Smooth Edge Selection

[ponglizardo]

This has always bothered me. Affinity's selection is really not smooth. Compared to Photoshop, Affinity's selection looks jagged and low-res. See the image I attached.

This is the same image.
On the upper part, I used Photoshop's pen tool to make a selection and delete part of the image.
On the lower part, I used Affinity Photo's pen tool to make a selection and delete part of the image.

There's a big difference in the smoothness of the edge/ pixels.
Is it too much to ask for Affinity to make the selection smoother? It always bothered me it makes the work look unprofessional when someone else (Adobe users) views it.

[loukash]

6 hours ago, ponglizardo said:

to make the selection smoother

When you've made a "marching ants" selection, you can click the Refine button in the context toolbar, disable Matte Edges and Border Width, select your favorite preview, then experiment with the Smooth, Feather and Ramp sliders at subpixel level to find the ideal balance.

That all said, Affinity's default "Antialias" algorithm could definitely be improved, not just in this scenario.

[MEB]

Hi @ponglizardo,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Can you record a small clip showing how you are creating and then deleting the selections please? I'm not getting these results. Thank you.

[ponglizardo]

I was doing the exact same thing as you did. However I'm not getting the same results (both in Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer).
Make the selection with the pen tool. Press delete.

And yes, I'm running an updated version of the apps.

Edited April 2, 2021 by ponglizardo
Video not showing on the post

[ponglizardo]

@loukash I know but shouldn't we expect a smoother anti-aliasing on a professional app by default? Imagine if you have to do this over and over in during the workday. The time spent refining the selection would add up. 

Or am I so used to Photoshop where everything is smooth and I'm comparing Affinity Photo with it?

I wonder what @MEB is doing differently. I can't seem to get the same result by default.

[loukash]

6 hours ago, ponglizardo said:

I'm not getting the same results

This is slightly weird because I'm not getting the same results as you. All is smooth.

What you're seeing may appear on my screen if I'm using zoom factors other than 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 % etc. Definitely not at 400 %. But e.g. at 150 % zoom, I'm seeing similar jagged edges as you do.

I don't know how Affinity recalculates pixel appearance depending on physical display resolution. I don't have a retina display, so my 100 % while using pixel units = Zoom: Pixel Size. When zooming to 700 %, each original image pixel is being displayed by 49 physical pixels on my display. At something like 362 % I see jagged edges.