- S -

Generally I don't use Dodge and Burn tools for dodging and burning. I find using curves adjustment layers (and painting directly on the layer masks with a soft brush set to a low flow) a more flexible method for dodging and burning; and it will allow you to set a maximum amount that you want to dodge/burn using the curve adjustment. The masks can be edited afterwards using a black or white brush. The amount of dodge and burn can also be edited afterwards by adjusting the curve in the curves adjustment layer. If you record the steps for creating the dodge and burn layers with a macro, you can save it to the macro library to use on other documents. See below video. Dodge & Burn.mp4

The lengths Serif go to to avoid admitting they made a poor decision is astounding. If you want to cure your OCD, do what you should have done in the first place (and what I have been complaining about for four years) and make it (*.tif;*.tiff) and (*.jpg;*.jpeg) so that it defaults to three letter extensions – like the entire imaging industry has been doing for over 25 years. This is already the long established de facto standard for those file types. It has also always been recommended practice to use the most commonly used extension on the left (which .tiff and .jpeg are not). "For Save File, include all variations of the supported file extensions, even if uncommon, and put the most common extension first." Serif's obsession with forcing their users to use *.tiff is absurd; I have never come across a single person in 25 years who has wanted files to be saved as *.tiff or *.jpeg. There are zero advantages to doing this, it only creates problems and inconsistencies with what is already in place. If you get OCD over a dialogue box, try having to deal with having both *.tif and *.tiff in the same folder and two files of the same file type being able to have the same name. Fighting Affinity software workflow issues like this is why I decided to go back to using Photoshop, which I had previously been using since Photoshop 5 in 1998 anyway. Earlier this year I had enough; I had an archive of over 18000 historical images I needed to go through, clean up the metadata and embed ICC profiles in. Affinity Photo insisting on taking the *.tif originals and then spitting them out as *.tiff when batch processing them was too unworkable. Whether Serif thinks .tiff looks prettier – or some equally nonsense reason – is moot; the software cannot do what I need it to do. With Photoshop I do not need to fight the software or use work-a-rounds – it just works as it should. I cannot force you to act on feedback, however when I was a frequent visitor in this forum, I used to see a lot of excellent feedback from people who were very clearly power users – then someone would reply with some sort of excuse or work-a-round. Serif then appear to view these issues as 'problem solved'; I never saw any of that feedback from heavy users acted on. A work-a-round is perhaps OK for hobbyists dealing with relatively small numbers of images at their leisure, but when dealing with large numbers of images at a time and working extensively with the software every day, even something seemingly minor to others makes using the software unbearable for what is already a tedious and repetitive process. Power users know what they want to software to do; Serif can try to justify their decisions and ignore the feedback, but the issue won't go away – it just leads to resenting the software. To be clear, I'm not looking for a reply – this is feedback only.

It's not. When trying to update or uninstall Affinity software, the installer looks for the Affinity MSI installer database file located in the C:\Windows\Installer folder (I.E. C:\Windows\Installer\83225.msi). If it can't find this file (for example, if something has deleted it), then it will try to find the original installer database file. In Affinity's case, the original installer database file would have been extracted to a temporary location during the original installation (I.E. C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp\AffinitySetup\8c1170d2-f3c0-4caf-b5c8-5c8ec4804826\Affinity.msi). After installation, it is deleted from this temporary location by the installer. The dialogue you can see in the OP's screenshot when they try to uninstall it is saying just this: It can't find the Affinity MSI installer database file located in the C:\Windows\Installer folder and it also can't find the original 'Affinity.msi' file (which it won't, because after installation it's deleted from that temporary location). Although the dialogue gives a 'Browse' option, it is not possible to point the dialogue box to the msi (as it doesn't exist anymore) and it's also not possible to point it to the original downloaded file instead – as Affinity supply an exe file, not an msi file. Therefore, the OP will need to run the Microsoft troubleshooter tool and follow the prompts for an 'uninstalling' issue; this will allow the application to be uninstalled.

