Bard Judith

To be fair, it's not just PS that uses this move mechanic: images in PowerPoint, and Google Slides, even Word! And I don't often want to use an entire image on its own separate layer - I want to be able to select any part of an image and move it, resize it, rotate it, and warp it, all in one easy hold-and-drag option. (Have we not been complaining about perspective warp for ...years?) Everyone's got a different dealbreaker; guess this is mine. ;/

I'm a long-time PS user, a graphic artist and designer, and the missing resize handles on the marquee function is the BIGGEST frustration for me. It's so simple and intuitive to select an object or part of an image either in rectangle, oval, or freehand, and then simply grab a handle and resize it. Why, oh, why, has Affinity not implemented this function after years of folks asking for it? I have just gotten the trial versions of all three programs, and would gladly shell out for all three IF the workflow was more intuitive.

I'm a graphic artist who has worked with PS in its various iterations for years. Unhappy about paying thirty bucks a month for a professional subscription with a lot more bells and whistles than I actually wind up using, and seeing a lot of buzz about Affinity as a genuine alternative. (No, thank you, Gimp and Corel, I'm too old a dog to learn your new tricks...) So, I'm checking out Affinity on the ten-day trial right now. At first glance I'm impressed. At second, actually loading and playing inside the program, it seems to have a simple workflow with all the shortcuts and quickbuttons I'm used to, enhancing the learning curve... BUT immediately upon importing a project and trying to work with it as I would normally, I notice some aspects missing that I'd consider absolute essentials for a minimum standard of design and editing, and some peculiar responses that feel like glitches. a) There is no easy way to merge or delete layers en masse - ridiculous. The 'merge visible' or 'delete hidden' control is crucial for getting through blends quickly and efficiently.b) Where is my clone brush? One hard-edge, one soft-edge: so vital for making basic repairs to any pixel-based image. c) copying over multiple layers from one project to another seems to produce uneven results, edges misaligned or showing up in strange ways. C&P should be exact, not approximate.d) Switching from one tool to another should not also switch you into a different layer. You can really foul up your project by drawing or erasing on the wrong layer, especially if it already contains pixels which you are 'painting over' or images you are enhancing. At the very minimum, you lose the work you've done if you've, say, traced directly on your reference image rather than the layer above it, as a simple example.e) This might be me missing something, but the 'flood fill' doesn't seem to have an opacity control with it, just a boundary sensitivity. I tried adjusting it in the colour panel on the right with no results, and then tried 'fill opacity' under the Effects tab, which made my entire original image opaquing, but had no effect on the actual level of fill. Sometime you just want a subtle blush of colour added to an object, not the crude spraycan of MS Paint. (The 'smudge' also has a very different feel, like trying to use my fist instead of my finger to blend. Maybe I just need to fiddle with settings and get used to it.) If I could get a clone brush and a layer merge, I'd pay the fifty bucks for this program so fast Adobe wouldn't see my dust. Can someone give me some workarounds, or are there pro solutions coming to these issues? With appreciation - Bard Judith (http://graphictional.weebly.com)

I'm a graphic artist who has worked with PS in its various iterations for years. Unhappy about paying thirty bucks a month for a professional subscription and checking out Affinity on the ten-day trial right now. At first glance I'm impressed. At second, actually loading and playing inside the program, it seems to have a simple workflow with all the shortcuts and quickbuttons I'm used to, enhancing the learning curve... BUT immediately upon importing a project and trying to work with it as I would normally, I notice some aspects missing that I'd consider absolute essentials for a 'minimum standard', as Norway4T says above, and some peculiar responses that feel like glitches. a) There is no easy way to merge or delete layers en masse - ridiculous. The 'merge visible' or 'delete hidden' control is crucial for getting through blends quickly and efficiently. b) Where is my clone brush? One hard-edge, one soft-edge: so vital for making basic repairs to any pixel-based image. c) copying over multiple layers from one project to another seems to produce uneven results, edges misaligned or showing up in strange ways. C&P should be exact, not approximate. d) Switching from one tool to another should not also switch you into a different layer. You can really foul up your project by drawing or erasing on the wrong layer, especially if it already contains pixels which you are 'painting over' or images you are enhancing. At the very minimum, you lose the work you've done if you've, say, traced directly on your reference image rather than the layer above it, as a simple example. e) This might be me missing something, but the 'flood fill' doesn't seem to have an opacity control with it, just a boundary sensitivity. I tried adjusting it in the colour panel on the right with no results, and then tried 'fill opacity' under the Effects tabe, which made my entire original image opaquing, but had no effect on the actual level of fill. Sometime you just want a subtle blush of colour added to an object, not the crude spraycan of MS Paint. Can someone give me some workarounds, or are there pro solutions coming to these issues? With appreciation - Bard