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- S -

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  1. On 3/26/2024 at 7:22 PM, Medical Officer Bones said:

    …But I worry about the impoverishment in (semi-)professional image editors. While GIMP is nice for what it is, a true Blender grade open source image editor equivalent is still missing.


    Although Krita is technically aimed at drawing, it looks like it already has a wide range of tools that make it suitable for photo editing as well (I.E. tools that I generally use) and a more usable UI.  Therefore, from an outside perspective, it looks like it would be much more appealing to use Krita rather than GIMP for general image editing – despite not technically being aimed at those users – and is probably the one most likely to achieve this.

    Are there any major features you've found Krita lacks as a general image editor?

     

  2. 3 hours ago, CJP001 said:

    …When will this DPI bug be fixed.  It seems to have been know for about 4 years, which is a ridiculously long time for it to have not been addressed, especially for the issue to survive through a fill version release.

    Agreed.

     

    3 hours ago, CJP001 said:

    …John mentions above that macros can be recorded in 1.6.  I have 2.4.0. Am I entitled to install 1.6 for the purpose of making macros (without uninstalling 2.4.0)?

    I have attached a set of macros below created with Affinity Photo 1.6.5.135, including one for 120DPI.

    Importing:

    1) Ensure the Library panel is active in Affinity Photo by going to [Window > Library].

    2) In the Library panel, click the "hamburger" menu in the top-right corner.

    3) Select "Import Macros…".

    4) Import the below Affinity Photo Macro file.

    Macro Set:

    DPI (Affinity 1.6.5.135).afmacros

    Screenshot:
    ScrenshotA.thumb.png.b9ed1e565d973ed1795a6807d8eb7ac4.png

     

  3. With the field length of the country name issue (item No.2), it's likely this is due to a limitation in the IPTC specification.  The tag Affinity Photo is using for the "IPTC (Image) > Country" field is the IPTC "7.4. Country (legacy)" tag.

    https://www.iptc.org/std/photometadata/specification/IPTC-PhotoMetadata#country-legacy

    XMP: XMP-photoshop:Country
    IIM: IPTC:Country-PrimaryLocationName

     

    The information on the IPTC website for this tag (see above link) says "Read the IIM note about Max bytes for text".  Therefore, it looks like there's a maximum number of bytes (64 bytes) for text in this field, which is likely why it's limited to 32 characters.

    https://www.iptc.org/std/IIM/4.2/specification/IIMV4.2.pdf

    2:101
    Country/PrimaryLocationName
    Not repeatable, maximum 64 octets, consisting of graphic characters plus spaces.

     

  4. I suspect the reason for the date issue (item No. 1) is Serif are using Exiftool behind the scenes to read and write metadata and it's 32-bit.

    The problem with 32-bit is it won't be able to handle dates before 1970-01-01 00:00:00 due to 1970 Epoch time.

    Therefore, if a pre-1970 "Date Taken" metadata tag was written by alternative software capable of handling a greater date range (or Exiftool with 64-bit Perl for example), although the pre-1970 metadata tags will be in the file, Affinity Photo won't be able to display them – despite Windows File Explorer displaying the pre-1970 "Date Taken" field correctly.

    If you attempt to write a pre-1970 "Date Taken" tag using Affinity Photo, as you have found, it will ignore what you typed and write the "Date Taken" DateTimeOriginal metadata tag as 1969-12-31 23:59:59.

    Unfortunately, this doesn't help you with your problem, I'm just providing a bit of information.

     

  5. I am also able to reproduce this issue with a new blank TIFF file created with Affinity Photo.  At least for the "Comments" and "Subject" fields, but not for the "Tags" field.

    When opening the TIFF file, Affinity Photo converts some Microsoft metadata tags to their own Serif-specific XMP metadata tags [XMP-serifExifExt].  When the file is then saved again from Affinity Photo as another TIFF file, Affinity Photo writes back to the metadata tags shown below.  However, when it writes the Microsoft metadata tags, presumably a text encoding/byte issue is introduced as the written text string now appears as Chinese characters.

