SrPx

Hi, now with a change of mood, a couple of portraits/headshots, always done with a combination of Designer and Affinity. 
I have some plans on my mind, but I will share once I get round to doing something, I wouldn't like to promise stuff and follow through. 
Anyway thanks for watching, more soon (hopefully)
r.
 

The jury was obviously lacking that morning coffee. 

Amazitstanding.

It would be good to have a preference tick to force absolutely everything to scale (seems happens more when shift scaling) with no partial pixels.
A dirty work around idea. Setting in preferences / user Interface / Decimal Places for Unit Types and setting there "0" for pixels doesn't do it, I guess? . I made a test, and does not do decimal pixels, but of course, when it is in doubt will add or remove one pixel. But I tested generating artistic text, and a text box, too, and both produce no partial pixels, obviously. This has bad implications for accuracy, as vectors are infinitely more precise, but for your very use case, that you need all pixel-exact, maybe this could be a workaround, provided taking care of some things...

Another idea is, having in a side kind of boxes as refs, and activating all the snaps, so that you can resize to snap all text boxes over a sample box, so to make them all same size (than that one) and so ensuring pixel-perfect, no partial pixels. So, you might need several box samples (several sizes or proportions) as a "pallete", then scale the item over whatever the sample box to snap to those boxes (which are of course pixel perfect).
For the workarounds, the snapping options might become handy (to activate or deactivate)

 
I dunno. That's how I'd attack that (surely with the first idea). Sorry if you knew all this.

They probably have to rewrite bits and pieces of the rendering code as well, to target OS specific graphics APIs and whatnot.
I don't know how difficult this is to do, since I'm talking well beyond my expertise here, but I imagine it's somewhat involved.

+1

Because it is more cost-effective to purchase than to develop.
Several years ago when I asked people who work at animation studios that run Linux what software they used for image editing and digital painting, they said GIMP. When I asked her how they've been managing using GIMP for their texturing work, she said that it gets the job done. I have heard about studios using Photoshop CS5 and WINE when they didn't want to use GIMP. For concept art and texturing, Photoshop hasn't changed much since then.
There's still fragmentation, even with Creative Cloud. I've had machines that were running older versions of Windows that Adobe products would refuse to install on because they were no longer supported. On MacOS we had to roll back a couple of times on new updates while the Windows machines ran the new versions of the software.
The fragmentation you are describing is making sure everyone is using the most recent version of the software. With the realities of bad software updates aside, Adobe CC forces it by making everyone pay in advance for the upgrade. The Creative Cloud license validation and updater app is a separate technology that any software company can implement. That is not a feature exclusive to subscription software.
Even without such software, a company with an IT department will be running an RMM to remotely patch and update 3rd-party software on employee's computers. So perhaps the best use-case for the CC license validation and updater app is for small businesses that don't use an RMM. But small businesses and freelancers are the best candidates for being okay with not having their software up-to-date all the time.

Ha thanks!  Possibly it is an explanation!
Anyway I thought I'd share something different now (more of the character design, portraits people later) . I have decided recently to try to do a batch of studies  - all on one theme - just to hammer in some workflows and methods, and as I have been a bit taken by the German Drama Dark (on Netflix), I did a series of 5 studies based on the opening scenes of Season 2. So I'll just post them all in one batch now!
All of these done with a combination of Designer and Photo
 
 

Yes! Part 5 just went live. The era of Pixar, the beginning of mayor software packages, moving forward towards interactives and animations on the internet! 😎
Now that the second wave of the pandemic had arrived, we better have something interesting and full of content to read as well!
Enjoy it everybody, hope you have as much fun reading as I had researching, writing and illustrating it! 
After this part there will be only one more part (part 6) to complete this series I've been working on since 2017 with preperation, research, organising, reading, illustrating, writing etc.! Collect them all 😉
Thanks a lot everybody for liking and (positively) commenting on previous parts! It motivates me to keep on writing quality blogs!
English: The History of Interactive Computer Graphics - Part 5
Dutch: De Geschiedenis van Interactieve Computergraphics - Deel 5

 
@Alfred  @Madame  @Roger C  @Wosven  @GarryP  @A_B_C  @WatcherMagic  @John Rostron  @Renzatic  @dutchshader  @CLC  @SrPx  @haakoo  @telemax

Any news about what?
 

