Feature questions and/or feature request list

[orangefizz]

• If I use the flood select tool on an image layer and hit copy/paste from the selection, it should not copy the entire image, only the selection. Isn't this obvious?
• Previously-used tools should default to the last-used value. I hate re-re-re-re-re-entering the same numbers when I'm testing. (and if there is a default setting that can be adjusted, this should be the default default)
• Double-clicking a fill layer should not simply zoom the document, it should bring up the fill layer color palette.
• I HATE the color palettes in Affinity Photo. There, I said it. Even in good old HSL, there's no obvious swatch showing the color based on selected values...that I can find (until you hit apply/close; so I'm re-opening it to edit?)
• Why do I have to rasterize an image layer to copy or use portions of it? This has never made sense to me.
• After pasting a copied selection, the selection should disappear. It's just one extra keystroke to deselect something that 90% of the time I'm finished with.

I'll no doubt have many more to add to this running list. Sorry for the curt list but the list is long...

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, orangefizz said:

If I use the flood select tool on an image layer and hit copy/paste from the selection, it should not copy the entire image, only the selection. Isn't this obvious?

You need to Rasterize an Image layer before you can access the pixels that it contains.

Additionally, a pixel selection is not (contrary to what you might expect) a set of pixels. It is an area on the screen, which establishes the boundaries of a potential set of pixels. Having such a boundary, made using one pixel layer, you could switch to a different pixel layer, and do your copy. You would get the pixels from the second layer, not the first one.

1 hour ago, orangefizz said:

Why do I have to rasterize an image layer to copy or use portions of it? This has never made sense to me.

Because an Image layer is a container, which holds both pixels and additional information about them. As a container, its contents are not directly available.

This is just something you need to learn, and live with, if you want to use the Affinity programs.

1 hour ago, orangefizz said:

I'll no doubt have many more to add to this running list. Sorry for the curt list but the list is long...

Please review the usage guidelines for this part of the forum:

Quote

Please just do one suggestion per thread. If your post title is “Here’s a few ideas to improve Affinity Publisher” you’ll be asked to split them up.

 

[orangefizz]

29 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You need to Rasterize an Image layer before you can access the pixels that it contains.

Additionally, a pixel selection is not (contrary to what you might expect) a set of pixels. It is an area on the screen, which establishes the boundaries of a potential set of pixels. Having such a boundary, made using one pixel layer, you could switch to a different pixel layer, and do your copy. You would get the pixels from the second layer, not the first one.

 

The *technical* explanation is fine, but from a *usability* standpoint it doesn't make sense—at least from a longtime PS user—why a pasted/opened image can't have its pixel data used as such. Then why even allow the user to draw selections on an image layer if the selection can't be used? There's a disconnect here; I'm not in Designer, I'm in Photo so I'd want access to pixel data without any funny business.

With Affinity I'm finding simple tasks often involve more/unnecessary steps. These things add up.

[orangefizz]

36 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

This is just something you need to learn, and live with, if you want to use the Affinity programs.

OK but it's not a great way to motivate PS users to make the switch—and the beta program is ostensibly to canvass users about their experiences, likes, dislikes using the application.

[orangefizz]

38 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Please just do one suggestion per thread. If your post title is “Here’s a few ideas to improve Affinity Publisher” you’ll be asked to split them up.

That's a tall order when time is limited. I don't mind offering my feedback (really, I don't!) but I can't spend hours composing/monitoring separate topics for each issue I discover. Guess, I'll leave the list as it is then.

Thanks for your help & feedback.

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, orangefizz said:

Then why even allow the user to draw selections on an image layer if the selection can't be used?

The selection can be used. It just can't be used on that particular layer at this time. You could use it on a different layer. Or you could rasterize the Image layer. Or you could duplicate the Image layer and rasterize the duplicate. And then you could use the selection.

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, orangefizz said:

With Affinity I'm finding simple tasks often involve more/unnecessary steps.

And in other cases you may find (as other users have) that it takes fewer steps.

7 minutes ago, orangefizz said:

OK but it's not a great way to motivate PS users to make the switch—and the beta program is ostensibly to canvass users about their experiences, likes, dislikes using the application.

I don't think Serif is trying to motivate PS users to switch. They're developing an application that intentionally works differently from PS.

And note that the Beta program is (a) only for users who already own the applications, and (b) is primarily to help improve the applications by finding bugs.

5 minutes ago, orangefizz said:

That's a tall order when time is limited. I don't mind offering my feedback (really, I don't!) but I can't spend hours composing/monitoring separate topics for each issue I discover.

Feedback generally generates discussion, and discussing a list of requests in a single topic gets messy, and hard to understand, both for the users reading it and the Serif staff when they read it to do their planning.

Edit: Also, requests generate tracking tickets, and it's easier to manage tickets when each is related to one item/function. It's hard to mark a ticket "implemented", for example, if there are 10 requests in that topic. Which one, exactly, was implemented? How are the rest to be tracked?

[carl123]

13 hours ago, orangefizz said:

• If I use the flood select tool on an image layer and hit copy/paste from the selection, it should not copy the entire image, only the selection. Isn't this obvious?
• &
• Why do I have to rasterize an image layer to copy or use portions of it? This has never made sense to me.

In APhoto...

Use Edit > Copy Flattened on the image layer, then paste