constructive Feedback (hopefully)

[Clayton King]

On 9/22/2019 at 12:24 PM, walt.farrell said:

t'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.

In truth, the styles palette has discreet styles created for the purpose of applying multiple style components (i.e., color overlay, stroke, shadow, etc.). The ability to simply remove the style you applied to an object is critical. Using Undo is not reasonable as the application of a style may have happened 20 actions before, or the desired look may have changed. It seems reasonable to have a "remove" styles right in the style palette... 

 

[fde101]

3 hours ago, Clayton King said:

The ability to simply remove the style you applied to an object is critical.

And what exactly would "removing" the style accomplish?

The objects are not linked to the styles - they are in effect "removed" the instant they are applied.  The individual properties of the styles are copied to the object, wiping out whatever was there before.

If you "remove" the style, what would those properties be reverted to?  Would you simply set all of them to default values?

[walt.farrell]

8 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Would you simply set all of them to default values?

That' what I was suggesting when I suggested using Revert Defaults on the object whose Styles you need to wipe out.

[Clayton King]

On 9/22/2019 at 12:24 PM, walt.farrell said:

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.

 

On 1/19/2020 at 7:49 PM, fde101 said:

And what exactly would "removing" the style accomplish?

The objects are not linked to the styles - they are in effect "removed" the instant they are applied.  The individual properties of the styles are copied to the object, wiping out whatever was there before.

If you "remove" the style, what would those properties be reverted to?  Would you simply set all of them to default values?

I would think the object (box, text, etc.) would revert the way it was created. The best example I can give is Photoshop where, when an object is either placed or created and a style applied, the style adds the various effects/techniques stored in the style. In the styles palette in PS, the remove style simply removes those effects from the object and it reverts to what it was originally. I'm sure the nomenclature is different, and perhaps "remove" is the wrong word. Perhaps "unapply" is more approriate.

 

[fde101]

11 hours ago, Clayton King said:

Photoshop

From what I am seeing online, Photoshop maintains an association between the styles and the layers they are applied to.

In other words, when you apply a style in Photoshop, it remembers which styles are applied to the object, so there is a record of where those attributes came from.

Affinity Photo is not Photoshop.  The styles are *not* associated with the objects, rather the attributes are applied directly to the objects themselves, so there is no record of where the attributes came from or what values were present before the styles were applied.  There is nothing there to revert to - "removing" the style would not go back to what was there before, it would leave you with nothing.

What you are requesting is not present because it is not possible unless the entire model of how styles work were to be changed.  While that is not impossible, and the request to make that change is not unreasonable for some point in the future, I would not expect it anytime soon.

Serif has indicated that they do not plan on making changes that would disrupt existing workflows, and this change could potentially do so.

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, fde101 said:

There is nothing there to revert to - "removing" the style would not go back to what was there before, it would leave you with nothing.

Thus my suggestion of using the "Revert defaults" button (or Edit > Defaults > Revert). That would set the object back to the default settings for that kind of object, whatever those defaults may currently be.

[MikeK36]

I really am disappointed that affinity haven't added this. It's such a basic need - you create a line style (for example), save it, draw a few lines and then decide that you want to change the colour or stroke of the line - but you can't! Crazy!