Trouble with macro

[enginestar]

I recorded a macro. It doesn't seem to work as it should do. Hoping someone can help.

I want to resize a document to 820 x 312.

The steps are:

1. Resize document to width 820 (using proportion setting - so that the height gets adjusted as well).

2. Resize the canvas to height 312, do so from the centre of the screen.

Simple?

The macro works. The problem is when I apply the macro again - it does something odd. It resizes the image somehow.

What should happen if I run the macro a second time is: nothing should happen to the image!

ALSO... I can't seem to be able to inspect the macro actions. It's just got 'Document Adjusted' or something.

ALSO... I was hoping I could export and edit a simple XML file or something - but the only export option is to export all macros all in one?

Am I doing something wrong? I'm sure I'm doing something really simple wrong.

Thanks.

 

 

[John Rostron]

8 hours ago, enginestar said:

Resize the canvas to height 312, do so from the centre of the screen.

Are you maintaining the Aspect Ratio (proportions) here?

8 hours ago, enginestar said:

The macro works. The problem is when I apply the macro again - it does something odd. It resizes the image somehow.

What dimensions does the macro resize your document to?

8 hours ago, enginestar said:

What should happen if I run the macro a second time is: nothing should happen to the image!

Are you applying the macro to the same image a second time? Or are you applying the macro to a second image?

8 hours ago, enginestar said:

I can't seem to be able to inspect the macro actions. It's just got 'Document Adjusted' or something.

Sorry, but that is all the information that Affinity Photo offers.

8 hours ago, enginestar said:

I was hoping I could export and edit a simple XML file or something - but the only export option is to export all macros all in one?

You cannot export a macro in XML format, only in .afmacro format. You export a single macro from the Macro panel. The export button is one of those on the top right.

John

[enginestar]

Yes maintaining aspect ratio.

The dimensions resized to is OK. Something else just happens - the image gets distorted. It resizes to the correct dimensions.

I'm applying the macro repeatedly on the same image. 2nd, 3rd, 4th... times nothing should happen.

It's a shame the program doesn't give detail of the instructions - maybe I've done something dumb - I could easily see in the actions list.

(Photoshop has this - you can see exact actions.)

.afmacro format - can I edit and see what's inside?

QUESTION: can you write macros outside of Affinity Photo? That would be good, then you could have precise control.

Let me know.

Thanks.

[carl123]

15 hours ago, enginestar said:

The problem is when I apply the macro again - it does something odd. It resizes the image somehow.

What should happen if I run the macro a second time is: nothing should happen to the image!

You have changed the document size when you increased the canvas height to 312px

The document is no longer the same size as when you first ran the macro hence you will get a different result every time you run the macro.

When you run the macro a second time the document now has blank space above and below the image due to the canvas resizing, this is taken into account when you repeat the resize document step every time the macro is run

[John Rostron]

I opened a largish landscape image of 5212 x 3910px

I ran the two-step macro as you described. The dimensions became 415 x 312. As expected.

I re-ran the macro on this resized image. The dimensions remained the same but the image became enlarged. Again this was what I would expect.

Same again with another application of the macro.

I then re-ran the macro on a portrait image. (the first one rotated). The dimensions became 415 x 312 as before, but the image was distorted (stretched sideways). Re-running the macro again enlarged the image and stretched it further..

Is this the same sort of behaviour that you have been observing?

I then repeated the process from scratch, but in the Resize Canvas step, I unlinked the width and height, and just set the height to 312. This gave me a 820 x 312 image as desired, but on re-applying the macro, the canvas remained the same size, but the inage got stretched vertically!

Perhaps it would help if you explained why you want to use this macro, and why you should want to apply it repeatedly.

John