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Stroke a curve/path and a few other requests


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I photograph and retouch rings and other jewellery. I've bought AP with the intention of getting rid of 12€/month Photoshop. However, while there are (more or less annoying and slow) workarounds for some of the missing features, there are a few things that AP simply can't do, which is rather infuriating because it means that I still have to keep paying Adobe to get them in PS. So here's a list:

1. A way to stroke a curve or at least to use it as a guide for a brush. Every now and then I end up with a photo that looks a bit too flat. To make the edges a bit more visible I create a path (curve) and then stroke it with a soft brush (20-30 % hardness) and then play with the opacity until it looks somewhat decent. AFAIK AP can render a curve but it does not have the ability to do that usng a custom brush.

2. Adding nodes to a path/curve without switching tools. I find AP's Pen tool to be more user-friendly than PS's version. but I'm missing the ability to add a node to an existing curve/path just by clicking on it without switching to a different tool. PS can detect when the cursor is hovering over a path to then create a node without connecting it to the end of the path. I'd therefore like to see the same feature in AP.

3. Double-click on a node to switch it from Sharp to Smooth and vice versa (like PS's Curvature Pen does). Yes, I know there's a keyboard shortcut for it, but it gets annoying when you have to do it every couple of nodes, and double-clicking on a node currently doesn't seem to do anything anyway, so why not use it for that?

4. Crop to selection, i.e. if the Crop tool is selected and a selection active, snap the crop box to it automatically.  It's already possible to do this manually (by checking "snap to selection bounding box" and manually dragging the handles until they snap into place), so I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be possible to make this happen automatically. It would save people like myself who need to drop every photo like this a significant amount of time.

5. Fix saving tool settings. Even with synchronization enabled I still find myself having to switch the Inpainting Brush to sample from the layer below it every time I open a new photo. And before doing that I also need to Shift + J to get said Inpainting Brush instead of the Healing Brush. Why?

6. Limit the Exposure Adjustment layer's range. Nobody needs +/- 20 EV, especially when the minimum step on the slider is 1 EV. Make that +/- 5 EV or even less to get more resolution and make the slider actually usable. 

7. Make the Noise Reduction more powerful. This is the exact opposite of the problem above. If I have a wristband or something like that with a lot of dust/scratches/fingerprints/etc., I use NR at maximum strength and minimum details to blur everything together on a new layer, then mask the edges and any details I want to keep to uncover the still-sharp layer below. Photoshop can get a decent amount of blur in one go, with AP I have to re-develop the layer 5 or 6 times to get the same result.

All but 2 and 7 have been posted before (even 5+ years ago), and at least 4, 5 and 6 seem like they should be fairly easy to do, yet they're still missing. Why?

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1 hour ago, praivo said:

AFAIK AP can render a curve but it does not have the ability to do that usng a custom brush.

Possibly you want Affinity Designer > Vector Brush options? It's as simple as File menu > Edit In Designer. After editing, switch back to Photo the same way. The Affinity document format is "app agnostic", i.e. you can edit an *.afphoto in Designer or Publisher as you see fit, all unique functions of each app will be kept. And vice versa.

So, if that's what you need, then think of Designer as your "Photo plugin for advanced vector editing".

In other words, the power of the Affinity suite lies in its interoperability.

Alternatively, you can achieve at least some stroke width variations by playing with the Pressure graph. This is explained in the Designer help affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/Painting/pressure.html but the graph is also accessible in Photo if you select a curve with either Move/Node/Pen or Shape tool active and click on the Stroke properties in the context toolbar.

You can also apply effects, adjustments and filters to vector objects.

1 hour ago, praivo said:

add a node to an existing curve/path just by clicking on it without switching to a different tool.

  1. hold the command (ctrl on Windows? no idea) key to temporarily switch to the Node tool
  2. click on the path
1 hour ago, praivo said:

Double-click on a node to switch it from Sharp to Smooth and vice versa 

Hover over the node and read the contextual infobar at the bottom of the window to see what you can do with modifiers in given context.

