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constructive Feedback (hopefully)


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Hi Serif,

I purchased all 3 Affinity-Products - mainly to support you since I have no need for Designer and Publisher (at least not right now..).

While clicking around in Designer just for fun I noticed the following... "things" - don´t want to call them issues or problems..:

  • Designer is drastically slower when moving objects with Noise-Fill compared to objects with plain color or gradient-Fill.
  • Styles: easy to apply - but how to remove them?
  • 3 "View-Mode"-Buttons in the Toolbar: ok so far, but which mode is active if no button is clicked?
    (Good usability: "don´t make me think..")
  • Designer does remember color- and transparency-gradients. Why doesn´t Photo? (eg. Masks..)
  • those 2 buttons to manage the defaults look like clouds = not very intuitive...
  • the Toolbar-buttons for "Character", "Paragraph" and "Typograpyh" show the corresponding panels when clicked. fine. 
    But clicking the buttons again, does not hide the panels. Why?
    Even if we take your approach as good: the buttons should dim to indicate that clicking again is useless since the panel is already shown...
  • There is no way to lock the properties of an object independently: lock Fill-Color, lock Border-Color, lock position, lock size, lock aspect ratio...

Thanks for reading this.

kind regards
Fritz

(i5-4590, 16GB RAM, all SSD, Windows 8.1 Pro 64, german, NVidia 1050Ti)

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Select the object then click the Revert Details button on the top Toolbar

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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2
41 minutes ago, Fritz_H said:
  • the Toolbar-buttons for "Character", "Paragraph" and "Typograpyh" show the corresponding panels when clicked. fine. But clicking the buttons again, does not hide the panels. Why?

They are not toggle buttons (on/off)

43 minutes ago, Fritz_H said:

Even if we take your approach as good: the buttons should dim to indicate that clicking again is useless since the panel is already shown...

Clicking again will bring the respective panel to the front if in a group of other panels

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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47 minutes ago, Fritz_H said:
  • 3 "View-Mode"-Buttons in the Toolbar: ok so far, but which mode is active if no button is clicked? (Good usability: "don´t make me think..")

Look at the View > View Mode menu, the default view in Designer is Vector

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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6 minutes ago, Fritz_H said:

1. not intuitive
2. this removes all properties of the object (like transparency..)
3. best solution, until this is fixed.

It's also not intuitive what you mean when you ask how to remove a style from an object, given the complexities that can arise. For example, have you considered that an object might have several styles applied? And each might change various different aspects of the object. One might change the fill, another the stroke. Another might set the font, or the paragraph leading (both only meaningful if the object is a text object).

Or that any style that you've applied might be subsequently overridden by manually applied changes.

So, given a sequence of actions over time, "removing a style from an object" does not have an obvious result.

Thus, the only general answers are:

  1. Undo, if you've just applied a style you don't like.
  2. Define your own "default" style and apply that.
  3. Revert Defaults, and start over with the defaults for that object.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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@carl123 
(seems to be a communication/language - gap; my question was rhetorical...)

I know that those buttons are no toggle-buttons but they should be, since they have the same design
as other buttons in this Toolbar which are toggles. (-> Usability, u know?)

regarding the "View-Modes": again - Usability!
there are 4 View-Modes, but only 3 buttons for them. Usability-Mistake - esp. since they behave like radio-Buttons:
no "none selected" -State is allowed.
 

@walt.farrell
As I wrote before: since I purchased the license mainly to support Affinity I hardly use this application,
but I am not aware of a way to apply more than one style to an object.

My UI-Design -approach would be this:
1253405271_AffinityDesigner.png.d201503260cc9dd33af76ea953394e7c.png

BTW: seems, that the Styles-List can not be re-arranged...

kind regards
Fritz

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4 minutes ago, Fritz_H said:

4 View-Modes, but only 3 buttons for them

Why have 4 buttons when only 3 are needed?

Old-school thinking just stifles innovation and creativity


 

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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On 9/22/2019 at 7:40 PM, Fritz_H said:

Usability-concepts

I definitely have no problem understanding and using this concept - default mode in vector drawing application is Vector. If I need some other specific display/mode, I can switch it to another mode using the three buttons. If I do not need this specific display, I will turn off the specific mode switch buttons. I don't need another special button, which occupy the Toolbar.

