15/11/2025
🎨 LESSON 2
Setting Up Your Document in Affinity 3.0
Hey my friends! 👋
Welcome back to our Affinity designing class. Now that you’ve installed Affinity 3.0 and opened it, let’s go through how to start a new project and set it up correctly.
1️⃣ The Intro Page
After downloading and opening Affinity, you land on the intro page.
Here you can choose your desired document size depending on what you want to create.
Affinity gives you many options:
Pixels (px) – perfect for social media and screen designs
Millimeters (mm) & Centimeters (cm) – great for printing
Inches – also for printing, big designs
Points & Picas – mainly for typography and publishing
Feet, Yards, Meters – for banners or very large prints
2️⃣ Choosing a Size
Let’s say you choose A4. Once you click it, you land on the workspace — this is where the magic happens! 😅
3️⃣ The Top Toolbars
When your A4 page opens, you’ll see 3 toolbars at the top:
First Toolbar – Menu bar
It has: File, Edit, Document, Text, Vector, Pixel, Layer, View, Window, Help.
File → New, open, save, export
Edit → Undo, redo, copy, paste
Document → Change page size, DPI, orientation
Text → All text settings
Vector / Pixel → Tools for shapes, logos, or photo editing
Layer → Add, delete, arrange, lock layers
View → Zoom, grids, guides
Window → Panels
Help → Tutorials
Second Toolbar – Mode bar
It shows: Affinity logo, Vector, Pixel Studio, Layout, Canva AI
Vector → Draw shapes, logos, icons
Pixel Studio → Brushes, textures, photo editing
Layout → Arrange objects
Canva AI → Quick AI tools like background removal, AI fill
Third Toolbar – Context bar
This changes depending on the tool you select.
Text tool → Shows font, size, alignment
Shape tool → Shows width, height, corners
Move tool → Shows alignment, rotation
4️⃣ The Left Column (Tools)
This is your toolbox, where you do all the actual designing:
Move Tool (V) → Move objects, resize, rotate
Node Tool (A) → Adjust shapes, curves, corners
Pen Tool (P) → Draw custom shapes and logos
Shapes → Rectangle, circle, triangle, polygon, star, and more
Text Tool (T) → Add artistic or frame text
Fill & Gradient Tools → Add colors and gradients
Transparency Tool → Fade objects
Zoom & Hand Tools → Navigate your canvas
Color Picker → Pick any color from your design
5️⃣ The Right Column (Panels)
This is where you control and perfect your design:
Layers → Organize, lock, hide, group objects
Color → Choose fills, strokes, gradients, palettes
Stroke → Adjust outline thickness and style
Effects → Shadows, glow, blur, 3D bevel
Transform → Size, rotation, precise positioning
Alignment → Center, distribute, space evenly
Swatches → Save colors for consistency
History → Undo or step back
Pro tip: Left side = what you do. Right side = how you perfect it.
Draw a shape (left) → choose color, shadow, alignment (right) → looks professional ✅
Am coming with lesson 3
