@vectorstyler I defer to you on proper UI pattern. I like the idea of moving arrange views to the view menu and adding the lock panels submenu to the view menu as well. Thinking ahead, if and when you add the options to reset panels to a default position, add the ability to save panel layout presets, and option to close out all panels not in the default or chosen preset layout, I'd think those could all go under the view menu

@vectoradmin Thank you. It works now.

The programs are very different and essentially build for different purposes allthough Serif might not understand it. Or perhaps they do but try to sell the maximum amount of licenses they can anyway. They have a 30 years old history of aggressive selling and marketing but they seem to be more serious about their products after the Affinity line took over. But they really should relax on the marketing. They do not have a vector beast in Designer. They best explanation is that VectorStylers name is brilliant - it really is a program for drawing with vectors and manipulating vector objects as vectors. Affinity Designer should in that context be named PixelStyler. You can create beautiful things in Affinity using their very basic vector toolset - and inferior, bugged boolean algoritms (!) - but you can in every other vector program as well. The difference is that Serif hit a sweet spot with their new user interface. It just bloody works and does so fast. They also offer a very interesting mix of vectors and pixels that many artists just love. Me included. The problem is that manipulating the vectors like it is possible in VectorStyler is all manual work. But they seem to aim at artists that use Affinity to CONTROL bitmaps (textures and brushes) with simple vector tools; PixelStyler. In the case of Affinity Designer I came for the vectors and stayed for the bitmaps. The vectors just being "control shapes". Serif also created a success by investigating what many actually need to create even complex visual designs: Simple shapes and vector effects. And all the classic FX from Photoshop that creates effects we know from photography and the world: inner light, outer light, glow, shadows, blur, bevel, emboss and a few more. It was a wise early start but somehow they never seemed to be able to deliver more. But Serif did deliver the essentials implemented the right way from the beginning. Coming to VectorStyler - and many who learned drawing vector in Affinity but eventually hit the feature roof will - you will encounter the difference. Much slower workflows in certain areas. In Affinity I create tons and tons of vector objects and assign FX to them. Shadows, blur, emboss. Hundreds of times. It is FAST in Affinity and results in rasterized output. But I can create huge, complex works of art blazingly fast. I have read hundreds of time how artists praise Affinity for this artistic freedom and how fun it is to be able to work so fast, creating amazing effects and art. I would suggest to look at Affinity and investigate what works so well for their customers that didn't for them in Illustrator. Simply because you can learn from their succes. Former succes. I don't see them innovating anymore. Their contribution was a modern, well thought out, easy to use interface and the vector-pixel mix. VectorStyler is a different beast and if @vectoradmin aims at picking up veteran and educated Illustrator and CorelDRAW customers mostly with an attrative, very similar and much cheaper product, that is fine. If also picking up the millions of Affinity users is a dream - looking at workflows like they were implemented in Affinity is key. If you look at what some are able to produce with their iPad apps using the very simple toolset of Affinity you really realize people want to create with more organic, natural workflows. Not instructing a machine how to cast every shadow. It takes too long, it is boring and not creative. Personally after some getting used to VS I use it as a supplement to Affinity - perspective, envelope distort mostly - and for some drawings I get printed on physical objects. But I always start in Affinity - not Illustrator, VS and CorelDRAW I all own - even though the feature set is small and the boolean algoritms are inferior - because I simply work blazingly fast there and it is fun as well. And because I do not need pure vectors for my work. In conclusion two different products for different use cases - but both can learn so much from each other. I will never be able to pick one of the two and ditch the other. But I like them both very much. That being said I am lost likely to abandon Affinity Designer for something better should something pop up. Serif do not have the specialists and knowledge in-house for creating something better (after 30 long years in the business also with DrawPlus with the same lead vector developer as in Affinity) and it shows. Especially vector-wise. And I am NOT going to stick with it if the lack of tools continue. Because I can't.

@encart said in [ I have a problems with changing values with scroll wheel as well. My scroll wheel needs to make 4 steps to change the font for 1 point. With Shift key down it's 9-10 steps, CTRL3-4 steps. Do we have any setting responsible for that? Do you have similar experiences guys? Edit: I found Number Scrolling Speed in preferences, and increased it to 300%, helped but have feeling that is not based on mouse wheel steps, but about some kind of value. Now every 4th change needs two steps . 100,101,102,103,103,104pt Each value represents one step. Yes, I do. I would prefer a value change (a tenth of a unit, a unit or a ten with the corresponding modifier keys) with only one mouse wheel step (like in Affinity).... @vectoradmin if at all possible of course thanks in advance.

