The Windows version needs more love

[Frozen Death Knight]

A few days ago I downloaded the very generous 90-day trial (Thanks, Serif!) for Affinity on Mac, since I happened to own a Macbook Air and not a PC laptop. After trying it for a few days I can honestly say that I am a bit envious by what Mac users get to enjoy. I am not talking about the lack of GPU acceleration on Windows (although I really want it, my Mac doesn't support Metal so I can't try that as of now), but little annoyances that are present on the Windows version which are completely absent on Mac. Here's a list of stuff I have found thus far:

- Mac remembers which brush category you had opened last session after closing Affinity. On Windows I have to scroll down to open my customised brush category every time I open Affinity, which is at the bottom of the pile because you can't change the order of your categories, thus wasting time for no reason.

- Mac remembers what folders were opened and closed when you close down a project and open it up again. On Windows all folders are closed when I do the same, thus disorienting me when I have a larger project with tons of layers.

- Mac has far better mouse shortcuts than Windows for changing stuff like brush size and more, which are easier to use with tablets. I.e. the Lasso tool allows you to add to your selection by holding down ctrl and L click, while on Windows you need to hold down R click and L click. Ctrl+alt+R click on Mac to change brush size is pretty comfortable and I just don't understand why Windows has to be different for the sake of it.

- Mac remembers the pen pressure from the previous stroke when connecting dots for straight lines by pressing shift and your pen on the tablet. On Windows you always get 0% pen pressure at the beginning of each line regardless of how hard you press your pen on your tablet, leading to this:

These issues are some that I have managed to find thus far after using the Mac version for a short while. Are there any other differences that Mac has that Windows hasn't which I haven't found yet? Please post them here so that the devs can hopefully address them! : )

[walt.farrell]

At least one of those (better shortcuts for changing brush size) is because Mac has more modifier keys available than Windows. Mac has Cmd, Opt/Alt (I think), and Ctrl. All of them can be used when forming shortcuts.

Windows has only Ctrl and Alt, and Serif therefore ended up having to use multiple mouse buttons in forming some of the shortcuts.

[Frozen Death Knight]

11 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

At least one of those (better shortcuts for changing brush size) is because Mac has more modifier keys available than Windows. Mac has Cmd, Opt/Alt (I think), and Ctrl. All of them can be used when forming shortcuts.

Windows has only Ctrl and Alt, and Serif therefore ended up having to use multiple mouse buttons in forming some of the shortcuts.

But that explanation doesn't hold water when it comes to ctrl, alt, and shift specific commands that are used on Mac, yet they are different on Windows. Both OS:s have those keys so they should be the same, yet they aren't. Heck, Photoshop has alt+R click for changing brush size/hardness on Windows which is pretty close to ctrl+alt+R click, so don't tell me it can't be done for Windows.

Besides, the cmd key is barely used by any of the tools I have tried on Mac. It is primarily used for some menu shortcuts like undo/redo (cmd+z/cmd+shift+z), so the Mac version still isn't utilising all the available modifiers for the tools to warrant the differences between each OS.

[Alfred]

42 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

But that explanation doesn't hold water when it comes to ctrl, alt, and shift specific commands that are used on Mac, yet they are different on Windows. Both OS:s have those keys so they should be the same, yet they aren't.

The Affinity apps aren’t the only ones where Ctrl on Windows is Cmd on a Mac. As @walt.farrell has indicated, Windows lacks a direct equivalent to the Mac Ctrl key, so an awkward alternative has to be provided; for what little it’s worth, I’m not convinced that RMB+LMB is the best choice!

[walt.farrell]

40 minutes ago, Alfred said:

I’m not convinced that RMB+LMB is the best choice!

It's definitely a bad choice for those of us using laptops with a trackpad that can't do both RMB and LMB at the same time

[Alfred]

32 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It's definitely a bad choice for those of us using laptops with a trackpad that can't do both RMB and LMB at the same time

Sadly, I count myself as one of those. The current shortcuts are unusable on my laptop unless I have my trackball attached.

[Frozen Death Knight]

Anyway, it would be nice if you guys talked about the other things on that list that Windows are missing compared to Mac. Mouse shortcuts was just one area that I wanted to discuss. An important one, but just one point nonetheless. Have you found anything else I forgot to mention?

[walt.farrell]

I don't have a Mac, so I can't make any comparisons based on personal experience.

But I will point out that Windows has some functions that Mac doesn't. We have Floating windows (Mac has only Separated Mode, which Windows does not have). And Windows users can dock two columns of studio panels on each side of the workspace if we want to. Mac users can dock only 1, I believe.

[petr0m]

For me the shift-click for staight line function is completely useless when drawing on a tablet due to the described issue of not remembering the pen pressure when connecting the points. It would be great if the pen pressure of the line equals the pressure of the second shift-pen click to create the line.

Overall I would really want an option where you can toggle the bahaviour of the shift-click to draw straight lines to something where you can simply hold down shift and drag a straight line. With this you can adjust the lenght and angle as long as you dont release the stroke. This variant could also support measuring the pressure along the line to draw the line after release with the recorded pressure level variation. That would make it very useful when drawing with a tablet.