Yes there is a way! Go to Settings>Tools>Show Brush Preview Always In The Corner

1) After looking at this suggestion again, I think it might be better to keep the layer mask icon on the left side of the thumbnail, but to have it always on the same alignment as clipping masks. Because having the icons for masks at 2 different sides of the layer thumbnail, might be confusing. I think it’s more intuitive to look at the same side for the “same” kind of functionality(masks), and makes for an even tidier column look. And I think the icons between “clipping mask” and “layer mask”, are different enough to see which is which at just a glance. Also the lock icon or sizes, wouldn't need to be adjusted. I tried making a quick mock-up too, sry for the bad quality.😅



5) Yes, whenever you have a target layer selected that has clipping masks to it, it should only then show the pop-up with the options to either “merge down”(if available) or to “merge clipping masks”(automatically, if it’s the only option), like you said.

I do have a question tho now that we're thinking about this. If you have a layer with some layer masks, and there are some layers that are clipped to that layer. When you merge it, should the target layer still retain its own layer masks?

I personally prefer for them to still retain the layer masks while clipping all the other clipped layers onto that layer tho 🤔

When “merging clipping masks”, it should simply merge all layer masks and clipping mask that are linked to the same target layer, into one layer. That’s how it works in Photoshop and it will get too complex otherwise, especially if you have layer masks in between or below clipping masks, it would give wrong results, if only the clipping masks were merged to the target layer. To make it more clear, maybe instead of “Merge Clipping Mask”, it could just be named “Merge Masks ”, or something like that, indicating that it will merge down every mask linked to that target layer, or that is currently selected from the target layer, into one layer.

One functionality that is important to keep here, is that it should still be possible to let’s say only merge 3 of 5 clipping/layer masks down to the target layer, at once,by selecting them and merging with the target layer, but still keeping the remaining 2 clipping masks above it (something that’s not possible in photoshop). That’s also why 6) would be really nice to have first, since even if  5)“merge clipping mask” couldn’t get implemented, it would still make life a lot easier, if it would just keep the name of the lowest layer, whenever you merge together any selected layers.

7) Just got one more small suggestion, which would be to slightly reduce the opacity/brightness of the “eye” indicator of the layer masks/clipping masks, when they are clipped to a target layer that is hidden. This would clarify that they are linked together, while the target layer is hidden. Made another mock-up to try and show it.



Thanks! 😊

+1 Please don't remove it, it's a very helpful indicator.

Regarding the X on empty layer, I strongly ask for it to be kept.

There is simply no way in photoshop to show whether a layer is "empty". Say I have a circle with 1 percent opacity, it would just show as a checkerboard on photoshop. I actually love the X in Artstudio pro as an indicator that this layer has absolutely nothing / empty.

1) Yes but exactly that option is not working for me in the beta, even with "clip thumbnails to image bounds" the thumbnail will stay square... it works fine in the app store version, as you could see in the screen recording

2) I tried again on A4 canvas with only 3 layers, it still doesn't work

3) I understand... but maybe thickness can still be reduced a bit more

4) The outline looks very weird in my eyes, I actually thought it was a graphical bug, rather than an visibility improvement... Especially thin strokes (sketches) are hard to see details like that. I think it should be completely removed again.

Checkerboard was better in that case, since on checkerboard you can see light and dark strokes... However, in Procreate it works too without checkerboard and without outline, so idk... but the outline definitely is very very odd

4) nvm it’s much better with the thinner outline!

Active area was increased a bit weeks ago in the App Store version.

It seems increasing sidebar width is not the good idea, maybe it should be redesigned from scratch...
I will publish version with increased width in new beta so you can test it. But then i will probably go back to original width .

Any update of when it will go back to previous width?

We removed "Square Thumbnails" option from Preferences to make UI more consistent.

1) I saw that, but what I meant is, that it’s generally always square thumbnail now. Before it was possible to have the thumbnail in the same ratio as the image. Now it only changes within the square ratio, when it should be changing the overall ratio. If that’s on purpose, then I don’t think it’s the best UI decision, I think it should be up to the user if they want a square thumbnail or image ratio, so definitely the previous way, where everything could be adjusted individually was better. (Like in the current AppStore version)

Layer Flashing options works fine, i have just tested that.

2) It doesn’t do anything for me, it also doesn’t work in the AppStore version, I just noticed.

X is too thick - we will fix it

3) I saw it was adjusted a bit, but I still think it’s too thick and opaque. It should be very subtle, like before, otherwise it’s too distracting.

4) Also the strokes of the thumbnails (like the lines of what is drawn on the layer), look a bit weird now, almost as if they are very strongly sharpened with a white outline around it. It doesn’t look like a true representation of what’s on the layer, the colors look slighty different too. Especially if you compare it with the current AppStore version, it looks wrong.

I attached a screen recording showing all of what I just mentioned, compared with the beta (dark blue accent color) and the AppStore version(light blue accent color). Generally I’d suggest everything to stay as it was, except for removing the checkerboard background. The other changes made to the thumbnails right now, are not an improvement to the UI, imo it looks less professional, with less options than before. Hope it can be fixed.

Thanks!

1) Just tested the new beta and it’s already so much better with the opacity slider! So I don’t think line thickness will be needed now.

But the opacity slider should really go from 0% to 100%, meaning that at 0% percent the lines aren’t visible at all. Right now they are more like between 30% -100%, so at 0% they are still visible, which seems weird. It should work like when adjusting layer opacity.

And the horizon line doesn’t get affected by the opacity slider, but it should too.

Also there’s still a lack of consistency between canvas sizes of the lines, so basically, they still appear “thicker” on lower resolutions and “thinner” on bigger ones. Which would be okay now, if the other things I just mentioned will be fixed.

2) the grid is still unevenly spaced in 1 point

3) artifacts and overlapping lines at horizon are still present

4) As just one more small note, I want to suggest removing the “density 3” option from the one and two point perspective, as it doesn’t do anything in those.

Thank you!

We decreased a bit time to trigger Autosave. Now, in the latest beta, you have to stop painting for at least 2-3 seconds.

The problem with faster autosave is that we always have to update preview and thumbnail images inside the document, which takes a lot of time when document is large.

Maybe the thumbnail/preview images could only be updated when actually switching to the document browser, or when clicking on/opening the “open documents” view?

So that while you’re just on the canvas and painting, it doesn’t need to do those thumbnail updates every time, and can just save continually. So it would only take longer when actually going to document browser.