This is neither a Windows issue, nor a Serif issue; Affinity products uninstall fine. This is likely a third-party issue, such as something "cleaning" the installer folder when it should be left alone. The application needs the msi installer intact so it knows what's installed and where before it updates or uninstalls itself. If it's not, then you get the errors the OP posted in their screenshots (demonstrated below). Video.mp4 They will need to download & run the tool from the below link, follow the prompts for an 'uninstalling' issue, then uninstall the Affinity software: https://support.microsoft.com/help/17588/windows-fix-problems-that-block-programs-being-installed-or-removed Edit: The tool in the above link is no longer available to download from 3 August 2020 due to it not being signed with a SHA-256 certificate (it was signed in 2015 with a SHA-1 cert). However, Serif have a link in the FAQ section to a version of the "Microsoft Uninstall Troubleshooter" tool hosted on OneDrive: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/98922-faq-installer-errors-setup-failed-installer-windows-ui-issues/&do=findComment&comment=541684 If the OneDrive link doesn't work, there's also a version here: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/86975-program-install-uninstall-troubleshooter-windows.html

I would use the monitor ICM colour profiles that Microsoft supply for the Intel Surface Laptop 3. 1) Download the "SurfaceOemPanel (Intel).zip" file from my post above. 2) Follow the below video. Video001.mp4

Looking at the display model number (LQ150P1JX51), that's a display from a 15" Surface Laptop 3, rather than a Surface Pro. Although, I'm guessing that's just a typo. "…it is a Sharp LQ150P1JX51 panel made especially for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3. It is Sharp factory calibrated to 100% sRGB, Delta E <1 and also offers an enhanced mode (saturated)." Until the OP replies, the ICM colour profile name does match the Surface Laptop 3 ICM colour profile. Someone has previously posted about this colour profile on the Microsoft website – however, over the years, I've yet to see a display/hardware manufacturer give a technical reason why some of their ICC/ICM display colour profiles display one of the RGB colour channels oddly: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/all/surface-pro-icm-profile-has-wrong-header-size-and/cb29ce76-9ebc-42f7-954a-63c3868a33e8 Interestingly, if I extract the ICM display colour profiles directly from the Surface Laptop 3 driver MSI files, the ICM colour profile included with the Intel drivers displays 255,255,255 as white (at least in Windows Sandbox, on an Intel desktop machine, with a Dell monitor), however the one included with the AMD drivers gives a yellow colour cast. Surface Laptop 3 (with Intel Processor Drivers and Firmware): MSI link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=100429 Extract MSI command: msiexec /a C:\Users\WDAGUtilityAccount\Desktop\SurfaceLaptop3_Win10_18362_20.072.28623.0.msi /qb TARGETDIR=C:\Users\WDAGUtilityAccount\Desktop\MSIOutput The extracted ICM profiles from the Intel MSI file (Zip file): SurfaceOemPanel (Intel).zip Screenshot: Surface Laptop 3 (with AMD Processor Drivers and Firmware): MSI link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=100428 Extract MSI command: msiexec /a C:\Users\WDAGUtilityAccount\Desktop\SurfaceLaptop3_Win10_18362_20.053.37902.0.msi /qb TARGETDIR=C:\Users\WDAGUtilityAccount\Desktop\MSIOutput The extracted ICM profiles from the AMD MSI file (Zip file): surfaceoempanel (AMD).zip Screenshot:

I would have accepted Bitcoin. 🙂

From the description, it sounds like the JPG image has a clipping path: – When you open the image in software that recognises the clipping path (like Affinity Photo), then you see the transparency. – When you open the image in software that doesn't recognise the clipping path (like an image viewer), it ignores the clipping path and displays the whole image. Example (zip file): 001 (Contains clipping path).zip To export the image without a clipping path: In the JPG export settings, click the 'More' button, then untick 'Convert clips to paths'.

