Crop Absolute Dimensions missing?

[RuudW]

Hi,

I am new to Affinity Photo, so I got a few tutorials on Udemy. The crop tool is supposed to have the option for Absolute Dimensions.

The manual here also refers to it, but I don't seem to have that option with a fresh installation of version 1.7.3.

Has this feature changed? What am I missing?

Best regards,

Ruud

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums.
The Udemy tutorials may be for a previous version of Photo.
There’s a short discussion of the subject here https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/87391-crop-absolute-size-only-offers-ratio-not-absolute-size/ but it doesn’t say – as far as I can tell – how to use the “new” Absolute Mode.
Hopefully someone else can provide a more detailed explanation.

[walt.farrell]

The new Resample mode for the Crop Tool works as follows:

1. You specify the desired output size in the Context Toolbar (width, height, units, DPI).
2. The ratio of width to height that you've specified determines the aspect ratio of the crop box.
3. You adjust the crop box size and position to encompass the part of the image you want to keep. Your chosen aspect ratio will be maintained automatically during this operation.
4. When you press Apply Photo will resample the area within the crop box as needed, and produce an image of the size and DPI you requested.

[R C-R]

On 2/23/2020 at 7:32 AM, RuudW said:

The crop tool is supposed to have the option for Absolute Dimensions.

At least in the Mac version of AP (including the latest beta) there no longer is an Absolute Dimensions crop mode. As best as I can tell, that mode has sort of been moved into the Unconstrained crop mode, with one difference: the Units field is greyed out so it looks like you can't enter the dimensions in any units other than pixels ("px") in the context toolbar.

However, you can do that by including the units in whatever you type into the width & height fields, so for example if the width is showing "1024 px" in a document set to 72 DPI, you can replace that with "10 in" & when you tab out of that field it will be converted to "720 px."

But unless I am missing something, that cannot be saved as an 'absolute dimensions' custom preset that does not involve resampling -- in the popup submenu for the Presets, "Create Preset" will be greyed out:

Apparently, only ratios & resampled 'absolute' dimensions can be.

[RuudW]

Thanks, your answer is in line with what I kind of figured myself. Thanks for confirming.

[h_d]

In line with @walt.farrell's explanation of Resample mode, as far as I can see it works exactly the same in the most recent beta for Mac (GM 1.8.0.168).

Set your units to whatever you want, change resolution if required, specify crop dimensions, adjust your cropping rectangle and click Apply (or press enter).

The only UI element that sticks to pixels is the "Crop" indicator (under Status in my screen shot). The units in the input boxes and the Units popup remain as set by the operator.

So I reckon Resample is the new Absolute.

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, h_d said:

So I reckon Resample is the new Absolute.

But what if you want to crop without resampling? My assumption is that resample is destructive, whereas Absolute Dimensions was not.

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, R C-R said:

But what if you want to crop without resampling? My assumption is that resample is destructive, whereas Absolute Dimensions was not.

If you don't want to resample, then don't use the Resample version of the Crop Tool. Use Unconstrained.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

If you don't want to resample, then don't use the Resample version of the Crop Tool. Use Unconstrained.

But Unconstrained does not allow the document DPI to be changed, nor can a custom preset be saved in that crop mode.

[walt.farrell]

Just now, R C-R said:

But Unconstrained does not allow the document DPI to be changed, nor can a custom preset be saved in that crop mode.

True.

There is no doubt that some crop functionality was lost, and some gained, in the transition from 1.6 to 1.7. Many users were asking for the Resample mode (from what I read in the forums) and Serif provided it. I don't know why the other functions were removed.

[Trljr]

I fully agree with this topic. I personally would like the presets to be able to be saved and applied quickly into the non destructive mode as well. It can keep its current function otherwise if you want to simply resample quickly,  but in some photos I would like to be able to move the crop window around before final say and to have a quick preset available that I set for the resolution size would be extremely helpful. As it stands right now in 1.8.3.641 I can only use the presets for resamples or ratios. If you try in Unconstrained it is simply grayed out.