MJSfoto1956

A far better model for this than AI's small handful of "select same..." commands or Draw's similarly limited commands would be FreeHand's as-yet unequaled Graphic Find and Replace feature.
 
Selection by object type is also needed. For example, when working with imported technical drawings (dxf, pdf, etc.), it is an every day and essential need to be able to select all path objects so as to apply consistent styling to them. In Illustrator, for example:
 
1. Select>Text Objects. All text objects are selected. The text size of all callouts can then be set as needed for readability at the final repro size. All selected text objects can be collected to a single Layer.
 
2. Select>Invert. All objects other than text objects are selected. The line weight and endcaps can be set all at once according to your drawing standards, without applying unwanted strokes to text objects.
 
[in fact, without this ability, Affinity will not be usable in my department for reworking engineering drawings into customer-suitable drawings.]
 
And so on...
 
Again, FreeHand's Graphic Find & Replace feature consolidated all of this functionality and much, much, more in a single interface palette. You could perform selections for
 
• any object type
• most attributes of any object type (same fill, same stroke, open paths, closed paths, etc., etc.)
• a range of attributes (ex: paths with stroke weight between X and Y)
 
JET

GMPhotography, I've just downloaded a Pixel Shift RAW sample and made similar edits and wasn't able to replicate the issue. Is it possible to send me the files you used via this dropbox link so I can look into this further?
 
Your files will remain private and I will make sure they're deleted when finished with :)

Some of us prefer to use separate non-destructive raw developer/DAM and do just the pixel honing in AP. There are some merits in keeping these separate.

Hi manroe,
Currently this is not possible but it's already on our roadmap to be implemented in a future version/update (Multiple Effects/Fills/Strokes per shape).

Hi gumbo,
If you go to the Export Persona, you can create a slice from a single element/layer in your design to export, pressing Create Slice on the bottom of the Layers panel in Export Persona (with the element selected obviously). Alternatively If the element is spread across several layers you can create a slice manually to export just that part of the design.
 
To learn more about exporting/Export Persona, please check those videos:
- Affinity Designer - Exporting: Layers (elements)
- Affinity Designer - Exporting: Slices

Because AP has advanced layer blend options that are not available in Photoshop, there is no need for traditional "luminosity masks". One can very precisely restrict any filter or layer to ANY range of luminosity with any kind of falloff (be it hard or soft, shallow or steep). Below is a screenshot that demonstrates how to do luminosity masks the fast and easy way using blend options -- in this case restricting the levels layer to only affect the midtones. This should serve as a reminder that if you are going to use a new tool, it pays to avoid trying to fit a square peg into a round hole! YMMV 
 
P.S. needless to say, my screenshot below is technically wrong -- for the equivalent of a luminosity mask one would want to use the "underlying" dialog rather than the "source" dialog as shown, but you get the idea.
 

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I was very excited to read that Serif is going to develop an Affinity Digital Asset Manager. As an Aperture user who cannot find any suitable replacement, I am hopeful that the quality and attention to detail which the Affinity products are known for will lead to an excellent option to migrate to.
 
Given that I presume the DAM is in early stage development, I thought it might be worth putting down some features that are important to me in the hopes that they will be considered for inclusion. In particular, Aperture (and my need for a DAM) is a key part of the process of selecting/rejecting my photos, not just organising them. This is an area where other DAMs I have tried are woefully inadequate. So in that spirit, here are features I'd like to see in an Affinity DAM, two of which are vital to my workflow (and the reason nothing out there is currently a suitable Aperture replacement):
1) Support for RAW+JPEG pairs, so that the pairs can be operated on and tagged as if they are one file, but also with the option to switch between them (in Aperture, 'Use RAW as Original' or 'Use JPEG as Original'). I don't know why RAW+JPEG support is entirely absent or functions badly in everything I've tried.  
2) Aperture has an amazing compare feature making it possible to bring up two photos side by side, cycle through the one on the right and reject ones not wanted, and quickly set the photo on the right as the new 'Compare Item' on the left. As well as being able to set the star rating or rejection of the photo on the right, it is also possible to reject the 'Compare Item' on the left, set the photo on the right as the new 'Compare Item', and continue cycling through the next set of photos. All of this can be controlled from the keyboard, making it very fast to cycle through similar photos and get down to one or two picks. Whilst doing this, one can also zoom and use the loupe (again from the keyboard), and it's possible to scroll through the two zoomed photos in sync by holding down the shift key. Taken together, this results in an amazing way to quickly go through dozens of photos, make detailed comparisons, and narrow down to just a few. I honestly don't know what I'll do if I can't find something that allows such a quick and powerful selection workflow before Aperture stops working!  
3) AppleScript support so it's possible to tie other tools in (such as a custom Geotagging tool I've created).  
4) Support for hierarchical keywords.  
5) The Stacks feature of Aperture is extremely useful in grouping together multiple versions of a photo. Of these (1) and (2) are absolutely integral to managing my photos. I could probably work around the lack of (3) and (4), though longer-term, this would keep me looking for something that offered these features. (5) is just a nice-to-have.
 
Hope this helps as the Affinity DAM team consider how the app will work. What do other people think, what's important to you?
 

Hello Chloe,
Welcome to Affinity Forums.
 
Draw a shape with the size/format you want (can be a circle or a star for example), position it over the image, then go to the Layers panel and drag the shape you just created over the thumbnail of the image (a small blue vertical bar will appear) and release it. This will create a mask that you can adjust if you decide to change the size/format of the shape later.
 
If you really want to discard the rest of the image (destructive operation) do this way instead:
Change to Pixel Persona, go to the Layers panel, select the image, go to Layer menu on top and select Rasterise...
Then select one of the four Marquee Tools, draw a selection over the area of the image you want, and do a copy and paste.
A new object with the area you selected will appear in the canvas. You can now delete your previous image.
Currently there's no way to crop images directly in the Pixel Persona. For regular crops use the Vector Persona's crop tool instead.

Hi DavidKroutArt,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
In Affinity Photo, select the Crop Tool, go to the context bar (right above the work area) and select the type of Overlay you want from the dropdown. You can choose between Thirds Grid (rule of thirds), Golden Spiral and Diagonals to help compose the crop.