Affinity Design: Resize Image (*not document*) by Percentage

[JVGen]

Hello.

I'm working on an A4 sized artboard in Affinity Design.  I've imported multiple independent images and want to resize/rescale only one of these images by a given percentage of its current size; I want to keep the x and y ratios the same (no stretching of the image in either direction).   I do know that holding command and dragging the corner of the image will resize it in the way I desire, but I am hoping to find a resize by % tool so that I can be exact.

I'm sure this can be done, but all posts/guides that mention this start off by saying go to the "Document" menu.  Well, joke's on me because I don't even have a menu called "Document" in Affinity Design...!  I have: File, Edit, Text, Layer, Select, View, Window, Help.

Simple task...where is this tool hiding (and why is it hiding?).

Thanks!

[Joachim_L]

Have a look at the Transform panel. If not visible: View -> Studio -> Transform

[MEB]

Hi JVGen,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Alternatively with the Move Tool selected click the image dimensions area after the file's name in the context toolbar. See screenshot for reference:

[JVGen]

8 minutes ago, Joachim_L said:

Have a look at the Transform panel. If not visible: View -> Studio -> Transform

Transform tools only gives me the option of adjusting the image by millimeters (or units), but not percentage of current size.

[JVGen]

6 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi JVGen,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Alternatively with the Move Tool selected click the image dimensions area after the file's name in the context toolbar. See screenshot for reference:

Thank you - this is what I was looking for!

[MEB]

Hi JVGen,
You can use math operations in the Transform panel for this to so for example to reduce an image in half just add *50% in the width or height input field (with the padlock icon closed to keep proportions). For more information on supported expressions please check this link.

[R C-R]

@JVGen, you can use expressions in the Transform panel for any kind of layer, not just placed "(Image)" ones, & in any of its six numeric fields.

In Preferences > User Interface, you can set the displayed decimal places for each unit type to anything from zero to 6, but calculations are always performed at the maximum internal precision of the app, which is >6 decimal places.

Among other things, this means you can set an object's rotation to values you could not enter directly, like to 360/11. Combined with Power Duplicate, this makes it very easy to create radially symmetric designs, like in this 11 point symmetry.afdesign example. The history is included so you can see how it was made.

[lacerto]

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[R C-R]

6 hours ago, Lagarto said:

In this context I find it odd that whole numbers are not shown with the specified accuracy (this has most probably been discussed thoroughly on the forum, but I had not paid attention to this before reading this topic).

The numbers are shown with the accuracy you specify in Preferences > User Interface. What is odd about that? 

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, R C-R said:

The numbers are shown with the accuracy you specify in Preferences > User Interface. What is odd about that? 

What is odd is the default values are too small, given the consequences of, for example, having artboards that are not positioned on exact integer x/y coordinates, or do not have exact integer width or height values. The defaults for px should probably be at least 3 decimals.

[lacerto]

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[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

What is odd is the default values are too small, given the consequences of, for example, having artboards that are not positioned on exact integer x/y coordinates, or do not have exact integer width or height values.

But because the internal binary precision is substantially greater than six decimal places, even if the factory default was set to that maximum for every unit type, that would still not be large enough to ensure that all displayed positional & dimensional values actually are integer numbers.

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

It can easily fixed by using 2 or 3 decimal display accuracy for millimeters in the Preferences ...

Nope. My previous post explains why that would not fix anything.

[lacerto]

11 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Nope. My previous post explains why that would not fix anything.

This fixes it in practice. If it does not fix it "in theory", I could not care less:

a) Default 1-decimal accuracy for millimeter units used:

 

b) 3-decimal accuracy set in the Preferences (objects are the same and at same positions as in stage a):

 

 

[R C-R]

35 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

This fixes it in practice. If it does not fix it "in theory", I could not care less:

This cannot be relied on to fix it, either in theory or in practice. This is because it is entirely possible to position or size an object that differs from an integer value by less than the maximum displayable decimal precision, so for example an actual value of 1.0000002 would be displayed as 1.000000 even if the display default was 6 decimal places, 1.000 if it was 3 decimal places, & so on.

There is no way to avoid this short of somehow reducing the internal binary precision of the app to some specific decimal precision, which would be problematic for a number of reasons, like when using expressions that involve irrational numbers, or snapping objects to any document reference point that is not itself expressible as a rational number.

If you want to be certain that anything is (to the internal precision of the app) exactly as it is displayed, there is only one way to do that: enter that value in the Transform panel.

[walt.farrell]

26 minutes ago, R C-R said:

If you want to be certain that anything is (to the internal precision of the app) exactly as it is displayed, there is only one way to do that: enter that value in the Transform panel.

Or, provide some visual indicator that rounding has occurred, and the value is not exact. And, possibly, allow clicking on that indicator to force the value to the exact displayed amount.

[lacerto]

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[carl123]

7 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

It is just silly that Affinity apps by default hide that crucial information from the users amongst which they hope to see also professionals.

The Affinity apps are for hobbyists & professionals.

Professionals will check every available option (especially the default settings) and change them to reflect the precision and accuracy a professional requires from the app.

I always use 6 decimal places (for the transform panel etc) but I can see how that may be "intimidating" or unnecessary for a hobbyist or even a semi-professional. 

[lacerto]

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[R C-R]

35 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

Affinity should not assume that their hobbyist users are intimidated if they are offered meaningful accuracy for whatever they are creating.

No user, whether hobbyist or professional, should assume that any of an application's defaults are the most meaningful or most appropriate for whatever they want to create. That applies to any app, not just the Affinity ones.

[carl123]

51 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

It just saves them from some support effort when needing to explain why objects do not align, or why they get blurred when rendered, etc.

I've seen users that have their decimal places set to 3 still raise support questions as to "why objects do not align, or why they get blurred when rendered, etc."

So it's not a simple case of changing the default setting in the app to (e.g.) 3 decimal places.

Users need to understand how the apps work and why a particular problem may occur and how best to prevent it from occurring or fix it when it does.

The Affinity apps also have "Force Pixel Alignment" and "Move by Whole Pixels" options which can also help to achieve pixel perfect alignment but even with those options set you can still have decimal places  occur when making your designs.

Recommending that the apps should have (e.g) 3 decimal places as the default is not a magical solution to prevent the aforementioned problems from occurring.

They will still occur and users will still raise support requests when they do.

Users that need pixel perfect designs need to understand what a 1, 3 or even 6 decimal place number is telling them about the positioning and size of their objects and how that can affect the output of those objects.

Affinity has given users the option to display up to 6 decimal places. If you are unaware of those options or simply accept the app's default settings then the "problem" lies with the user not the app. Especially so when using the app for professional work, in which a professional should know the importance of checking and setting up the app in a way that that professional can then more easily see if they have a potential problem that may occur when finally exporting their design.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, carl123 said:

Users need to understand how the apps work and why a particular problem may occur and how best to prevent it from occurring or fix it when it does.

Users also need to understand basic mathematical concepts, like that 4/3 or 7/9 or pi cannot be displayed accurately regardless of how many decimal places an app can display.

[lacerto]

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[R C-R]

18 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

Affinity is of course free to default to using counter-intuitive display accuracies.

What would you consider to be an intuitive default for an app whose internal accuracy cannot be expressed as an exact number of decimal places?

[lacerto]

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