Symbol tools from Fireworks

[nbinc]

Hello, I am new Affinity Designer user.

Before that I use Fireworks program for 14 years (started with Macromedia Fireworks 4.0) and now I think it is time to look for a new drawing tool.

 

Now I investigate the Affinity and I have some questions, perhaps I just do not know where to find the necessary drawing tools:

 

1. Is there a "Symbol" instrument ? Combined into one "Symbol" (object, element ....) several graphical primitives? I found in Affinity only the "Group", but it is not the same as "Symbol" in Fireworks. For example in Fireworks - I can make many copies of the "Symbol" (Push Buttons element) and then making some corrections (such as color and line thickness) in one of the "Symbol" (Push Buttons element) copies and this correction made automatically in all "Symbol" (Push Buttons element) duplicates in the document. Can i add that "Symbol" to library ?

 

2. Is there a similar text tools, like Fireworks - "Kerling or Tracking", "Anti-aliasing level", "Auto Kern" etc.

 

3. Where can I find a display Grid edit tool - For example i need Grid 51x51px in Red color

 

4. It is not yet possible to import Fireworks CS6 files?

 

Thank you in advance for the help.

[MattP]

Hi nbinc,

 

1. Symbols are coming - hopefully quite soon... :)  We had them in and working about 2 years ago, but couldn't decide on something UI-related with them that we have now got a solution for... Since then a lot of code has been added so we need time to check that everything still works as expected, then we're good to go! :)

 

2. You can do kerning and tracking as you'd expect - press Cmd+T to show the character panel. Most of the options you want are also available on keyboard modifiers. Cmd+Left/Right arrow, etc. Anti-aliasing level is actually adjustable for all objects in the current beta - just go to the Layers panel and click the little cog icon to adjust the blending options of the selection. Define your ramp or adjust gamma as you please to get exactly the effect you're after...

 

3. Grids are now customisable in the beta so give this a try (the Grid and Axis Manager available from the View menu). You can't currently set colour though - I'll mention this to Ben (who is responsible for this feature) on Monday.

 

4. No. It's not something there has been much call for so far, but if you have any files you can send us then we can start to investigate things... Anything you send to support@seriflabs.com will be used to implement the feature and will be deleted when we've got it working.

 

Thanks,

Matt