In addition to the reply above, if you click the 'More' button in the context toolbar and to go to the 'Dynamics' tab; does the paint brush that you're currently using have a 'Hue Jitter' set?

What appears to be happening, is the marquee antialiasing has no effect if the layer has been rotated before making the selection. Or to think of it a different way, the jagged edges are coming from the rotated layer below, rather than the marquee itself. If the layer has already been rotated, right-click on the rotated layer, select 'Rasterise' and then make the selection. Do the jagged edges then disappear?

When using the Marquee tools, select the Marquee tool you want to use and also tick the 'Antialias' tick box in the Context Toolbar at the top (before making the selection). However, as you previously mentioned using feather instead, it's likely that the below setting is what's causing the issue. Go to [Affinity Photo Preferences > Performance] and change the 'View Quality' from 'Nearest Neighbour' to 'Bilinear (Best Quality)'.

Unfortunately, that is how it is. Affinity Photo automatically writes the filename directly into the 'Title' field in the file metadata – meaning the original filename is stuck as the title in the metadata, even if the file is later renamed. If you're only dealing with a small number of files, then in your 'Blue_10.afphoto' example you can delete 'Blue_10' from the 'Title' field in the Affinity Photo Metadata panel. Then when you save the file as 'Green_20.afphoto', the title will be blank. However, if you are dealing with lots of photos, it's a PITA. I previously submitted feedback regarding this behaviour, however I wouldn't hold my breath on them changing it. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/114156-affinity-photo-shouldnt-automatically-write-the-filename-directly-into-the-title-metadata/

It's because when developing the raw image in the Develop persona, it's currently being developed to 32-bit linear output (RGBA/32). It looks OK when you copy and paste the layer from the Photo persona into another document because it's converted to the format of the receiving document – RGBA/8 or RGBA/16 for example. Are you intending to work on the image in RGBA/32 format? If not, in the Develop persona you could go to [View > Assistant Manager] and change the 'Raw output format' from 'RGB (32 bit HDR)' to 'RGB (16 bit)'. Alternatively, when in the Photo persona, you could go to [Document > Convert Format/ICC Profile] and change the format to say RGBA/16 or RGBA/8. However, if you're intending to work on the image in RGBA/32 format, then I'm not sure why it's doing this; I'm guessing it's a bug It doesn't necessarily need to be just from developing a raw image file: if you open a new blank document in Affinity Photo – with the colour format set to 'RGB/32 (HDR)' – the Paint Brush Tool will do the same. RGBA/32: RGBA/16:

I've never understood why the 'Save Affinity layers' setting isn't included in the 'More' section. This would make it possible to save a custom preset with this setting enabled.

You end up with soft edges if you resize the marquee afterwards. You have to use the rectangle/ellipse tools instead. However, this means users have to use the rectangle/ellipse tools with 0% opacity fill, position it where it's required, change to 100% opacity fill, then either CTRL + click the thumbnail in the layers panel to get the selection, or use it as a vector mask directly. As a tool maker, if you want to make the marquee selection tools more usable, allowing spacebar to move the selection should also be possible. It should be possible for the user to zoom in close, align one part of the marquee selection tool using the spacebar, then dragging to expand the selection. Or in the case of selecting something like a pupil/iris of an eye, or wheels/tyres of a vehicle, switching between spacebar (to move) and dragging (to resize) a few times while keeping the left mouse button pressed. Using quick mask to resize selections is also prone to crashing.

Did the thumbnail image for this file still remain displayed after it finished syncing with OneDrive?

The 'little blue circle' usually indicates that the 'Stabiliser' is enabled for the brush. This setting can be enabled/disabled in the brush context tool bar at the top of the screen, when the Paint Brush Tool is selected. I'm not sure what is making the 'Round Light Brush' act like a spray brush/airbrush. You can try resetting all the brushes back the defaults. To do this, export any custom brushes that you have created in the Brushes panel, then go to [Edit > Preferences > Miscellaneous > Reset Brushes]. After doing this you will then need to import any custom brushes you previously exported, as they will be removed when resetting the brushes. However, it's difficult to understand exactly what you mean without seeing what you are seeing. Therefore, if you would prefer to get to the bottom of what's happening, you will need to post a screenshot showing the issue. Post a screenshot of the whole Affinity Photo screen, with the Paint Brush Tool selected and also with the brush settings open (click on the 'More' button in the brush context tool bar). This may provide an indication of what's happening.

