[CLI for merges]

I would like affinity to support a command line interface to start and save multi-photo merges (HDR, panorama, ect).

These tasks

• take a long time
• take a lot of CPU and memory
• need baby sitting if you are doing mare than one
• don't need a lot of settings to configure
• the results can be saved for subsequent processing

Ideally I could use the cli to select either a folder of grouped images or explicitly specify each image and save the result as an *.afphoto file. I don't mind if it opens the gui, but would really like it if I could specify a save to file that would save the merge result to a project file for later processing, and then close the affinity tab/window. leaving the GUI open after a long series of merges would cost overhead. Having a CLI would allow me to start affinity with a separate program so I don't have to baby sit a large number of merges. I already have a program to group HDR brackets, this would automate the next step of that process.

The merge command would be able to specify mode (hdr, panoramic, focus stack, etc), take either a directory or an explicit list of files, and would either save the file as a *.afphoto or open affinity directly with the merged frames. 

Examples, using 'affinity' as an alias for the CLI executable

> affinity merge focus -d=Path/to/folder/of/frames 

would open a new focus stack with every photo in the folder

> affinity merge hdr —save-as=GeneratedStack.afphoto -f=file1.jpg -f=file2.jpg -f=file3.jpg

would start a new hdr stack with the 3 specied files that, once completed, would save to the GeneratedStack.afphoto file and close affinity.

if the merge command returned a file path, you could pipe that onto the normal open command to open the in progressed merge file once the merge is done

 > affinity merge panorama -d=Photos/Raws/date/panoramic1 —save-to=photos/WIP/date/panoramic1.afphoto | affinity

3rd party programs would also be able to move or save a reference to that file.

proposed commands:

merge (top level command to enable other operations, like export, in the future)

    hdr - equivalent to File -> New HDR Merge..., then specifying the files based on the files an directory arguments and starting the merge

    panorama - equivalent to File -> New Panorama...., then specifying the files based on the files an directory arguments and starting the merge

    stack - equivalent to File -> New Stack...., then specifying the files based on the files an directory arguments and starting the merge

    focus - equivalent to File -> New Focus Merge...., then specifying the files based on the files an directory arguments and starting the merge

arguments and switches:

optional:

-h, --help, -?: Help - show supported commands and switches

-s, --save-to: the file (*.afphoto) to save the merged result to

requires (at least one file from the following):

-f, --file (supports multiple) - the files to include in the merge, call once for each file in a single merge

-d, --directory - the directory with the photos to merge

 

Other arguments on the merge windows, like perspective align and noise reduction on hdr merges, could be specified as switches on the CLI.

Cursory research says photoshop doesn't support this, so this could be an area to get ahead rather than playing catch up with the titan.

[Does affinity support a CLI?]

Good, point, though I think uninstalled my version directly instead of through the store.  
 

it looks like the windows version I have can accept command line arguments, but treats any argument as a file path to open

I got the same message for each of the commands shown

[Does affinity support a CLI?]

11 minutes ago, BofG said:

If there's no CLI to do what you need, you might be able to still do it using something like Auto HotKey. It would be a bit of a fudge, but technically you can programmatically do anything in AP and the host OS that you want to.

I prefer CLIs over that sort of automation since it takes over my computer while it’s running, and needs the pc to stay awake to run. Further, it is a lot harder to do error handling for shortcut automations. It’s definitely an option, but I’m hoping for something more robust

[Does affinity support a CLI?]

I’m spitballing here, but if this doesn’t exist it would be really helpful for automation. 
 

Something like 

> affinity open

> affinity open c:/path/to/photo/or/project/file.afphoto

Would open affinity, optionally with the specified file. 

the merge command would be able to specify mode (hdr, panoramic, focus stack, etc), take either a directory or an explicit list of files, and would either save the file as a *.afphoto or open affinity directly with the merged frames. 

> affinity merge focus -d=Path/to/folder/of/frames 

> affinity merge hdr —save-as=GeneratedStack.afphoto -f=file1.jpg -f=file2.jpg

if the merge command returned a file path, you could pipe that onto the open command to open the in progress merge file once the merge is done

 > affinity merge pano -f=Photos/Raws/date/panoramic1 —save-to=photos/WIP/date/panoramic1.afphoto | affinity open

would merge all frames in the Raws panoramic folder into a single panoramic, save the result as a affinity project in the WIP folder as panoramic1, and finally open the file in affinity for more editing when the merge is done.

commands like this would mean after I’ve uploaded the raw files to my PC, I could have my program merge all of my hdr stacks and panoramics into project files at night, while I am sleeping, and the next morning review the merged files to pick my favorites or continue processing.

 

[Does affinity support a CLI?]

I’m working on a program to help manage my intake workflow, which in part groups hdr stack frames. I’d like to open Affinity programmatically in HDR stack mode having already specified the frames of the stack. I couldn’t find documentation on the command line interface, so I’m hoping the documentation is what’s missing, not the interface.