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JDW

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  1. Thanks
    JDW got a reaction from Will59 in Set White Point, Photoshop-style   
    I posted the following thread 3 years ago but not a single person until today advised me to post that topic in this thread, claiming that no one from Serif diligently reads this forum such that my post was sure to have been overlooked these 3 years.  Seems odd to me, but fine.  Here it is:
     
    I would advise Serif to just move that thread into this thread.  I would prefer that since I don't want to lose all the supportive posts in that thread.  For truly, it is more than just me who wants that dropper tool added to Affinity Photo.
     
    Thanks.
  2. Like
    JDW got a reaction from nosey_gamedev in What is the difference between Lanczos seperable and non-seperable.   
    Since no one knows what the difference is between Lanczos 3 "separable" and "non-separable" may I suggest that Serif put something more meaningful and descriptive into those parenthesis instead?
     
    In my testing, Lanczos 3 (separable) enlargements and reductions a tad sharper than Bicubic, and Lanczos 3 (non-separable) is much sharper.
     
    So I would think the Resample popup should read as follows:
    Nearest Neighbor Bilinear Bicubic Lanczos 3 (sharp) Lanczos 3 (sharper) Because, quite honestly, "separable" and "non-separable" may appeal to the left-brainers, but isn't Affinity Photo appealing to our right-brain creative side?  Yes.  So make the descriptions more understandable, please!
  3. Like
    JDW reacted to bwana in Set White Point, Photoshop-style   
    I didn't realise how long they've been ignoring requests for such a basic tool. 
  4. Like
    JDW reacted to pigeon in Text Anti-aliasing Method   
    yes, by turning off the antialiasing in the blend mode settings, it just turns the antialiasing into a solid color, useless for fonts.
    i have a project where i need to turn off antialiasing for fonts, can't believe this isn't possible. now i must use GIMP to type my text in there and then export the bitmap for use in affinity 🤦‍♂️
    seems like such a simple feature
  5. Like
    JDW got a reaction from pigeon in Text Anti-aliasing Method   
    It's been 6 years and plenty of time for any associated development cost to be a complete non-issue, especially so when you consider that a lot of Adobe app users want to make the transition to Serif apps but don't due to the lack of key features like the one being discussed.
  6. Thanks
    JDW got a reaction from EMZ80 in Is there a vector erase tool in Affinity Designer?   
    I mean no disrespect whatsoever, but that is the old, tired excuse I've heard over the last few years.  We are not talking in terms of "weeks" or "months" but YEARS.  I am understanding when months go by and nothing substantial changes, but "years" is an altogether different matter.
    I appreciate the contributions you've made to this forum, R C-R.  Indeed, I have more respect for you than Serif for your tireless efforts in helping others.  Even when you could not find a solution for someone, you worked hard to help them find it, as you tried recently with me.  With 14k+ posts to your name, you have not only become a very helpful contributor to this forum, for which Serif should be grateful, but you are also very much an apologist for the way things are.  I don't say that to slight you, but I mention it only to say that you are a very upbeat and optimistic person.  It's only natural someone like yourself would argue for the positives of the Affinity suite as it stands right now.  You appear to see the good in all things.  I'm afraid I do not.  Even so, Serif could restore joy in my soul, should they wish to make a greater effort.
    You're right.  Serif has done "a few things" to make the apps better.  And no doubt their work on Affinity Publisher prevented them from making Designer and Photo better.  They also have the iOS platform to deal with.  I understand that.  But those were choices they made.  And on some level I think they are important things, especially if one is setting out to replace Adobe apps.  You need a full suit of apps to do that.  But rather than make further excuses for the status quo, I seek to set a higher standard.  I want them to press forward even harder than they have been with Designer and Photo.  There are so many great feature requests that have yet to be implemented.  If they set their mind to it, they could implement a lot of those improvements which would further drive Adobe users to Serif software.  That's good for Serif and great for us as end users.  I want Serif to see long term success.  And the best way to ensure that is to not only make existing users happy but continue to surprise and thrill them, all the while bringing in new users who stare in awe from the Adobe camp, wondering what all the fuss is about.  I want even veteran Adobe app lovers to gasp in disbelief when they use the Affinity suite, crying: "OMG!  This is so much better than I thought!"  But right now, many Adobe users are still a tad disappointed, not because Affinity apps merely do things a different way, but because they feel some key functionality is missing.  Again, that's where those creaky old feature requests come in.  They have cob webs on them now they are so old, still waiting for some engineer to take the baton and run until that code is finally implemented.  If the top guy at Serif said, "Team, we're going to do this," it would get done.
    Set a lofty goal.  Then do everything possible to blow past that goal.  Where there's a will, there's always a way.  
  7. Like
    JDW got a reaction from arnofly in Text Anti-aliasing Method   
    I'm glad we agree, and thank you for the screenshot. There's much power in using OS X's Terminal too to accomplish various tasks in OS X, but arguably, it is a less intuitive and sometimes a slower approach that using the GUI. In like manner, fiddling with curves in AP only to eliminate text anti-aliasing is ridiculous.
     
