no sense, and a different mechanism is needed.

Different applications, with different functions, and therefore different methods of operation in some cases.

[Trevor A]

Walt

Thank you for the explanation.  I always appreciate receiving help from you.

Trevor

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Trevor A said:

However, we do seem to be back to instructions that won't work in certain contexts, which is indeed down to the programmers, not the users.

There is no way programmers can make sure everything works the same in every possible context. A document is just the parent (top level) container of an object layer hierarchy. As such, an Affinity document can contain many different types of child layers, including several other container object types, even other documents, each with its own layer hierarchy. With provisions for so many different, potentially very complex object hierarchies, each providing a different context, it just isn't possible to provide one simple instruction that will work in them all.