I don't think it has ever been like this in Affinity Photo. It works like this in Adobe Photoshop, but not in Affinity Photo. There have been quite a few feature requests over the years for it to work like this though.

There's also a video at the below link (starts at 3:45) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hntb-PMGUEA

For now, however the issue may return. As per my original bug report:

Are 'Wet Edges' being turned off in the Paint Brush Tool context toolbar when you switch between the Paint Brush Tool and the Erase Brush Tool? If this is the case, it's a bug. I previously reported it in the link below (the second video in the linked thread), but the only change I've seen so far is for the first video in that linked thread – where if you now open a new document and the current brush has Wet Edges set to on, Affinity Photo incorrectly turns Wet Edges off (the brush should still have Wet Edges on as it's still the currently selected brush). Link: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/91303-paint-brush-tool-wet-edges-turning-onoff-by-itself-after-using-erase-brush-tool/ @Chris B Try to reproduce it using a pre-defined brush that has wet edges set to on – such as the [Dry Media > Square Charcoal] brush for example. In the below videos, Affinity Photo is running in a Sandbox, meaning it's a totally clean installation of 1.8.3.641. Video showing 'Wet Edges' being turned off when switching between Paint Brush Tool and Erase Brush Tool: Video 01.mp4 Video showing 'Wet Edges' being turned off when opening a new document, even though the brush with 'Wet Edges' is still selected: Video 02.mp4

If a brush nozzle is longer diagonally than it is horizontally or vertically, parts of the brush nozzle get cut off when rotating the brush either with the left/right keyboard arrow keys, or with [Brush Properties > General > Rotation]. If a 'Rotation Jitter' is set for the brush [Brush Properties > Dynamics > Rotation Jitter] – even if only set to 1% – the brush nozzle isn't cut off when rotating the brush. Although it's possible to make the brush nozzles smaller so that they don't cut off when rotating, the brushes should be able to be rotated without cutting off – like what happens when 'Rotation Jitter' is set to 1%. To reproduce: 1) Create a test brush nozzle where the nozzle is longer diagonally than it is horizontally or vertically. 2) Create a new intensity brush from it. 3) Draw on the canvas with the new brush. The brush will draw correctly. 4) Using either the left/right keyboard arrow keys, or using [Brush Properties > General > Rotation], rotate the brush say 10%. Part of the brush nozzle gets cut off. 5) Go to [Brush Properties > Dynamics > Rotation Jitter] and set the 'Rotation Jitter' to 1%. The brush will draw correctly without cutting off. Screenshot 1: Screenshot 2: Screenshot 3: Screenshot 4: ----- Windows 10 2004 (19041.329) Affinity Photo (1.8.3.641)

