Photoshop Shortcut Preset

[Ertagon]

It seems that some shortcuts cannot be changed, specifically the ones that control the brush size and zooming.

I just purchased Affinity (I tried it a few times before) and I think it is great if it had a shortcut preset that mimics Photoshop's shortcuts. I used PS for many years and I do not want to change my muscle memory. Also, I do find Affinity Photo's default shortcuts awkward to use.

[DWright]

Hi @Ertagon,

Welcome to the forum 

You are able to remap the shortcuts for both the brush size and zoom, these are found in the Photo section of the Keyboard Shortcuts with the brush size shortcuts under the Paint Brush Tool and the zoom shortcut can be found in the Miscellaneous section.

[Ertagon]

4 hours ago, DWright said:

Hi @Ertagon,

Welcome to the forum 

You are able to remap the shortcuts for both the brush size and zoom, these are found in the Photo section of the Keyboard Shortcuts with the brush size shortcuts under the Paint Brush Tool and the zoom shortcut can be found in the Miscellaneous section.

 

Thanks!

Still, having a preset would make life much easier for those who are switching from PS, which I would argue is a sizeable fraction, if not the majority of your user base.

[biggiesmalls]

Ow yeah, a Photoshop shortcut preset would be nice  or even a necessity :] 

[Customer Feedback]

Approximately in chapter 3 of the psychology syllabus (after the introduction to psychology and the introduction to the use of statistics in psychology) you can read that humans are governed by habits and learned routines. Many companies have recognised this and adjusted in order to sell alternatives at all. You only have to be different if you really, really have a better alternative, and again the customers have the final say.

Some products therefore go to great lengths to be compatible with, for example, shortcuts. This makes sense too, because it is crucial in product selection, and it is crucial if someone is going to use two products in the same flow.

We've also wondered greatly about several shortcuts in Affinity that are simply too clunky to make sense with frequent use. Or to remember. Not least two mouse buttons held down simultaneously, as is the case in Windows editions.

We also miss the ability to configure some shortcuts that are currently not configurable. This is very important for us. 

In particular, we missed the much better use of the right mouse button seen in many new applications - and Photoshop - e.g. for adjusting brush size etc. The current menu with everything crammed in is of almost no use.

Incidentally, it's as if 30% of Affinity is designed really thoughtfully. And that since a date it has gone downhill. But the shortcuts are not well chosen regardless.

/Eddie

[biggiesmalls]

I think that Affinity has a full potential to become even the industry standard in 5/10 years with theese prices. It's like the battle between 3DS Max and Blender. Blender was "nothing" a few years back, now 3DS Max users are getting real updates, not only the ones changing UI  Blender has become a real threat to 3DS as it's being used professionaly in the industry, that's great! People have a choice - at last.

Graphic design community is tired of the dominance of one company, because the development od software has halved and prices, especially for casual graphic designers are just unbearable in monthly payments. So... Affinity developers, please make this one step closer to becoming the industry standard in a few years and unify the shortcuts with Photoshop or at least give users a choice or a switch to Photoshop shortcuts  Next step would be a compatibility with psd but I think it's not as important as the shortcuts  I'm looking forward for updates and can't wait for further development. 

[Old Bruce]

3 hours ago, biggiesmalls said:

unify the shortcuts with Photoshop or at least give users a choice or a switch to Photoshop shortcuts

I would think that you could do this yourself. That is if you are used to the Adobe Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts just put them into the Preferences for Affinity Photo.

[plyoung]

On 7/18/2022 at 5:12 PM, Old Bruce said:

I would think that you could do this yourself. That is if you are used to the Adobe Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts just put them into the Preferences for Affinity Photo.

One could and those of us who have purchased probably already started remapping binds and then saving it to a backup. But I imagine someone trying out a trial version to quickly see if Affinity could be a viable replacement might not want to go through the effort to rebind and maybe even decide it is not worth the switch when they seem to work slower just because of the rebinds tweaks that are needed. Adding official remaps would show how much they care and know people are coming from other tools.

[GarryP]

1 hour ago, plyoung said:

Adding official remaps would show how much they care and know people are coming from other tools.

That would only work if the user has kept the default Photoshop keyboard shortcuts and not changed any of them.

If they have made any changes to the shortcuts in Photoshop then copying the default shortcuts from Photoshop to Photo (where possible/applicable) wouldn’t work all the time, and the user might think that the software doesn’t do what they want because their shortcut doesn’t activate the correct functionality (from their point of view).

If the user wants the shortcuts to be as they want them then, as stated above, it’s probably best if they do that themselves so they get it right for what they want rather than hope that the ‘copied/default’ shortcuts are correct.

Doing so will also help the user find out which functionalities have different workflows, or simply don’t exist in Photo, and give them a better understanding of how the different applications do things differently and whether Photo is right for them.

[Ertagon]

21 hours ago, GarryP said:

That would only work if the user has kept the default Photoshop keyboard shortcuts and not changed any of them.

We are probably talking about edge cases here.

21 hours ago, GarryP said:

If they have made any changes to the shortcuts in Photoshop then copying the default shortcuts from Photoshop to Photo (where possible/applicable) wouldn’t work all the time, and the user might think that the software doesn’t do what they want because their shortcut doesn’t activate the correct functionality (from their point of view).

