Affinity Bootcamp - January 2025

[Cassel]

  On 1/24/2025 at 6:15 PM, Rene Marker said:

@Cassel You mentioned that both the Selection Brush Tool and the Flood Select Tool have the same shortcut of "W". Just playing around today, I pressed the "W" key and it did go to the Selection Brush Tool. Then I pressed the "W" key again and it moved to the Flood Select Tool.

I just tried something else. I customized the Tools to have the Flood Select Tool above the Selection Brush Tool. Now when I press "W" it goes to the Flood Select Tool first. A second pressing of the "W" then goes to Selection Brush Tool.

So apparently the order in which the items are on the tool panel from top to bottom matters. 2 tools with the same shortcut will default to the tool the highest up on the panel.

Something else I just discovered. For example, the Erase Brush ("E") has the triangle showing 2 more tools. When you press the "E", the Erase Brush activates. Press "E" again and the Background Erase Brush is activated. A third press of the "E" will take you to the Flood Erase Tool.

Same thing happens with "P" for Pen. Press "P" again and it activates the Node tool. You can toggle between Artistic Text and Frame Text the same way with the "T".

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Great discovery. I thought it was strange to have the same shortcut for more than one tool/command, but now, I see that it can work!

[Corrie Kinkel]

  On 1/24/2025 at 6:15 PM, Rene Marker said:

@Cassel You mentioned that both the Selection Brush Tool and the Flood Select Tool have the same shortcut of "W". Just playing around today, I pressed the "W" key and it did go to the Selection Brush Tool. Then I pressed the "W" key again and it moved to the Flood Select Tool.

I just tried something else. I customized the Tools to have the Flood Select Tool above the Selection Brush Tool. Now when I press "W" it goes to the Flood Select Tool first. A second pressing of the "W" then goes to Selection Brush Tool.

So apparently the order in which the items are on the tool panel from top to bottom matters. 2 tools with the same shortcut will default to the tool the highest up on the panel.

Something else I just discovered. For example, the Erase Brush ("E") has the triangle showing 2 more tools. When you press the "E", the Erase Brush activates. Press "E" again and the Background Erase Brush is activated. A third press of the "E" will take you to the Flood Erase Tool.

Same thing happens with "P" for Pen. Press "P" again and it activates the Node tool. You can toggle between Artistic Text and Frame Text the same way with the "T".

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Rene that is good to know, another entry in my notebook where I'm collecting all the tips, so thanks again!

[Raymond]

  On 1/24/2025 at 2:53 AM, Linda J Walker said:

Raymond, can you turn off the layer the border is on? And then do it again with different settings?

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Linda: Thanks.  Your suggestion sounds good.

 I forgot to mention in my post that I save my work after I complete some new feature or before I start on a new feature (such as adding a border). 

 So, when I completely messed up my project, I closed it without saving it and just opened up the previously saved good version. 

 I'll try your suggestion as soon as I get caught up.  Right now, I am one full day behind and have not started project 5.

[Corrie Kinkel]

  On 1/24/2025 at 2:48 AM, Cassel said:

@Margo AhernGlad to see you started. The lessons will stay available although the tracking for the random draw of prizes will close on Monday night. Also, after that point, I will not come in with daily feedback posts. I could still answer questions if posted but the activity level of this thread will greatly go down.

@Daniel HessI have not explored the use of the Character Map with Affinity. Something else to explore!

@Jenny MacKayI am glad you enjoyed this Bootcamp. Your last layout looks great. About the book you refer to, if you ever have a chance to read about "Butterbox babies", it is also a sad story. There was a movie about it. Similar theme.

@CristinaYou should be able to follow the February workshop with Affinity OR PSP, your choice and the trial version will still be working for you. I had never worked with the "Mask below" option. Something else to study!

@Rene MarkerGreat layout. It is strange why the keyboard shortcut decided not to work. If you find an explanation, please, let us know.

@Jean NaumannI can understand how Affinity is a very attractive program to use. Its non-destructive features are great. However, remember that scripts and picture tubes are not possible without PSP, so make sure to keep both programs on hand!

@Corrie Kinkel I am not sure if there is a way to change that but when using the Frame Text tool, I can't sample the size of the text and it always seems to appear in 16px size, which is tiny on a 3600x3600 page! If I try to sample a size, like with the Artistic Text tool, I lose the frame, so it does not work that way.

@SaaraI am glad you enjoyed the Bootcamp. Are you aware of other APC members who joined us? Maybe you can encourage others to register, when we have a repeat of this Bootcamp. 