1 hour ago, praivo said:

Crop to selection

  1. turn on "Snap to pixel selection bounds" in the Snapping Manager
  2. make your marquee selection, adjust it as you see fit
  3. activate the Crop tool and let it snap
1 hour ago, praivo said:

Fix saving tool settings.

Yep, those things can be a bit annoying and counterintuitive.

On the other hand, I never really understood Schmotofopp's corresponding logic either.
So this round ends 1:1 as far as I'm concerned.

1 hour ago, praivo said:

Nobody needs

Never assume what "nobody" needs unless you can actually read the minds of almost 8,000,000,000 humans. ;)

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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Quote

Possibly you want Affinity Designer > Vector Brush options? It's as simple as File menu > Edit In Designer. After editing, switch back to Photo the same way. The Affinity document format is "app agnostic", i.e. you can edit an *.afphoto in Designer or Publisher as you see fit, all unique functions of each app will be kept. And vice versa.

So you want me to buy Designer and then switch back and forth just to get this one feature that would still be slower to use than what PS can do "out of the box" (3 clicks :right-click a path -> Stroke Path -> confirm)?

Quote

Alternatively, you can achieve at least some stroke width variations by playing with the Pressure graph. 

I don't really  need pressure changes, but I need to change the hardness, and sometimes the color, without having to go through several menus each time I need to use it.

Quote
  1. hold the command (ctrl on Windows? no idea) key to temporarily switch to the Node tool
  2. click on the path

Doesn't work on Windows. It just deletes the segment you click on. Alt doesn't work either. And just left-clicking on the path completes the path to wherever you clicked. PS can figure out that you've clicked on an existing path and NOT connect the new node to anything else, just by (left-)clicking.

edit: It turns out that the reason why it doesn't work is that Ctrl switches to the node tool that would, in theory, add a node by clicking, but Ctrl + Click is already mapped to "delete segment" in the Node tool, which registers the Ctrl that you're using to call it as a shortcut. That also explains why it works fine when you switch to the tool using Shift + P (so you aren't holding Ctrl while using it).

Quote

Hover over the node and read the contextual infobar at the bottom of the window to see what you can do with modifiers in given context.

I did read it. Ctrl + Alt + LeftMouse to change to a sharp node, Ctrl + LeftMouse + RightMouse to switch to a smooth node. How is that any easier, faster, or more intuitive than simply clicking (or Ctrl + clicking) on the node again?

Quote
  1. turn on "Snap to pixel selection bounds" in the Snapping Manager
  2. make your marquee selection, adjust it as you see fit
  3. activate the Crop tool and let it snap

Did you read the whole paragraph? I know about this, but you still need to bring the handles at least close enough for them to snap in place, which takes time. PS can snap it automatically and it takes about one second to go from a selection to a cropped photo. Crop according to selection - Feedback for Affinity Photo on Desktop - Affinity | Forum (serif.com)

Quote

Never assume what "nobody" needs unless you can actually read the minds of almost 8,000,000,000 humans. ;)

For what could you possibly use 20 EV of adjustment range? And even if there were a rare scenario where it could be useful, how is that better than making the tool pretty much useless for everyone else who needs to actually make fine adjustments and not just switch between a couple of presets? Not to mention that you can still achieve more range by stacking multiple exposure layers. There's a reason why neither the Develop module nor other editors have such a huge range.

edit: To be clear, I don't expect any more new features in 1.9. I'll gladly buy 2.0 for twice the price of 1.x if it comes with them. But they're also the only things that would make a new version worth buying to me. Saving tool settings is something that should have been working for a long time now, and I have no idea how the interfering shortcuts for the Node tool even made it out into the public version.

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It's not just about the features. Hobby photographers may be fine with things taking more time if it means not having to pay for Photoshop, but for people like I who edit for a living and get paid per photo the money saved on the software is less than what they lose by cutting their productivity in half because of all the extra steps and workarounds they need to achieve the same end result.

