Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Affinity Photo Customer Beta (1.9.0.195)


Recommended Posts

6 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Great, another annoying popup to deal with...  sure they could do that (if they want to), but I like my idea better in this case.

What exactly is annoying about it? Adding a simple checkbox like I suggested would solve the problem by not having it show up all the time for those who find it annoying yet still give the people the option to use the feature if they want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Adding a simple checkbox like I suggested would solve the problem by not having it show up all the time yet still give people who want the option to use the feature.

True, and I am not opposed to options, but the equivalent of turning the checkbox off is losing the benefit of the behavior.  What I proposed offers the best of both worlds without needing the popup alert at all.

You could still have a preference to automatically commit or revert the "room" / "preset" as you wish when switching so people could get any of the desired behaviors if done that way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, fde101 said:

True, and I am not opposed to options, but the equivalent of turning the checkbox off is losing the benefit of the behavior.  What I proposed offers the best of both worlds without needing the popup alert at all.

It can still be re-enabled through Preferences or whatever UI the Studio Preset feature provides. It is not that complicated to solve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Andy Somerfield said:

Frozen Death Knight,

Thanks. I could not think of a reasonable need for the "from centre" when using rectangular marquee (given as there is only a "creation" mode, not a "resize" mode) - if there is one, I will happily add it!

The ability to resize crops from the centre is already in the reported list of bugs I think - so will get sorted out sooner or later :)

Andy.

"From centre" should be available in Rectangular Marquee Tool for consistency in the UX when some users inevitably have a use for it. I expected "from centre" to be controlled by cmd key, not a checkbox, as it is in vector Ellipse and Rectangle Tools - again for consistency in the UX.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, anon2 said:

"From centre" should be available in Rectangular Marquee Tool for consistency in the UX when some users inevitably have a use for it. I expected "from centre" to be controlled by cmd key, not a checkbox, as it is in vector Ellipse and Rectangle Tools - again for consistency in the UX.

I might be wrong, but I believe the reason for this has to do with the program being on both Mac and Windows as well as the Windows version using ctrl+alt to add to your selection. Because of this the Windows version can't really have ctrl as the standard for transforming from centre the way Photoshop does it or even the Vector Shape Tools in Affinity (the Vector Shape Tools don't have Add and Subtract commands built into the modifier keys). All the keys are already occupied there.

I do however agree that it would be ideal to have this transform command be consistent with other similar behaviour. The problem is if it is possible to execute with the current command scheme.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

I might be wrong, but I believe the reason for this has to do with the program being on both Mac and Windows as well as the Windows version using ctrl+alt to add to your selection. Because of this the Windows version can't really have ctrl as the standard for transforming from centre the way Photoshop does it or even the Vector Shape Tools in Affinity (the Vector Shape Tools don't have Add and Subtract commands built into the modifier keys). All the keys are already occupied there.

I do however agree that it would be ideal to have this transform command be consistent with other similar behaviour. The problem is if it is possible to execute.

You are probably correct. It's a pity that the macOS software is made inconsistent within itself because of limitations in the Windows platform.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One final thought about the Studio Preset issue, and then I'm going to leave it in Andy's capable hands.

Every graphics program I've ever used that lets users save a Workspace pretty much does the same thing: get your workspace configured/laid out the way you want it, save that as a New Workspace, and give it a name - in that order. From that point forward, choosing that Workspace brings the layout back to the state it was in when it was saved as a discrete entity. There is no auto-updating. There is no "do you want this or do you want that?" kind of dialog. If you don't like the way it got saved, correct it and save another new workspace (and, optionally, delete the one you replaced).

Also, every other thing within Affinity Photo that we refer to as a "preset" works in that way. That is, if I choose a preset from the Adjustments panel, a layer is created that is precisely the way the adjustment preset was saved. There is no updating, and if I want to use the preset as a suggestion and go from there, well away I go...

The only other option that might be helpful is the choice to "Export Studio Preset" so that I can duplicate my studio on another machine (or create it in the Beta and then load it into the retail app).

Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad
Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme
Mac Studio with M2 Max (2023}; 64 GB RAM; macOS 13 (Ventura); Mac Studio Display - iPad Air 4th Gen; iPadOS 17

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, anon2 said:

You are probably correct. It's a pity that the macOS software is made inconsistent within itself because of limitations in the Windows platform.

I'm not sure if the devs would agree with my assessment here, but I think that for all the selection tools in particular it would would be an interesting idea to move away from having New as a selection option and simply default it to Add with the ability to remove the selection either by pressing Esc or double click on the canvas (or outside the canvas even). Then you remove the current Add command on ctrl+alt+L click for Windows and ctrl+L click for Mac respectively and add transform from centre to ctrl. This way you open up more command options while avoiding having checkboxes to allow transform from centre.

As for the other operators like Subtract and Intersect, you could maybe have alt toggle between all the selection options (Add, Subtract, and Intersect) to fix the problem of the other selection options only having direct modifier access to subtract but not to add.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, smadell said:

Every graphics program I've ever used that lets users save a Workspace pretty much does the same thing: get your workspace configured/laid out the way you want it, save that as a New Workspace, and give it a name - in that order. From that point forward, choosing that Workspace brings the layout back to the state it was in when it was saved as a discrete entity. There is no auto-updating.

