Affinity Photo 1.10.5/ Changed rulers to inches, why do I still see mm measurements?

[blackxacto]

19.1 iMac, Monterey 12.4, Affinity Photo 1.10.5:

Having changed a documents rulers to inches, when I go to choose a new document dimension, why do I still see MM dimensions? I have no use for MM dimensions.

[PaulEC]

If you change the units for a document it only changes them for that document. You can choose whatever units you want when creating a new document. AFAIK when you open an image/photo in APhoto it always loads them using pixels.

[joe_l]

1 minute ago, PaulEC said:

You can choose whatever units you want

The Affinities remember so many decisions, but why not at such "trivial" points? I don't how often I exported spreads instead of single pages in the beginning. 🤦‍♂️

[PaulEC]

7 minutes ago, joe_l said:

I don't how often I exported spreads instead of single pages in the beginning.

I'm with you on that, it drives me up the wall! 😄

I've never understood the logic of why some settings are sticky and others aren't! It would be great to have some means of setting the "stickyness" yourself when setting things like units and spread/page export options.

[R C-R]

When creating a new document, if you choose any of the built-in presets (Print, Press Ready, Photo, etc.) then the document will automatically use the document units built into that preset. To avoid that, you can create your own presets in the "My Presets" category using whatever document units you want. Alternately, you can create templates with (among other things) whatever document units you prefer.

Considering that, I am not sure how a default "sticky" document unit preset would or should work, since the last used document unit could be anything.

[PaulEC]

12 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Considering that, I am not sure how a default "sticky" document unit preset would or should work, since the last used document unit could be anything.

I suppose the best thing would be if the unit stayed as you set it until you change it to something else. (Rather than depending on the last document you opened.) 

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

I suppose the best thing would be if the unit stayed as you set it until you change it to something else. (Rather than depending on the last document you opened.) 

But every time you create a new document from a preset or template, how can you avoid setting it using whatever document uint either one is already set to use? IOW, how else can you create a new document besides using one of those options, all of which include a built-in document unit setting?

[PaulEC]

16 hours ago, R C-R said:

But every time you create a new document from a preset or template, how can you avoid setting it using whatever document uint either one is already set to use? IOW, how else can you create a new document besides using one of those options, all of which include a built-in document unit setting?

I'm sure it should be possible for a user preference for the unit type to override the one used in the template etc. It doesn't affect the document itself, just the units displayed. It's not a big deal, it's easy enough to change after opening the item, it would just be handy for people who prefer to use the same units all the time.

[v_kyr]

On 6/3/2022 at 9:53 AM, blackxacto said:

19.1 iMac, Monterey 12.4, Affinity Photo 1.10.5:

Having changed a documents rulers to inches, when I go to choose a new document dimension, why do I still see MM dimensions? I have no use for MM dimensions.

AFAI can see there is no explicite ruler units based setting in the prefs for docs, instead just a doc unit type setting ...

Quote

...
    NewDocBleedBottom = 0;
...
    NewDocColourFormat = 0;
    NewDocDPI = 72;
    NewDocHasMargins = 0;
    NewDocHeight = 600;
...
    NewDocTransparentValue = 0;
    NewDocType = 3;
    NewDocUnitType = 5;
    NewDocViewDPI = "-1";
    NewDocWidth = 800;
...
    ShowFrameTextRuler = 1;
    ShowRulers = 0;
...

... so I assume that ruler units are not explicitely preserved (... so to say not remembered) at all here. - It think that ruler units are handled independent and freely dynamically choosable here, meaning that they are not directly taken over from the setup doc unit type at all then.

 

[walt.farrell]

53 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

think that ruler units are handled independent and freely dynamically choosable here, meaning that they are not directly taken over from the setup doc unit type at all then.

If you create a document with a particular unit, then enable the rulers, the rulers will have that unit.

If you create a document with a particular unit, then enable the rulers and change the unit there, all measurements in the document then use that unit (except possibly for lines and fonts, depending on the overriding preference to use points for them).

[v_kyr]

38 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If you create a document with a particular unit, then enable the rulers, the rulers will have that unit.

   

Nope, even if I toggle rulers then on/off/on they always stay initially on "px"! - This often is not handled in the way it should, meaning you often have to explicitely reforce a doc setting change here, only then it behaves the way it should in terms of doc & rulers units handling!

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Nope, even if I toggle rulers then on/off/on they always stay initially on "px"! - This often is not handled in the way it should, meaning you often have to explicitely reforce a doc setting change here, only then it behaves the way it should in terms of doc & rulers units handling!