For TIFF and JPEG files, the correct place for the 'Date taken' date is in the ExifIFD:DateTimeOriginal tag. When using ExifTool to add a date to TIFF and JPEG files that do not already have this field populated, you can use the -AllDates tag, which will add the date to DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and ModifyDate (these will be in the EXIF tags, not the file timestamps). However, Affinity Photo deletes the CreateDate tag when exporting an image, so the DateTimeOriginal tag is the important date. For PNG files, EXIF metadata was only recently added to the official PNG specification in 2017, which was too little too late. Therefore the main place the 'Date taken' date is stored – other than the file timestamps – is in the PNG:CreationTime tag. As support for metadata in the PNG specification was historically pretty sketchy, it's hit and miss whether applications support this tag. Affinity Photo doesn't and deletes this tag when exporting the image, so you can't currently use this date unless you want to keep reapplying it every time you export the file from Affinity Photo. For photos, it's better to stick with TIFF/raw originals and JPEG for output files, rather than PNG if you can. The file 'Date modified' timestamp you mentioned isn't very reliable. If you take a bunch of raw images on Christmas day, but don't process them for five months, the 'Date modified' timestamp is going to be the date you processed the images, not the date they were taken. If a year later, you decide you you want to reprocess some of the images again, the 'Date modified' timestamp is now going to be even further off. Also, the 'Date modified' timestamp can be inadvertently changed; just rotating an image in an image viewer for example can change the 'Date modified' timestamp. Fortunately, when taking a photo with a digital camera, it will automatically add the 'Date taken' date to the EXIF metadata and then when opened in Affinity Photo, Affinity Photo keeps this metadata in the file. So if your photo was taken on Christmas Day with a digital camera, the 'Date taken' date in the EXIF remains constant regardless of when you actually process/edit the image or export it from Affinity Photo. This is the main timestamp to go by. The only real time where the file 'Date modified' timestamp is useful in photos is as a last resort fall-back date when there isn't a better date in the file (such as a 'Date taken' date in the EXIF). Or in the case where the images are being viewed in a photo viewer where not much thought has gone into it: I.E. it completely ignores the EXIF metadata and just uses the 'Date modified' timestamps instead. The Google photo app that comes with stock Android for example does this. To accommodate for this, you *could* change the 'Date modified' date in the file to match the 'Date taken' date, but it's not something I would personally do – as per the drawbacks I mentioned above and what other people have mentioned. The author of ExifTool also doesn't really recommend doing this. In the above example with the raw images, every time you process the images, or export then from Affinity Photo, it will mean you're going to need to keep changing the 'Date modified' timestamps again to match. This will be a massive PITA. Then, if you're dealing with old scanned photos, changing the 'Date modified' timestamp in the file can be problematic with images taken before 1970-01-01. ExifTool is 32-bit and therefore changing the 'Date modified' timestamps in the file to pre-1970 dates will produce odd dates – like a century and a half out. It's possible to install 64-bit Perl and use a different version of ExifTool with it, but it's more hassle (at least on Windows, it may not be an issue on MacOS). Really a photo viewing app should be reading the 'Date taken' date from the EXIF metadata if it's in the file, which has a higher priority than the file 'Date modified' timestamp. Therefore, stick to the proper EXIF tags for adding 'Date taken' to image files. In the case where the image is a scanned photo or artwork, then the date is going to have to be added manually. If it's just a couple of images (for example, an urban sketch/painting), the 'Date taken' date can be added using the Windows File Explorer properties dialogue box (or the MacOS equivalent to this, such as Apple Photos). If it's quite a few images (for example a few hundred images from an airshow in 1982), then you'll need to use something like ExifTool to add the dates to the EXIF metadata; this will also make it possible to add sequential times to the 'Date taken' dates as well, so that they appear in the correct chronological order in a photo viewer that correctly reads the 'Date taken' tag in the EXIF metadata. When adding the 'Date taken' date to the files manually, the dates need to be added to the files before opening them in Affinity Photo. I.E. Scan the images in TIFF file format, add the 'Date taken' date to the file metadata, then open them in Affinity Photo. This will mean the 'Date taken' will already be in the EXIF metadata when you save the Affinity Photo working file or export to JPEG/TIFF. Personally, I would like to see the ability to add or modify the 'Date taken' in the Affinity Photo 'Metadata' panel, but I don't know whether that will happen.

No idea. I reported it HERE in 2016, but they stuck with 50%. Although the slider only goes up to 50%, it's possible to manually type a value greater than 50% in the box. It's also now possible to use the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard to rotate a brush 360°, which was a useful addition. In addition, for something like a cloud, it's now possible to save objects as an asset in the 'Assets' panel too. However, it's still not possible to flip a brush on the X or Y axis though.

You may be able to use the 'History' panel. [View > Studio > History] if the panel isn't visible.