    Serif, please add a text anti-aliasing pop up to AP at the earliest possible time. Thanks.
  8. Like
    JDW got a reaction from Renard Roux in Set White Point, Photoshop-style   
    I absolutely love your post and wish I could click like on it multiple times. Your sentiments parallel mine exactly. However, I have pretty much given up on the developer. I’ve been in this form for years and have been ignored all that time. They couldn’t care less what we think. That’s why I’m not going to buy version two or any future version, and I’m going to stop recommending it to everyone, at least until the time they get rid of their executive management and bring in people who know how to run a company, who care about customers, and who add important features to help countless people get off the Adobe addiction.
     
    Features are paramount, but specifically the features that we paying customers request, not merely the frivolous features that the developer thinks we might like. There’s a fundamental difference.
    But for those of you still willing to fight the developer in hopes of a better day, I will back you every time I see your great posts here. Bravo!
  9. Like
    JDW reacted to Valerie79 in Set White Point, Photoshop-style   
    Six years later... still nothing. It's surprising that such a basic and necessary tool hasn't been added.
  10. Haha
    JDW got a reaction from KittyKilian in What is the difference between Lanczos seperable and non-seperable.   
    Are you a designer or programmer?  If the latter, you're in the wrong place.  You are here among VISUAL DESIGNERS.  That means we go with what we see, not with what theory or scientific data says to us.  If something looks sharper to my graphically trained eye (with Photoshop and Illustrator experience that spans the entire life of those products), then IT IS SHARP.
     
    PERIOD.
  11. Like
    JDW got a reaction from KittyKilian in What is the difference between Lanczos seperable and non-seperable.   
    Since no one knows what the difference is between Lanczos 3 "separable" and "non-separable" may I suggest that Serif put something more meaningful and descriptive into those parenthesis instead?
     
    In my testing, Lanczos 3 (separable) enlargements and reductions a tad sharper than Bicubic, and Lanczos 3 (non-separable) is much sharper.
     
    So I would think the Resample popup should read as follows:
    Nearest Neighbor Bilinear Bicubic Lanczos 3 (sharp) Lanczos 3 (sharper) Because, quite honestly, "separable" and "non-separable" may appeal to the left-brainers, but isn't Affinity Photo appealing to our right-brain creative side?  Yes.  So make the descriptions more understandable, please!
  12. Like
    JDW got a reaction from François R in Set White Point, Photoshop-style   
    I read your reply but my eyes glazed over when I read your "more patience needed" quip in light of the 3 years it's been since I opened this thread.  Sorry, but three years is long enough (even for Serif staff to discover this thread).   But more than that, Affinity Photo really is "PS on the cheap" insofar as it contains many similar features and is cheaper.  That truth really isn't debatable.  It's factual reality.  There are more similarities with PS than not.  It's just that some of us prefer AP to become even more similar.  The eye dropper is a part of that.  So rather than just defend the status quo (which has remained unchanged these last 3 years), please join us and jump on the bandwagon of feature requests that would help others even when you yourself are not helped by them.
    In that case, please use the string-pulling power of your 3,095 reputation to get this thread MOVED to the appropriate place in the Feature Requests forum, rather than tell me to make a new post 3 years later, which as you full well know would eliminate all the important posts in this thread.  Moving the thread is better than starting a new one from scratch.  Moving threads has been possible in other forums for years, so I must assume it's possible in this forum too.  Thank you in advance for your kind assistance in doing that.
     
  13. Like
    JDW got a reaction from François R in Set White Point, Photoshop-style   
    I believe you mean "bottom tool on the left toolbar in the Develop Persona," right?  That tool has the tooltip "White Balance Tool" and looks like a CD with a line through it.  (The "bottom right" corner of the Photo Persona shows me "Navigator, Transform, History and Channels.")
     
    But again, that "White Balance Tool" does not set the White Point akin to the White Point dropper tool in Photoshop's Curves dialog. 
     
    Why is this important?  Take a document of mostly text printed on white paper and scan it.  Open the scanned file in Photoshop or Affinity Photo and note the whites are not pure white.  They are a tad grayish.  And the gray splotches are not 100% consistent if your paper was wrinkled.  
     
    To fix that scan in Photoshop is easy.  Open Curves, choose the White Point dropper tool, click on a light gray part of your scan and watch as it immediately becomes pure white!  (The white balance is affected at the same time, although that is technically a separate feature.)  Now press the OPTION key and you will then be shown a display of those areas that are not yet pure white.  That allows you to find those parts and click the dropper on them to whiten-out all the areas that should be pure white.  The end result is you can make your scan to match the original -- the paper is pure white and the text is black.
     
