Combining Blueprints

[Jim Slade]

On the Mac I use Photoshop primarily for 

1. Viewing blueprints 

2. Combining microfilm images into a single blueprint.

For the first I used to be able to use Preview but I "upgraded" the operating system and Preview no longer will display large images. 64,000 x 6,000.

For the second, I have a large number of microfilm images of blueprints. A single blueprint typically spans 2–4 microfilm images. However, they appear to have used different camera settings frequently for the same blueprint.

I would like to ditch all my adobe software. I would like to know whether Affinity Photo can handle this kind of thing.

[Jim Slade]

I guess the answer is NO.

[Gear maker]

Jim, I haven't worked with blueprints in AP or AD.  To me a blueprint is a blue sheet with white lines.  I assume this has been photographically converted to a file of some kind.  If the file is something like a png or jpg there should be no problem viewing them.  If the file is something special, like a dwg or dxf then it might not.  You would have to attach an example for us to offer more info.  As far as combining the prints, I guess it would depend on how you were combining them.  If you want to place one next to the other I doubt that would be an issue.  If you want to overlay one on top of another you'd have to change the background into something transparent, if it wasn't already.  Again without seeing what you have I can only make guesses.  If you need to zoom into microfilm I think you'd be happy with the zoom range of in the 2,000,000 range for Affinity.  If the resolution of the file will have the detail AD or AP should be able to pull it out better than PS did.  There are free trail downloads available that will help make your decision.

[Alfred]

5 hours ago, Gear maker said:

There are free trail downloads available that will help make your decision.

https://affin.co/designertrial

https://affin.co/phototrial

The trials are time-limited but have all features enabled. Please note that the ten-day trial clock runs continuously from the moment you first launch the app, so unless you have lots of time on your hands I strongly recommend that you try one app after the other rather than both at the same time. Thanks to the shared file format, you will be able to use the second one to open files saved from the first one.

[lacerto]

(...)

[Jim Slade]

[Jim Slade]

The previous contains an example. The originals are blueprints but they microfilm is grayscale. In some cases the person doing the film to digital transfer inverts them (as here). In other cases they do not. The area outside the actual blueprint can be trimmed away.

[firstdefence]

So something like this...

Blueprint.afphoto Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel. 

[thomaso]

Any idea why the AP feature "Panorama" doesn't work here but appears to "just" ignore the first image entirely?
What a pity, since it seems to work very charming for image 2 + 3, and in just a second.

firstdefence's Blueprint.afphoto versus AP's panorama:

When I try with img 1 + 2 only then AP outputs an error:

[thomaso]

Aha, possibly img 1 is too short, has too few overlapping? – After copying a bit of img 2 to the end of img 1 then AP panorama works nicely.
For a good result in this case you would improve this merge of 1 + 2 manually, and start the AP stiching of the panorama afterwards.

[Wosven]

But panorama tend to modify images to fit them together, I wouldn't do this on something that need to be precise, unless checking by importing the original and verifying nothing was curved to adapt and fit.

[Jim Slade]

Thanks for the help. I ordered the product to try to make it work myself.

[thomaso]

57 minutes ago, Wosven said:

But panorama tend to modify images to fit them together, I wouldn't do this on something that need to be precise, unless checking by importing the original and verifying nothing was curved to adapt and fit.

Since the images are flat scans no curving must happen in AP's panorama mode. A curving maybe necessary to force a straight horizontal in case images are originally bend or skewed.  But these images show very obviously straight horizontal lines on top and bottom. In the stitched result I had problems to detect were img 2 + 3 got merged (while there is still a visible edge of different brightness in the manual layout sample above, see the screenshot with both in comparison).

[Alfred]

53 minutes ago, Jim Slade said:

Thanks for the help. I ordered the product to try to make it work myself.

I’m a little surprised that you didn’t opt for the trial version in the first instance, but if you purchased from the Affinity Store you’re covered by a 14-day money back guarantee.

On 7/17/2020 at 6:27 AM, Alfred said:

https://affin.co/designertrial

https://affin.co/phototrial

The trials are time-limited but have all features enabled. Please note that the ten-day trial clock runs continuously from the moment you first launch the app, so unless you have lots of time on your hands I strongly recommend that you try one app after the other rather than both at the same time. Thanks to the shared file format, you will be able to use the second one to open files saved from the first one.

 

[firstdefence]

Affinity is for life, not just summer 😉

[Wosven]

15 hours ago, thomaso said:

Since the images are flat scans no curving must happen in AP's panorama mode. A curving maybe necessary to force a straight horizontal in case images are originally bend or skewed.  But these images show very obviously straight horizontal lines on top and bottom. In the stitched result I had problems to detect were img 2 + 3 got merged (while there is still a visible edge of different brightness in the manual layout sample above, see the screenshot with both in comparison).

It seems the pics have different settings, perhaps different proportions. If you never tested panorama with landscapes, to see how the can be bend to fit, it's probable you didn't saw this.

But I would take care with blueprints that should keep exact and same proportions to display exact values.

[Jim Slade]

FWIW, I have found that affinity does a MUCH better job at this than Photoshop.

One of the issues with Photoshop is that it will not merge blueprints that are inverted. Affinity has no problem with that.

The reason I am not going to get in on Adobe's subscription scam is that it gives them zero incentive to improve the product.

The same goes for M$ Word  but at least they have a buy option. Word has the same problems it has had for 30 years (e.g. poor style management, poor justification) yet M$ just changes the UI  without substantial improvements. It would be even worse under a subscription model.