This is what I expected when I read the announcement.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, smadell said:

The only other option that might be helpful is the choice to "Export Studio Preset" so that I can duplicate my studio on another machine (or create it in the Beta and then load it into the retail app).

I would absolutely love the option to save my workspaces elsewhere through exporting. It has happened a couple of times that Affinity has resetted the workspace I've used without me knowing what triggered the reset, so it would be a very nice feature to be able to safely store your workspace files elsewhere in case of some unfortunate reset happening.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Andy Somerfield said:

At the moment, selecting a preset then moving panels actually updates that preset on the fly. That might be counter-intuitive and if so will be changed. I agree also about the confirmation dialog.

Hi Andy

It IS counter intuitive and is probably not what anyone expected or requested. So no need to code it that way. 🙂

What you actually made is presets that will mutate over time without user accept or an option to return to the exact preset they hoped they saved for future use ... unless they didn't change or move a thing of course since saving the preset? A preset is (also) a clean starting point if the customer regrets later changes to the user interface.

If you keep it this way should be an option disabled as default... but who would enable it? 😐 

I would like to meet the Serif UX that recommended this "on the fly" approach. ;-)

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Jowday said:

It IS counter intuitive and is probably not what anyone expected or requested.

Have to agree. If auto-updating presets was an option, I definitely wouldn’t use it … 😊

(Oh, and while you’re at it: what about an option of locking the workspace? That is, when the workspace is locked, it’s impossible to resize or tear off panels.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Affinity's adoration—and perhaps stubbornness—to be different (and the disaster that is Designer) is the reason I can't bring myself to buy Photo. I just don't have faith that it can do the job I need it to, in a way that's intuitive. Different for the sake of different is not inherently better. Many UX standards have been developed across the software industry over the decades, I don't see why Affinity needs to challenge them as if everyone's been doing it wrong.

I want to support the little guy, I really do but not at the cost of me being hamstrung by the software which is costing me and the client more time (or the software just can't do the job at all).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm also getting crashes with everything I try: opening a RAW file, opening a TIFF file, trying to create a new document. It's BAD_ACCESS whatever I try.
Running APß (1.9.195) on a late 2012 iMac on Mojave 10.14.6 and 16GB RAM.

CANON cameras (7D, G9), lenses ranging from 10 to 400mm, and Speedlite 580EX II - iMac (24", M1, 2021) running Ventura MacOS 13.4.1(c)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

"I would like to meet the Serif UX that recommended this "on the fly" approach. ;-)"

 

That would be me ;)

Interestingly, the way I use it, it works well (although I agree re. the naming). I have a Photo, Brushing, Compositing preset and switch between them. I rarely move any panels in each preset but if I do I expect them to stay where I moved them to.

That said, it's fair to say that the consensus is contrary to that argument :) Build 196 is done (released in an hour or so, to help the people who are crashing on start) - but I'll make the changes to presets for 197.

Thanks,

A

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Andy Somerfield said:

"I would like to meet the Serif UX that recommended this "on the fly" approach. ;-)"

 

That would be me ;)

Interestingly, the way I use it, it works well (although I agree re. the naming). I have a Photo, Brushing, Compositing preset and switch between them. I rarely move any panels in each preset but if I do I expect them to stay where I moved them to.

That said, it's fair to say that the consensus is contrary to that argument :) Build 196 is done (released in an hour or so, to help the people who are crashing on start) - but I'll make the changes to presets for 197.

Thanks,

A

Well, as someone who unlocks the UI from the main windows and have them all pretty much floating, it is pretty easy to move things around just the tiniest bit by accident. Being able to lock the UI after it is in place would be a nice quality of life change, especially if you decide to have to have the auto-save feature as an option for those who want it. Just so things remain in place until you want to move everything around. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Andy Somerfield said:

I rarely move any panels in each preset but if I do I expect them to stay where I moved them to.

You could rename it to Dynamic Studio Set and keep it along the well understood and used Studio Presets.

2017 27” iMac 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 • Radeon Pr 580 8GB • 64GB • Ventura 13.6.4.

iPad Pro (10.5-inch) • 256GB • Version 16.4

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Andy Somerfield said:

I rarely move any panels in each preset but if I do I expect them to stay where I moved them to.

I think it's fair to say that everyone expects this. The real question is whether the moved panels now represent an updated version of the preset, or if choosing the preset would revert to a state prior to moving those panels. For me, I would prefer the latter.

Thanks for listening to the commoners on this one; it is much appreciated.

Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad
Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme
Mac Studio with M2 Max (2023}; 64 GB RAM; macOS 13 (Ventura); Mac Studio Display - iPad Air 4th Gen; iPadOS 17

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, smadell said:

The real question is whether the moved panels now represent an updated version of the preset, or if choosing the preset would revert to a state prior to moving those panels. For me, I would prefer the latter.

I would prefer the latter, too. I always regard a preset as a fixed starting point; use of an updated version of the preset should require that version to be saved separately, thus allowing the user to choose between the original version and the tweaked version.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.