    The IFD0:XPComment tag gets written to:

    XMP-serifExifExt:XPComment
    IFD0:XPComment (as Chinese characters)

    The IFD0:XPSubject tag gets written to:

    XMP-serifExifExt:XPSubject
    IFD0:XPSubject (as Chinese characters)

     

    Screenshot showing comparison before and after saving in Affinity Photo:

    Screenshot.thumb.png.057be126a3d6be4cd0f28c0c894ee2e7.png

     

    Exporting to JPEG works as expected.

    -----

    Affinity Photo - 2.3.1.2217 (EXE)
    Windows 10 - 19045.4046

     

  6. On 1/6/2024 at 2:51 PM, Charles Harris said:

    This is what I did:

    • Search for Colour Management from the Start menu and click to open.
    • In the Devices tab, select the correct monitor from the Devices dropdown menu and make sure Use my settings for this device is selected.
    • Now click Add... and select sRGB IEC61966-2.1 from the list and click OK. The sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile should now appear in the Profiles associated with this device: section.
      If there is already a profile associated with the monitor, please use the Remove option first, to ensure the monitor is using the newly appointed sRGB profile.
    • Select the profile and click Set as Default Profile to make it the default.
    • Close the Colour Management window and restart your Affinity app.

    What else do you recommend?

    Colour Management 1.png

     

    The sRGB ICM profile in your screenshot is listed under "ICC Profiles (Advanced Colour)".  Therefore, remove the "sRGB IEC61966-2.1 (default)" profile and add it again without ticking the "Add as Advanced Colour Profile" tick box.  This alone is likely not causing your issue, however it will cause a problem in combination with other settings, therefore it needs changing.  

    Secondly, it appears a faulty ICC/ICM monitor colour profile is still being used from somewhere, which is odd as it should now be using the generic "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" profile that you've set as the default Windows colour management profile.  Therefore, click on the "Advanced" tab in Windows Colour Management and check what's listed for the "Device profile" (as per below screenshot).

    ScreenshotA.png.901a2a705ac692eb4aaa316de43bec3c.png

     

    Finally, on the Windows Colour Management "Devices" tab, the top dropdown menu currently shows Display 1.  I assume you're only using one display and there's not a Display 2 listed as well?

  7. 8 hours ago, nickbatz said:

    …Hopefully I didn't miss a way around this, but it would be great if there were a way to adjust the angle and scale from the keyboard or mouse while you're previewing with the Clone Brush without having to leave the entry box.

    The up/down/left/right arrow keys on the keyboard should adjust rotation and scale of the Clone Brush tool.

     

  8. Up until mid 2016, camera raw codecs were added to Windows 10 automatically by Microsoft via Windows Update, which meant Windows File Explorer would display CR2 raw files (thumbnails and metadata) natively without the user needing to do anything. 

    However, Microsoft stopped updating these codecs in mid 2016 (Windows 10 1607 was the last version that contained the latest camera codecs).  This means Windows File Explorer will natively support raw files for cameras that were announced up to 2016 Quarter 2, but it won't natively support cameras announced 2016 Quarter 3 onwards.

    Therefore, if the Canon CR2 files are from a camera more recent than mid 2016, you will need to install the Microsoft Raw Image Extension from the Microsoft Store.

    Microsoft Raw Image Extension:

    https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9NCTDW2W1BH8

     

  9. One option is to uninstall the MSIX/Microsoft Store versions of the Affinity apps and install the alternative EXE versions that Serif provide as well.  Using the EXE versions will use predictable file paths to the Affinity executables (I.E. %ProgramFiles%\affinity\photo 2\photo.exe).

    However, if you would prefer to continue using the MSIX/Microsoft Store versions of the Affinity apps, you could add the apps to the Controlled Folder Access allow list using PowerShell.  By using PowerShell, it will allow you to use wildcards (*) in place of the version numbers in the file paths to the executables.  See my previous post at the below link:

    https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/170384-saving-files-blocked-by-controlled-access-folder-how-to-fix/&do=findComment&comment=979210

     

  10. When attempting to use the Healing Brush tool without using any modifiers keys to select the source, a bubble is displayed to notify the user they need to use the Alt modifier key first.