For me just middle mouse button for panning + wheel for zoom is so much faster. Maybe as I do a lot of 3D, too, and those are what I set in any 3D app, so the comfort when switching apps is great, avoiding "disconnection".

And way more than 20 years ago.

And way more than 20 years ago.

@Snapseed: Excellent photo, I love old photos my friend turns them into artworks. It just shows you the how some of these new alternative photo apps are progressing.
@SrPx: First world, third world there's only one world in my opinion. I'm glad you hate labels as much as me. I totally agree but we all joined this capitalist's conveyor belt at birth and if there is money to be made in a certain direction then that's the path the software companies will take. If it gets to a stage where it's too much I think I would just revert to my old locally installed software which for me at the moment suits my purpose.
Oils and watercolours don't blame you

In my entire country (and we're called first world), a lot of people is on 30/30 MB, "fiber", and some even yet DSL (well, lots of rural areas. Some don't even have any form of inet). Some people are just sharing the phone connection, for remote work! Others are in 100/100Mbits (I am...and even remote desktop tools of every brand to help friends and family is a royal pain with the ping). And certain number on 300/300 or so (with the several crisis, people downgrade their contracts, anyway, or just rely on the phone, to save bucks). But IMO is a minority. And yep, it's using phone cable to reach our homes, in most cases I know (EDIT: nope, it's not. Sorry, got confused for a moment). I'm telling you, this in a first world country.
I keep being unable to see how (even with great ping...it's still traveling from earth to the satellite and back, let alone whatever other issues escaping your control, etc. It seems technology would make local I/O between CPU and RAM faster than that) the computer BUS, the connections between the CPU and RAM, at the current RAM speed (I'm thinking mostly in constant I/O, not in the case of sending a large file once and be done. IE, not like sending a file to render in video editing, or making a 3D render. But for raw editing very heavy files in tools similar to Photoshop or AP) and its connections with the GPU would be slower. How that wouldn't be much faster than, whichever your ping is, in constant I/O operations (I mean, internally in the 2D application, not solely when you save or render a file) that happen while doing anything 2D or 3D?. This is not like in games when most of the communication is small bytes of position or the like, after all, game content is pre-loaded in certain moments (start of a level, etc), and that stuff passed to a local temp file, even with some cloud based ones. When not just very locally installed, somehow. This internal I/O is quite constant in how graphic production apps work internally, or that I'm told. Like with Linux graphic software, I'd like to see it happen, but I'm an eternal pragmatist. 'Could be' is not "already", and by experience, due to the many factors, things change a lot compared to what one expected...  I prefer to  think of and rely on what works now...
Also... not sure I want that to happen. Besides you do loose a lot of control on how that server machine is configured, versus having your hardware locally, I see that, yes, for cross platform usage it is great, but then if no local option is made ever more (or not pushed as much, which is the same than eliminating it given just a little time), we're completely at the companies (mostly the dominant top dogs) disposal to pay whatever the renting and whichever the price (and accept whatever the conditions) increases over time. I'm telling you, if that arrives, I'm ready to go back to my oils and watercolors. Heck yeah...

