kirk23

Alt+wheel rotates canvas

APhoto does it correct way in rgb/32 mode but it should be fixed for any bit depth for sure.

The difference is that file explorers in modern OSs are ancient and inconvenient as hell . I use DAM soft with thumbnails loading in a fraction of second and even if file explorers would be ok it still takes few extra clicks and annoying. BTW Xara not just allows to drop and replace a single image but also all same images if you want with Shift keeping all transforms intact . It still way more convenient than going to Resource manager and update/replace all linked files.

Xara had such a nice option. drag$drop replacing an image instead out going to open file and looking trough the list

For videocards supporting ray tracing maybe . Maybe an extension for current lighting live filter. Would be something to beat Photoshop and be a real useful tool vs useless AI toys Photoshop is heading for.

The one reading beneath grayscale depth like displace one . Would be super helpful. As well as depth to normal map. A proper one, not that lighting filter trick that does in wrong gamma and with edge artifacts . normal map to curvature . Would be nice if live filters could read more than just a single intensity parameter from beneath but rather 4 input parameters from RGBA/ Like vector /direction and intensity at the same time from different RGBA channels.

it's very tiresome to do it one by one

Working in cloud you have to buy space for is a big disadvantage imo. And Lightroom Classic is worth looking for because of a single reason : quick RAW processing. But as a DAM it has much to desire really.

I think it just have to be live filter working similar way pattern preview does in Photoshop

Would be nice to have a kind of gizmo to select several gradient nodes at once and then move and scale them in sync. Also after selecting two or more nodes at once I'd love to have same color wheel were I could shift hue , intensity and saturation all selected nodes at once while maintaining their initial hue position and in another slider make it more or less apart from each other on the wheel . Would be best gradient editor I ever seen with those improvements and Gradient map is basic and one of the most important things in image editing. The whole gradient interface could be bigger too. Also what with "save presset" . I saved one and how could I load it back?

I'd love to see "pattern" live filter we could apply to a group instead of rasterizing each layer involved and do "new pattern layer from selection" I love how it works in Phototshop currently in a non-destructive manner but having it as live filter would be even better + a checkbox to make repeating with a document frame rather than an object one. Or just make Affine filter live please.

I loved ACDSee a lot around 2000 but then switched to IMatch . It was lack of features I need like being able to read categories and keywords set directly in Photoshop. And limited search criterias. Like sorting out everything except 16 bit per channel images. Or finding images of similar color scheme. Automatic keyword suggestions. Finding images taken within 1km radius around certain point on a map or ability to sync and write geo tags into your photos from your phone geo-tracking app and so on and on. Same with Xnveiw . Another cool and free soft. So have no idea what ACDSee is able to do now. I lost track of it .

We have this in APhoto too but I mean not exactly that. I mean an ability to show and export only layers of specific color/name tag. Like Alt+click or something isolating not a single layer but rather all same tagged . A replacement for Photoshops Layer comps of a sort. ps. Perhaps just "uncheck unselected" command

Those are a great feature of Photoshop especially paired with scripts that allow to export each composition to separate file. All we need is having color tag filter or just "select same tag/name" inverted

Would be super helpful if we could link not just a layer to pixel content of another layer but rather pixel content of a group of layers. For example for having a dynamicly calculating mask. Right now for having same mask somewhere else we have to copy the whole masking group and then tediously make evry layer involved in such group be "linked" to original group. Would be nice to just have "pixel content" available to linking for groups too. Or maybe just "duplicate linked" option for a group having each layer linked too. Currently working with APhoto in a non-destructive manner is so much pain in your ass mostly because of lots of redundant clcks and layer manipulations . it quickly turns into non manageable mess with a huge and totally undecipherable layer stack. I believe such a user experience issue makes all those cool and innovative "link" features mostly invisible for users while it's a huge competitive advantage of APhoto. Would be nice also to have transform links in link panel . so much easier than using symbols containers .

