8 Hidden Features In Affinity Designer That Nobody Told You About

In the past we've covered some the most unique and helpful tools that Affinity Designer has to offer, but in today's lesson we'll be having a look at some of the more obscure features that may not always be visible in plain sight. As useful as some of these tools may be, they can't help you if you don't know where they are, so in this video we'll be going over 8 hidden features in Affinity Designer that you may not have known about.
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🎵 MUSIC USED
In Da Mood - Combustibles
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:27 Isolation Mode
01:30 Use Color Picker Outside The App
02:24 Copy Color Codes To Clipboard
02:58 Add Noise/Grain To Color
03:28 Edit Multiple Objects At A Time
04:09 Link With DropBox
04:46 Embed Fonts And Linked Images
05:19 Select Objects By Color
06:00 Conclusion
06:23 Learn More

[@ChrisOmfHare1]

As always, you stand alone in giving clear, helpful information - #1 is killer!! Thank you!

[@Kallah_DaughterOfYAHUAH]

He really does. He’s been my go to for tutorials for YEARSSS!

[@donunicycle]

Being able to isolate layers, by hiding all other, is really handy. I saw that somewhere else (maybe from you), but it is a time saver. The "Edit Multiple Objects" segment is also very helpful. Thanks Nick.

[@MarkAnthonyHenderson]

Save as package is cool, as are the other shortcuts. Thank you!

[@bigshootergill1]

Great features! Thanks for this awesome video, love the "Isolate Layers" and "Save As Package" tips. One that I just discovered... if you have a lot of layers in a document, but you want to edit one that is buried deep in a number of groups, you can simply hold CTRL + Mouse Click on the desired layer, you will instantly have access to it, rather than double clicking through multiple groups until you get the desired layer. Simple little time saver.

[@longroth4882]

Great job! 👍👍 One thing that you didn't touch on that many would find useful is the scale override. There's an easy to miss button to activate it and menu in the transform panel. I do designs like vehicle wraps and large signs that are designed at a smaller scale to keep file sizes manageable, then scaled up to size for print. Having to remember to check all the boxes to scale strokes and effects with size was a pain, and having it off by default always seemed a little backwards (to me anyway). It's always frustrating when you scale a design up, only to realize you missed one or two, and have to go back and re-edit before it can be printed (and yes, I have started printing before realizing I've missed them, and wasted material 😒). Having the ability to globally set anything/ everything to scale with size is one new feature I think I might love the most.

[@simborandy]

You have just saved me A LOT of frustration. Thanks!

[@joanbondar]

I do this ALL the time. Where can you globally set it, please?

[@longroth4882]

@@joanbondar Bottom right corner you'll see a greyed out box with a down arrow button next to it (on desktop versions anyway). If you click the button, it'll activate it. The down arrow button next to it is a menu that you can choose what you want it to auto-scaale, if you just leave that alone, it'll scale everything proportionally, strokes, effects, etc. The only catch is it'll only do it if you scale document or a selection size ratio proportionally.

[@joanbondar]

@@longroth4882 thanks tons! Really appreciated. To clarify for other peeps, you're referring to the Transform tab, under the S: (shearing) dropdown menu.

[@longroth4882]

@@joanbondarYup

[@ruthxo]

This is so useful - thank you!! 🙌🙌🙌

[@BrianWMay]

Really helpful, thanks.

[@layonnguyen5139]

Extremely helpful, thank you very much!

[@ekpunker]

Thanks for this! Isolate mode will be great for my workflow. I didn’t know about it!

[@creativeladyboss]

This was a great tutorial. I was working in designer the other day and wanted to add noise but could not find it. Now I know. Would love to see what other hidden features there are. Thank you.

[@jimdart8219]

Hey Nick great video as always. the color picker tool on the left in the tools panel is adjustable. Click on the picker then up in the context tool bar you will find settings. Also, if you click and hold the area just above the ruler where file names show up you put that screen on the other monitor, I don't know why you would want this because everything else stays behind. Just sayin.

[@robertmcmahon823]

All very helpful,thanks

[@jamesbeatty2867]

Outstanding video!!

[@mwhite212]

Very cool. Didn't know about the noise feature.

[@ComradeHaz]

I knew 1 of 8 so this is insanely helpful! thank you

[@tammyhodges4447]

Thank you. Would be super helpful if the title stated which version of designer this is ( 1 or 2). Thanks

[@stevenlitvintchouk3131]

Very helpful! The only one of these features I knew of was the ability of the color picker to pick a color from anywhere on the screen. I think I may have seen selecting objects by color also, but that was so long ago that I long since forgot about it!

[@vector-modus]

Excelent, thank you.

[@SgtMajor82]

I'm studying at the moment but bought the Affinity course anyway for when I have some down time :-) I really liked this video and thanks for sharing

[@gabomon01]

Wonderful tips

[@WilliamMBlaesing]

Super vid. More hidden features, please.

[@williamramos3350]

Isolation mode to me is super powerful. Especially when having to make minor adjustments. Thank you.

