Editing text in Affinity Photo

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, JLukeW said:

What happens when the shortcut is reassigned to nothing:

Click, type text, press ctrl+enter (has no effect), press "b" to select brush, "b" appears after text.

What else would you expect to happen? You are still in text entry mode so typing a "b" enters that character in the text, just as it would in any app.

[JLukeW]

Right. The idea I'm trying to convey is that unassigning the ctrl+enter shortcut is not sufficient to solve the issue the people in this thread are discussing.

Edited June 13, 2020 by JLukeW

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, JLukeW said:

Right. The idea I'm trying to convey is that unassigning the ctrl+enter shortcut is not sufficient to solve the issue the people in this thread are discussing.

The suggestion to remove the keyboard shortcut is intended to solve the issue of accidentally converting text to curves. It does do that.

[Fixx]

Solution would be to change ctrl+enter to "select move tool". I do not think it can be done (but I may be wrong).

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, Fixx said:

Solution would be to change ctrl+enter to "select move tool". I do not think it can be done (but I may be wrong).

It cannot be done, at least on Windows. When setting up shortcuts for the Tools, Affinity does not allow modifier keys (shift, Ctrl, Alt).

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

It cannot be done, at least on Windows. When setting up shortcuts for the Tools, Affinity does not allow modifier keys (shift, Ctrl, Alt).

Same for Macs.

[Learner-AF]

On 5/7/2018 at 2:40 PM, ski542002 said:

Ok, that helped.  This was a Photoshop doc and I don't recall doing anything to the document, other than opening it in Affinity.  I deleted all of the other text blocks in this doc and was able to enter a line of test text.   I'm sure over time I'll see the benefits of using Affinity, but for now it's very counter-intuitive, most likely due to PS muscle memory.  I appreciate the replies.

Well, I was having trouble, as many here, understanding why a text couldn't be edited:  now I know it's because it was somehow transformed into a "pixel" layer.  Fair enough.

In my case, I know I didn't use the "ctrl+enter" keys, so I was wondering why / how / when text was rasterized.
I started suspecting the program did this automatically?  so I:

1) added a text layer to a .psd file
2) saved it (I have the option activated on preferences)
3) opened it again...

...and the text layer IS NOW A PIXEL LAYER, simply by saving it.  Please tell me if I am doing something wrong; the option "import PSD text as text rather than bitmap" is selected on the preferences.

If this is what always happens when working with .psd files; then this will cause lots of compatibility problems.

I hope I am doing something wrong; if so, please tell me what it is.

Thanks!

 

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, DJAnt1 said:

1) added a text layer to a .psd file
2) saved it (I have the option activated on preferences)
3) opened it again...

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

That Preference is for keeping PSD text layers editable when you Open the PSD file. Text layers are always rasterized when you Save or Export a PSD file from an Affinity application. The Affinity applications have support to read PSD text layers, but not to write them.

[v_kyr]

8 minutes ago, DJAnt1 said:

1) added a text layer to a .psd file
2) saved it (I have the option activated on preferences)
3) opened it again...

1) Is Ok the usual way.

2) At this point when saving the text it will be rasterized (Affinity sadly can't save it itself in an editable text format).

3) Here you opened the previously under step  2) rasterized text, thus it's not editable any more then.

 

[Learner-AF]

Thanks a lot.

Is there any research for / intention of having that feature implemented in a near future?

[walt.farrell]

Just now, Learner-AF said:

Thanks a lot.

Is there any research for / intention of having that feature implemented in a near future?

It's something Serif would like to support. But the PSD format is proprietary (not an intended interchange format) and is poorly documented. This is apparently one area that is not sufficiently documented that they have enough information about how to output the files with the text kept editable, and they have not yet figured out how to do it.

So, my guess: maybe someday, but not "near future".

[Dangerous]

Having been a photoshop used for 4 years before changing to affinity photo, I also struggled to do several things I found easy in photoshop. It was a few weeks before I realised what I was doing wrong. I was using affinity as I would use photoshop. Reminded me of when I first started riding a motorbike after a great many years driving cars & vans. I was useless until I 'got out of car mode' and in to bike mode.

What needs to happen is those that have used adobe products realise that affinity is not an adobe product and either adjust to the new way or go back to paying expensive subs, I spent £480, cancelled my subs & had nothing to show for the money. I can use AP for as long as I want and all it will cost me is the £25 it cost me at the time.

 

[Allison K.Leanoo]

On 9/9/2016 at 12:43 PM, R C-R said:

From a historic standpoint, this sort of makes sense because the ASCII escape character (decimal 27, "ESC") is one of the first 32 ASCII codes originally intended to be used only as non-printing control characters. ESC was used to allow sending other control characters as literals, thus "escaping" them from their non-printing nature. It has a similar meaning in C language strings, URL encodings, & in CLI (Terminal) applications to precede a command character to treat it as a literal. In OS X, the special shortcut CMD-ALT-ESC is reserved for force quitting an unresponsive app, sort of the ultimate "escape" command.

I have to desagree.

I'm on PCs since the 80's. I'm discovering graphics tools just recently, and I didn't know about Adobe exept for Acrobat until a few years. But the ctrl-enter shortcut was instinctive to me too. Because it is used in the PC Dos/Windows, Unix and even in the old mainframes world. 

Escape is the "get me out of here" button. It's a common rollback shortcut, it's an ancestor of the cancel button. But for commit an action, the most current shortcut is Ctrl-Enter. It is also frenquently used as a second Enter when Enter is used to go next line.

I love Affinity. I had truck load of problems with the Adobe's standard, and I'm so glad I have found something which works way more naturally to me. But, I can't agree about the escape stuff. It is just wrong.

Allison

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Allison K Lynoo said:

Escape is the "get me out of here" button.

It is also a non-printing control character.

[Allison K.Leanoo]

22 hours ago, R C-R said:

It is also a non-printing control character.

Sure.

But still that it's strange to use Esc to confirm or comit changes. That's not is usual function. It's not a drama, but it's strange.

Ctrl-Enter is more usual to do that.

Allison

PS: By the way, Ctrl-Enter is a non printing caracter too. ASCII 10 or ASCII 13, depending the system.

[v_kyr]

22 minutes ago, Allison K Lynoo said:

But still that it's strange to use Esc to confirm or comit changes. That's not is usual function. It's not a drama, but it's strange.

It always depends, ESC has many usages and in slightly different contexts, as there are for example ...

• printer control character sequences (ESC/P Epson, PCL HP)
• terminal ANSI sequences (VT100, VT52 ...)
• ASCII character set
• app mode & function control sequences (Curses, Emacs, VI ...)
• in prog languages and reg expressions
• ... and so on ...
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_sequence

[Allison K.Leanoo]

Hi V_kyr,

You're right, the usage may vary, and nothing is realy fixed. On terminals, escape is often used to introduce command. I started with IBM mainframes, and keyboard was just messy. Hoppefully, the not-so-good "102 touch" IBM PC keyboard is now quite a standard. All that comes from computer's phehistory.

But it's wrong to say that Ctrl-Enter is a kind of Adobe/Apple standard. Many programs on every system I know use it to valid or commit changes when Enter is not an option.

Ctrl-Enter is just a part of the primitive CR/LF terminal command.

Allison