@Boldline After I check the cheat sheet again, I'll include the VS icon somewhere in a corner, and post it on the forum. (Btw, I used the BBEdit app and its Find & Replace with Grep and the Sort command to reverse the location of each command name with its shortcut from the list generated by VS, then sort everything alphabetically. So I didn't make or alphabetize the list manually. Same with the PDF — I used the CheatSheet app to extract the shortcuts grouped by menus, it's just that there I had to add a few of them manually, as CheatSheet doesn't extract all shortcuts of commands that don't apply to the current selection).

@mickrose Yes, this is the shortcut in VS. I will try to find a better one!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/affinity.designer/about

@b77 Well icons are not always clear either. In VS I just made experiments and looked at the results. Then I knew which icon to use and when. It is true that the terminology does not really have to bother, it just eases the learning process in some circumstances.

@Boldline When in shape editing mode (shortcut: A), you can create an arc from a parametric ellipse if you drag the control point on the outside the shape. To create a pie shape, drag the control point on the inside of the ellipse. Or you can click the canvas and adjust the start and end points of the arc in the properties window. (Once a parametric ellipse is converted to curves, the control point that does this is gone).

@Boldline said in Exporting Final Art from VS for others including non-VS users: @Subpath Awesome! I'll have to play around with it. I think I found the website https://concepts.app/en/ Yes, that is the Website. Have to say that the Windows Version is a bit limited, no Watercolor Brush and a few other things i dont remember. But has the Airbrush and the Pencil. You could try the free Demo. I own the iPad Version. Also if you deciced to buy the App, look carefully it seems subscription based. But there is also an Non-subscription version (i own this Version). I have this: Essentials 14,99 € (the non Subcription Version) PDF-Essentials 4,99 € ( for PDF Export ) Shape Library 1,99 € ( Kind of Clipboard/Asset Browser )

This is an interesting discussion… for next year. Planting 'Le Dot' here.

@vectoradmin Thank you for the answer.

@vectoradmin said in Canvases : reference, master...: @PatrickM Reference canvases: this is somewhat new to VS (not sure if some other app had it). The idea is that we use all sorts of assets in a document, like vector patterns, vector brushes, symbols, and others (see the list of Object -> Roles with the More Roles... item). Typically, the content of these assets are either hidden, or in an external swatch / library (presets or styles in VS). But VS also allows to create these assets on separate canvases, that are not part of the regular print / export workflow (unless explicitly selected). For example: draw a complex vector brush consisting of a group of objects on a Reference Canvas. Assign a name and role to the group (the role in this case is Artistic Brush Content), and then this "brush content name" will show up in the "Artistic Brush" options view "Content" field. Same goes for tiling patters: setup the content on a Reference Canvas, assign name and role, and it automatically shows up in all sorts of UI drop downs, where the pattern content is selected (Patterns panel, Content drop down). Or symbols: just assign a name and the "Symbol" role for an object and it shows up in the Symbols panel. The objects on the reference canvas are editable, just like any other object. This way it is possible to adjust / change a vector brush, tiling pattern, symbol, etc content. Also: to automate the "Role" selection, it is possible to assign a Role to a reference canvas, and in this way all top level objects (groups) will automatically have that role. For example: assign a "Symbol" role to a reference canvas using the Canvas -> Canvas Options -> Canvas Role button. The all top level objects (inside any layer), will automatically become symbols available in the rest of the document. One extension of this: any style can be defined through assigning a "Role" to an object with a name. For example: create an object with a solid color fill, set a name for the object, and assign the "Color Style" role to the object. A color with that name automatically shows up in the Styles panel, and can be used to set colors to (important!) other objects. Change the color of the original object (with the role), and all uses of that color automatically update. And by extension: assign the "Color Style" role to a reference canvas, draw some rectangles with solid fill on the canvas and assign name to the rectangles. There will be color styles with those names and colors in the Styles panel. Changing the colors of those objects (rectangles) will automatically change the style. A neat trick: open an AI file, all the vector brush or tiling pattern content are placed in separate reference canvases. Important to remember: you can have arbitrary number of these canvases (Reference / Master / Artwork) organized in a hierarchy in a single VS document. I feel like there is a lot of powerful information in this explanation, but I'm going to need more of a step by step breakdown of usage and understanding. I think it's going to be really useful for me as I have a number of assets that I reuse constantly.

SVG Render Output with a 3D Model with Blenders FreeStyle SVG Exporter (its a Vespa that I modeled once). So you are not restricted to Text only. Again the output of Blenders FreeStyle SVG Exporter is pure Vector and of course loadable in VectorStyler. The Lines are still a bit messy, but that also depends on the resolution of the 3D Model. Here a Screenshot: [image: 1639821185665-vespa-freestyle1.png]