Save Export Settings in a Macro

[Larry J]

Hi!

I am a brand-new user of Affinity Photo - but I got it to wean myself off Photoshop. There are two things I need the app to do - draw an arrow and support macros. (I'm the guy that has 10 red arrows pointing out key elements of a screen shot.. so these all need to look the same).

But my KEY question is macros. I need a macro that:

* Resets the DPI of an image from 144 to 72 (for posting to the web)

* Exports the file to a specific folder using specific JPEG settings

* Closes the original file without saving it.

From what I read, macros in Affinity Photo don't support automating the export function. Is this correct?

Thanks,

Larry

[v_kyr]

Hi,

10 hours ago, Larry J said:

From what I read, macros in Affinity Photo don't support automating the export function. Is this correct?

That's right. - Though you can try batch processing of images, where you select images to process, apply some recorded macros to those and then let the batch process save the output somewhere. But for different sized images macros won't place the 10 red arrows always relative to the right wanted positions, since during macro recording always fixed position values are used depending on the absolute image dimensions used during recording.

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, @Larry J.

In theory you can export using a batch job, and run a macro that will change the image DPI to 72.

In practice, that won't work for current users unless you have a macro that was created before Affinity 1.7, as there's an unfixed bug that happened in 1.7 that affects using Document Resize in macros. So you would need a macro recorded in 1.6 to do it.

Fortunately, John Rostron created a set of macros in 1.6 that still work:

 

[Larry J]

Thanks, v_kyr and Walt.Farrell!

Macros seem to be evolving technology.  Arrows would always be added manually. Where I need the speed of a macro is in resetting the dpi, to compensate for retina Mac screen captures, then saving a PNG file as a JPEG with specific quality settings to a custom folder.

I'll see what future versions provide. I appreciate the time you spent answering my questions.

Thanks!

Larry

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

But if they're evolving it's a very slow process. I don't think the macro capabilities have changed since I started using Photo back in 1.5 or 1.6.

[v_kyr]

Personally I am always more disappointed than anything else here with Affinity Photo's overall Macro capabilities. Evolving? - Well here I agree completely with Walt's above statement!

[carl123]

9 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

But if they're evolving it's a very slow process

They are actually devolving, several macro things that used to work are now broken in later version.

 

[walt.farrell]

8 hours ago, carl123 said:

They are actually devolving, several macro things that used to work are now broken in later version.

 

Good point.

[AutoKitty]

I seriously don't get the decisions some companies make. This is an easy fix, as they already had it in previous versions. If nothing else, look at the code for when it was working. I understand they have priorities, but why isn't making a simple fix, that customers want, a priority? I never have understood that. Serif isn't the only company that ignores things like this. I guess I'll never understand it. Personally, if I'm updating a piece of software I've authored, and even just a single user has requested I do an easy fix (and it's actually a fix, not something imagined wrong by the user), I'll spend the one minute to include the fix. Guess that's just my own backward way of thinking, though. Sue me, I guess. 

[walt.farrell]

23 minutes ago, AutoKitty said:

This is an easy fix, as they already had it in previous versions. If nothing else, look at the code for when it was working.

Which "it" are you referring to?

[AutoKitty]

7 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Which "it" are you referring to?

There was only one issue discussed by the OP which hasn't been resolved. There is only a workaround. Hence I don't need to explain "which it".

[AT.HA]

Correct if I am wrong but, it is not possible to save an export in a batch process as a macro (or kind of macro) to apply later to other batch jobs? Thanks.