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Your Affinity 2020 wishlist


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27 minutes ago, TomM1 said:

I would add  the equivalent of  "Fit Image"  in Photoshop.

Which facilitates a resize to the longest dimension, either horizontal or vertical.

If I understand what you're asking for, you can already do that in Photo, via New Batch Job. Just put the desired dimension in both the width and height boxes, and make sure that the A (Preserve Aspect Ratio) box is checked.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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5 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

If I understand what you're asking for, you can already do that in Photo, via New Batch Job. Just put the desired dimension in both the width and height boxes, and make sure that the A (Preserve Aspect Ratio) box is checked.

Yes but I don't see an option to use open files. Also, if you like to sharpen after the file is resized, you then need a macro already set up.

Often the resize occurs next to last on open images after other adjustments. So I would like a Fit Image type of command at that point.

Someone here made a macro that does this but the image quality is off compared to Document>Resize Document.

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My wishlist (so far pretty small):
1) RMB on Canvas for select particular layer (like it works in Photoshop)
2) Reverse layers order button

Windows 10 | AMD R7-2700 CPU | NVIDIA RTX 2060 | 8 GB RAM. Affinity: Photo, Designer licenses.

Graphical Designer | CG Generalist.

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One more thing I've been missing for a long time: A decent preview mode for editing layer masks. Sort of like the quick mask where it's possible to show the mask as a red overlay. This is very helpful when you want to mask something and need to work exactly.

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6 hours ago, altae said:

One more thing I've been missing for a long time: A decent preview mode for editing layer masks. Sort of like the quick mask where it's possible to show the mask as a red overlay. This is very helpful when you want to mask something and need to work exactly.

Have you tried right-clicking on the mask layer thumbnail, and choosing Refine Mask?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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I had not added this to my previous list (because I thought I had probably not chosen the correct resizing algorithm). The down-scaling of images is absolute garbage in Affinity Photo. I spent three days redoing a bunch of images for a client when I realized how soft they were compared to my down-scaled Photoshop images. I'm still having to use an old version of Photoshop to do most of my work after two years of trying to make this software part of my workflow. That's it for me. You're too slow fixing your crappy software Serif. It's so frustrating to know I've wasted my time learning what I was told is professional software. At least buying it wasn't a big deal, but I do count that as a waste of money as well.

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Hello affinity team! I have one suggestion. When I draw a straight line with a brush while holding down the shift key, I don’t understand how the line will be drawn. I often have to redraw the line. Why, while holding down the shift key, do not show the path of the new stroke. This will greatly simplify the work with straight lines with a brush.

Perhaps it is not entirely clear described. I used a translator. A similar function is in gimp or paintstorm.

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On 1/29/2020 at 12:54 PM, walt.farrell said:

Have you tried right-clicking on the mask layer thumbnail, and choosing Refine Mask?

Yes but that's not what I meant. What I mean is being able to draw the mask as a red overlay (at least that's how it works in other image editors) while the image layer still shines through. The refining feature is fine for corrections but it's not practical to draw a entire masks. The closest thing to what I would like to see is in fact the Quick Mask feature but sadly with this feature the mask cannot be altered once it has been drawn. Or rather it can be altered but not as a (red) overlay anymore.

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1 hour ago, altae said:

Yes but that's not what I meant. What I mean is being able to draw the mask as a red overlay (at least that's how it works in other image editors) while the image layer still shines through. The refining feature is fine for corrections but it's not practical to draw a entire masks. The closest thing to what I would like to see is in fact the Quick Mask feature but sadly with this feature the mask cannot be altered once it has been drawn. Or rather it can be altered but not as a (red) overlay anymore.

I guess I don't understand the problem.

You can use Quick Mask to draw the mask initially. You can use Refine Mask to alter the mask (as a red overlay on the image) after you have drawn it using Quick Mask.

In that, what is missing from what you described?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Affinity is one of the most annoying programs of all time when it comes to usability with the tools as they forget settings each time.

1) NEEDS to remember tools settings - this is a non negotiable requirement for any computer program

2) Needs to remember file settings (I don't want to open .txt files in Affinity Photo), not sure why it does this

3) Hardware support on Windows

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Hi all,

I am cutting out lots of scans for importing in Blender as planes, and I am using the lasso (freehand selection) tool for that. The magnetic version of this tool works fine when the contours are very sharp and contrasted, but not so much when they're a bit blurry and half-tone. Could we please have a "tolerance" setting for this tool ?

