To follow along with the chapter and to get the most out of this book, it is recommended that you have an installed copy of Affinity Designer. Affinity Designer is available for Mac, Windows, and iPad and can be purchased, or a trial version can be downloaded, from the Serif online store https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/store/ or from the Mac App Store. The exercises, examples, and screenshots in this book were created using a Mac desktop setup with an extended keyboard and mouse.

Affinity Designer is a modern, state-of-the-art vector design and illustration application. It's used in everything from logo and illustration work to websites, advertising, UI/UX, and icon work. Since its introduction in October 2014, Affinity Designer's popularity has grown steadily and despite it being a relative newcomer to the creative industry, it is fast becoming a go-to, high-performance alternative for creative professionals, teachers, students, and enthusiastic hobbyists alike.

The future is very bright for Affinity Designer and since its introduction, the team at Serif, the creators of Affinity Designer, have also introduced Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher, two companion applications that run seamlessly alongside Affinity Designer as part of the Affinity range of professional creative applications. Now is an excellent time to get to know Affinity Designer and add it to your creative toolset and with Up and Running with Affinity Designer, we're going to discover together why you should consider adopting it as a permanent part of your creative arsenal.

The most recent update to Affinity Designer version as of this writing is 1.10.x. It is basically a performance and stability update with little to no real new features added. Since the initial 1.10 update there have been incremental updates 1.10.1, 1.10.2, 1.10.3… each addressing bug fixes and general improvements. Rather than listing all of them here as they are dynamic in nature and keep being added, please visit the Affinity user forum News and Updates page for the most recent up to date information.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/4-news-and-information/

Serif, the makers of Affinity Designer, themselves described the 1.10.x update in an online News and Update post on August 5th 2021 saying that "We're proud that the Affinity apps already offers class-leading speeds in many tasks, and for our latest update, we wanted to take a step back and really see what further levels of performance we could achieve". - Ashley Hewson, Managing Director Serif.

With 1.10.x they have undertaken a complete re-visit of memory management. This is apparently most noticeable when working in larger more complex files with higher numbers of layers and thousands of objects. These improvements are consistent across all apps and platforms. Windows, Mac, and iPad.

This update, while not sounding very exciting, is actually a good thing. By taking the time now to really look into performance and stability improvements they are setting the application up or laying the ground work for hopefully some exciting things to come down the road. Ideally in the not too distant future with version 2.0. Also remember Affinity Designer is not just a standalone vector illustration and design application. It's also the third part of a suite with two other applications (Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher) that are designed to work as seamlessly together as possible, even sharing the same file formats. So, performance is crucial for a smooth experience moving between applications and within each application.

As outlined in their update post on July 28th, 2021, below are some other areas that have seen improved performance or have been added with the 1.10.x update:

• Improved performance when using linked placed images
• Improved performance with text
• Improved performance with embedded documents
• Improved performance with low memory conditions
• New selection options – Parent, Top and Bottom
• Improved IME text editing for Japanese and simplified Chinese languages
• Improved SVG import and export
• Added support for most emoji
• In the Resource manager, there is a new "Relink" option for missing resources, a new added "File Type" column and a new ability to link EPS files
• Assorted other small fixes
• Help and localization improvements

From the Stock Panel, Unsplash, the stock photography service has been removed due to a new licensing fee. Currently there is still Pixabay and Pexels stock photography services available.

The new update is free to existing customers of Affinity Designer. Each app in the suite has their own update versions found for all three Windows, Mac and iPad platforms on the online Affinity user forum.

Before diving in too deep when picking up any new application, it's always good practice to get familiar with the broad landscape or "lay of the land" somewhat. To start with, in this section, we're going to take an overall look at the User Interface (UI) and learn where the important menu commands, panels, and toolbars are located. This way we can get a sense of how the application is set up and start to get acquainted and take advantage of some of its unique UI conventions.

Skipping ahead

Try to resist the urge to skip ahead if you can in these first few sections. Believe me, I understand the desire to get creating – it's what drove me to pick up the application to begin with, but you really don't want to miss out on something here that may prove invaluable down the road and a good grounding of the interface will help build your confidence when you do start creating that masterpiece.

Let's get started exploring the UI by opening up a new file. Launch Affinity Designer and go to File | New. Choose any page size from the available options (I chose letter size but for this, it really doesn't matter) and then click Create. You should be presented with a centered blank white page. Now if you have already opened the application and have been playing around and moving various panels about, you may want to set up your layout to look like mine, shown in the user interface screenshot in Figure 1.1, to follow along. To change to the same layout seen here, go up to the top menu, click and hold on View, navigate to Studio, and select the last option at the bottom of the flyout, RESET STUDIO. This will reset the Affinity Designer interface to its default layout and it should look pretty much the same as mine.

Figure 1.1 – Affinity Designer light interface

The preceding screenshot shows the light interface version while the next is the dark interface version. Both are screenshots of the Affinity Designer default interface.