    That is what I seek in Affinity Photo.
     
    Thanks.
  14. Like
    JDW reacted to JEH in Set White Point, Photoshop-style   
    Another two years down the line - I bought Photo v2 and still there's no picker to set white and black. Affinity's ethos (with Photo Publisher and Designer) is clearly to de-monopolise Adobe and take a market share from Photoshop Illustrator and InDesign but when professionals have to Google just about every single new task, it's very frustrating. I get the impression Affinity designers have spent too much time in the world of Linux where manipulating software is the challenge and bending it to your will is the achievement. We ex-Photoshop users want developers who help us to create images and documents. The endless puzzle of how to do things with Affinity Photo doesn't interest us.
    There are still so many bugs in the UI - annoying little things like having to click twice to activate a dialog, or typing in a value only to have the first digit ignored. Most of the tool icons are meaningless, jpg compression is so poor, native file sizes are so big, why can't I simply open a jpg edit it and close with a save? Why can't I batch save images as WEBP? I cannot move from the Develop Persona to Edit without committing the changes - and yet I can hit Undo when back to Edit - it's just clunky geeky sloppy stuff that smells of Linux.
    We all hate Adobe and their monopolistic dictatorial empire, I think we all want to love Affinity but jeez it's really not working out for me. I could never recommend this to any of my clients.
  15. Like
    JDW got a reaction from EMZ80 in Text Anti-aliasing Method   
    When typing text in a Photoshop document, there is a popup available that displays the following anti-aliasing options:
    None Sharp Crisp Strong Smooth The addition of these would make Affinity Photo's type handling even more powerful.
     
    Thanks.
  16. Like
    JDW got a reaction from 2:3 in What is the difference between Lanczos seperable and non-seperable.   
    Since no one knows what the difference is between Lanczos 3 "separable" and "non-separable" may I suggest that Serif put something more meaningful and descriptive into those parenthesis instead?
     
    In my testing, Lanczos 3 (separable) enlargements and reductions a tad sharper than Bicubic, and Lanczos 3 (non-separable) is much sharper.
     
    So I would think the Resample popup should read as follows:
    Nearest Neighbor Bilinear Bicubic Lanczos 3 (sharp) Lanczos 3 (sharper) Because, quite honestly, "separable" and "non-separable" may appeal to the left-brainers, but isn't Affinity Photo appealing to our right-brain creative side?  Yes.  So make the descriptions more understandable, please!
  17. Thanks
    JDW got a reaction from Horseflesh in Affinity Photo white balance tool does not seem to correct color cast as expected (v1 and v2)   
    I never considered myself a thorn.  I bought the apps, then started using them, then starting reporting the omissions.  Status quo defenders in this forum came out in droves to tell me why things are fine as they are now.  I didn't back down.  I wrote post after post after post to defend my reasoning.  My persistence makes me a thorn in the eyes of The Perpetually Satisfied, and probably in the eyes of Serif too, as evidenced by the fact THEY NEVER REPLY in this forum that I can see.  I'm active in a lot of forums, and most software developers are pretty interactive in their own forums.  But not Serif.  That tells me they really don't care much about what we say here. 
    This all may sound negative and a lot of it is, but I really do still have hope things can change.  Current management at Serif has their own plan and they don't want to involve users in that plan.  But the upside is things change.  People do suddenly exit companies and then new blood comes in, which has the potential to do better or worse than those who came before.  We're seeing that now with Elon Musk and Twitter.  I just hope that any future shakeup at Serif will trigger (1) more Serif participation in this forum, and (2) fast-paced development of features which have long been asked for.  Really, that's all we need!
    Keep fighting the good fight!
  18. Like
    JDW reacted to Horseflesh in Affinity Photo white balance tool does not seem to correct color cast as expected (v1 and v2)   
    I don't know if I'm a crown-wearing thorn... But the squeaky wheel gets the grease @JDW!
  19. Like
    JDW reacted to Horseflesh in Affinity Photo white balance tool does not seem to correct color cast as expected (v1 and v2)   
    While I did just buy the v2 suite, I'll also enthusiastically call out things I think they need to improve. This seems to be one of them. If I am mistaken and doin' it wrong, well, like I said in the other thread, I'd love to be wrong on the internet today. 
    Anyone who wants to hold off buying the update, I won't blame 'em. We all need different things and some strange omissions remain in the suite. 
    I thought you might want to see where the thread goes @JDW.  
  20. Like
    JDW got a reaction from Horseflesh in Affinity Photo white balance tool does not seem to correct color cast as expected (v1 and v2)   
    Friend, I wish I knew!  And since we're on the topic...
    Serif recently releases version 2.0 with "a ton of new features" and yet the most highly sought after, fundamental features like a properly functioning White Balance tool (aka, like the one in Photoshop) are still shockingly missing!
    Too few of my suggestions have been implemented through the MANY YEARS that I have begged and pleaded (along side other good people) in this forum, so I will not be purchasing version 2 as a result.  Maybe if there's a management reshuffle at Serif, someone will finally act, implement some of my suggestions, then have a true rival to the Adobe Suite on their hands. But until then, I'm not going to be waiting around or supporting the apps further.
    Am I disappointed?  You bet I am!  
    Everyone who cares about their wallet hates Adobe for going to a subscription model, and while I had years of hope the Affinity apps would slowly become good enough to crush the behemoth, that hasn't happened due to the lack of key features that would easily woe Adobe-addicts to Affinity.  It's so very sad.  That remains true even though a large number of people love the Affinity apps.  Some people are willing to compromise on certain features and therefore have few complaints about the Affinity suite.  I'm not so willing to compromise and live without features important to me.  That's the difference.
  21. Like
    JDW reacted to Horseflesh in Affinity Photo white balance tool does not seem to correct color cast as expected (v1 and v2)   
    I have a scanned document which shows white paper with a strong pink tint. (I don't know how it got this way, and it cannot be rescanned, I didn't create the file.)

