Affinity Designer - Using Custom Shapes

Custom Shapes works differently in Affinity Designer (and Publisher) to Affinity Photo. Both Affinity Designer and Publisher work with vector based graphics, where as Photo is pixel based.

The custom shape tools are on the lefthand toolbar. In Publisher they are all in one tool. In Designer the 3 most commonly used ones are separate from the rest of the shape tools. In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to use Vector based custom shapes in Affinity Designer. The steps are the same in Affinity Publisher.


Firstly Lets Create a Hexagon

Goto the Shapes Tool Icon, and a submenu with different shapes will appear. Choose the polygon shape tool - it looks like a Pentegon.


Drag draw the pentagon on your page. If you hold down the shift key at the same time as drawing the shape the side will all be the same length. (Similarly with the circle tool holding the shift key creates a perfect circle rather than an oval.)

On the context toolbar that has now appeared change the number of side to 6 for a hexagon.


You can use the other settings on the toolbar to change the fill style & colour, the line style & colour or switch the fill/line on or off. Similarly these can be done using the colour, swatches and Stroke tabs on the main righthand menu.

Have you noticed that little red dot? Grab it and move it in and out of the shape, and you will see that it adds curves to the sides of your shape. This can also be done using the Curves box on that context tool bar.


In scrapbooking I normally crop my papers to shapes. So lets do that now. My shape has a colour and no stroke (or outline). I'm going to use a paper from Lynn Grieveson's Best Revenge Paper Pack. Place the Paper so it overlaps the shape.

In the Layers tab, grab hold of the icon for the paper and drag drop it below and slightly to the right of the shape icon. This will crop the paper to the shape.


You can add special effects and resize/ manipulate the shape in the same way you would any other object. If later on you want to move the paper or resize the paper inside the shape so the shape stays the same size but the paper print changes, click on the arrow next to the shape icon and it will open up to show the paper. Edit the paper as you choose. You could even change to a different paper using the "Replace image" button that has appeared on the context tool bar.


Now lets Look at Combining Shapes to make new ones.

Create two shapes. I've created a square and trapezoid.

Make the shapes touch or overlap, and then select them both. Look at the context toolbar. See the icons with the squares and circles. The first one is the add button. Click it and the two shapes will become one shape.


Next I am going to cut a circular hole in my shape. To do that I am going to draw a circle and place it over the house shape I created in the previous step. Remember those icons in the toolbar? The second one is subtract. Click it and the circle shape will be taken away from the house shape leaving a hole.

Experiment with different shapes and the rest of those icons to see what you can create.

 

@AnneofAlamo @gonewiththewind
for adding to the tutorials listing please, thank you.