A note about the screenshots in this book

Screenshots that don't need to be printed in color are printed in black and white. Screenshots that are best shown in color will be in color. In some screenshots the UI type will be too small to read, however if the information or concept being discussed requires readability every attempt at enlarging it will be made. That being said, there are limitations to resolution and the size of some UI elements.

Figure 1.2 – Affinity Designer dark interface

In practice in my day-to-day work, I find the light version a bit too bright for working with so I normally work in the dark interface mode. However, we will be using the light interface for all of the screenshots in this book for the main reason that they are easier to read at the sizes they are reproduced here. If you would like to change your interface to the light or dark interface option, go to Affinity Designer | Preferences (Mac) or Edit | Preferences (PC), locate the UI Style option, and select Light:

Figure 1.3 – Preferences panel – user interface

We will be discussing many of the user interface areas in more detail in Chapter 3, How to Customize Your Affinity Designer Workspace, but for now, let's just get familiar with the overall footprint of Affinity Designer's default setup. Let's begin with a quick tour of the interface.

The menu bar

Looking around the screen, we can see in the top left a horizontal bar containing a typical application menu bar with drop-down menu items: Affinity Designer, File, Edit, Text, Layer, Select, View, Window, and Help. We will cover these in more depth in the An overview of the menu bar section.

Figure 1.4 – Menu bar

The Persona toolbar

Just below the top menu bar and still on the left-hand side of the layout, you will see the three Persona icons for the Designer, Pixel, and Export Personas. This is called the Persona toolbar. See The Persona toolbar section for a more in-depth look at the Persona toolbar.

Figure 1.5 – Persona toolbar with the Designer Persona active

Toolbar

Continuing along the same horizontal bar and just to the right of the three Persona icons is an area known simply as the Toolbar. See the The Toolbar section for a more in-depth look at the Toolbar.

Figure 1.6 – Toolbar

The context toolbar

Just below the Toolbar is the context toolbar. See the The context toolbar section for a more in-depth look at the context toolbar.

Figure 1.7 – The context toolbar

The Tools panel

Moving over to the left-hand side of the layout, we find the Tools panel. See the Navigation tools – overview section for a more in-depth look at the Tools panel.

Figure 1.8 – Tools panel (Designer Persona)

The document view

The central workspace area containing my white page is known as the Document View. The dark gray area around my page also contained within the document view is called the Pasteboard. See The document view and artboards – overview section for a more in-depth look at the document view and pasteboard.

Figure 1.9 – Document view and pasteboard

The Right Studio

The last area of the default interface to cover is the wide column along the right side of the layout. The area is known as the Right Studio. See the Studio panels – overview section and Chapter 5, Main Studio Panels and Managers, for a more in-depth look at the Right Studio.

Figure 1.10 – Right Studio

Now that we have seen where the main areas of the interface are located in the default layout, let's begin to take a look at some of these individual areas a little more closely, starting with the top menu bar.

No chapter entitled Getting Familiar with the Affinity Designer's Interface would be complete without a quick look at the interface's top menu bar. As this is an overview, a lot of these menu items will be covered or touched on as we go through the book, especially in the three practical exercise chapters (Chapters 11-13). Once again, these menu bar items and the drop-down menu lists that follow are from the macOS desktop version of the software. There may be some slight differences in the Windows version, but overall, most are the same.

Figure 1.11 – The menu bar

Keyboard shortcuts

You may notice that the menu bar dropdowns in the following screenshots display some existing keyboard shortcuts that are already assigned here for many functions. Most are assigned by Affinity Designer while some are shortcuts that I have assigned for my personal workflow. We will cover assigning keyboard shortcuts in Chapter 3, How to Customize Your Affinity Designer Workspace, after which you will know how to create your own shortcuts that make sense to your working style.

The Affinity Designer menu

The drop-down sections of this menu are as follows:

• About: Here you'll find the current splash screen with the Affinity Designer version number.
• My Account: A quick link to register or sign in to your account.
• Check for Updates: Use this to see if your version of Affinity Designer is the latest.
• Personas: Personas that are not currently active. Selecting one makes it the active persona.
• Preferences: Various Affinity Designer preferences.
• Services: macOS services.
• Hide/Show All: Hide or show Affinity Designer or other applications.
• Quit: Quit the application.

Figure 1.12 – The Affinity Designer menu dropdown

The File menu

The drop-down sections of this menu are as follows:

• New: Create a blank new file or a new file from Affinity Designer artwork that has been copied to the clipboard from another Affinity Designer file.
• Open: Opens a previously saved file or a recently saved file.
• Close: Closes the current file.
• Save: Saves the file or saves a new file with a different name.
• Save as Package: Saves a separate "Package" file format containing all of the file's relevant resources and fonts.
• Save History With Document: Saves the current file's history.
• Edit/Reveal: Allow editing in Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. Reveal the file's location in the Finder.
• Place: Places an image in the file.
• Export/Share: Export the file in a variety of formats, including templates. Share the file using email or messaging, or add to libraries.
• Document Setup/Print: Edit or review the document setup. Print the document.

