Line width control

[Graphics]

Every few months I return to Affinity Designer to try to make the switch. Will we ever get direct line width control at nodes that is available in Illustrator? The moment I run into a task that requires this, I have to ditch my switch.  Some tasks seem impossible without it. The slider isn't cutting it.

[Glicky]

1+ for the Illustrat or "width tool". its a wonderful tool to help designing all kinds of swirls and florals. (its also great for designing brushes)

     

[Glicky]

Is this also possible in ADesigner?

[Glicky]

You are right ErrkaPetti. i simply never recognized how powerful the "pressure" feature is... (after your upper reply, i even didn't think to check it out  )

Thanks!

[Graphics]

I checked up on this topic and was happy to see some replies. I've used the pressure feature to try to emulate the control that the line width tool gives but am not satisfied. I think the main issue is that it is essentially creating another set of arbitrary nodes that are distributed along the line, but that cannot be seen directly or manipulated exactly where you want them. I think a graph is a clunky way to implement the feature of thickening a line. In Affinity it seems that if you want a part of a stroke thickened you need to estimate what precent along the stroke the area is, then go to the pressure graph and try raise a point at an equivalent precent distance along that graph. Why make it so hard? Sometimes I have a corner node I want thickened, not just before the node, or an estimate of almost the node. Problem compounds when paths have many nodes

Edited August 10, 2019 by Graphics
images

[spez]

On 8/10/2019 at 7:54 PM, Graphics said:

I think a graph is a clunky way to implement the feature of thickening a line.

Totally with you on this. Precision on a graph about the size of two fingernails (iPad Pro 10.5) is very difficult, especially with longer strokes and multiple nodes. I do hope serif introduce another solution that gives direct control of the stroke with the power of zoom to aid precision (like the tool in adobe illustrator).

Every time I have to touch that ruddy graph in affinity I question my decision to cancel my CC subscription. Seems silly, I know.

edit: Don’t get me wrong, I love the affinity range and I forget all about AI when I’m done with the pressure graph. So thank you serif for everything else!

[thomaso]

On 7/26/2019 at 2:08 PM, Glicky said:

i simply never recognized how powerful the "pressure" feature is... 

Indeed powerful. In this example each object is 1 curve only, no fill, shaped & colored with Stroke & Pressure & Appearance panel only:

 

[Jowday]

On 10/8/2019 at 8:37 AM, spez said:

Totally with you on this. Precision on a graph about the size of two fingernails (iPad Pro 10.5) is very difficult, especially with longer strokes and multiple nodes. I do hope serif introduce another solution that gives direct control of the stroke with the power of zoom to aid precision (like the tool in adobe illustrator).

Every time I have to touch that ruddy graph in affinity I question my decision to cancel my CC subscription. Seems silly, I know.

The ruddy graph is an okay tool - just only for specific use cases. And not very handy for use cases like simulating pen drawings. Adjusting pen strokes inside a small graph with a minimum of precision and maximum of guesswork really is nuts. I think it really is designed for fine tuning lines after using pressure sensitive pens. 

A line width tool would be of much more value in many cases - and the two ways of adjusting line with would supplement each other perfectly.

The line width tool in Adobe Illustrator is straightforward and logical to use. Fast. Precise. Natural. Like a pen. 

[Cuando]

1+ for the stroke width tool. 

[spez]

So I just spent 30mins playing with an app called Amadine - which has a stroke-width tool! (See video)

I would still love to see a tool like this in AD. It was massively easier to use, even on an iPhone 7, than it is to use AD’s pressure graph on an iPad Pro 10.5, or even desktop.

Affinity 1.9 has brought some lovely new yummies, but, as far as I’ve discovered, still nothing more on this feature... and now there’s competition (aside from Adobe also stepping into the mobile app market with Illustrator). 

 

[Jowday]

On 10/8/2019 at 8:37 AM, spez said:

Totally with you on this. Precision on a graph about the size of two fingernails (iPad Pro 10.5) is very difficult, especially with longer strokes and multiple nodes. I do hope serif introduce another solution that gives direct control of the stroke with the power of zoom to aid precision (like the tool in adobe illustrator).

Every time I have to touch that ruddy graph in affinity I question my decision to cancel my CC subscription. Seems silly, I know.

edit: Don’t get me wrong, I love the affinity range and I forget all about AI when I’m done with the pressure graph. So thank you serif for everything else!

Using the pressure graph for drawings is like steering a car with a calculator. A width tool is so much more intuitive, fast, precise and satisfying to work with.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Jowday said:

 like steering a car with a calculator.

Don't I remember correctly that the first programmable Texas Instruments managed even the moon landing, like a charm? 😎🤓

[Jowday]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Don't I remember correctly that the first programmable Texas Instruments managed even the moon landing, like a charm? 😎🤓

Haha, no, reality is more complex than you guys want to believe. This is what made the moon landing possible - one factor of many - lets start with the genius

https://www.wired.com/2015/10/margaret-hamilton-nasa-apollo/

Like a charm? Think again - it was a dramatic landing inside that lander - good thing the men aboard were trained for landing in a difficult to steer lander and former test pilot:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2019/07/16/apollo-11s-infamous-landing-error-code-1202-offers-earthly-lessons-for-self-driving-cars/

A few details about the guidance computer:

http://www.righto.com/2019/07/software-woven-into-wire-core-rope-and.html

So, pretty please, with sugar on top, spare me.

[Move Along People]

-

[Jowday]

A true masochist. 

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Jowday said:

A true masochist. 

"The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."

Art appears to be one kind of suffering. Not vice versa, as far I suffer yet.

As soon you start doing anything – listening, reading, thinking or creating something impressively new – you always work for the interface in the way you understand it. The interface doesn't really work for you, it visualises only. As you, too. I wonder who is working, actually.

"Who is more fool:   The fool – Or the Fool who follows the fool?"

2 hours ago, Jowday said:

So, pretty please, with sugar on top, spare me.

Spare from what? Saving time – or sharing? Interfaces I find max comfortable appear primitive the longer I work with them. Do they then, or have I lost an ability?

[Imonobor]

Aaaand 2 years and one major release that required a re-purchase later, we still don't have this core feature. /sad

If your calculator app doesn't have multiplication and division, but you spend all your development time on the UI, you're doing something wrong, Serif.