 

Hadriscus

Edited by Hadriscus
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Make Photoshop extensions compatible. I have a wonderful plugin called Layer Saver. I can save top, bottom selected layers automatically with filename + sequence number. Example MTFLOS201-1,2,3,4,

All saved as JPG with selected quality and sizes

I can with this plugin have 150 smart vectors and auto create 100's of t-shirt designs with each colour of shirt as an image on a layers and put each smart vector on top of the t-shrts and save them to a folder. Saves months of work. I can create 1000 images in one hour.

Its a free plugin and can send it if anyone wants to have a look

https://github.com/Paul-Riggott/PS-Scripts/blob/master/Layer Saver.jsx

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On 1/31/2020 at 6:07 PM, altae said:

Because this means I have to use two different tools and as a result I get something that is way less convenient and intuitive than a simple overlay function for layer masks.

Hold alt and click on the mask's thumbnail in the layers panel. 

You can always view with what ever kind of overlay you want by clicking the button I've circled: image.thumb.png.8b21df96c624f9c10247afde4cfd610a.png

Of course AP doesn't really let you edit in this mode -- it's just for preview :/

So yeah, for now, just stick to alt clicking the layer.

As for a transparent red overlay while editing, I think it'd be somewhat handy for some people, but really not a necessity most of the time. To be honest, i'm just happy with clicking and seeing my results and painting with black when I need to erase. If I need to see exactly what my mask looks like, I just alt click it and I can edit in that mode if I need to. 

However, I do recognize that there are times where this is absolutely imperative. Say, for example, you need to see your mask in-detail (for instance, you want to make sure it's nice and sharp and accurate) while also trying to follow some shape in the image.

A workaround would be to make a new layer with red and drop the opacity of that layer some. Then make a mask of that layer and paint away on that mask. Then, you can crl + click on the thumbnail of that mask to grab a selection of it. You can use that selection however you want, including making a mask on something like a curves adjustment. You would delete the red layer and its mask afterwards.

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On 2/4/2020 at 8:28 AM, JonnyFartPants said:

Make Photoshop extensions compatible.

While Photoshop filters are already supported to some limited extent (and the Affinity team has indicated that they continue to work on improving this) other types of Photoshop "extensions" are unlikely to ever be supported due to significant differences between the design of the applications.

Rather, it is much more likely that Serif will eventually release their own SDK to develop native Affinity extensions which will need to be written specifically for the Affinity suite.

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36 minutes ago, fde101 said:

it is much more likely that Serif will eventually release their own SDK to develop native Affinity extensions which will need to be written specifically for the Affinity suite.

I hope you are right.

2017 27” iMac 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 • Radeon Pr 580 8GB • 64GB • Ventura 13.6.4.

iPad Pro (10.5-inch) • 256GB • Version 16.4

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A few:

  • Separate colour selection tool based on the system used in HSL
  • Live Apply Image (so I can go back and fix formulae)
  • Better use of multi-core processors, especially in image transformation (I've an I9 and things like Apply Image are still slow)
  • Click the 'x' in Develop Persona to kill image rather than having to use 'Cancel'. This confuses noobs and irritates the forgetful experienced.
  • Scripting to compete with Photoshop Actions
  • Plug-in 3rd party personas ability (or option to show Plugins this way)
  • Smaller .afphoto files (better compression?)
  • HSL as native colour model alternative to RGB, CMYK, etc.

Dave Straker

Cameras: Sony A7R2, RX100V

Computers: Win10: Chillblast i9 Custom + Philips 40in 4K & Benq 23in; Surface Pro 4 i5; iPad Pro 11"

Favourite word: Aha. For me and for others.

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On 12/28/2019 at 8:55 PM, AITCH said:

Users do know what they need I would have thought :)

My experience as a user and a one-time coder is indeed users often know what they want and also 'it's complicated'. The worst development approach is probably to focus first on the loudest users. Better to listen and think before saying yes. It can be good to have a stream of work delivering easy solutions, yet this should be constrained lest all you deliver is a can of little fixes without some bigger rocks to wow the crowds. In other words, listen widely and prioritise based on customer priorities and effort required. Also pursue competitor-busting innovations that customers haven't thought of yet and which will drive stepwise sales.

Check out also Kano needs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kano_model

Dave Straker

Cameras: Sony A7R2, RX100V

Computers: Win10: Chillblast i9 Custom + Philips 40in 4K & Benq 23in; Surface Pro 4 i5; iPad Pro 11"

Favourite word: Aha. For me and for others.

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Just started working with Affinity Photo and the biggest brick wall I've hit was the feathering of a vector mask with the Gaussian blur effect.

It only feathers outwards meaning I have to shrink the shape of the mask by hand over an over again as I try different feather amounts to get it to look how I want.

Feathering with Vectors as masks is something I do a lot and this seems like an easy fix (option for feather out/in/centred?) 

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