There is something odd going on with your new doc window. On my Mac, when I choose for example the SVGA preset, the Document Units are automatically set to Pixels, not Millimeters. If I change the units to Millimeters, then the page width & height change from px to mm values in that window, & then when I create the document, it is using mm, not px, in the ruler & elsewhere.

[Old Bruce]

 

You can alter a Preset to use the Units of Measurement and then save that preset in the My Presets section by hitting the + symbol.

    

When you choose that saved altered preset the units will be the ones you chose when you saved it.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

You can alter a Preset to use the Units of Measurement and then save that preset in the My Presets section by hitting the + symbol.

But even if you do not save it as a new preset, if you change the units in the new document window, the the page width & height fields should immediately change to display values in that unit type. If you then click "Create," the new document should open using that unit type, whatever it is.

At least that is how it always works on my Mac, but that is not what is happening in the videos @v_kyr posted. In both of them, somehow the the page width & height fields are showing px but the document units are showing millimeters. The new documents are using px in the rulers, not millimeters.

I would like to know if any other Mac user sees what @v_kyr gets, & if so, what macOS version they are using.

[v_kyr]

27 minutes ago, R C-R said:

At least that is how it always works on my Mac, but that is not what is happening in the videos @v_kyr posted.

Yeah under the old iMac running El Capitan here, ADe had somehow glued to that behavior which I've shown above in the recordings. - Now after several create "New doc -> Web SVGA" then with other Templates (WXGA, WXGA+...) back and forth switchings, it finally behaves again the way it initially should.

After some test runs I believe, the whole possibly has to do with closing documents and then abondoning the document saving (Cmd-W), since then any on that unsaved doc altered doc unit change settings won't have been store at all. This afterwards seems to leave ADe in a state then for not switching over to new altered unit settings on a new doc creation. Even the next time ADe is started and a new doc is created then previously once stored doc unit settings will be reused instead of the newly setup ones.

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

After some test runs I believe, the whole possibly has to do with closing documents and then abondoning the document saving (Cmd-W),since then any on that unsaved doc altered doc unit change settings won't have been store at all. This afterwards seems to leave ADe in a state then for not switching over to new altered unit settings on a new doc creation. Even the next time ADe is started and a new doc is created then previously once stored doc unit settings will be reused instead of the newly setup ones.

After several tries, I have been unable to duplicate that behavior on my Mac. So I suspect instead that something in your AD user Data folder (possibly in document_defaults.dat but that is just a guess) got corrupted somehow & your several new document creation attempts got that sorted out.

[v_kyr]

4 hours ago, R C-R said:

After several tries, I have been unable to duplicate that behavior on my Mac. ...

As said I'm pretty sure it has to do with abondoning/closing files without saving the doc here then. Since in such cases the doc unit setting button can show afterwards a unit setting (millimeters in my case) as default setup for the default selected template, which it won't take into account when creating the new file.

In this screencapture, for a new doc (as default here) SVGA and a units millimiters are initially shown up. If you take that as is (these predefined settings) and so only click on the create button, then the now new created doc will still use and show up doc dimensions as pixels (see the rulers). - Now if you do again the same (create new file), but this time click once on the SVGA template flat button, then the unit button changes (resets / is forced) to it's usual default.

 

But when instead the last time setup doc has been saved (so not abondoned/dismissed) next time a new doc is created the last time settings are (re)uses and those doc & unit settings will then be taken immediately into account.

 

[R C-R]

17 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

As said I'm pretty sure it has to do with abondoning/closing files without saving the doc here then. Since in such cases the doc unit setting button can show afterwards a unit setting (millimeters in my case) as default setup for the default selected template, which it won't take into account when creating the new file.

Like I said, I cannot duplicate that behaviour on my Mac. This includes closing a newly created file without saving it.

 The defaults always, without exception, revert to the ones built into the preset, & there is never a discrepancy between the units & the page width & height fields, including when I change the units before clicking the Create button.

23 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

In this screencapture, for a new doc (as default here) SVGA and a units millimiters are initially shown up.

Again, to be totally clear about this, I cannot ever get that SVGA preset to start off with millimeter units when creating a new document, including when not saving a new doc & just closing it.

[spiderpod7d]

Hi All

I requested way back a default selection in the preferences so that once one sets the rulers to the users measurement requirement it be retained so this becomes a one time setting giving the user control Since I personally only print my images once I set Inches as a preference then every image but be set to match the paper size , which also measured in Inch sizes here in Canada.

Can this be done in the next version please?

 

Thanks,