[Automatic conversion of images to vectors.]

1 hour ago, JET_Affinity said:

No. Just slightly more convenient.

For other examples in addition to the scanning utility already mentioned: I use the Windows Calculator utility quite often, every day, while working in most every program I use. Same thing goes for the screen capture utility, TechSmith SnagIt, and the standalone Bitstream Font Manager that comes bundled with CorelDraw.

Launching any of them is, at worst, a single click on the TaskBar. (SnagIt is invoked by a keyboard shortcut.) I find that no more arduous than clicking a tool button or making a menu selection in order to invoke yet another auto-trace feature to twiddle with yet another UI, just to get pretty much the same result.

I use multiple programs all day. I also use multiple vector drawing programs. I don't need a differently-branded UI corresponding to each different drawing program for every calculation, screenshot, scan, or auto-trace. I actually prefer using the same familiar interface for scans and screenshots and font management, regardless of what graphics program I'm using. It's actually more efficient that way.

Auto-tracing is just as appropriate for that kind of "standalone" use. It doesn't need to be re-invented in every drawing program. There are decent auto-trace solutions (at least as defined by the current state of it) available to everyone for free, even. Unless and until Serif (or anyone else) has some kind of game-changing functionality to make it more than what it currently is (generally bad practice anyway), it's not even on my "missing features" wish list.

For example: I have yet to see any auto-trace program (targeted to mainstream general graphics users) that knows what a child knows: that when it's scanning the pupil of my puppy's eye, the resulting path should be an ellipse. So yeah, if and when the Affinity team happens to have in its secret closet an auto-trace feature with sufficient artificial intelligence for at least basic shape recognition, that might be something worth introducing.

JET

 

And most of all, imagine! If there is such a feature in Affinity Designer, which is well-optimized for operating systems with new technologies, it must be a big advantage for users, too! We don't have to use slow illustrators and other programs!

[Automatic conversion of images to vectors.]

1 hour ago, JET_Affinity said:

No. Just slightly more convenient.

For other examples in addition to the scanning utility already mentioned: I use the Windows Calculator utility quite often, every day, while working in most every program I use. Same thing goes for the screen capture utility, TechSmith SnagIt, and the standalone Bitstream Font Manager that comes bundled with CorelDraw.

Launching any of them is, at worst, a single click on the TaskBar. (SnagIt is invoked by a keyboard shortcut.) I find that no more arduous than clicking a tool button or making a menu selection in order to invoke yet another auto-trace feature to twiddle with yet another UI, just to get pretty much the same result.

I use multiple programs all day. I also use multiple vector drawing programs. I don't need a differently-branded UI corresponding to each different drawing program for every calculation, screenshot, scan, or auto-trace. I actually prefer using the same familiar interface for scans and screenshots and font management, regardless of what graphics program I'm using. It's actually more efficient that way.

Auto-tracing is just as appropriate for that kind of "standalone" use. It doesn't need to be re-invented in every drawing program. There are decent auto-trace solutions (at least as defined by the current state of it) available to everyone for free, even. Unless and until Serif (or anyone else) has some kind of game-changing functionality to make it more than what it currently is (generally bad practice anyway), it's not even on my "missing features" wish list.

For example: I have yet to see any auto-trace program (targeted to mainstream general graphics users) that knows what a child knows: that when it's scanning the pupil of my puppy's eye, the resulting path should be an ellipse. So yeah, if and when the Affinity team happens to have in its secret closet an auto-trace feature with sufficient artificial intelligence for at least basic shape recognition, that might be something worth introducing.

JET

 

That's right. As you say, the accessibility benefits of such disconnection may be greater. I hope it's more accurate, but it's not too high and it's a good function just as an assistant for designer. It's up to the Serif to integrate and pack it well.

[Automatic conversion of images to vectors.]

18 hours ago, JET_Affinity said:

Yes, Illustrator has an auto-trace feature, as do most similar programs.

Not that it matters. What many don't know is that Illustrator was very late to the whole auto-tracing thing, as it was in many other features. All three of its main competitors (FreeHand, Draw, Canvas) had full auto-trace features, while Illustrator (up 'till around version 9, as I recall) had only a crude trace command that only traced one color at a time.

Nowadays, auto-trace features are very common both as built in features and as online services, and there are even free implementations of both. Tourmaline mentioned Inkscape and you yourself mentioned Vector Magic. And although their user interfaces differ in terms of eye candy, they all do pretty much the same thing, and results are all pretty much alike: "Garbage in, garbage out" very much applies.

So as for "why," consider that in context of Tourmaline's first reply in this thread, in which he paraphrased Serif's replies (which you can read if you do a quick search for the already-existing threads on this commonly-requested feature). Unless and until Serif has something game-changing to bring to the auto-trace table, there are more valuable things for its dev team to focus on which constitute real opportunity for long overdue innovation in the vector-based drawing arena.

I am among those who see no need for yet another "me, too" auto-tracing feature in Affinity. It's no more onerous to switch to another program for this very single-purpose function than it is to, for example, launch the scanning utility of my scanner. Even Corel long delivered its auto-trace solution as a separate standalone utility that was simply bundled with Draw.

Moreover, when it comes down to it, auto-tracing is a bad practice that usually just swaps one kind of resolution-dependent ugliness (bitmap pixelation) for another (poorly-drawn vector paths).

JET

@JET_Affinity Still, if the Affinity Designer includes the feature, it would be much more accessible. And most of all, there is no API for general users to develop plug-ins. If can make a plug-in, someone will develop it.

[Automatic conversion of images to vectors.]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

The feature in DrawPlus is called ‘AutoTrace’. (There never was a product named DrawPlus 10. DrawPlus 8 was followed by DrawPlus X2, to match the PagePlus version numbers which had gone from 8, 9, 10, 11 to X2. So version 10 was named X3, and that version did indeed introduce the AutoTrace feature.)

@Alfred So, why hasn’t the feature in AD? Is this also present in Adobe Illustrator?

[Automatic conversion of images to vectors.]

5 hours ago, Wosven said:

You can copy-paste between InkScape  and AD too.

@Wosven Hi, I have any question, what’s the AD?

[Export my results with grid or guide line]

@pruus

What is “more”? Can you please to detail?

[Automatic conversion of images to vectors.]

On 9/1/2019 at 6:09 PM, Tourmaline said:

It has been requested for many times over and over  and it will probably be included in a version 2.0

Serif stated that they will only include this function if it works the way they think it should work, as in effective tracing.

 

For now you can use the tracing engine of Inkscape. It's quite good.

@Tourmaline

So you mean that Affinity doesn't have the function right now, and Inkscape has the function that I want, right?

[Export my results with grid or guide line]

I want to export my results with grid or guide line. Are you under development or already having that functions? In detail, In Affinity designer, grid and guideline managers exist. Therefore, I want my illustration export png or other file with grid and guideline. So, this maximizes my client's understanding of the design configuration of my illustrations.

[Automatic conversion of images to vectors.]

I need the ability to automatically change the image to vectors. Designers use pen tools on top of images with poor resolution, not vectors, below them to make them vectors. I think it needs to be automated. In fact, if you take a program that's automated, it's Vector Magic.

Even though it is not very accurate, it is very helpful in images that require a lot of vector conversion work.

Obviously, if we include this feature in our efficiency, it will be a simple and automated function.