[Some UI Improvement Suggestions]

BTW, sorry about the tags. I can't believe I made a typo in both! Can't find a way to fix them.

[Some UI Improvement Suggestions]

First, I have to say that after persisting with Affinity Photo I am now really appreciating it. I think it is the best new program I have used for many years (and I have hundreds of apps on my Mac). The power and quality is brilliant. However I do have some suggested user interface enhancements which I think would make the experience even better...

 

When choosing the crop tool remember the last mode and other settings. 

When I use resize, if I turn off constrain, leave it off in future until I switch it back on.

When saving JPEGs, remember the quality setting.

A keyboard shortcut for save flattened.

In dialogs with text fields put the cursor in the first field so I can just type.

Remember the position of dialogs, eg Clarity.

Use of dialogs a bit inconsistent: sometimes panel, sometimes dialog, sometimes drop-down.

Why do I choose filters from a menu but effects from a palette?

Let me drag an image from a web page onto AF's icon in the Dock to open it.

If I choose a crop to a size, then resize to the same size, the aspect ratio is off slightly.

When creating a new document default to the size of the image on the clipboard.

The use of the shift key for constraining drags is a bit inconsistent.

 

These are generally just to save a few clicks and to avoid errors. No big deal but these little things can make a difference, especially when processing many images in a similar way.

 

Thanks.

 

[There's Something Wrong]

OK, thanks for those comments. I will persist and maybe the program will become more intuitive as I use it more.

[There's Something Wrong]

First, I have to say I really like this program. I have Photoshop and Pixelmator but try to use AP as much as possible. And it's that potential which makes my comment more frustrating.

 

I don't know what it is, but there is something about AP which doesn't make sense. I have used graphics programs for 30 years so I generally know what I'm doing, but I constantly find myself "trapped" by AP. Things happen for no apparent reason.

 

For example, today I extended the canvas size and saw the extra transparent area appear, but there was nothing I could do with it. None of the tools worked. Then I tried to copy pixels from the background later. I couldn't. Why not? In the end I had to do a screen grab to the clipboard, paste to a new layer, then merge the layers! Huh?

 

It could very well be my ignorance, but I thought what I tried to do made sense. There's something unintuitive about this program some times. Just sayin'... Maybe concentrate on making the UI more intuitive next upgrade?

[Drag and drop to open images]

Hi. Sorry if this has already been covered by I gave up looking through 170 pages in the forum! When I find an image on a web page I want to process in Pixelmator I can drag it directly from the web page to Pixelmator's icon and it will open. Why can't I do that with AP?

 

Also, I would just like to formally ask for the one step crop feature I mentioned in a previous comment. That is: use crop tool, choose specific pixel dimensions, drag rectangle around content required, also rotate as necessary, commit. Image inside selection is resized (might involve increasing or decreasing) and cropped to size specified. I know this isn't a traditional crop but it is very useful. If the user wants a traditional crop (no resampling) they just don't resize the drop rectangle.

 

I know Pixelmator is a more basic program than AP but there are some UI elements in there you guys should have a look at! Thanks.

[cropping issues]

Then you are talking about doing something more than just cropping the document.

Technically, yes. It's just the way the other two programs I use work and it is extremely convenient. I understand what cropping is technically. I just think we shouldn't sacrifice functionality for purity.

[cropping issues]

When you say "also scales content" do you mean resampling the content in the crop box to some new pixel dimensions?

Yes.

[cropping issues]

Yes, dimensions update. In PS dimensions stay the same and crop also scales content, something that is not doable in AP.

Yes, someone understands. That is the feature I need.

[cropping issues]

Thanks for the comment, R C-R. A common action I use image editing apps for is to crop an image to certain pixel dimensions, then save the image or copy it to another location. The original image is usually bigger (but might be smaller) than the pixel dimensions I need. In Pixelmator and Photoshop I specify the pixel dimensions, drag the crop rectangle around the area of the image I want, and commit. That's it (to be fair, in Pixelmator I need to resize the canvas because the crop numbers are for aspect ratio, not absolute size). How would I do the same thing in AP, remembering that this is something I do a lot and would like to do it in the minimum number of steps.

[cropping issues]

Just started using AP. Have used Photoshop and Pixelmator since forever so I thought I knew what I was doing. I want to do something simple and I'm so confused! All I want to do is crop an image down to particular pixel dimensions, then copy the resulting image and place it somewhere else. Photoshop: simple. Pixelmator: simple. AP: ?

 

I choose crop, absolute dimensions, 256 x 256 pixels, I drag the corners of the crop area and they resize to the wrong size. Why? Anyway, I have the wrong size now but I Commit and continue. I use Select All and Copy and get the whole image. Why? I use the marquee tool and select part of the image, then cut. The whole image is cut. Why? I choose Flatten, select all, copy and that, finally works.

 

This program looks great but either it works very differently than every other program on the Mac, it's buggy, or I'm a bit thick. Which is it? I'll have to go back to Pixelmator for now, but thanks for any help you can provide.