I very much prefer they woudn't spread their resources over too many projects. Considering APhoto is still far from perfection and lacks lots of necessary features. The market is full of both RAW dev and DAM softs free included . I personally use RAW therapy for RAW development and iMatch as DAM for more then a decade. Paying Adobe subscription too and nothing ever made me consider switching to one of Lightrooms . Classic Lightroom is nice and process files in more quick manner but lacks a few important features comparing to RAWtherapy. Same as a DAM . It became better through years but still can't touch iMAtch . So Lightroom just collects dust on my computer. I am surprised so many people value it so high. I'd say they need to make APhoto better than Photoshop first .

Their soft is flexible enough so it's really doesn't matter . CMYK +Alpha . Five channels in each and evry layer . That's perfectly enough to do whatever you want and pass a channel pixel values through the whole stack of layers . So why invent bicycle when something well documented already exists and totally ready to work with . You just need a proper working CMYK profile that suites your needs. That profile could be done in Photoshop for example. The hole idea work just fine in Photoshop. Except it is a way less convenient for dong non-destructive stuff. So if you want impasto painting for example why buy another soft when It's already works just fine in CMYK . Just with artifacts of 8 bit per channel in APhoto. So why not having it 16 bit at least. I am sure it should be quick thing to do.

yeah, I kind of agree. Just yesterday tried to make a composition of CG rendered things in APhoto and make a few hand painted strokes here and there. It's kind of works with layer linking . erase groups as dynamic live masks and symbol containers used like those chain links in Photoshop. it does work sort of. But today, just a next day, I already struggle to figure out how the whole layer construction I did yesterday works . Too many container layers unchecked to select and too many links . Found myself thinking how much clear it could be if a half of the doc would be linked nodes . For dynamic masks maybe or inside live filters as containers.

You could use Link panel to link several adjustment layers together and edit all them in sync. ps. Perhaps it's not what you are looking for. I suggest to try levels or curves adjustment. They cover what both exposure and brightness/contrast can do in a single window.

Isn't it perfectly possible to do with "resize canvas" when you hit center dot

I am pretty sure APhoto devs have no idea what those "fill" things do to be able to recreate them . Unless Adobe have published it somewhere. I doubt it did. Still if anyone could recreate it in Aphoto layer stack as example my guess it could be helpful. I am 100% sure it could be done since whatever "magic" Photoshop do it's just math or rather simple arithmetic on pixel values . And as such it still could be done by other means . Perhaps a hefty stack of layers and "blend if" in some cases . Would be cool if we could convert/save a group/stack as our own "blending mode" , "live filter" , "style" whatever and keep in asset library .

The node system would be great indeed but if they ( APhoto devs) believe it's too alien for their user base or need extra UI programming I would survive with layers too. Their "pixel content link" in between layers is almost same flexible although still less straight forward and less read-able than nodes. I merely need ANY "live filter" constructor with "layer beneath" as a second input ( where we could link anything from other parts of a layers stack) They already have a few of such live filters. So it could be just a group of layers working in 32 bit math that we could save /convert to a live filter . Could be a first step at least. A second step >> fixed displace working same as in every other soft and a few extra basic pixel processing things . The soft looks so close to be truly great and better than Photoshop or anything . Needs just a few minor touches here and there.

Thanks for short review . It's so amazing we see so much of a variety in 3d animation area doing so much progress during past couple decades and nothing really good in 2d image area. Nothing really flexible and convenient . I personally like Corel Painter but gosh how ancient it is. A soft having a depth channel and they never cared to even make it exportable or be useful for anything beyond fake impasto effect. Could be Zbrush rival , at least 2,5d part of it. ps. Substance Designer has GP acceleration of a sort Works faster in dx11 mode. Still it's so monstrously robotic and artist-unfriendly . so lacking in ability to make subtle manual touches very necessary to make any kid of art I hate it every day

Wow. What a list. Have you tried them all? Which ones are live and developing and worth trying? So far Graphite got my attention as seam having layers too. I am using Substance Designer currently and believe a best image editing soft should be a hybrid , both layers, brushes and nodes. While Substance Disigner does have bitmap node with brushes too they are abysmal.

it still can't read " layer beneath" as displace input for a warp I described in my original post. You have to export that layer as a separate image and re-save the filter. Well. in the version I have . not the current one. Can it in current version?