We use the Selection tool a lot for tasks like:
Create a limited area in which effects will be applied
Make numerically precise selection areas which may be converted into elements such as buttons, texture tiles etc.
We are a little surprised that Affinity Photo is missing crucial selection features which have been available in other commercial software from over two decades, and even in free software like Fotografix (1 MB photo editor for Windows). The Affinity Photo team should consider implementing the following features in the upcoming versions. Till then, the use of this application by multimedia applications developers, UI developers, web developers will be inconvenient to state it charitably.
Specifically, the following should be implemented:
Ability to constraint the selection ratio by horizontal : vertical
Ability to create a selection of specific pixels in dimension (horizontal x vertical), or even in paper-units (inch / cm / pt, depending on the resolution of the current document)
Ability to create elliptical selections as a ratio of two radius ratios, ability to create elliptical selections as per two radius units in pixels
Ability to create triangular selections as a ratio of sides / sides and angles, ability to create triangular selections in pixels (not implemented in any software that I know of)
Ability to rotate the selections, along with resizing, and dragging handles - for a perfect placement and fit (while respecting aspect ratios if defined)
Numerical controls in Scale / Rotate actions on layers (instead of manual resizing)
Even GIMP implements these, which I used to use, before purchasing Affinity Photo.
