Bicubic resampling by default

[User_783649]

Bicubic resampling is a good, universal resampling method and definitely should be made a default choice (or at least an option) in Affinity Photo.

While we may found it in export window, next to more advanced Lanczos options, it seems logical to include it on a canvas level, in View Quality settings.

Also it would be great to see it being added as an option in Designer and Publisher as well for the sake of consistency. As of now, in all three apps, we're limited to use Bilinear which doesn't provide the same level of visual quality and details precision especially while zooming in and out, resizing objects.

[rpnfan]

I am also surprised the bilinear is the default resample export setting. I would almost never use bilinear. Typically I want the best resampling, which is for photo's on the Lanczos-methods. How can I set the default export method to what fits my needs?

[User_783649]

Can we get an update on this, please? If there's a chance we'll see a proper canvas view quality option (not bilinear, sorry) in all Affinity apps?

Be it an overall zoom level different from 100% or any kind of image layer being scaled down — observable image quality is mediocre at its best.

Rough and fast approximation by using computationally cheap and visually imprecise algorithm is not a suitable way for professional apps which Affinity certainly claims to be.

I'm personally willing to sacrifice some performance for better canvas fidelity. I have a good and powerful system and just want better image quality.

I personally already accepted the way you (re)render the canvas with those blocky tiles all around. Sad you can't do better, but I think I'm already used to it.

But I can't accept the way you resample everything on the canvas with bilinear.

At the very least, make Bicubic a third option in settings. Please.

[User_783649]

27 minutes ago, Hens said:

It's only for viewing in the program,so probably nothing to gain to have less performance

It has been pointed out multiple times here by some of Affinity developers, that Bilinear method was chosen by design as a quality/performance compromise. It provides fairly acceptable image quality at a lower performance cost. As we know, Bicubic uses 16 pixels (4x4) and Bilinear uses just 4 (2x2) so it definitely allows to process and draw things faster. But the quality...

While I may accept that this might be totally okay for most people, I personally find it strange to not being able to see what exactly is going on the canvas I work with. I need more precision and having that level of precision even when "it's only for viewing in the program" — crucial for any kind of professional workflow. At least for me.

Even for downscaling, which I agree we use most of the time (because who the hell upscales images? it's a crime!), Bilinear is not the best option, be it Affinity or Adobe. Everyone can take a screenshot of this forum post or some other piece of text and place it as an image layer on their canvas.

When we downscale this layer we can see how bad everything became. Some letters loose their proportions, some became very blurry and other became too blocky and crisp. While with Bicubic everything looks way better and more uniform, obviously. Tonal gradations are smoother and whole image has fewer interpolation artifacts.

Hopefully Affinity introduces Bicubic as an option in View Quality settings. After all, it's not a battle of which algorithm is ultimately better. I should agree that in some cases some algorithms may work better than others. But having more options for canvas view quality would be beneficial.

 

 

[Leigh]

On 4/29/2022 at 1:26 PM, Alex M said:

Hopefully Affinity introduces Bicubic as an option in View Quality settings. After all, it's not a battle of which algorithm is ultimately better. I should agree that in some cases some algorithms may work better than others. But having more options for canvas view quality would be beneficial.

Just wanted to let you know that i've logged this suggestion with our developers 👍

[Eusebiu Oprinoiu]

Are there any updates about this?
We need higher-quality options in Affinity. Resampling everything on the canvas with Bilinear is terrible.
I would like to see both Bicubic and Lanczos as scaling options under Performance > View Quality.
I'm a little dissapointed V2 didn't get improvements in this area.

[Leigh]

21 hours ago, Eusebiu Oprinoiu said:

Are there any updates about this?
We need higher-quality options in Affinity. Resampling everything on the canvas with Bilinear is terrible.
I would like to see both Bicubic and Lanczos as scaling options under Performance > View Quality.
I'm a little dissapointed V2 didn't get improvements in this area.

Not at the moment, sorry. I will add your feedback for this particular feature request to our devs.

[Eusebiu Oprinoiu]

Thank you! I appreciate it...

[rvst]

I'm also one of those who uses bicubic exclusively.

A simple option on the preferences to configure the default resampling method would be nice. It would reduce the number of mouse clicks on each export while preserving the default of bilinear if the user doesn't change it. 

[Eusebiu Oprinoiu]

@rvst, this request is about the resampling method used to render the canvas. (when you pan and zoom, or when you work at a zoom level other than 100%)
It is about what you see in real-time on your canvas.

For the resampling method used during the export, you can resave your presets with your favorite settings. You don't have to wait for Serif to implement anything new. Just select a preset, tweak the export settings the way you like them, and resave with the same name.