The last answer I've read did seem to point out that they were not saying "never", but IF it would happen, it would be a 2.x version, not before that (if my understanding of English language did not fail me... again). That recent post is something people seem to not be considering, in latest comments. To be honest, I am not sure about what does that mean in reality (but definitely did not sound as "never"). So, yep, I'd strongly recommend to figure out a workflow with the existing Linux apps. My advice would go further: Maybe keep an eye on Windows apps being ported to Linux, be them Affinity 2.x, or any other. But in the meantime, build a solid workflow with what exists already (is a motto any pro should have, imo...). I was able to work for web and print (covering all the needs of a company) in a quite intense environment for many years, and had to do all sort of tricks, but it is kindda doable (always that your projects don't need certain requirements that not even workarounds would cover). And now the situation is a bazillion times better with all those apps than it was then . For instance, Krita supports CMYK (somehow), and Gimp is going to, soon. The interface is... THE SMALLEST problem. So I deduce a lot of people have not found the real issues with those apps, actually. They just got bounced back by the UI, it's like the 95% of what I use to hear as a complaint. But besides I firmly believe one must not get defeated by an UI,  it is that I was in dire need (the company was very Linux focused, did not want to buy Windows software) so, I had to dig.  So, one needs to get into the "I have to dig" mindset, with these apps. My effort with Blender has paid way too many times that effort. That's another thing those apps need: people working in the field, getting to use that, and explaining the tricks and workflows, (so to bring more graphic pros to the platform) or explaining how people from Adobe CC can adapt, showing real life projects workflows, not the usual super basic things (this is a huge issue in Linux graphic apps videos, specially in 2D /Design. Not in 3D). Me, am not gonna do that (lack of time and motivation), and also, I'm very comfy with Windows. That said, if Linux had the same software  available than Windows, I'd totally move to Linux. But that's not gonna happen any time soon. Indeed, if graphics weren't my main duty, or I'd be working at a company doing something else (or graphics), then I guess I'd have a multi-boot (again), but mainly using Linux. What I mean is that for non-industry-standards projects, or, for light freelancing (better said : side hustle, not main income, does not have to be "light") for which you can pick your projects and discard those for which the linux graphic apps are not enough,  you totally don't need Windows apps, for that activity.  I perfectly know I wouldn't need them. And the problems are mostly with print workflows, as for web graphics, game art, anything screen based, gimp, krita, blender, inskcape and scribus (I know there are others, but some of the others are little more than toys, sorry...) do pretty much cover all the usual graphic needs (sometimes with tricks). 

I fully agree with your comment. While it would be really nice to have the very good Serif Affinity range of products (I recommend them to Windows and macOS users) available on the Linux platform, those of use who use Linux only don't actually need them because of the existing range of native Linux and Wine-friendly softwares that are already available to use right now.
Here's just one example. I didn't need Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo to convert an indecipherable 19th century tintype photo into a recognisable image (it was done in a couple of minutes with native Linux Pixeluvo).
 

I'm quite not sure about that.
Games are a very different workflow to, say, editing a 1GB image of many raster layers at high dpi, many effects,etc. Imagine editing a RAW with many live layer effects, already an issue with a native app... This is a similar issue than what we were speaking about some posts above with virtual machines, tho this is even worse. And the renting per se, I'm telling you, there is enough critical mass of people against that (I can imagine that a big percentage of Affinity customers are in this line of thought). Yes, Adobe has been able to get away with a large portion of their users (I'm sure loosing quite a bunch, too), but because they have the market monopoly. In every case when one does not need Adobe (IE, I definitely don't, and I do pretty serious stuff) , absolutely not, there are tons of very good non renting options, there were at least two good suites (besides open source) before Affinity arrived.
I'd like to see a future when I can just buy a mouse, keyboard, monitor and a wacom, and connect that to some server, as all the hardware will be in such server, for doing graphics (for other things, yeah, why not). Any instance of that which I have seen or tried has been so, so far of what is needed in real professional activity, that I don't expect that to happen in quite some years.

