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Where is the perspective tool in Photo?


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Where is the perspective tool in Photo? I see no mesh warp.

The Help was no help at all and the over-designed/under-informative 62 pound book is useless. It's a triumph of form over function.

Yes, I am frustrated by the poor documentation. I waste more time trying to find out where to find the tools to do things I already know how to do, than actually doing them. Frankly, I'd rather use GIMP.

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Here is the Help section for Perspective Tool, which starts with an image of what the tool looks like. At the end it references the Help for the Mesh Warp Tool, which also provides an image of what that tool looks like.

https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Tools/tools_perspective.html

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

Here is the Help section for Perspective Tool, which starts with an image of what the tool looks like. At the end it references the Help for the Mesh Warp Tool, which also provides an image of what that tool looks like.

https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Tools/tools_perspective.html

Please see my tool box snip above.

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4 minutes ago, SamSteele said:

My tools don't show it.

View > Customize Tools, perhaps?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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5 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

View > Customize Tools, perhaps?

Yes, but note there are two icons for mesh warp - one with and one without perspective correction.  Perspective only offers one option - perspective on its own.

AP, AD & APub user, running Win10

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Choose the one you want, Perspective on its own or Perspective and Mesh Warp. I use the one with the pair of the tools so as to keep things less cluttered.

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.

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Perspective tools group is displayed by default, see help, so you had to hide it and reconfigure the Toolbar.

https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Workspace/interface.html

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

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You've added the Gaussian Tool, the Affine Tool, and some horizontal separators, none of which is displayed by default. And you've adjusted the positions of quite a few of the default tools. So you must know what you're doing...

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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2 hours ago, h_d said:

You've added the Gaussian Tool, the Affine Tool, and some horizontal separators, none of which is displayed by default. And you've adjusted the positions of quite a few of the default tools. So you must know what you're doing...

You're quite right, I do know what I am doing. What I don't know is what Affinity is doing. I also don't use Photo often so I don't remember what worked 6 months ago or what I changed from .  I probably got rid of the mesh tool because I don't work with meshes, never thinking that it would contain the perspective tool.

That's why I suggest (I know, there is another forum for suggestions) an addition to the UI such as these which would QUICKLY take the user to the auxiliary tool box.  It would also be helpful if the HELPs said: "if you don't see this tool look in "View > Customise tools". Yes, repeat it with each and every tool, especially the esoteric ones like Affine (whatever that is). 

586407237_Mytools3.png.ffe34cc9cad2cdaa0009a82106e18003.png1780774886_Mytoolsv4.png.3955b6907d828628217cabd3b61a12b1.png

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You can of course also simply use the menu's on top of the screen. Filter - Distort - Perspective or Layer - New Live Filter Layer - Distort - Perspective. Easy to find for everyone who's used this type of software before.

Affinity Photo - Affinity Designer - Affinity Publisher | macOS Sonoma (14.2) on 16GB MBP14 2021 with 2.4 versions

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15 hours ago, SamSteele said:

The Help was no help at all

Why was the Help no help at all?
You already know you want a “perspective tool” so you can go to the Help and type “perspective” into the search box.
That gives you a number of options, one of which (near the top, on my system, in English) is “Perspective Tool”. Clicking on that gives you information on that tool.
If you cannot see the tool you need in your Tools Panel, go to the Help and type “tools panel” into the search box.
The first option in the list is “Customising the Tools Panel” and clicking on that gives you the information you need.
The same sort of thing goes for “mesh warp”, all quite easy to find.
The Help has its faults and omissions but it’s normally quite easy to find something that’s useful, even if it’s just a jumping-off-point.

15 hours ago, SamSteele said:

the over-designed/under-informative 62 pound book is useless

Lots of people have found the Workbook to be very useful but they probably used it for what it was meant to be used for.
It’s called a Workbook because that’s what it is meant to be, a book which takes you through various exercises, each of which shows you how to do a certain type of work.
It’s not a reference guide or user manual and was not meant to be one or used as one.

13 hours ago, SamSteele said:

Yes, but why not make it easy to remember and find by adding at the bottom something like this:

Having a persistent on-screen textual reminder that we can customise our Tools Panel isn’t necessary.
Once you know that the Tools Panel is customisable then you normally don’t need the reminder, and having it there all the time may be distracting or even stop the user from having their Tools the way they want them.
Even if you forget how to customise the Tools Panel, it’s easy to find what to do in the Help.

15 hours ago, SamSteele said:

Frankly, I'd rather use GIMP.

If you find GIMP easier to use for the work you want to do then by all means use GIMP, but you may be missing out on some great functionality within Photo. You may need to do a little bit of work to find out how to use Photo, but that’s something you need to do with most software, so that’s not really an Affinity-specific issue.

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11 hours ago, GarryP said:

Why was the Help no help at all?
...
...
The Help has its faults and omissions but it’s normally quite easy to find something that’s useful, even if it’s just a jumping-off-point.

Lots of people have found the Workbook to be very useful but they probably used it for what it was meant to be used for.
It’s called a Workbook because that’s what it is meant to be, a book which takes you through various exercises, each of which shows you how to do a certain type of work.
It’s not a reference guide or user manual and was not meant to be one or used as one.

 

If you find GIMP easier to use for the work you want to do then by all means use GIMP, but you may be missing out on some great functionality within Photo. You may need to do a little bit of work to find out how to use Photo, but that’s something you need to do with most software, so that’s not really an Affinity-specific issue.

I don't want to get into an argy-bargy here, I am, like you, just expressing my opinion.

"It's not a reference guide or user manual" is spot on. It's not. I bought it thinking it was. Hiding "Perspective" info under an HDR project, p. 241, or a Panorama project, p. 303, may work for you, it doesn't for me. I don't want to have to work through all the projects in the book just to lean how some of the major features operate.

I could riff on why "Customise Tools" is not the best nomenclature, but I will say that putting a link up front to all 116 tools would be very useful for occasional users. And regular users won't dissolve in a puddle of tears if the link was always available.

I use Publisher much more regularly than Photo and am very familiar with how it works. I shied away from Photo because the learning curve is daunting and I don't find the Help useful. I have only resorted to using photo in an effort to FORCE myself to learn Photo. As with any software, when it works it's very satisfying. But learning it has turned out to be a grind, IMHO.

It's a grind because of things like this: P. 241 under "Perspective Correction" "... select the Perspective Tool from the Tools Panel". Yet there is no Perspective Tool icon showing what the tool looks like. The user is supposed to know what all the 116 tool icons look like? 

I rest my case.

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