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Straighten tool behavior


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Hi,

I'm using A LOT the straighten tool and I found the way it was implemented in Affinity Photo just confusing / not practical.

Actually the way this tool works is that I need to hold click and then drag to make my leveled line and then when I release click, the straightening is applied.

This might seems to be a good approach when we need to straighten an image with a low zoom level, but the problem is when we need to zoom in to get extra precision.

I didn't find a way the change the behavior of the too such has when I make my leveling line and then release the mouse click, I can still move the 2 points of my leveling line so I can put the points with pixel precision. Maybe there is an option somewhere that I completely missed to make this works like this...

 

thanks for taking the time to read this post

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1 minute ago, Fritz_H said:

my work-around:
zoom in to the start of the line, click-hold, wheel-zoom far out until the whole image is shown, move mouse-pointer to end-of-line area, wheel-zoom in, release mouse-button.

Fritz

Magic Mouse / trackpad user here.

no such sorcery things as a wheel-zoom

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Yes I know the Apple Magic Mouse suck. Can we move on?

I don’t want to use another mouse, and I’m more often using the trackpad anyway so this workaround is really a nogo for me.

thanks you very much for your help but if we need to make such finger gymnastics to use the this tool this just demonstrates the poor ergonomics implementation.

 

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No need to be angry/aggressive; I did not say that your mouse sucks, I was just surprised: high costs, low performance?

If you read my posts you will see that I have already suggested to Serif to have their products evaluated by usability-experts.

In your case I do not classify it as a usability-issue since there is an easy way (far from "finger gymnastics" ;-)   )  - perhaps it´s even the way Serif intended it to be done..?
but I agree with you: an alternative/additional levelling-method where the users sets 2 Points would be less...  device-dependent.

idea: Wouldn´t it be possible to combine Mouse and Trackpad by using the mouse for clicking and the Trackpad for zooming in and out?

kind regards
Fritz

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3 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

 

No need to be angry/aggressive

 

Sorry I just thought that I was reading  the typical : “you are using it wrong / just buy a new one” vibe that all Apple users are used to when something doesn’t work as expected.

3 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

If you read my posts

sorry but I won’t read all user old posts when I’m making a feedback I hope you will understand. I just made a quick search to see if my problem was already reported.
 

3 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

I did not say that your mouse sucks,

You are right ; I did. The Magic Mouse suck and this is a fact (at least the version with AA batteries is less a pain that this new magic version that need to  be charging upside down) I only use it on my iMac because it was shipped with it.

but I’m mostly using my MacBook and the trackpad is really a better input device for all my workflow with all the gestures it’s supporting. (Except for Affinity photo)

3 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

high costs, low performance?
 

Yes it’s pretty much a common thing with Apple hardware. But I’m used to it and I’m working with a lot of Apple only software so I can’t switch OS easily.

3 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

perhaps it´s even the way Serif intended it to be done..?

Well I hope not, since this software is supposed to be a “better Photoshop for Mac” and don’t implement they features thinking that Apple user will use they software using Apple hardware and Apple accessories...

talking about photoshop, if I remember correctly the straightening tool is perfectly usable using low level zoom.

3 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

far from "finger gymnastics" ;-)

To be honest I didn’t even try with my Magic Mouse. Since I’m mostly a trackpad user I just pictured in my mind trying to hold the click while making the pinch to zoom out / pan / zoom in gestures. Yes this is finger gymnastics and if Serif thought that it was an “Ok user experience” Well I think I’ll have to live with it. But I’m really interested if other user was actually facing the same issue, and how often they use this tool. Maybe I’m just crazy, but since I’m straightening a lot of technical hand drawing, I need the horizontal lines to be perfectly horizontal. I just can’t eyes ball it with a global zoom.  

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26 minutes ago, dezmob said:

I just pictured in my mind trying to hold the click while making the pinch to zoom out / pan / zoom in gestures. Yes this is finger gymnastics and if Serif thought that it was an “Ok user experience” Well I think I’ll have to live with it. But I’m really interested if other user was actually facing the same issue, and how often they use this tool. Maybe I’m just crazy, but since I’m straightening a lot of technical hand drawing, I need the horizontal lines to be perfectly horizontal. I just can’t eyes ball it with a global zoom.  