    However, the wording is incorrect.

    Current wording:

    You must Click + Alt

    Expected wording:

    You must Alt + Click

    Screenshot:

    ScreenshotA.thumb.png.b7e2a9e0ce03cc6e3e2d5cebd833b3fb.png


    -----
    Affinity Photo - 2.3.1.2217 (exe installer)

     

  11. I'm not sure what went gone wrong there, I recreated the image from scratch and the black outline doesn't appear (see the below modified file).  I would imagine the root cause happened during the masking phase – which is not part of the file.

    Modified File:

    DSC_4324 PF Changs B.afphoto

    [Large afphoto attachment now removed to reduce space]

    As you've already tried using a mask, I assume you want to remove the black outline from the background image itself, rather than use a mask.

    For this particular image, I would just start again as it's a fairly simple image.  However, if you did want to remove it from this image, you could use selection tools combined with [Select > Grow/Shrink] and either the healing brush tool (if removing the black outline from the background image itself) or a black/white brush (if removing the black outline using a mask).

     

  12. It's because pixels aren't covering the whole canvas.  If you were to add a white Fill layer behind and rasterise it, it work as expected – as the layer would contain opaque pixels that same size as the canvas.

    Depending on what you're doing, it may be more flexible (and non-destructive) to use a second rectangle instead of Layer Effects for the outline.

     

  13. Yeah, it's a bit confusing.  Look where the double lines are in the Layers panel and also the colour of the layers in the Layers panel.

    - If the adjustment layer is above the double lines and is a dark grey colour, it denotes that the adjustment layer is in the mask section.

    ScreenshotA.thumb.jpg.2e231d63cf6fa7a8e4d70bbb7f3bb434.jpg

     

    - If the adjustment layer is below the double lines and is a light grey colour, it denotes that the adjustment layer is in the clipped or child section.

    ScreenshotB.thumb.jpg.8039ed278a757c3f4fe294fcc6e32945.jpg

     

    This is why you're seeing the difference.

     

    Also refer to the Serif video here [3:13]:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fiCvurH0is&t=193s


     


  14. Does Outlook 2016 give you the ability to see the file path where the email file attachments are stored?  For example:

    C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Outlook\1ABCAB\Attachment 01.jpg

    If so, is there anything abnormal about the path of the file attachments, for example any special characters anywhere in the path, or a non-standard path?

    Once you know the path where it's stored, try opening the file attachment directly.  For example, change the below jpg file path to the path of the Outlook file attachment on your machine (not the exact path I have below as an example) and enter it directly in the Windows Run dialogue [Windows Key + R].  N.B. This should be the path where Outlook automatically stores received email attachments, not where you manually save attachments from Outlook.

    "C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo 2\Photo.exe" "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Outlook\1ABCAB\Attachment 01.jpg"

    Also try just the file path itself, which should invoke the default application for opening jpg files.

    "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Outlook\1ABCAB\Attachment 01.jpg"

    - If the JPEG file opens OK from the Windows Run dialogue, then it demonstrates that Affinity Photo is able to open the file if the Affinity Photo executable is correctly invoked and the path is valid and passed to it in a valid format – therefore the issue likely lies elsewhere.  Either in Outlook itself, or something third-party preventing Outlook file attachments being opened in Affinity Photo.  Perhaps security software restricting what applications can open Outlook file attachments, I.E. what processes Outlook can spawn or invoke.  I don't know.

    - If the JPEG file does not open OK from the Windows Run dialogue, what is the error message displayed in Affinity Photo?  Also, what happens if you try the same thing with another non-Microsoft third-party application capable of opening JPEG files other than Affinity Photo?

     

  15. 2 hours ago, HomeGrownHeroz said:

    …My final question though regarding the mask is, can Affinity Photo simply not move masks in the same way as PS. As you demonstrated in the first video, when you move the selection mask of the rectangle, it moves the complete canvas with it. In PS, it moves the adjustment layer and the mask follows it. 

