A detailed overview of Affinity Designer (Mac OS). Part 2

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    The first part of the review

    This time I will talk about the work panels. If in general, then everything is about the same as in Illustrator. There are a couple of incomprehensible moments, there are a couple of very convenient things that large competitors do not have. You can enable all or individually in the menu "View-> Studio -> ..."



    Draw persona


    Layers Panel


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    Top left to right: layer transparency, blending mode, blending ranges (more details below ), layer lock. The transparency of the layer can be changed by numbers from 0 to 9 (as in Photoshop or Sketch), so it’s not necessary to go to the panel for this. To lock the layer also has its own keys.

    Bottom left to right: auto layer selection, masking, layer settings, effects, new layer, new pixel layer, delete the layer.

    Layer auto-selection: if pressed, select the layer by clicking on the canvas; if squeezed, select the layer manually in the panel. I’ll clarify that this works with layers that contain objects. And already inside the layer, objects are always selected by clicking on the canvas and in the layers.

    The mask is just like the Adipping Clipping Mask, not just on top of one layer, but on top of everything below. It is also pixel - you can draw with a brush.

    Settings (Adjustments) - a layer with various settings:

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    In fact, these are the usual windows for adjusting colors, levels, channels and other things. They are superimposed on a layer, so they can be driven in the same way as ordinary layers, and twisted at any time.

    For example, the “Selective Color” settings:
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    Layer effects are also everything like people’s
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    buttons. The “New Layer” button adds an ordinary vector layer.

    "New pixel layer" adds a layer on which you can draw in the "Pixel persona" mode.

    Well, everything is clear with the basket.

    But the blend ranges I honestly did not understand. I myself do not use this thing and have not seen this in other programs. It seems that it somehow controls the mode of "transmission" of the layer. But at the same time, here we have not just a blending mode (Multiply, Overlay, Soft Light and all that), but something like mixing and changing transparency at the same time.

    Mix Ranges Window:
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    Snapshots panel


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    In this panel, you can save something like backups or versions of one document. Buttons from left to right: restore the picture, take a new picture, delete the picture, a new document from the picture. In principle, the names are all clear. When you take a new picture, you will be asked what to call it. By default, the Designer calls the pictures the time they were taken.

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    History


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    Everything is clear: return to action by clicking or a slider. The designer knows how to save the story inside the document - i.e. you can open a file a hundred years ago and all actions in history will be “alive”. But to do this, click on the fad in the menu:

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    Brushes


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    In addition to actually selecting the category and the brushes themselves, the panel allows you to create your own categories and brushes, edit and delete ready-made ones, import / export (though the format here is your own .afbrushes)

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    Transform


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    You can select the anchor point of the object (ie, read the coordinates about the edges or from the center), correct and “link” the sizes, coordinates, angle and shift (skew)

    Navigator


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    If you used Photoshop or Illustrator, then you will recognize this thing. And it works just like the others. The scale slider has a maximum - 1000%, but if you suddenly need more, increase it with a “plus” - it has no limit (you can still use a keyboard or mouse, of course).

    The navigator has an Advanced mode (menu at the top right), where you can set viewpoints - View Point. Set the scale, save View Point 1, then set a different scale, save View Point 2. And then you can switch between these "points" in the navigator. You can set your own names.

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    It works like this:

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    Effects


    The same layer effects in a separate panel. Those. You can work with them either from the panel of layers, or from this.

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    Styles


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    Styles of objects. You can only select an object, save its style, then select another object and apply the style of the first. You cannot replace or update an existing style. Not a very useful thing for me - copying / pasting styles of objects with hot keys is faster (Cmd + C -> Cmd + Shift + V).

    The menu allows you to create your own style category, delete / rename categories, import / export styles (in your .afstyles format), and, in fact, make a new style from the selected object.

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    Stroke


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    Icons at the top: no stroke, line stroke, dashed line stroke, brush stroke. Further parameters of connections, fillets and the location of the stroke.

    The “Draw behind fill” checkbox enables the stroke to overlap with the fill (if the stroke is centered or the inside edge):

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    “Scale with object” - resize the stroke along with resizing the object.

    The Properties ... button opens the stroke properties panel. The stroke will then switch to the “brush” mode - only with brushes can these settings be adjusted.

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    There is also an interesting “Pressure” button. Opens the stroke thickness setting. For Illustrator, this is implemented as a tool, here in the form of such a curve. It’s not very obvious a working thing right away, but you can get used to it.

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    Profiles can be saved, loaded and deleted.

    Color


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    Nothing unusual except for the pipette. To select a color (from some object on the canvas, for example), you must first drag a dropper onto it, then select the resulting color as a fill / stroke.

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    There are 4 display modes - wheel, sliders (RGB, RGB Hex, HSL, CMYK, LAB, Greyscale), a spectrum (called boxes for some reason) and a color amount slider.