@Raymond Great page. Once you have added an outline with the Grow/Shrink command, you can't undo it directly. However, if you want to add a larger border, you can repeat the same steps with a larger setting. Otherwise, you might have to redo the steps from scratch. Of course, I could also have suggested you used the Layer FX > Outline to add that white border. That would be non-destructive and editable afterward.

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@Corrie Kinkel, it is a pity that this doesn't work in Affinity. Do you know if Affinity has maybe another option to have wrapped text like PSP 2022 has? I was so happy when I thought I could do something similar in Affinity after all the trouble we had with that bug in PSP 2023.

[Corrie Kinkel]

When I started scrapping in the Campus I already had PSP for a couple of years and had followed some tutorials from Corel, so I somewhat knew the program. Before Carole mentioned she was starting with Affinity I had never heard of it before. I therefore was a total newbie with this program, but having been a member of the Scrapbook Campus for almost 5 years now I felt I was up for something new. Of course the principals of scrapping remain the same but the how to do it can be different and I have enjoyed exploring this program a little bit. I have made notes of all the tips and tricks from the lessons and the remarks from the more knowledgeable among us. Because everything was new I can't pinpoint one that was the most important, they all were important to me and a big thanks to everybody that shared their work and how they did it. I can't wait to take this a bit further with the Magazine Workshop. I'll do that in Affinity because I have done it already in PSP. Hope to see a lot of you there and a big thanks to Carole for undertaking this new adventure and study this and explains it to us in the next Workshop. 

[Gerry Landreth]

Project 5. This has been a great workshop! It has been very informative as well as fun.

@Cassel Playing any game with the cats is more fun when played in my imagination. Hide and Seek is my favorite.

By the way, The Gremlins send their regards. They stopped by yesterday to wreak havoc on one of my laptops. They couldn't stop talking about how much fun they had at The Campus as they trashed my machine. I didn't ask about their next destination. I just slammed the door behind them.

[Jeni Simpson]

  On 1/24/2025 at 8:35 PM, Corrie Kinkel said:

When I started scrapping in the Campus I already had PSP for a couple of years and had followed some tutorials from Corel, so I somewhat knew the program. Before Carole mentioned she was starting with Affinity I had never heard of it before. I therefore was a total newbie with this program, but having been a member of the Scrapbook Campus for almost 5 years now I felt I was up for something new. Of course the principals of scrapping remain the same but the how to do it can be different and I have enjoyed exploring this program a little bit. I have made notes of all the tips and tricks from the lessons and the remarks from the more knowledgeable among us. Because everything was new I can't pinpoint one that was the most important, they all were important to me and a big thanks to everybody that shared their work and how they did it. I can't wait to take this a bit further with the Magazine Workshop. I'll do that in Affinity because I have done it already in PSP. Hope to see a lot of you there and a big thanks to Carole for undertaking this new adventure and study this and explains it to us in the next Workshop. 

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Corrie, I, too am a newbie with Affinity, although PSP is a programme I have been using for many years. I began in a Rootsweb genealogy group, using PSP9, with a Canadian, of course, who had done quite a bit of scrapbooking. She was teaching us to create family pages, or a scrapbook sometime in the future. Sadly, she fell out with the leader of the genealogy group, and left our new gene-scrapping group. However, we continued with scrapbooking tutorials we found online, some of us joining the Campus, although not to the extent of becoming paid subscribers. There were many groups out there teaching PSP, and we joined those. I went on to learn tubing, and HTML, although never comfortable with that aspect, I did enjoy tubing.
I must go back through comments and type them out so I can be a better user of Affinity. I loved this new, to me, programme, even though PSP is so familiar to me.
Thanks, everyone for your input, as usual, it is invaluable.
Thank you, Carole, for taking the time to learn and to teach us Affinity. I think, when I see a sale, or become wealthy, I would love to purchase the Photo2, if it is ever sold separately.

[DianeM]

I've loved this class and have worked through Lesson 9. Favorite things learned so far:

-making a pattern from an object like a glitter square

- adding shadows to photos and paper that look believable and doing it for multiple elements at one time by selecting them all. And I wonder why FX aren't used for adding frames to photos. And will you have a class showing how you set up styles.

- putting the resolution size at the end of the file name as a helpful reminder

- viewing a kit file and the layout file side by side and dragging or copying elements in to the layout

Thanks for making great Affinity content specific for scrapbooking. There's very little available and this has been a huge help and affirming of what I've tried to learn on my own. 

Blurb makes great premium magazines from scrapbook pages so looking forward to learning more in that class.

 

[Julie Magerka]

Project 5. The photo is one of a woman from my home town who was a real camera buff way back when she was a teen. Thanks to her, we have many candid photos of the village and its folks. I have scanned many of her photo albums to digitize them for her children/grandchildren b/c she's in her 80s now and wants her collection to be easily accessible to them.

