ForestHymn

This is amazing news... Thank you for sharing this! Affinity Photo will be amazing with better tablet input..

Oh wow - I apologize, I didn't see the suggestion of the crosshair before. Wow - thank you for making the video - it is a good "in the meantime" option! Thank you!!

Hello Affinity Photo development team, I'm not sure if this counts more as a bug report? Or as a feature request. There is a problem with Affinity Photo free-hand brush lines. When drawing, zoomed out or even zoomed in to 100% - brush lines and pixel tool lines zig-zag. Even though my hand doesn't shake - the lines produced have zig-zags. This is not due to the brush shape, or the spacing. Any brush shape, or 1% spacing still produces the same problem. I am not experiencing this problem on other programs - like Photoshop, Corel Painter, etc. On these programs, freehand lines remain accurate (smooth). The solution shouldn't be the stabilizer. The problem with the stabilizer - if you are a painter/artist - is that you want to paint quickly, with free-hand strokes. You don't want to paint with a line-trailing rope... The stabilizer is not good for artists. If your hands don't shake, you shouldn't need to use the stabilizer. Maybe the problem has to do with tablet coordinate mapping? Maybe there is something off in the mapping? I've experienced this problem in another program. A Japanese program called "OpenCanvas" - which has 2 options for tablet mapping. One is called "OS Coordinates" (which produces zig-zag lines) The other option is "Tablet Coordinates" (this one works perfectly - lines are stable when zoomed out or zoomed in. Strokes are super smooth - with NO need for a stabilizer. I've used a brand new 2019 Wacom Intuos Pro tablet, also used an Wacom Intuos Pro 3, and also a Wacom Cintiq 22HD. All tablets produce the same zig-zag lines. On other programs - strokes are very smooth. Maybe this is something that others have seen too? As a painter, this problem is a deal-breaker. But Affinity Photo is a fantastic program, with a great brush engine. It seems like something that would really be worth fixing.. A critical fix for painters and artists who would like to use Affinity Photo. Thank you immensely for viewing this issue and feature request.

Great ideas here.. Definitely, the color picker is such a "bread and butter" type of tool.. It needs to be optimized to fit the needs of the user. Whether photographer or painter.. Affinity Photo has such a fantastic brush engine.. Honestly, I'm beginning to think it could be an actual replacement for Photoshop.. but there are a few rough edges that hurt this program. At least in my list: 1 - Need for precise, fast color picker "Alt" shortcut. Due to speed efficiency. 2 - Need for fixed position for Color Wheel Triangle... Black down, White up, Saturation right. Due to consistency in finding the exact shades and saturation levels, across different colors. 3 - Revamped Wacom mapping/coordinate system. Both brushes, and the pixel tool are not able to draw a stable line. Even if you have expert, perfect control of the Wacom pen. Lines zig-zag and wobble - as if your hand had been shaking when drawing them. This is especially visible when drawing and painting zoomed out. This is not the fault of the brush engine. The brush engine is honestly perfect, and stabilization is not the solution either... There's something wrong with the interpretation of the Wacom tablet mapping... I think this deserves another post... will write about it shortly. Anyhow - sorry for writing these ideas in the reply. Just in case the development team takes a look at this thread.. I thought these problems might be worth mentioning!

YES!!! Simple & precise color picker - even with color feedback.. that would be an amazing improvement to Affinity. For both photographers and painters!

Makes sense. Having multiple options - that affect all color pickers - including the "Alt" one. Like, "sample from current layer only" or "sample from all layers", depending on what the user wants.

Thank you so much for this idea! It would be a good option for photo re-touching. In the case of painters, though, the magnifying glass is, unfortunately very confusing. The reason for this is that - when digital painters paint.. at least, in my case... I work zoomed out (so I can see the entire painting on the screen.) When I color pick, I'm attempting to pick the color of the pixels that are shown on the screen. I don't want to zoom in - to the tiny pixels and pick from there - I want to pick from the pixels I'm already seeing. When the magnifying glass zooms you in... you lose track of the area of color you... actually wanted to pick from.. and have to now guess which of the tiny pixels represents the color you were going for at first.. This is especially true when working with giant canvases. I work with 15,000 x 8,437 size canvases. And zooming into pixel size on these canvases completely throws me off, from picking the intended color. It zooms miles in... As a painter, the goal is to pick color in context to the rest of the painting. Zooming in loses the context. So it's a bit of a pain for painters. Maybe if it were an optional check-box, in preferences, or something. Where, Photo re-touchers can keep the magnifying glass - with immediate feedback, maybe? And painters can choose a simple "color picker" icon, or cross-hair, or something precise - with immediate feedback upon pressing "Alt." This way, both Photo re-touchers and painters can be happy. In any case, it looks like the idea has been covered thoroughly, by many comments. I'm probably just repeating some of the previous conversations.. Thank you for the support! Maybe this is something that can be improved in the future at some point...

Thank you Janno! Oh, thank you! It looks like "Alt" does color-pick quickly already... But.. there is one big problem - the cursor doesn't change to the color picker icon. So if you're painting with a large size brush - for example: 100 pixels wide, and you want to color pick a tiny spot of color (quickly) - and you don't want to wait 2 seconds for the magnifying glass to appear... then you're forced to try to pick a tiny spot - with a giant 100-pixel wide cursor. Which will make it very hard to pick the right spot. So maybe the suggestion would change to - have holding "Alt" immediately change the cursor to the color picker icon. So you get to have precision quickly, without having to wait several seconds for the magnifying glass to appear? Maybe that would make more sense.

Hello Affinity Photo development team, I'm a newbie to your program, but have worked as a digital illustrator for several years. Affinity Photo is a really nice program - a nice alternative to Photoshop. It could be a great program for digital illustrators and painters... But it is missing a critical option for higher speed efficiency: a fast color picker option by pressing "Ctrl" or "Alt" This is present in Photoshop, Corel Painter, Krita, OpenCanvas, PaintStorm Studio, etc. It is very important to painters to be able to access the color picker quickly. When you hold down "Ctrl" or "Alt" and click on the color - it color picks it. Then when you let go of the "Ctrl" or "Alt" key, it goes back to the tool you were using before. When you have to switch between brush and color picker, this wastes twice the amount of time. An extra second or fraction of a second may not seem like a lot - but it adds up. A painting that would take 2 hours, takes 4 hours. A piece that would take 1 day, takes 2 days. 1 week turns into 2 weeks, etc. This would be a great addition to Affinity Photo - for all artists. One last idea... Is allowing the user to "fix" the color wheel triangle in a fixed position - instead of having it rotate all around pointing at the chosen color. Why? Because having lightness point up, darkness point down, and saturation point right - is far easier for the brain to process than having the triangle flip all around the wheel... it makes picking specific shades across different colors inconsistent.. harder to match the same saturation position on different colors... because it has changed position. It's easier for the brain to map out the color triangle when it's fixed in one position. White up - black down - and saturation to the right.. Would be far easier to remember for artists - who need consistency, and speed in color picking. Thank you immensely for viewing and considering these ideas!!