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29 minutes ago, praivo said:

what PS can do "out of the box"

Then stay with Photoshop if it's the tool that does what you need.

Period.
Signing off.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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4 hours ago, praivo said:

To be clear, I don't expect any more new features in 1.9.

To be clear, neither do I.

The "new" features for version 1.9.x are long knowing. Now it's just a matter of fixing bugs and code optimized. Next "new" features will be available in new updates to 1.10.x, 1.11.x, etc.

P. S. It would be appropriate to get acquainted with the rules of the forum, and then respect them. Thank you. 

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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Quote

The "new" features for version 1.9.x are long knowing.

Not to users because the road maps aren't public. 

Quote

Next "new" features will be available in new updates to 1.10.x, 1.11.x, etc.

No 2.0 then? OK. I don't mind keeping the current features in 1.x as long as something actually happens at least to the tool defaults (which are by far the most annoying and already have been talked about several times) and the Node tool (which shouldn't take more than changing the modifier key and/or the shortcut add a node to something else so that they don't interefere with each other).

My point was that I don't expect to get large feature updates for "free". I wouldn't mind spending more money on a new version just to get the features above, because I think that AP isn't far from becoming the next Photoshop even for professionals if/when it ends up being reasonably practical for bulk processing and retouching.

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18 minutes ago, praivo said:

No 2.0 then?

Contrary to popular misconceptions, version count ≠ decimal numbers.
Version 2.0 will happen when they are ready to call it so. That could be coincidentally after version 1.9.9.9.9.9.9, it can be also after version 1.23.356.98745. Those numbers are totally irrelevant. The amount of new and significant major features is what usually justifies a major version bump.

(Unless it's software from a company that rhymes with schmadobe who had happily sold you bugfixes as "major upgrades" before they jumped on the "subscription" scam bandwagon.)

I'd also expect that a major version bump will leave quite a few "obsolete" operating system versions behind, i.e. I'm not necessarily holding my breath that Affinity 2.0 will still support my trusted ole MacOS El Capitan installation.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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11 hours ago, praivo said:

Not to users because the road maps aren't public. 

What should the road maps for the existing, already available, and therefore also functionally known version 1.9.x help with?
For new/subsequent major versions 1.x (for example 1.10), the new features will be introduced in the Beta program, when this version 1.x.0 is released, lists of new features will be listed in the release notes, and other minor versions 1.x.1,2,3 will only remove the detected bugs and imperfections (as is the case with version 1.9.x and all previous ones).

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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What should the road maps for the existing, already available, and therefore also functionally known version 1.9.x help with?

New features have been added to 1.9.x several times now, see the change logs. So knowing what is actually being worked on would help people decide whether it's worth putting up with slow workarounds for a while because it'll be fixed eventually or whether they'd better stay with whatever they're using now. If you're 10 days away from being locked into the Adobe ecosystem for another year you need decide rather quickly .

Again, I would absolutely love to make AP my do-it-all editor, both because of the non-destructive editing and because it's noticeably faster than PS, especially with HW acceleration off. I've been using it for a while now because the batch of photos I'm working on now doesn't need the PS-specific tools above, and I really like it a lot.

But having to constantly reset all the tools every time I open a new photo gets old rather quickly if you're doing it 10+ times in one afternoon, and while I did find a way to partially get around the lack of "stroke path" (already requested in at least 4 different threads), it's not nearly quick enough to be practical for bulk retouching. 

I downloaded Designer and it turns out that it can stroke a path with a vector brush, but it can only change the hardness of a pixel brush... Which it can't apply to a vector path. Apparently there is a way around this, but it seems to be more or less the same thing as what I've come up with in Photo (using layer effects), i.e. very slow and with limited options. So I guess that's not the way to go either.

Anyway, this thread is obviously not going to achieve anything and I have work to do, so this is my last post here.

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3 hours ago, praivo said:

New features have been added to 1.9.x several times now, see the change logs.

No, It's all just bug fixes and minor improvements, see the change logs (fixed, fixed, fixed, improved, fixed, .... fixed).
 

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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