Affinity Tips and Hacks I learned from you

[@DaveConrey]

What other Affinity hacks or tips do you have that you think I don't know yet?

[@tayzart.printuk]

Honestly cant thank you enough for these lessons dave hands down the best on YT i have learnt so so so much in such short time . Owe it all too your content ❤🙌

[@DaveConrey]

Thanks so much. That means a lot.

[@ContentCreator]

A good teacher is the one who keeps learning...

[@DaveConrey]

Well, then I must be a fantastic teacher. 😂 Thank you.

[@trevtog]

I am loving my switch to Affinity and YOU have made it not only easier but also more enjoyable. Thank you for the great content you create!

[@DaveConrey]

Happy to help

[@kyleb4327]

Dude!!!! This is actually what I was just wondering if I'd be able to do!!! Huge time saver. THANKS!!!

[@DaveConrey]

Glad I could help!

[@leverlodotcom]

thanks for sharing. Love me some affinity publisher

[@DaveConrey]

Thanks for watching!

[@davidtourangeau]

At 4:35 = The other way I do it, is by selecting the letter I want to change the vertical/above spacing, then ALT+SHIFT+UP; it raises each letter each time you press +. You can also access this fonction with the menu "Text", subsection "Base line" (Maybe a different word, I'm using the french version of AD)

[@DaveConrey]

That’s what I was doing actually, just not calling it out, but I don’t normally mess with the baseline unless I want to purposely raise a letter above or below the others.

[@MiriamWalcott]

For the in-line, text if you convert to curves you can adjust each letter individually.

[@DaveConrey]

True, but then I can't adjust the typeface if I decide it's not working.

[@heartshinemusic]

Cool painting there behind you... gives me Basquiat vibes! And thanks for your informative video's!

[@DaveConrey]

Cool, thanks

[@DaveConrey]

and yes, very intent on the Basquiat reference in that one.

[@bendesignsmedia]

If you don't want to make your own halftone brushes I can recommend Retro supply's color lab set, I've really enjoyed them.

[@DaveConrey]

Yeah, I've seen them, but I'm absolutely going to make my own... because I want to be the Post Modern Supply. 😂😉

[@chariots8x230]

How are you adjusting the spacing between the letters here? 4:29 Is there a specific shortcut that you’re using?

[@DaveConrey]

On a Mac, Option (or shift+Option) + arrow up or down. I assume on a windows machine, it would be Alt + arrows

[@TayoAdeniyi]

Thank you so much.

[@DaveConrey]

You're welcome!

[@BoonOng]

i learning something new from you today. =)

[@DaveConrey]

Nice. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@jantepas7511]

Thanks for sharing! The halftone is 👍🏻

[@DaveConrey]

My pleasure.

[@yokhanan]

Oh my God! I didn't even know about adjusting pages while keeping its masterpage in tact until today. Thanks so much for posting this, Dave. Just made my week a little bit easier, man. :)

[@DaveConrey]

Glad it was helpful. Thanks for watching.

[@kojokojo7523]

How did you do the 'Hard Return' ? Which key did you pressed?

[@DaveConrey]

Just hit the Return key. A soft return is Shift+Return, but you don't want that.

[@kojokojo7523]

@@DaveConrey I'm on PC platform

[@slicedpage]

I was wondering if you could help me. Is there a way to draw a line __ then a gap _ then continue without altering angle or height of that line?

[@DaveConrey]

If you use the pen tool, holding the shift button, and having Snapping enabled, you can do that.

[@slicedpage]

@@DaveConrey Thank you Sir, exactly what I wanted. Subbed of course. LLAP

[@thanemakes5377]

The screen dot brush would be nice to have it lay at traditional screen angles. So you can blend the colors more old school. Once you have the seamless edge I guess

[@DaveConrey]

Yeah, I’m working on that. I think I need to soften my edge to transparent for it to work.

[@HalkerVeil]

Do they have inline text yet? Not having in-line text editing in a program marketed to designers is like selling a car that doesn't have it's 4th wheel. Then painting it on as if that will work.

[@DaveConrey]

No they don't. I wish they did, but no.

[@lorensims4846]

Cool 😎!! That's what I love about digital graphics. I learn something new every day!!