    In Affinity Photo v1 or v2, if I enter the Develop persona and click the White Balance tool, clicking in the pink area produces a color temperature change of zero to 1%, which is insufficient to correct the color cast. Sampling a larger region with the Alt key is no better. 
    If I open the same file in Photoshop and use the white point tool in the Curves dialog, one click in the pink area sets it to white, correcting the color of all the other things in the document as well. 
    To get the correct-looking Photoshop result in Affinity Photo, I have to drive the White Balance Temperature and Tint sliders manually, which seems backwards. 
    Is there a better way to set white point in Affinity Photo?
    cc: @JDW
  22. Like
    JDW reacted to Horseflesh in How do I use the white balance picker?   
    @JDW I am late to the party and found this thread when just now, I wished to fix the white balance on a scanned image. The white balance tool in the Develop persona doesn't seem to work at all... I opened a scanned page with an obvious pink cast, and sampling pink paper pixels dialed in a color temperature change of -1% which did not fix the problem... Not even close. If I drove the sliders by eye it seemed to need about -33%.
    On the other hand, using the white point picker in Photoshop's Curves panel worked as expected, making the white paper in the image white instead of pink. 
    I don't care where that magical click is in the Affinity workflow, but it seems like it should be in there somewhere. 
    If I'm doing it wrong and someone wants to correct me, I would love to be wrong on the internet today. 
     
  23. Like
    JDW got a reaction from Horseflesh in How do I use the white balance picker?   
    I've been debating folks like yourself on that very issue for the last 7 years.  I shall continue to advocate for Adobe users, who comprise, no doubt, the lion's share of switchovers to the Affinity Suite.  The more you can make something like an industry standard, the better, not simply to make the transition easier, but because that industry standard has some pretty darned good features that anyone would like to see -- even folks who have zero experience with the Adobe suite.
    But take don't the debate personally.  I'm not trying to pick on you.  I'm picking on a piece of software for not being better.
    Furthermore, I'm obviously on the losing end of the stick anyway, as per the fact these threads have existed so many years and yet continue to be ignored by Serif.  But just as I pounded away at Apple's butterfly keyboard until it died and was replaced, so shall I pound here on issues that are important to the masses.  If the status quo was paradise, I'd be silent.  But it isn't.  So I speak.
    Best wishes!
  24. Like
    JDW reacted to NotMyFault in How do I use the white balance picker?   
    Actually, i have some sympathy for all points of view. Of course, it would be great to have it all at once:
    full Adobe compatibility, in file formats, user interface, every single functionality …. a fraction of the cost of Adobe products all those brilliant (compatibility breaking) improvements invented by Affinity, e.g. next to real time rendering (live effects, non-distructiveness, astrophotography, frequency separation, …) a fresh user interface Free of errors / bugs / issues But then you may realize that everything in real live is a compromise.
    From my point of view:
    I prioritize lower cost and innovation over compatibility My biggest concern is the ultra high number of unsolved bugs, and the far below my expectations time to resolve even critical bugs (leading to file corruption, crashes, corruption of assets and symbol libraries, and dealing with alpha channel). next comes availability of essential functionality available in almost every competing app / free app (mesh warp / perspective tools for vector layers) my last priority is to have Adobe UI compatibility. As long as i can achieve the same result using a different workflow, i love to learn that new workflow I‘m ok with you and others having totally different priorities, putting Adobe UI to number 1. 
     
  25. Like
    JDW reacted to KipV in How do I use the white balance picker?   
    I actually don't even remember the main points I was making when I brought this topic up all those years ago! I mainly do color correcting in Capture One Pro now.
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