I used bright colours which I don't normally choose for my layouts, but I was able to find great colours in Di Hiller's kits. She creates really fun stuff.

The whole learning experience here has been most useful. I'm not nearly as "fluent" in Affinity as I've become in PSP, but I feel more confident than I did before. Having Carole show the way to the specific methods for digital layouts (tools, shortcuts, etc.) has been most helpful. The Affinity Photo videos I was seeing on YT were mostly about editing images which is great, but I do more than that for the projects I work on. Now, I'm on my way and the learning curve isn't as sharp or as daunting.

[Julie Magerka]

  On 1/24/2025 at 10:03 AM, Margo Ahern said:

Here is Project 2.  I like the shortcuts as they save so much time.  I'm not a scrapbooker and I don't have the pretty coordinated kits so some of my papers and elements I have collected may not really match my photos.

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I love shortcut keys too! Been using them for many years for all programs. I really like your colour choices. Terracotta is one of my faves.

Edited January 25 by Julie Magerka

[Rene Marker]

  On 1/25/2025 at 1:21 AM, Julie Magerka said:

The whole learning experience here has been most useful. I'm not nearly as "fluent" in Affinity as I've become in PSP, but I feel more confident than I did before. Having Carole show the way to the specific methods for digital layouts (tools, shortcuts, etc.) has been most helpful. The Affinity Photo videos I was seeing on YT were mostly about editing images which is great, but I do more than that for the projects I work on. Now, I'm on my way and the learning curve isn't as sharp or as daunting.

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Agree! The YouTube videos were helpful in their own way and a great supplement to Carole's lessons. I did try to watch videos on specific subjects that I knew would be applicable in ways for scrapbooking and that really helped. 

I was working on a layout I had started in December in PSP tonight and the program lagged so much. Guess I never realized it until I had worked in Affinity. I'm in the middle of 2 projects right now so I will definitely finish them in PSP. After than I may split my time working with both programs depending on what I'm scrapping.

[Cassel]

@Linda J WalkerGreat layout. Thank you for your kind words. Yes, it is a challenge to learn a new program AND know enough to teach what I know.

@Jeni SimpsonI am glad to hear that the fifth layout was easier than you thought. That is a wonderful brooch! Thank you for your kind words too.

@Saara I hope others will join, from the APC group. I sure was not expecting to teach you much about Affinity, but my goal was to "initiate" you to the digital scrapbooking use for it. 🙂

@CristinaYes, the next workshop will include tutorials for both programs. I have not made the Affinity tutorials available yet. They will be release for the workshop only.

@Margo Ahern You might want to consider adding shadows to the elements on the page. You added them to the papers, the photo and the title. If you are looking for some supplies, all the suggested kits are free so you can start building your stash.

@Daniel HessWhen you had issues copying/pasting, was your source layer a raster layer? If it is an Image layer for example, it will copy everything and not just what you selected.

@Ann SeeberThose photos are super interesting!!!

@Euka I also have a notebook with notes and tips. Over time, I might put many of them as blog posts or tips and tricks.

@Jenny MacKay Glad to see that you succeeded with the pinking edge this time around. Did you put the shadow in the wrong angle on the yellow ribbon? Or maybe you put an inside shadow instead of an outside one?

@Corrie KinkelFor wrapping text, what specific feature are you looking for that PSP has?

@Gerry LandrethYou should hire River to watch over the gremlins!

@Dianne Moon You will surely enjoy the next workshop, the Magazine Workshop. It should even be easier than the Bootcamp.

@Julie MagerkaI agree with you that most videos on YouTube for Affinity tend to be about photo editing and photo composition, and Affinity is very powerful for that. It has great tools for scrapbooking, but don't ditch your PSP 😉

Keep it up and post your projects if you have not done so yet. You have the whole weekend to post 4/5 projects and be entered into the random draw.

By the way, if you have any particular reason NOT to be included in the draw, make sure to let me know.

 

[Jenny MacKay]

@Cassel I saw that yellow ribbon and wondered what I’d done. I’ll have to have another go at it. 

[Euka]

  On 1/24/2025 at 2:18 PM, Saara said:

Euka, are you aware that you can use the recolour adjustment layer in Affinity Photo to recolour elements in your designs?  Adjustment layers in Affinity Photo are non-destructive too, so if change your mind about the colour you can go back into that layer adjustment and pick a different colour or delete the adjustment completely.

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Thanks for that Saara - I wasn't sure how to do it in Affinity ! 

[Jacques]

For my part, Affinity does not offer me a "Plus Value" and I will stay with PSP. On the other hand, there are aspects of Affinity that I would like to find in PSP such as "Place".I will probably continue to watch the presentations made by Carole but not do the exercises.