    - If you select the parent layer in the Layers panel, the Move tool will move both the parent layer and the (child) mask layer together as one.

    - If you select the parent layer in the Layers panel and tick the "Lock Children" tick box in the Context toolbar at the top, the Move tool will move just the parent layer; the (child) mask layer will stay where it is.  This is like breaking the link by clicking the "link" icon between the layer icon and the mask icon in the Photoshop Layers panel.

    - If you select the (child) mask layer in the Layers panel, the Move tool will move just the mask.  However, if the mask was created from a selection using the default "New Mask" icon, then when the mask is moved, the black part of the mask isn't infinite, it will be restricted to the size of the canvas when the mask was created.  Hence, the need to use a work-a-round of using a new empty mask (black) and then filling the selection with white.  Or using a vector mask.

    For what you're talking about, it has always operated like that in Affinity Photo.  Although, it appears buggy now as well – at 22 seconds and 26 seconds in the first video, you can see for some reason the black masked area jumps over the blue boundary by 200 pixels (at the bottom) when the left mouse button is released…

     

  16. In this particular case, I would use a vector shape tool such as a rectangle for the mask, as using the Rectangle tool is more flexible than the Affinity Photo Rectangular Marquee tool.

    Video A:

    For more complex selections though, you will need to create an empty mask (black), then fill the selection with white using [Edit > Fill] (Shift + F5).

    Video B:

     


  17. I'm not sure whether there are certain limitations for writing to "XMP-dc:Description" and "IPTC:Caption-Abstract" metadata tags, however Windows File Explorer will also not allow the user to use carriage returns in this field.

    I.E. If you try to create a new line in the "Subject" metadata field in Windows File Explorer, it will react in the same way as Affinity Photo.

    Screenshot.png.eb67ee47365b9744a44fbd5b6f1644f9.png

     

    Therefore, I suspect this is intentional.  However, I'm not sure whether it's a limitation in the XMP/IPTC metadata specifications for those particular tags, or whether it's like this due to a limitation in Windows (I.E. in the Windows "XPSubject" field).

    You may be better off using keywords with semicolons between keywords.  For example:

    Spring Thoughts; Painted bronze; 12×4×4 inches; 2023;

     

  18. 12 hours ago, Florida said:

    …Normally I expect adjustment layers to affect ALL layers below which is what I want.

    The icon to the right denotes there's a layer mask applied to the White Balance Adjustment layer, which looks predominantly black.  The White Balance Adjustment will not be visible on the underlying layers for the parts of the mask that are pure black – therefore the adjustments are only showing where the parts of the mask are lighter.

    Hold the Alt/Option key on the keyboard and left-click the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel and it will display what's masked or not, represented in greyscale.

    Unlike normal mask layers [Layer > New Mask Layer] where it's possible to easily toggle mask visibility on/off, or delete the mask, with these built-in Adjustment Layer types of masks you'll need to fill the mask with pure white [Edit > Fill] (Shift + F5) to disable it.

  19. 3 hours ago, DoctorBe said:

    Sorry. It's the file with the bee 


    Although the below tag is in the file, I have never seen this tag added by Affinity Photo.

    [File]       Comment           : CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), quality = 85.

    ScreenshotA.thumb.png.f529b7ca72a54f0bf7e25d2372aa8155.png

     

    I don't see that tag in D500 out-of-camera JPG images either, usually just the below tag.

    [Nikon]      JPGCompression    : Optimal Quality

    Therefore, I suspect this tag is being added by some other software prior to being processed with Affinity Photo.  The image dimensions of your file are 3633×3051, rather than the standard 5568×3712, 4176x2784 or 2784x1856.  Has the image been resized in other software and this software is possibly adding the tag?

    I would double-check with a new out-of-camera JPG straight out of the camera – without any other software used – that this tag is definitely not there before using Affinity Photo, but is added by Affinity Photo.

     

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