[@DaveConrey]

Same

[@LauraSeabrook]

So was there an issue with the dot pattern used in the example.? I notices that as you applied it there was an obvious horizontal and vertical line that appeared, which I'm guessing is the edge of the texture used and not exactly aligned with the other side of the text.

[@DaveConrey]

Not sure which point of the video you're referring to, but I tend to fly by the seat of my pants when I design, so the work is always on purpose, and always not. ;)

[@Graphicxtras1]

Yes, the texture feature is useful. It is a pity you have to load a file, it would be great if it also could use an underlying pattern layer. Loved the hack for the type, a great idea. Color LUTs are great but adjustment groups should be a preset as macros are probably the only way to save them (use macros for a lot but even there there are things that can't be saved with macros such as gradient stops)

[@DaveConrey]

Yes, exactly.

[@umanoid1523]

Cool tips Dave. I never try to build brushes. The interface always confuses me. I will occasionally buy brushes though just to round out my toolkit.

[@DaveConrey]

Yeah, the interface does take some work to understand. I don't fully understand it myself, but I'm a little closer now. Thanks.

[@chrispatmore8944]

In the inline text hack, can’t you just use baseline shift to move the text character up and down?

[@DaveConrey]

That would still adjust the entire line of text at the same time because all the letters are still on the same baseline. Depending on the typeface you're using, or the letter forms, the spacing might still be wonky unless you separate them onto different lines.

[@chrispatmore8944]

@@DaveConrey Under the Character tab/palette under Positioning and Transform there is an option for adjusting the Baseline Shift of individual characters. Of course, it would then leave a bit of extra space between the proceeding character, so you would have apply a bit of baseline shift to all the subsequent characters. Either way, both workarounds are a bit of a faff, but not much worse than manually kerning a horizontal line of text. And certainly easier than some of the things I had to back in the old paste-up days, such as hand kerning a line of 10pt text in a fug of hot wax and/or spray mount.

[@paulssloss3968]

@@chrispatmore8944 To bring the A closer to the H without having to adjust all the other spacing, you could select "ACK" and apply the baseline shift to the 3 letters, so you wouldn't have to adjust each letter individually.

[@tomwd.2825]

The lut does not look like the pic bevore, does it? Why dont you just delet the picture under the layers with your settings and save it as a affinity file?

[@DaveConrey]

The LUT comes in at 100%, doesn't capture the opacity values, which is something to consider. The reason I want to create the LUTs is because I can stack dozens of them in an export file. If I did that for individual AffPhoto files, it becomes significantly larger in size.

[@tomwd.2825]

@@DaveConrey yes but you can also store hundreds of layers in one not so big file if you delete the Pixel layer, sorted in different groups/folders ... and btw... disc space was never as cheap as these days... but well... it's all about personal choice... only tryed to help...

[@richard127gm]

Can't get that pattern texture thing to work. Must be missing something.

[@DaveConrey]

I'll do a video in the future about it.

[@sivadmg]

why not just used Paint to create vertical text then import it into Designer?

[@DaveConrey]

Paint? Like MS Paint? For one, I’m on a Mac. But mostly, that’s extra effort when a work around is faster.

[@Windsurfing345]

Why not just copy paste ajustment layers to another document or change the picture and save it with another name?

[@DaveConrey]

I honestly don’t remember what this is in reference to.

[@Vinterbukser]

If, like me, anyone is confused as to why their halftone brush doesn't work, it's important to set the mode to 'final'

[@DaveConrey]

I apologize, I have no idea what you're referring to.

[@PeaceIntheValley]

that is not wrapping text around, that is text on a path and it is in the menu.

[@DaveConrey]

Thanks for your overly semantic take, but pros work too fast to stop to look in the menu. It should be an active type tool... like every other graphics app does it. And as you can see from the video, I figured it out already.

[@DaveConrey]

Oh, and as a publication designer of almost 25 years, I know what wrapping text is, but I didn't see the need to reshoot that one segment just to get the words right.

[@PeaceIntheValley]

@@DaveConrey I didn't mean offense at all. Your video was helpful. I was just stating that because if someone searched in the help, it would bring up the text wrap dialog box rather than the text on the path.I wouldn't reshoot either, but put a note in or something to that affect. I also have been in this for more than 25 years, so I know what it's like to have earned my entire living in this field. I wish you the best of luck.