Figure 1.13 – The File menu dropdown

The Edit menu

The drop-down sections of this menu are as follows:

• Undo/Redo: Undo or redo operations performed.
• Cut/Copy/Paste/Duplicate/Delete: Cut and copy with paste options as well as duplicate and delete.
• Defaults/Create Style: Define element defaults. Create styles from a selection.
• Dictation/Emoji & Symbols: Start dictation. Create styles from a selection. Browse text emojis.

Figure 1.14 – The Edit menu dropdown

The Text menu

The drop-down sections of this menu are as follows:

• Show: Show text-related panels.
• Character: Adjust character options and positioning.
• Alignment: Adjust alignment and spacing.
• Styles: Create and adjust character and paragraph styles.
• Insert: Insert lines, dashes, spaces, and hyphens.
• Spelling: Check spelling and spelling options.

Figure 1.15 – The Text menu dropdown

The Layer menu

The drop-down sections of this menu are as follows:

• Group: Group or ungroup selected or all objects.
• Compound: Create compound shapes (shapes with holes).
• Positioning/Editing/Transforming: Options for arranging, editing, and transforming objects.
• New Layer types: New vector layer, new pixel layer, new adjustment layer
• Lock: Lock or unlock object options.
• Hide/Show: Hide or show object options.
• Find: Manually find the selected object in the layer stack. This can be changed to automatic.
• Convert: Convert/rasterize options for objects or text.
• Convert Artboard: Converts an object to an artboard or an artboard to an object.
• Fill Mode/Layer Effects: Fill mode for self-intersecting shapes and the Layer Effects panel.

Figure 1.16 – The Layer menu dropdown

The Select menu

The drop-down sections of this menu are as follows:

• Select: Select all, deselect all, or invert the pixel selection.
• Select Next/Select Previous: Select the next object or select the previous object.
• Select Same/Select Object: Select the same object attributes. Select specific types of objects.

Figure 1.17 – The Select menu dropdown

The View menu

The drop-down sections of this menu are as follows:

• Zoom: Document zoom options.
• Rotate: Document rotate options.
• View Mode: Document view mode options.
• Views: Create new views. Browse saved views.
• Show/Hide: Grids, guides, bleed, margins, and rulers.
• Lock Guides: Lock or unlock guides toggle.
• Studio: Drop-down list of all studio panels.
• Studio Presets: The ability to save and choose custom studio panel setups.
• Managers/Color Picker: Five document managers; the Apple Color Picker.
• View Point: Browse the next or previous saved viewpoints.
• Show/Hide Context Toolbar: Context toolbar toggle.
• Show/Hide/Customise Toolbar: Toolbar toggle. Customize Toolbar
• Show/Hide/Dock/Customise Tools: Tools panel toggle/docking. Customize the Tools panel.
• Toggle UI: Hide or show all UI panels.

Figure 1.18 – The View menu dropdown

The Window menu

The drop-down sections of this menu are as follows:

• Modes: Normal mode or separated mode. Merge windows in separated mode.
• Minimize/Zoom: Choose whether the document fills the screen or is minimized to the dock.
• Fullscreen: Expand the window to fullscreen and hide the application menu bar.
• Floating Windows: Repositions floating windows.
• Filename(s): List of open Affinity Designer files.

Figure 1.19 – The Window menu dropdown

The Help menu

The dropdown sections of this menu are as follows:

• Search: Menu bar search for a keyword.
• Help: Launches the Affinity Designer application's help topics browser.
• Welcome…/Tutorial…: The former launches the welcome splash screen. The latter launches the tutorial website.
• Support: Launches the Affinity online user forum website.

Figure 1.20 – The Help menu dropdown

With the main menu bar overview covered, let's focus a little more closely on some of Affinity Designer's Tools panels and toolbars.

In the default interface layout, the Tools panel is located as a column of vertical icons on the extreme left side of the window. Depending on which Persona is active, the tools displayed will change in appearance, as shown here:

Figure 1.21 – Three Persona tool panels with the Designer Persona additional tool flyouts

If you look carefully, you'll notice in the case of the Designer Persona tool panel in the default setup, there are some nested tools indicated with flyouts below other related tools. The Pixel and Export Personas currently do not have any default flyout tools, although this may change in future updates.

The default order of the tools is set up for them to logically work with one another. The types of tools or tool groupings are as follows: Design tools, Shape tools, Text tools, Selection tools, Retouch tools, and Export tools. The specific tools for each Persona will be covered in full detail in Chapter 6, Tools –Designer Persona, Chapter 7, Tools –Pixel Persona, and Chapter 8, Tools, Panels, and Process –Export Persona. As with many interface elements in Affinity Designer, you can customize how or which of the tools for each persona are shown, and you can even change the order if you wish. We will discuss this in much more in detail in Chapter 3, How to Customize Your Affinity Designer Workspace.