Pixel Tool • Right-Click as Alternate Mode

[gl33b]

The Pixel Tool is certainly one of the most unique tools in Affinity Photo - it's the only one (that I know of) that has an "Alternate" mode, used by holding down the CTRL/CMD Modifier Key.

• It would make more sense if other tools also had an "Alternate" mode (Brush Tool, Fill Tool, etc.), rather than separate "Flood Fill"/"Flood Erase" tools.
• I'd like to change the Modifier key from CTRL/CMD to something like Right-Click as Alternate Input, i.e. Left-Click is default behaviour, Right-Click is alternate behaviour.

If having an "Alternate" mode doesn't work for some, then I would like to suggest:

• Creating an Erase Pixel Tool, to be consistent with other tools.
• Creating a new Eraser Tool, with the option to select Brush/Pixel modes (similar to Photoshop)

[loukash]

9 hours ago, gl33b said:

it's the only one (that I know of) that has an "Alternate" mode

For the record:

Move tool + cmd = slightly limited "Measurement" tool
Pen tool + cmd = Node tool
Pencil tool (ADe) + cmd = Node tool
Vector Brush tool (ADe) + cmd = Node tool

Brushes also have an option-click color picker alternate mode.

9 hours ago, gl33b said:

if other tools also had an "Alternate" mode (Brush Tool, Fill Tool, etc.), rather than separate "Flood Fill"/"Flood Erase" tools.

An alternate mode: Yes.
To replace those erase tools? No.

9 hours ago, gl33b said:

change the Modifier key from CTRL/CMD to something like Right-Click as Alternate Input, i.e. Left-Click is default behaviour, Right-Click is alternate behaviour.

Hm. If someone wants to awkwardly paint with their mouse, then it would kinda make sense as a user preference option.

But if you want to use brushes often and effectively, you'd rather get a tablet with a pen.
Even with my "antique" Wacom Sapphire A6 tablet (actually unsupported on MacOS El Capitan and beyond, but still working with some user-hacked drivers), Affinity automatically switches to the Eraser tool when I turn the pen upside down and use its, er… eraser tip. This is how the Brush/Eraser tool combo is primarily meant to work. And that's consistent in all professional graphic apps that I've been using since more than two decades.

9 hours ago, gl33b said:

Creating an Erase Pixel Tool, to be consistent with other tools.

I'd agree that there's an annoying UI incosistency, but I'd oppose to trying to fix it by adding even more clutter with a tool that would be ultimately redundant.

~~~

That all said, I wouldn't mind if the brush tools would all consistently accept a modifier key to alternate between brush and an equally sized eraser.

[gl33b]

15 minutes ago, loukash said:

But if you want to use brushes often and effectively, you'd rather get a tablet with a pen [...] Affinity automatically switches to the Eraser tool when I turn the pen upside down and use its, er… eraser tip.

I should have clarified - I am using a tablet! Using an Intuos CTH-480 that I've had for some time now.

Unfortunately there's no way to set up the pen to use CTRL+LMB for the Eraser end, or any of the pen's buttons, which makes creating pixel art with Affinity Photo (which is what I'm doing) a struggle, due to this perhaps oversight on how pixel artists would be trying to use it, based off experiences with other apps.

 

[loukash]

6 hours ago, gl33b said:

Intuos CTH-480

I'm not familiar with this one, but the options depend on model. Currently I have a cheap old Grapphire 3 (CTE-430) in use which doesn't have much options for the eraser but plenty of options for the two pen buttons. I can add a modifier, a modifier-key combo, a custom popup menu etc. As noted, this is already a "hacked" driver because "obsolete" model, so it's been a bit awkward to set up. I think I had to set up the custom popup menu under Mountain Lion and then copy the corresponding preferences file to El Capitan because the original Wacom preference panel for this model doesn't work on El Capitan and higher, while the new panel version from a different model can still communicate with the old device but lacks some of the options.

My even older A5 Intuos 1 has many more pen tip/button options, but I couldn't make both old Wacom drivers run in parallel on this system.

6 hours ago, gl33b said:

there's no way to set up the pen to use CTRL+LMB for the Eraser end, or any of the pen's buttons, which makes creating pixel art with Affinity Photo (which is what I'm doing) a struggle

The pen tip click is the "left mouse button", so all you need is to set ctrl as one of your pen button's modifier. (Unless your model doesn't support it which would be very odd…)

Apart from that, what's wrong with simply holding the ctrl key on your keyboard? (No offense intended in case you're physically disabled by some means, of course. )
When I was using the Intuos almost exclusively some 20 years ago – before I switched to notebooks – my right hand was always holding the pen and my left hand sat at the keyboard, pressing modifier keys and keyboard shortcuts all the time as necessary. I'd even customize many often-used keyboard shortcuts in my apps to be better accessible with my left hand.

So, in Photo, I can pixel-paint with the tablet using the Pixel tool, and I can pixel-erase by holding the cmd-key on my MacBook keyboard. Whereas turning the pen upside down activates the Eraser tool with its own attributes.
And alternatively I can assign the command-key modifier to one of the pen's buttons and holding it while painting on with the Pixel tool to pixel-erase.
I just tried all of that, and it just works. I don't see any dowside here.