AP auto-smoothes an image dragged into a layer

[K2021]

Hi,

I open image nr1.

Then I drag image nr2 into AP and onto image nr1 so that nr2 creates another layer over image nr1.

WOW affinity has just smoothed image nr2. Why? What? Is Earth still round?

Can anybody kindly explain?

See attachment. I placed a yellow layer between the two to distinguish between them.

See, it's just windows screenshots of the same window and the one on the right, the layer, gets smoothed by AP.

Thanks in advance for any help.

K

[NotMyFault]

could you upload the afphoto file?

Is the top layer stretched or not pixel-aligned (look at the transform panel), you may need to change preferences to show more digits.

[K2021]

Hi!

There si no need. You can try it yourself with any screenshot. Just capture part of any window and do what I did.

On the other hand, I have ClearType turned OFF so I will upload one screenshot from my OS. It is very clear using that. I am not sure what happens when the same process is repeated on OS with smoothed system fonts.

K

 

 

[NotMyFault]

9 minutes ago, K2021 said:

There si no need. You can try it yourself with any screenshot. Just capture part of any window and do what I did.

 

Sorry, then i’m out. If you are unwilling to provide the relevant information to solve YOUR issue from you side i cannot help. 

[walt.farrell]

12 minutes ago, K2021 said:

There si no need. You can try it yourself with any screenshot. Just capture part of any window and do what I did.

It will go much faster if you save it as a .afphoto file and provide it, as asked here.

[prophet]

58 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

not pixel-aligned

That's the issue here. I grabbed the screenshot OP provided and can recreate the "smoothing" by making the placed copy not be pixel aligned. Gotta use the handy "Force Pixel Alignment" button.

[K2021]

45 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Sorry, then i’m out. If you are unwilling to provide the relevant information to solve YOUR issue from you side i cannot help. 

@NotMyFault

I have deleted the .afphoto upon achieving my task so I cannot upload it.

I have uploaded the source image instead. I don't see why you don't want to try to follow the three steps it takes to see the effect that I have described on your own machine.

[K2021]

51 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It will go much faster if you save it as a .afphoto file and provide it, as asked here.

@walt.farrell
I don't agree that it will be faster but I will do what I can.

so i have downloaded the source image from this thread

i have then repeated the steps described in the original post

i am uploading the saved afphoto with this post.

now what you will do, i believe is this:

you will first load the afphoto

you will see the problem and you will try to repeat the effect

you will use the source image from this thread to achieve that realizing the previous two steps were redundant

so going this way actually takes both mine and your time, because the final afphoto does not matter. it is the process of achieving it that is the problem and the process can be checked only with the source image.

anyway, here you go

K

snap02.afphoto

[Old Bruce]

Try using what Prophet suggested, turn on the Force Pixel Alignment and have the Move by Whole Pixels turned off.

It will work.

[K2021]

54 minutes ago, prophet said:

That's the issue here. I grabbed the screenshot OP provided and can recreate the "smoothing" by making the placed copy not be pixel aligned. Gotta use the handy "Force Pixel Alignment" button.

@prophet

Thank you for your kind reply. I am glad, you figured it out. I will have to research this function. I have never seen anything like it and have no idea what it could possibly do despite the Helps' "very comprehensive" explanation.

Best

K

[K2021]

@Old Bruce

Thanks for chipping in.

At first, it does not seem like it works. The image nr2 is still blurred, but when I move the layer, it becomes crystal clear again (not smoothed).

Thank you very much!!

Now I am going to have a look around and hopefully see what these two functions actually do. I find the default effect quite baffling and not in a good way.

Best

K

 

[Old Bruce]

Just now, K2021 said:

I find the default effect quite baffling and not in a good way.

As do I. 

[K2021]

5 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

As do I. 

😄

K

[walt.farrell]

28 minutes ago, K2021 said:

you will first load the afphoto

you will see the problem and you will try to repeat the effect

No. I would look at the .afphoto file, examine the location of the top layer, confirm that what you have is not pixel aligned, and then agree with the other statements that you should make it pixel aligned. The uploaded file has for the top layer (note the non-integer X and Y locations):

However, to me it seems the same whether aligned to the pixel grid or not, and I am not seeing the problem you're describing. Or at least not recognizing it.

So I merely remain puzzled. But if the advice above solved the problem for you, that's good.

[K2021]

SOLUTION SUMMARY:

For anybody having issues with this, this is what works for me:

"Force Pixel Alignment" and "Move by whole pixels" need to be in the states visible on the following screenshots. I don't know which state is ON and which is OFF and AP makes no effort to determine that neither in the Help nor in the Tooltip.

When you first drag&drop and image, it will look smoothed (see sshot1) but when you move the layer, it will be crystal clear again (see sshot2). Don't ask me why 😄

Note that the way these buttons are (de)pressed will be kept when you restart AP.

Hope it helps 🙂

K

[K2021]

@walt.farrell

Thank you very much for explaining your logic! I see what you mean in the left column of the Transform dialogue. I have never seen anything like this before. I don't think I will ever need such a feature, but I bet somebody does every day.

Best

K

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, K2021 said:

I see what you mean in the left column of the Transform dialogue. I have never seen anything like this before. I don't think I will ever need such a feature,

You probably will need it.

In your application's Preferences, click User Interface, and you will find the settings that control how many decimal points are displayed for various types of units:

I generally recommend setting at least 3 for Pixels.

Note: These controls are for display purposes only; they do not affect the precision used when making calculations.

[K2021]

walt.farrell

 

If you feel like writing about it, may I ask what you need it (going sub-pixel) for? I can't imagine any use of this for me.

K

[walt.farrell]

I don't have a use for it that I know of, @K2021. But unless you are very careful, it will occur, and increasing the number of decimals used to display px values is the only way you'll know you've done it.

[Old Bruce]

19 hours ago, K2021 said:

If you feel like writing about it, may I ask what you need it (going sub-pixel) for? I can't imagine any use of this for me.

If you are working with Snap to Mid Points turn on and you have the mid point on some object at x.5 pixels, then the corner will snap to that x.5 pixel location. Every object can be whole integer pixel dimensions but the mid point can be on a fraction.

[K2021]

1 minute ago, Old Bruce said:

If you are working with Snap to Mid Points turn on and you have the mid point on some object at x.5 pixels, then the corner will snap to that x.5 pixel location. Every object can be whole integer pixel dimensions but the mid point can be on a fraction.

Good point.