When I take pictures, there are two important things for me: the identification of people in the photo and their geolocation. Corel has abandoned these two aspects but has kept the "Tags" of the photos (I still have the 2019 version for these features).

So I use "Picasa 3" and an improved version of "AvPicFaceXmpTagger" for the identification and creation of "Tags" and "GeoSetter" for geolocation.

I have also developed programs to synchronize the Picasa database with that of PSP. Thus, in PSP, it is easy for me to find the photos where a particular person is present.

Good luck to Affinity users.

[Cristina]

I had never had this app before, so I learned everything since the first lesson and the tips posted here. Thanks to everybody who shared their discoveries and knowledge.

I‘d purchase the program when/if they have a perfect offer.   As I mentioned before, I bought Photoshop Elements 2025 on a very good Amazon offer, and I am very happy with it, but I always love to learn something new.

A big thanks to Carole. 👏 It was probably not easy to learn a new program and, at the same time, create a new workshop.  The outcome was perfect! It’s much better to learn this way than just watching videos. Having this group by our side made all the difference.

 

Edited January 25 by Cristina

[Rene Marker]

  On 1/25/2025 at 4:40 AM, Cassel said:

For wrapping text, what specific feature are you looking for that PSP has?

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I thought the Frame Text would be equivalent to wrapping text and it is as long as you want a square or a rectangle area. I couldn't find a way to make an odd shaped object that I could wrap text in. I was so hoping there would be something for that because every single time I use text wrapping in either 2021 or 2023, it crashes. So I don't use text wrapping in PSP. If you find a way to do it in Affinity, I would definitely like to know!

[Cristina]

  On 1/25/2025 at 4:40 AM, Cassel said:

... but don't ditch your PSP 😉

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This was not addressed to me, but talking for myself. I will not ditch PSP, even having PSE2025 or, who knows, Affinity Photo.
There are many things I can only achieve in PSP, including Picture tubes and Scripts.
Having done the Suz/Carole’s Script Course made it a bit easier to create scripts for the EASY things. Otherwise, we have Carole and the Creation Cssel for the intricate tasks.
 

[David Belton]

  On 1/25/2025 at 1:30 PM, Rene Marker said:

I thought the Frame Text would be equivalent to wrapping text and it is as long as you want a square or a rectangle area. I couldn't find a way to make an odd shaped object that I could wrap text in. I was so hoping there would be something for that because every single time I use text wrapping in either 2021 or 2023, it crashes. So I don't use text wrapping in PSP. If you find a way to do it in Affinity, I would definitely like to know!

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You can wrap text easily using the shape tools found at the bottom of the tool bar where the text tools are as well. Simply select the shape you want for your text to wrap around. draw the shape where you want your text. Under the layer tab select "convert to text path". You will then see the bar above the picture change so you can chose your font and properties. Then begin typing and the text will flow around the shape. There are other ways to wrap text as well but this for me is the easiest.

[Cassel]

I am not sure why some people are asked to access the survey as a shared document (another gremlin?).

You should access it without logging in or anything like that with this link.

[Jacques]

  On 1/25/2025 at 2:31 PM, Cassel said:

I am not sure why some people are asked to access the survey as a shared document (another gremlin?).

You should access it without logging in or anything like that with this link.

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Here is what I got on the link click

[Cassel]

I am really puzzled as to why it does that.

Let me try to find a solution. It is the first time (in 10+ years) that Google Forms seem to require responders to log in.

[Cassel]

OK, I found an explanation, and a correct link:

https://forms.gle/cpwhhpt36iyKiYGGA

[Jacques]

It works thanks

[Rene Marker]

  On 1/25/2025 at 2:09 PM, David Belton said:

You can wrap text easily using the shape tools found at the bottom of the tool bar where the text tools are as well. Simply select the shape you want for your text to wrap around. draw the shape where you want your text. Under the layer tab select "convert to text path". You will then see the bar above the picture change so you can chose your font and properties. Then begin typing and the text will flow around the shape. There are other ways to wrap text as well but this for me is the easiest.

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Thanks! I haven't played with the shape tools yet. I very rarely use them in my scrapbooking even in PSP so wasn't concerned about them in Affinity at this time.

Edit: Now that I have read this when I'm more awake, I think you are talking about something different than what PSP offers as text wrapping. Text wrapping in PSP is when we make a selection and have the text inside the selection fit into the shape. It seems that you are describing text outside a shape. The frame text tool in Affinity is what I consider text wrapping except you can only use a square or rectangular shape. 

Edited January 25 by Rene Marker
Added more thoughts