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
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These graphics styles are not "linked" to the objects they are applied to.

They simply change the properties of the object in place.

You can't "remove" a style any more than you can "remove" a font - you can simply apply something else over top of it.

 

Text styles work differently in that the text then "remembers" the style that was applied to it and will change its characteristics when you update the text style.

 

See also:

 

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17 minutes ago, johnnydfred said:

And secondly  - How does one edit a style??

One does not edit a style. One deletes it, and replaces it with a new one.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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On 9/22/2019 at 6:09 PM, Fritz_H said:

@carl123 Thanks,

1. not intuitive
2. this removes all properties of the object (like transparency..)
3. best solution, until this is fixed.

kind regards
Fritz

History panel.

Here you can select the style you want to remove without removing anything else. If you just used the style, do CTRL-Z. to remove the style used.

Effects can be edited, styles not.

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  • 2 months later...
On 10/5/2019 at 9:30 PM, walt.farrell said:

One does not edit a style. One deletes it, and replaces it with a new one.

Nope. Not useful. Loving Designer/Photo/Publisher, but omissions such as this make an app a non-starter for many in the industries. Once a style is created, everyone will want to tweek the style's specs for best use in the doc. These style specs change ALL the time throughout the life of doc editing and approval. No one wants to have to remember the style's details, or enter them all in again. Hope adding style editing capability is an next MVP TOP PRIORITY. Oh, and IOS port. When I say, "what to we want?", you say, "Publisher IOS!". What do we want? Publisher IOS!

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5 hours ago, Murfee said:

Why not just edit the style? It is possible through the FX Panel. Users can either create a new style with adjustments, replace the original if needed or leave it as a base style.

Sorry, but I'm not seeing how the FX Panel does that at all. Can you elaborate on the steps needed?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Sorry, but I'm not seeing how the FX Panel does that at all. Can you elaborate on the steps needed?

Hi Walt, Styles are a combination of effects applied to the layer, either to a shape or text. All you need to do is apply the style then select the layer and open the FX panel, make adjustments as needed. The shape, curve or text will also have a fill applied (not always) The fill colour or gradient is adjusted in the normal way, if a bitmap fill has been used this can also be changed via the gradient tool. 

This only edits the style applied, it does not save the edits to the original, a new one can be saved if needed. I was responding to johnnydfred's question regarding remembering the style's details & re entering them when tweaks are needed.

Screen Shot 2019-12-20 at 23.49.31.png

Screen Shot 2019-12-20 at 23.50.20.png

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1 minute ago, Murfee said:

This only edits the style applied, it does not save the edits to the original, a new one can be saved if needed. I was responding to johnnydfred's question regarding remembering the style's details & re entering them when tweaks are needed.

Thanks. That was my confusion, as you seemed to be saying that the FX panel could be used to save a style, and to edit a style. But it can only be used to examine/modify the style associated with a layer, not to edit or save the actual style as defined in the Style panel.

It can't even deal with all of the style, as the style is also a set of strokes, and a fill, which you can't deal with on the FX Panel at all. And also text attributes (font, font size, ...) if the Style was derived from a text object initially.

Having said that, though, thanks for pointing out the usefulness of the FX Panel. It's one I tend to overlook, and have never done much with.

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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13 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It can't even deal with all of the style, as the style is also a set of strokes, and a fill, which you can't deal with on the FX Panel at all. And also text attributes (font, font size, ...) if the Style was derived from a text object initially.

The style I showed in the screenshots has no strokes, it is just a simple black fill. The lines that look like strokes are coming from the bevel & emboss, the colours are from the highlights & shadows. 

I don't have any styles that are affected by text attributes, they are all derived from shapes so any font can be used. I create a style on text but then copy the text layer and paste the style to a shape then I save the style, I just find it easier when I need them later. I only have a few base styles saved, I tweak as needed in the document.

14 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Having said that, though, thanks for pointing out the usefulness of the FX Panel. It's one I tend to overlook, and have never done much with.

You are welcome. Its not something I use all the time, but it is a good tool, once you start experimenting the possibilities are endless, its easy to get carried away :)

 

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