PurpleCrayon

Well, the whole point in having a DAM is that it’s image organizer and non-destructive editor in one. I use Affinity Photo as a Photoshop replacement as I prefer editing photos on iPad instead of pc. I use it for heavyweight editing, and since I don’t do that kind of editing too often I don’t mind just making a copy of an image and working on it. Lightroom I use *a lot*, so having everything organized with multiple versions of some images, easy editing of basic (and not so basic) parameters... you just can’t go back to single-shot style once you try it.

iOS has finally made it possible for direct connection of wired hard drives, no need to struggle with wireless solutions anymore, and this pretty much makes all those WD drives etc obsolete. Large files transfer a lot faster over via a wired connection. Now it is possible to transfer files from SD card to your hard drive using any powered usb hub, and you don’t need to bring your laptop just to do this simple operation. But what if you want to *process* files? Single-shot processing that Affinity Photo offers is not an option for me. It replaced Photoshop for me, but vast majority of time I use Lightroom on PC because it’s a full DAM solution. I don’t use clouds as I have TB’s of data. I will not pay for any services either. I need a solution that is 100% wired.On PC I have this workflow with Lightroom, but that takes iPad out of the equation, and I really want it to be part of the workflow. I know Affinity is working/considering making a DAM, and it’ll most likely have a cloud of some sort. But will it have an option of being 100% wired, non-cloud, and non-subscription, for people like me? I know there are many who would want this and would instantly purchase such package. If they make a cloud-only sync, well, it might win over some Lightroom users, but with so many edited photos in our databases, I think it would be a huge hassle. Lightroom on PC is already nearly perfect, it does everything I need and it’s UI is great. If I had to pay subscription (which I never will) I would rather pay for Adobe. If Affinity made a *wired* solution to bridge iPad and PC, they would be the only company on the market with such capability. Whatever is the percentage of people looking for this, they would get them ALL. It would be a guaranteed success. And those wishing cloud support could sign up for subscription. The more people using Affinity, the faster its market share will grow. Especially with iOS 13, it’s only a matter of time till someone does this. Would be nice if it were Affinity, as I think the software is well designed.

Thanks! Appreciate it! Feel free to delete “has a bug, plus” portion from the original post title, so as not to confuse the reader (couldn’t find a way to do it myself).

@GabrielM that’s not a realistic example, plus you’re using a screen capture. There is no finger in the screen capture obstructing the view. Just load up any photo or a painting and try to sample the color with a finger. You can take a photo of your finger on the iPad same way I did if you believe that my example was misleading somehow. But I’m sure you will get the same result as I. A finger covers too much of an area underneath it, so a person doesn’t know where exactly he’s pointing. And the preview zooms in too much to be able to tell where exactly you are. This makes it imprecise. Is it good enough for some people? Perhaps. The fact remains - Pencil is a much more precise tool just as for painting, so too for color picking.

@DM1 It’s not clear from the video that it’s imprecise because the video doesn’t show the finger obscuring the location. See the image I’ve attached where there are three bells of same size, and I’m using my pinky to select the color from one of them. It’s unclear as to the location where the color is being sampled from because the pinky is covering the entire bell. I think it’s common sense that pointing at a particular location with the Pencil tip and getting a zoom preview circle of where the Pencil tip is ponting, would be the most precise way, wouldn’t you agree?

Hi Gabriel, after checking a few times, turns out what I mentioned above to be a bug is not a bug at all, it’s another type of functionality. It makes the current color brighter/darker. So no bug, user error But regarding the color picker, do you know if it’s planned to make it simpler? I understand how it might have been not optimal previously (though I got along with it) For now, picking color with finger is too imprecise. And with Pencil too many taps. Would it be possible to implement a better way with the Pencil? One idea I have is, some sort of always visible button that when you tap, Pencil turns into the color picker. I think everyone who uses Affinity Photo for painting would greatly appreciate this. It would improve workflow immensely!