Hi dezmob, I use the trackpad, I find it very easy, I zoom in and select while zoomed in. The software does a very good job of straightening horizontally or vertically from a smallish selection. I have not done any straightening on technical drawings though.

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25 minutes ago, Murfee said:

Hi dezmob, I use the trackpad, I find it very easy, I zoom in and select while zoomed in. The software does a very good job of straightening horizontally or vertically from a smallish selection. I have not done any straightening on technical drawings though.

Hi, just to be clear: I’m not having trouble with “zooming in and using the tool on a small section of my image”

Im having trouble while I need to place the second point of the leveling line when the targeted pixel isn’t in the viewport.

 

the straightening tool is validating your input when you releasing the mouse click which this doesn’t make any sens for me. It’s like having the cropping tool cropping your selection when you release the mouse button. It’s OK for a global crop but for extra precision you need to zoom in, eventually move a bit the cropping area and THEN apply the cropping effect.

 

I don’t really see the point having this particular behavior for the straightening tool just to save a click if I loose the ability to get extra precision when I really need it.

25 minutes ago, Murfee said:

The software does a very good job of straightening horizontally or vertically from a smallish selection.

maybe some dev can correct me if I’m wrong but the software doesn’t put any extra computing / IA stuff while straightening the image. It’s just depends on your leveling line and rotate the image accordingly.

so if your 2 points aren’t pixel perfectly placed where they need to be you won’t get a perfectly straightened image. I can imagine this isn’t something really critical for photo editing, but for my use case this is really important. Maybe Affinity Software isn’t the right tool for me then.

 

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Perhaps the levelling-tool will be enhanced one day. In the meantime you can work-around ... if you want. Draw a rectangle from where you want to start with the transform origin in the upper left corner. Make the rectangle longer up to the second point. Then rotate the rectangle, note the degree in the Transform panel and use this value to rotate the layer. As said, a work-around to an imperfection. ;)

------
Windows 10 | i5-8500 CPU | Intel UHD 630 Graphics | 32 GB RAM | Latest Retail and Beta versions of complete Affinity range installed

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39 minutes ago, Joachim_L said:

Perhaps the levelling-tool will be enhanced one day. In the meantime you can work-around ... if you want. Draw a rectangle from where you want to start with the transform origin in the upper left corner. Make the rectangle longer up to the second point. Then rotate the rectangle, note the degree in the Transform panel and use this value to rotate the layer. As said, a work-around to an imperfection. ;)

Thanks you for your workaround.

I’m actually using this exact method already.

i was just tired with all those extra steps and decided to finally write a feedback request to hopefully have a small option to disable the “auto apply” nature of this tool and make it similar to the straightening tool from Photoshop.
 

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  • 1 year later...
7fef3cae5d0863da64b28c023bf6ea84?size=40

Mhoskins1

Mar 4, 2021, 1:33 PM PST

When I attempt to 'Straighten' , in Photo,
I position the mouse over a point,
depress the (left) mouse key and the 'level' line disappears and becomes a crop rectangle.
If I hold the 'Ctrl" key while doing this the photo is leveled!
Is this correct?

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On 2/23/2020 at 11:00 AM, Fritz_H said:

I was just surprised: high costs, low performance?

On the flip side, the Magic Mouse does support horizontal scrolling (the gesture to scroll works in all directions), which most "standard" mice with wheels do not.

So it is something of a tradeoff, and the workaround being discussed here is not exactly a "normal" use case.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 5 months later...
On 3/4/2021 at 5:21 PM, MichaelHoskins said:
7fef3cae5d0863da64b28c023bf6ea84?size=40

Mhoskins1

Mar 4, 2021, 1:33 PM PST

When I attempt to 'Straighten' , in Photo,
I position the mouse over a point,
depress the (left) mouse key and the 'level' line disappears and becomes a crop rectangle.
If I hold the 'Ctrl" key while doing this the photo is leveled!
Is this correct?

I haven’t used the hold “Ctrl” key. But I will. I’m finding that once I get the level line I have no control over how much the image moves. The straighten tool in Windows 11 image viewer even works better. I’m hoping that your control key tip is something I’ve missed. 

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