A proper Layers tutorial?

[Daleus]

I've been trying to find more information on Publisher's layers. The Layer panel doesn't work as experienced in other programs and it's causing a lot of trouble. Can we get a snazzy video tutorial on how Publish layers work.  Rather than simply stepping me through the controls it would be nice to know when a layer is automatically created and why, how I should approach using layers and things NOT to do when working with layers.

Thanks!

 

 

[walt.farrell]

16 minutes ago, Daleus said:

I've been trying to find more information on Publisher's layers. The Layer panel doesn't work as experienced in other programs and it's causing a lot of trouble.

Are you asking as someone new to the Affinity suite of applications? Or do you have experience with Photo and Designer.

I ask because, with the exception of the Master Page layers, layers in Publisher work pretty much the same as layers in the rest of the suite, and the Layers panel works identically to the rest of the suite, I think. So in addition to any Affinity tutorials for Publisher, you might find some of the Designer or Photo tutorials of benefit, too.

Also, is there some particular aspect that is confusing you?

 

[Richard786]

I would add a +1 to this. Coming from Creative Suite, the differences in Layers between the two systems is very confusing - and I use a lot of Layers in my work.

It seems Affinity products create a Layer for the frame and then another Layer beneath it for whatever's within the frame.

And the fact that Layers are not global across the whole document is another bugbear.

What we really need, and Affinity could never do this for obvious reasons, is a video tutorial along the lines of "Here's how to do something in InDesign - and here's how you get exactly the same effect in Publisher". Like I say, Affinity could never release such a video (they'd be sued by Adobe), but maybe some enterprising third party could...

[fde101]

34 minutes ago, Richard786 said:

It seems Affinity products create a Layer for the frame and then another Layer beneath it for whatever's within the frame.

yep

 

34 minutes ago, Richard786 said:

And the fact that Layers are not global across the whole document is another bugbear.

There are plans to address this with a new layer type in the future.

[Daleus]

Hi Walt and Richard - thanks for the replies.

My big issue is that Publisher appears to create a new layer for each an every object you create.  I am accustomed to creating a layer upon which I can place multiple objects that I want to group together.  And so for Publisher and Designer, yes their layers work the same way which is still unfathomable to me.

I can create a new layer, the Layer panel allows me to add objects to the layer but they still only appear one at a time and only when I select them. I am accustomed to all of the objects on a layer to be controlled as a group and for there to be lock and visibility controls on each layer.

Can you tell me what the model is for Affinity layers?

If the model is as Richard says - that *2* layers are created and are not global across the whole doc - then I definitely have no understanding.  Why would layers be designed like this - hardly seems to *layers*

Dale

 

[fde101]

Each object in an Affinity document is a separate layer - each shape, pixel layer, text frame, etc. shows up as a separate entity.  The contents of a picture frame are separate from the frame itself, so that does nest an additional layer inside.  There are a few other types of layers that could show up under various conditions.

Currently, the only layers that are shared across pages are the ones representing the master pages that are applied to them.  This is expected to change at some unknown point in the future - try searching for "global layers" on the forum to see the discussion that has already happened regarding this.

 

The Designer layers tutorial should be relevant:  https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/tutorials/designer/desktop/video/301623317

[Richard786]

Another thing about Publisher layers that I discovered at the weekend is that it's very easy to accidentally nest a layer within another layer when youchange the stacking order.

Perhaps Affinity should just bite the bullet and copy the way layers work in Creative Cloud - the current system is quite fiddly.