Hi Gabe, Thank you for the reply. I forgot to mention that tap and hold method you mentioned. Basically all these methods except #3 I referenced in the picture involve using the finger. I’d rather use the Pencil as even with zoom, it’s hard to sample from exact place. Pencil is a much better/precise tool. Tap and hold to sample was possible in previous versions, but was removed. Not sure about the reasons, but would it be possible to have a Sample toggle icon somewhere (always visible) that instantly activates the Pencil as a sampler? Basically in the picture, the dropper from way #3, could you take it out and place it on the always-visible menu? Oh, and there it doesn’t behave as the finger - where the center under the finger is shown in the zoom preview, which is the much preferred way of course. So please make the tip of the Pencil be what’s actually sampled (and previewed in zoom circle) In other words, be able to just tap something once, sample color with a Pencil, upon releasing the Pencil color is picked, and you continue painting, without going into menus and breaking the workflow. This way the app would be perfect, as with painting it’s all about the quick workflow. Really love Affinity Photo and always recommend it for painting! Thanks! P.S. The (possible) bug I mentioned with the way #2 is insignificant because it uses finger, and the fourth way you mentioned already does this better.

Hi, I use Affinity Photo for painting mainly, so I need to pick a color from the canvas all the time. With current version (1.6.12) there’s no easy reliable way to just keep picking color as you paint. There should be a button you tap and then select (zoomed) with the Pencil the color. Now there are only ways through going into the menu (or with a finger but that’s not reliable and without zoom). There are 3 ways I know of picking colors (labeled in the attached photo). #3 is the simplest of the 3, but still isn’t good enough. In the brush mode, tapping on the color (from bottom pannel), pops up the color wheel which blocks central part of the screen, now tapping and dragging the dropper icon to pick the color but half the screen is obstructed. And why the extra taps? The #2 way (labeled in the photo) seems most promising, but it doesn’t have zoom, and doesn’t work reliably because there’s a bug that makes it just stop functioning after using it 2 or 3 times. Could you please fix this way and give it a zoom? We really need a quick way to pick colors! Thank you!

Sorry, not sure about this.

We’re talking about the same thing right? 1) pick brush A, change the Width to a certain value, 10 for example. 2) pick brush B, change its width to 20 3) go back to A, it should say 10, and if you go to B, it should say 20 It doesn’t work this way for you? Make sure you got latest version of Affinity. I don’t see any options to on/off this (doesn’t make sense to Off it anyway) so would be very strange if it just doesn’t work.

@iambia You can’t disable 2 finger undo, 3-finger redo I believe. If you’re using iPad with a Pencil it’s a very, very useful feature! You moght want to go to Preferences/Tools and enable Touch for gestures only. This will make it so you can’t paint with fingers. I know it doesn’t address your question, but I believe your experience with this option will improve. Undo is such a frequent function that having it in the menu (as it were before this update) pretty much made me not use the app at all. 2/3 finger tap is pretty much the standard nowadays, because it makes the workflow sooo smooth. Regarding the 2nd question, what do you mean exactly? If you switch between brushes, the settings of each brush are retained (thickness opacity etc), also super important feature. It doesn’t work this way for you?

Excellent update!! Brushes keep their settings and undo/redo 2/3 finger tap are now part of this truly amazing app! Thanks for listening

Awesome! That’s great news!! Do you know if it would be possible for brushes to keep their settings when you switch from one brush to another?

Great to know it’s coming!! I was happy to see it in the Designer! Love both apps. Now if the brushes in Affinity Photo would save states between switches, that would make the app perfect! When you switch between brushes they reset to some default settings. So if you’re working on something tiny and want to use more than one brush you’ll always have to resize it down. Pretty inconvenient, and there’s no advantage in having it this way. I guess a complex app like this is bound to have imperfections during initial launch. But once these two things are in, the AF would be magical to use!

Yes, but that’s not the same thing as what I was saying. I was saying tap - undo, tap - redo, directly without menus. You see, painting involves making hundreds or even thousands of strokes per painting. This highly increases the chances of errors (or rather imperfections) in contrast with photo editing where for occasional error one can go through the menus. For this reason, undo/redo are one of the most widely used functions by artists, requiring quickest access. It would be unlikely to find digital artists who would disagree with this.