If the user wants the shortcuts to be as they want them then, as stated above, it’s probably best if they do that themselves so they get it right for what they want rather than hope that the ‘copied/default’ shortcuts are correct.

It's easier to change few shortcuts (from the preset) than all of them.

21 hours ago, GarryP said:

Doing so will also help the user find out which functionalities have different workflows, or simply don’t exist in Photo, and give them a better understanding of how the different applications do things differently and whether Photo is right for them.

So basically make accessibility and the transition process (from Photoshop) more difficult? Not sure if this is the best approach to growing a userbase as an alternative to a mainstream tool.

[GarryP]

Imagine the following situation…

I have been a user of Photoshop for many years, maybe decades (I haven’t actually used it since it came on floppy disks, but it’s an imaginary situation).
Over time I have changed various keyboard shortcuts.
I didn’t make a note of which ones I have changed (who would?), and I can’t remember what the old shortcuts were (who would?), I just use the shortcuts that I’m used to using.
I now want to see if I would like to try Affinity Photo.
I install the trial and start using it.
I find that the learning curve to transition is steeper than I hoped because the shortcut keys don’t do what I expect them to do.
I look around the web and find that there is a set of Photoshop-like shortcuts that I can use, great.
I install/import the shortcuts and I start using the software again.
Oh, hang on, I’m pressing the shortcuts that I’m used to using but nothing is happening, or something else is happening.
I thought these shortcuts were meant to make Photo work like Photoshop.
I can’t get to the functionality through the shortcut I’m using so I’ll assume that the functionality doesn’t exist.
This software doesn’t do what I need it to do.
I don’t think I want to transition to Photo now.
I’ll leave it at that, thank you very much.

If any user is not using all of the default shortcuts in Photoshop then the copied shortcuts in Photo will not work the way they expect all the time, and that could easily lead to that person assuming that the functionality doesn’t exist (because the shortcut doesn’t do what they think it should do).

They will then have a choice:

• Learn the default Photo shortcuts (no point in copying the Photoshop-like shortcuts across in the first place);
• Go through all of the shortcuts and check them against their own customised Photoshop shortcuts to see which ones they have changed (hardly any difference time/effort-wise than creating the shortcuts the way they want them from scratch).

I have nothing against a set of Photoshop-like shortcuts existing – I think there already is one knocking about somewhere – I just don’t see how it would help much.

[Ertagon]

4 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Imagine the following situation…

I have been a user of Photoshop for many years, maybe decades (I haven’t actually used it since it came on floppy disks, but it’s an imaginary situation).
Over time I have changed various keyboard shortcuts.
I didn’t make a note of which ones I have changed (who would?), and I can’t remember what the old shortcuts were (who would?), I just use the shortcuts that I’m used to using.
I now want to see if I would like to try Affinity Photo.
I install the trial and start using it.
I find that the learning curve to transition is steeper than I hoped because the shortcut keys don’t do what I expect them to do.
I look around the web and find that there is a set of Photoshop-like shortcuts that I can use, great.
I install/import the shortcuts and I start using the software again.
Oh, hang on, I’m pressing the shortcuts that I’m used to using but nothing is happening, or something else is happening.
I thought these shortcuts were meant to make Photo work like Photoshop.
I can’t get to the functionality through the shortcut I’m using so I’ll assume that the functionality doesn’t exist.
This software doesn’t do what I need it to do.
I don’t think I want to transition to Photo now.
I’ll leave it at that, thank you very much.

If any user is not using all of the default shortcuts in Photoshop then the copied shortcuts in Photo will not work the way they expect all the time, and that could easily lead to that person assuming that the functionality doesn’t exist (because the shortcut doesn’t do what they think it should do).

They will then have a choice:

• Learn the default Photo shortcuts (no point in copying the Photoshop-like shortcuts across in the first place);
• Go through all of the shortcuts and check them against their own customised Photoshop shortcuts to see which ones they have changed (hardly any difference time/effort-wise than creating the shortcuts the way they want them from scratch).

I have nothing against a set of Photoshop-like shortcuts existing – I think there already is one knocking about somewhere – I just don’t see how it would help much.

I think you are trying really hard to justify a scenario that just doesn't happen.

Also, the idea is to help users get started, of course, it's not going to be perfect, it doesn't need to be perfect.

Quote

Give me two strong arms and I will build you a house.
But give me a hammer and I will conquer the world.

~ Me (just now)

 

[GarryP]

I have seen plenty of people give up using some software that they think can’t do what they want it to do.

And they only think it can’t do what they want it to because they didn’t put the effort in to finding out or asking.

I think it would be a shame if people were put off using the Affinity software after importing some keyboard shortcuts which didn’t do what they wanted them to do.

A lot of people who try some software for the first time can be put off if the software doesn’t work the way they think it should work.

We see that here quite often in the forums: “I used to press Alt+Q but now I have to press Ctrl+Q and then press a button, that’s stupid, I’m out of here.” (That may sound far-fetched but I’ve seen many complaints that two clicks every now and again is “too much extra work” to put into their workflow.)

If someone only has ten days to trial the software they need to be looking at what the software can actually do rather than messing around with shortcuts, in my opinion. Shortcuts can come later, learn the good stuff first.

As I said above, I’m not against this as such, and I’m not trying to justify an argument against something, I just don’t see it being of much use in getting many more people to use the software. Maybe that’s just from my limited point of view.