XLS for features and ideas - Megathread

[Daniel]

@EricP: Yes, I did. Repeater is a great idea, but it can be much simpler. I'll suggest small ways to make it more intuitive.

[VectorStyler]

@Daniel said in XLS for features and ideas - Megathread:

Edge Gradient: http://www.vectorqueue.com/imaxes/scurve.MP4...

a.k.a Diffusion Curves

[Daniel]

Pattern-mode: This is actually one of my favourite PL features. It allows you to turn your entire canvas into an instant repeating pattern. This means that you can quickly design a single tile and turn it into a pattern with a single click. You can also quickly hide the panels and see how the pattern looks:

Like so!

It's brilliant. And it is editable live. It is also incredibly fast.

[Daniel]

Layout view. This was once upon a time available in FreeHand. But now Scribus has revived it. It can either be a dedicated view like outline view or if you zoomout, you see the text density and weights. Brilliant stuff.

[Daniel]

Ruler highlighting. This helps ensure that when you're moving objects, you can actually see the position without guessing. Available in many, including my beloved FH.

[Daniel]

Guide Layer: This is yet another classic that both Xara and FreeHand got right. You can make a guide out of literally any object. Including texts, entire blends, and so on. You might ask: Well, what's the point of that? It allows you to very quickly generate complex layout grids. Here's how it works:

I start with a 6X3 Table. And then merge cells very quickly and get this:

Next I move the Table into the guide layer.

Voila. Now it's a grid/guide:

This is exceptionally useful.

[VectorStyler]

@Daniel

Guide Layer

Exists in VectorStyler also.

[Daniel]

@VectorStyler really? Never realised. Let me check.

[VectorStyler]

@Daniel select the object and then: View -> Guides -> Make Guides

A question: how do those other programs handle if these lines, grids, are rotated? how does snapping of a curved shape works at corners of those rotated grids?

[Daniel]

@VectorStyler: To be fair, FreeHand's snapping is quite shit. Xara works quite well but once corners are rounded or rotated, it's a bit unreliable. It works sometimes and but not other times.

[Daniel]

I am designing a typeface, and kept run into the problem of wanting to find hyper-accurate measurements. And I thought, you know what I'd like? A caliper on my screen! And here it is: https://www.iconico.com/caliper - It would be a great addition to have a calliper tool with built in angle measures in VS.

[VectorStyler]

@Daniel said in XLS for features and ideas - Megathread:

I am designing a typeface, and kept run into the problem of wanting to find hyper-accurate measurements. And I thought, you know what I'd like? A caliper on my screen! And here it is: https://www.iconico.com/caliper - It would be a great addition to have a calliper tool with built in angle measures in VS.

Not for screen pixels, but all widths/heights path lengths or angles can be measured using Measurement variables created from the Variable Values panel

[Daniel]

I've been thinking about VS performance, and here's a suggestion:

You should be able to switch off anti-aliasing and degrade view quality of just selected objects. This is a golden mean between total degradation of all elements and total quality of all objects. This has always been possible in Xara, where you can select the object with FX and blends, and toggle on anti-aliasing. The left is without anti-aliasing, the right is with. On the same canvas.

[Boldline]

@Daniel said in XLS for features and ideas - Megathread:

I've been thinking about VS performance,

@VectorStyler Does locking a layer and/or turning off the eyeball improve performance?

[VectorStyler]

@Daniel Antialiasing can be turned off, but only for the whole display.

There is also an option for complex layers "Image Render" in Object Options (or Render as Image with right click).
This will keep the image of the layers that are not changing

[Daniel]

@Boldline: unfortunately, that's not what I want. I want to be able to have the whole canvas in view with all objects visible.

[Daniel]

@VectorStyler: I tried this too. Didn't note down how it affected performance. Will report back. Thanks!