[@SammiesWhichCrafts]

This was Amazing and has really helped me with so many things. The one thing that i know can be changed as i have seen it done on another video but i am unable to find it and that is to change the triangle in the colour wheel in to a square. if you could share this it would be so much help but great video and thank you x x x😁

[@DinushaJayaranga]

why affinity is so underrated

[@meaganthemarionette4899]

YO that global color picker is JUST what I've been looking for! HECK YEAH!! 😀

[@carlosalbertolorencini3106]

Tanks!

[@leannet3854]

Ooh… love the tips. I use only the ipad version though, am just starting new using version 2. The notebook’s expired.

[@PhilAllamong]

Great video as always. I had done the Inkscape Master Class a few years ago and it was excellent. I am considering dong the Affinity Designer Master Class and was wondering what version of Designer it is based on. Hoping version 2. And if it's based on version 1 will you be adding version 2 additions and changes in the future. Thanks in advance for the info.

[@DesignMadeSimple]

Hi Phil, it’s up to date as of V2.

[@1nf0fr34k]

the VERY first thing you mentioned was Isolation mode and that was exactly what I was looking for. You said use Alt though, Option is the correct term for Mac ofc and you seem to be using a Mac like most AD users and Option may be more familiar for iPad users using the 'Command Controller' modifier so maybe it's good to mention Option or Alt?

[@wendp1818]

What is the command controller on an iPad please? 🙄

[@Chadwickworks]

Alt + Click to isolate the selected layer without actually turning all others off then on again is going to change my life - ty, sir

[@simoncodrington]

This one was super handy mate, great with on it. Nice inside joke editing the thumbnail of the video inside the video

[@elainehoskins6245]

love your video may I ask about your masterclass is it a one time fee or monthly ty and is it the version 1 or 2

[@DesignMadeSimple]

Just a one time payment, and it’s up to date as of V2

[@elainehoskins6245]

@@DesignMadeSimple TY I enroll like to know how to gain access to our private community

[@elainehoskins6245]

After starting the class I understand the access to our private community TY

[@literaturix]

This rocks.

[@lithandriel]

Does anyone know if the Save as Package feature is available for the Designer 2 iPad app?

[@Chadwickworks]

Thanks for the Great video! HELP -> I can't seem to find an answer anywhere, but is there a way to keep all the items I have selected, selected but make it so I don't see the blue highlight lines that appear around the items when they are all selected? It makes adding say shadow FX or similar difficult to see when huge clusters of tiny items are all selected, I have to select then make my change, then Ctrl + D to deselect all just to see it, then reselect everything should I want to change some more, which is always as I couldn't see the damn effect in it's entirety while I was editing as all I could see was freaking blue lines everywhere . . . seems like there has to be another way.

[@craigozancin]

Of interest, although you address these specifically for Affinity Designer, most if not all also apply to Photo and possibly Publisher.

[@BettyMullins]

Can you link dropbox images in a specific folder without giving access to everything in dropbox file? And how would you do that?

[@virtualwhispers]

Hi, does Affinity Designer have an Inflate Effect like Illustrator?

[@Gentleman_Songster]

Tell 'em about the Cat Tool! (Oh, and I learned a couple or three things I didn't know -- thanks!)

[@gfdggdfgdgf]

Any hidden option to create a vector outline/stroke/contour to a PNG with alpha channel? All options work but they use the png document outline but not the alpha outline.

[@JackSmith-ud9bg]

How to do color seperation in affinity2 desiginer

[@ALIKHAN-wk4ut]

Nick ! Now it's become very easy to create smart objects mockups in affinity photo 2 by using embedded document , so why not make videos on these topics , even affinity Designer 2.1 is coming soon which is now able to apply wrap (perspective and mesh ) on raster images as non destructive , so it's also very easy to create mockups in affinity designer . Last point ,! Have you told to your views about embedded document ، which is powerful feature working just like smart object like in adoe ps۔

[@DesignMadeSimple]

I'll look into it!

[@TraitorFelon.14.3]

I found the features in the manual.

[@agungwidi799]

I always want Affinity Designer to have something like "material slot" in Blender, I guess the alternative here is by using select same color

[@thepopoolaba]

I am getting this software soon, I just need the finance.

[@bigshootergill1]

Perhaps Serif will put their software on sale sometime throughout the spring, keep an eye out.

[@ArpLaszlo]

3:10 🤯

[@greenbeetle1]

The Isolate Layer feature is hopelessly compromised. Accidentally touch anywhere on the screen apart from the shapes and strokes on the selected layer and you're back in normal mode. Great idea that hasn't been properly implemented. Similar to the potentially brilliant concept of x-ray view, which can't reveal bitmapped images.

[@jvpabilonia]

Right? I was so frustrated (coming from Illustrator).

[@xzendor7digitalartcreations]

Some of these features are also available in Affinity Photo

[@zakaroonetwork777]

My Color picker is XRAYing through Photos and WEB, Though to my Desktop Background picture. So Frustrating. What is Wrong? As in your demo instead of pink flowers it would pic your Red Desktop background.

[@juurstudio]

But do you know about the cat tool?

[@phildavies899]

Just read the help file😂

[@bestmentoring]

Canva just ate Adobe by purchasing Affinity 🤣😭😂

[@lightner3985]

RIP adobe illustrator