The last answer I've read did seem to point out that they were not saying "never", but IF it would happen, it would be a 2.x version, not before that (if my understanding of English language did not fail me... again). That recent post is something people seem to not be considering, in latest comments. To be honest, I am not sure about what does that mean in reality (but definitely did not sound as "never"). So, yep, I'd strongly recommend to figure out a workflow with the existing Linux apps. My advice would go further: Maybe keep an eye on Windows apps being ported to Linux, be them Affinity 2.x, or any other. But in the meantime, build a solid workflow with what exists already (is a motto any pro should have, imo...). I was able to work for web and print (covering all the needs of a company) in a quite intense environment for many years, and had to do all sort of tricks, but it is kindda doable (always that your projects don't need certain requirements that not even workarounds would cover). And now the situation is a bazillion times better with all those apps than it was then . For instance, Krita supports CMYK (somehow), and Gimp is going to, soon. The interface is... THE SMALLEST problem. So I deduce a lot of people have not found the real issues with those apps, actually. They just got bounced back by the UI, it's like the 95% of what I use to hear as a complaint. But besides I firmly believe one must not get defeated by an UI,  it is that I was in dire need (the company was very Linux focused, did not want to buy Windows software) so, I had to dig.  So, one needs to get into the "I have to dig" mindset, with these apps. My effort with Blender has paid way too many times that effort. That's another thing those apps need: people working in the field, getting to use that, and explaining the tricks and workflows, (so to bring more graphic pros to the platform) or explaining how people from Adobe CC can adapt, showing real life projects workflows, not the usual super basic things (this is a huge issue in Linux graphic apps videos, specially in 2D /Design. Not in 3D). Me, am not gonna do that (lack of time and motivation), and also, I'm very comfy with Windows. That said, if Linux had the same software  available than Windows, I'd totally move to Linux. But that's not gonna happen any time soon. Indeed, if graphics weren't my main duty, or I'd be working at a company doing something else (or graphics), then I guess I'd have a multi-boot (again), but mainly using Linux. What I mean is that for non-industry-standards projects, or, for light freelancing (better said : side hustle, not main income, does not have to be "light") for which you can pick your projects and discard those for which the linux graphic apps are not enough,  you totally don't need Windows apps, for that activity.  I perfectly know I wouldn't need them. And the problems are mostly with print workflows, as for web graphics, game art, anything screen based, gimp, krita, blender, inskcape and scribus (I know there are others, but some of the others are little more than toys, sorry...) do pretty much cover all the usual graphic needs (sometimes with tricks). 

Indeed, for drawing and painting, Krita is quite a better friend (unless being technical drawing, or heavily vector based). For graphic design, those other two, yep.

Indeed, for drawing and painting, Krita is quite a better friend (unless being technical drawing, or heavily vector based). For graphic design, those other two, yep.

I don't use those not because they look obsolete or they are not fancy looking, but they really miss functionality. I have requested features to them, never taken in years by any devs there, they look really busy due to the heavy request from their users to become more usable and implement productive features. They are literally buried in work to do and sometimes refuse good features due to that. They are also in their vicious circle, so it's hard to see the light. I think it's good to try investing money into them, but should it be on a clear direction and steadily. Once or few times is not enough.

I'm afraid that Affinity staff have made it abundantly clear that they won't be porting their rather good softwares over to Linux because it's not viable given the small desktop Linux market share. Personally, I think it's pointless to keep on asking them that same question which will get exactly the same "Not going to happen" response. I think it is more realistic to politely ask them to consider looking at making their products more compatible with CrossOver/Wine at some future time.
As for Pixeluvo, I really like that capable software and it's more of Photoshop Elements equivalent. If it's not enough, then PhotoLine, Photoshop or Paintshop Pro with Wine or Photopea online are better there. I also liked the native Linux PencilSheep but that's no longer being maintained by the developer concerned although it's still available as an Ubuntu Snap last time I checked.
If it's only relatively simple edits, then I can go to either Nomacs or Photoflare and more free and open source image processing tools and advice can be found at pixls(dot)us.
Finally, I appreciate that not everyone can get on with Scribus but there are native Linux alternatives available in the form of VivaDesigner or PageStream. Therefore, I think that there are already valid and viable alternatives for Linux users that don't require either dual booting or using a virtual machine.
 

Yes, it seems that we should go our "own" way. Really a very wise and constructive suggestion.
We should bite the bullet and actively support the applications that already exist natively for Linux.
Maybe then we could really make the Linux software visually appealing and user-friendly. Then we would have all the creative tools at our fingertips with GIMP, InkScape and Scribus.
 
PS: Thanks again to @Snapseed. I didn't know Pixeluvo and Gravit until now ...

Gravit and Inkscape are your friends there.