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    There is also a menu item that allows you to add several colors to the samples based on the current one. It is very useful - you can choose several suitable ones from a pack of many shades.

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    Swatches


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    Largely repeats the functionality of the panel in Illustrator.

    "X" switch between fill / stroke.

    The pipette, I repeat, is peculiar and uncomfortable because of this peculiarity: first you need to drag it onto the color, then it will appear near the pipette and then this color can be used for filling or stroke. When I or Alt is pressed, nothing happens if a brush is not selected in the tools - it can switch to the eyedropper with “Alt”.

    The “Recent” line shows the colors used in the current document. There are always black, gray and white colors.

    Below is a list with palettes (here in the screenshots my "custom" - "Pale" is open). There are three types of palettes: the document palette, the program palette, and the system palette. The document palette is saved with the file and is not available anywhere else. The program palette is available in any document - it is “general program”. The system palette is available from any program on the Mac in the color picker.

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    In general, the system color picker is a very useful and convenient thing, and I drive it “both in the tail and in the mane”. In particular, it is very useful to drop colors into it once (or, as above, make a system palette in the Designer) and then use these colors in other programs. So I do the “general” palettes for Sketch, Pixelmator and Affinity Designer. For coders: in Sublime Text is also useful. And you can keep the color speaker just likeseparate program .

    You can create global colors in the panel.

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    You can change the global color with sliders or simply replace it with another from the palette.

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    There are built-in Panton palettes:
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    From the panel menu, you can add colors, palettes, delete and rename palettes, create palettes from other documents, adjust the appearance of samples, export / import palettes (in the native format. afpalette)

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    Each sample also has a context menu

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    Symbol


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    I will not write about the obvious parameters - they are the same for all programs. I'll tell you about the non-obvious.

    List of font categories. These are categories and smart folders from the system font program. If you change something in the fonts, then the Designer will tighten the changes only after a restart.

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    Then the font size. Units can be set in the document parameters (File-> Document Setup ...).

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    For underlining and strikethrough, you can set a separate color. The default color is text, naturally.

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    If you press Cmd + Enter after entering the text, the text immediately turns into curves (this is a little annoying, because I sometimes press it because of my old habit). To simply exit text editing, press Esc.

    The designer immediately “hints” the mouse over the final result when you change some parameters in the text.

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    Paragraph


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    I have not found how to turn linear text into a paragraph, and I suspect that there is no such function. Therefore, immediately orient yourself, do you have an inscription or a paragraph.

    Above is the alignment of the paragraph.

    1 - “Spacing” group: line height, indent from the top, indent from the bottom, indent of the first line, indent from the left, indent from the right.
    2 - Tab stops group: padding in the text block after clicking Tab. By default 36 points, you can set your own.
    In the example below, the first press of Tab will move the cursor 10 points, the second 50 more, the third 200 more.

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    There are also parameters for blocks after the indentation - alignment and signs instead of a space (space, dot, underline or hyphen).

    3 - “Justification” group: this is useful for aligning text across the entire width (and it is better not to do this anywhere except for printing). From top to bottom, from left to right: minimum distance between words, minimum distance between characters, desired distance between words, desired distance between letters, maximum distance between words, maximum distance between letters.

    Export persona


    Fragments (Slices)


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    Contains all fragments created automatically (I have “filename required”) and manually. The type of fragment is shown by the corresponding icon.

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    At the top of the panel, select the resolution of the image for export - 1x, 2x or 3x. You can export everything at once - if you tick off all the fragments and click "Export selected", or one at a time - using the "Export" button opposite the desired fragment.

    Below is a useful checkbox - "Continuous". It works only after the first export, and before that it is "zadizabenny". If you select this checkbox, then all the changes in the file will be automatically exported accordingly. fragments. Those. you painted a sprite of icons, divided into fragments, exported once, and then click the Continuous checkmark and then, if you edit something in the icons, they are already exported themselves after the file is saved. There is an inconvenient moment - after closing the file and reopening the magic checkbox, it turns off and everything needs to be done in a new way.

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    Export Options


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    There is nothing to paint in words - everything, it seems to me, can be seen by the names of the parameters. If there are several fragments in the file, then you can choose your own options for each. There are a lot of options + you can save your settings.

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    To make your own preset, you must first select the built-in one, then change something in it, and then all this can already be saved as a new setting ("Create Preset ...")

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    Layers


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    In export mode, the layers panel allows you to select, enable / disable layers and create fragments. Nothing more. If the layer is exported, it is displayed by an icon (to the left of the checkbox).

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    Epilogue


    That's all. In general, I have a lot of positive impressions and a little negative. As a working tool - it’s quite suitable. Perhaps some of you will have to get used to it in some places after Illustrator, but only to minor details.

    Coming soon to Windows , by the way.

    The screensaver is an illustration of “Ice Lolly Guy” by Pocketstudio .

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