Convert a selection to a path

[peexel]

It would be great if you could convert a selection to a path in Affinity Desiger 2.

I'm sure it will be very useful.

Placed in "Person or Photo" which are more specific to raster selection, since Designer does not have a dedicated selection tool being a vector tool" the beauty of Affinity is that you can switch between Photo and Designer at any time, so in Photo or Persona you can select the outline of the object, convert the selection to a path, and then return to Designer again.

Useful for creating outlines where they can also be edited later and more.

I don't remember if I have already made this request in the past, I tried to do a search first but I couldn't find anything about it.

Thank you.

[peexel]

Can it be done in Affinity?

[MEB]

Hi @peexel,
No, currently only the opposite is possible in Affinity Photo (convert a path to a selection).

[loukash]

43 minutes ago, peexel said:

Can it be done in Affinity?

There is a somewhat rudimentary "accidental feature" in Publisher: 

In other words:

1. add a blank pixel layer and fill your selection
2. File → Edit In Publisher
3. Edit Wrap Outline
4. Select All (nodes in the outline)
5. Paste (new Curves layer)
6. apply fill or stroke
7. optionally delete the temporary pixel layer

Note that the wrap outline/curves will be jaggy so you may want to clean it up and soften manually.

[Alex73]

On 10/12/2023 at 5:10 AM, MEB said:

Hi @peexel,
No, currently only the opposite is possible in Affinity Photo (convert a path to a selection).

Hi MEB. 
I’m on iPad but I can’t find how to convert a path to a selection in Affinity Photo. 
Can you help?

 

Thank you,

Alex

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Alex73 said:

I’m on iPad but I can’t find how to convert a path to a selection in Affinity Photo.

Please see Pixel selections from shapes from the Help for Affinity Photo 2 on iPad. (The method is the same for version 1 of APh. Replace photo2ipad with photoipad if you’re desperate to see the Help for version 1, but I find the legibility vastly improved in the online Help for the new version.)

[Alex73]

15 hours ago, Alfred said:

Please see Pixel selections from shapes from the Help for Affinity Photo 2 on iPad. (The method is the same for version 1 of APh. Replace photo2ipad with photoipad if you’re desperate to see the Help for version 1, but I find the legibility vastly improved in the online Help for the new version.)

Thank you Alfred.

[Alfred]

7 hours ago, Alex73 said:

Thank you Alfred.

You’re welcome, Alex.

 

[Olidoesaffinity]

I agree with OP. Having a Selection to Path option would be very useful. I would use this feature regularly for work. For example, I have an image with an outer shape that needs to be cut out. When I send this to the printer, I must send a print file with a vector outline path for the cutting machine to follow. Doing this manually is too time-consuming.  

[languidcorpse]

There was an old thread in 2014. I can't believe its been that long and they said it was coming soon. LOL.

[languidcorpse]

On 10/12/2023 at 2:10 PM, MEB said:

Hi @peexel,
No, currently only the opposite is possible in Affinity Photo (convert a path to a selection).

Its never coming is it? I have realized I have been checking this software every few updates and in 2014 you said that feature was coming soon. Sad all around.

[MEB]

Hi @languidcorpse,
That was the information I had at the time. It in was in the public roadmap (if I remember correctly) before it was removed quite a few years ago before we made the Betas public. It never materialised despite being a requested/planned feature as you noticed. I'm sorry for the disappointment, but this is something that's out of my hands.

[Torstein]

Anyway, what has been said before, I say it again: It's strange that there is no simple way to convert a selection to a Path in Affinity Photo or Designer.

[issicus]

Affinity devs think we need to learn to trace .  

[languidcorpse]

I'm honestly dumbfounded by the lack of people who have not asked for this. I guess Affinity is more for people making T-shirts and print designs than any type of painting or concept work. It baffles me more than our last election. Of course I do occasionally make t's and it would be good to have with that as well.  

On another note, @MEB, you have been a solid. Although I think my upgrading any more is done. I cheered and rooted for years, but I have given up.

 

[Mauko]

I'm with @Torstein this is really missing...

[Lorox]

I'm all with you, guys: for me it's quite a shame that this "selection to path" feature is still missing in Affinity Photo and Designer – but so is "Autotrace bitmaps“ (or whatever you want to call it) in general. I really can't get my head around it that such an essential feature/tool for professional graphic artwork hasn’t been included during all these years.

It's been called for so often and by so many users, but still no sign of it on the horizon. Makes me sort of sad and contributes to making it harder than I'd actually wish to wholeheartedly defend or propagate the switch I took from the Adobe apps to Affinity years ago.

I'd go so far and say that at least v3 (and on) just has to have it to finally be taken seriously by most professional designers.

[Yuridek]

This feature: Convert selection to Parth is needed please! 🥺

 

[R.I.P. Affinity 26.03.2024]

I need it from time to time. It sucks to do it manually. 🤲

[Meliora spero]

On 11/30/2024 at 2:08 PM, languidcorpse said:

I'm honestly dumbfounded by the lack of people who have not asked for this. I guess Affinity is more for people making T-shirts and print designs than any type of painting or concept work. It baffles me more than our last election. Of course I do occasionally make t's and it would be good to have with that as well.  

On another note, @MEB, you have been a solid. Although I think my upgrading any more is done. I cheered and rooted for years, but I have given up.

You’re basically correct about the customers here. Serif has avoided creating a product for professional customers or heavy-duty users, effectively nudging existing customers towards alternatives through a "no hope" trend. Today, I followed up on both an error and a missing feature here, reported respectively in 2019 and 2014. This is a completely normal pattern for Serif and Affinity.

I’ve pretty much given up as well. Publisher is far too lacking and buggy, Designer is similarly lacking and buggy, so they’ve ended up being well-liked brainstorming tools for me, but completely useless and insufficient as production tools across different output media.

Now, for instance, I’ll continue working in another competent program to create a significant part of an illustration. It won’t take long and will turn out perfect because the competent program has a blend tool. This way, I don’t waste my life on it and can focus on creating the illustration I need to produce, rather than on time-consuming workarounds. I’m looking for smooth sailing.

[Lorox]

13 hours ago, Meliora spero said:

Publisher is far too lacking and buggy, Designer is similarly lacking and buggy, so they’ve ended up being well-liked brainstorming tools for me, but completely useless and insufficient as production tools across different output media.

I really do object. I've been using Designer and Publisher for several years now and I've been able to create numerous layouts (mainly for print) that have turned out perfectly well having been produced by professional print services. The results have actually been excellent and they are definitely no worse than anything which I previously had been used to do in e.g. InDesign.

Of course, there continue to be quite a few annoying shortcomings, quirks and possibly even straightforward bugs in the Affinity apps and I as well think the interface should be more intuitive and self explanatory in several of its "corners". And yeah, it's frustrating when you have to wait for features and improvements that are – given that competitors have these included in their apps for ages – have been requested over and over again for years by now.

However, saying the apps are "completely useless and insufficient as production tools" is just not true and it doesn't help anybody. I for my part am perfectly happy that the Affinity apps have made it possible for me to generally leave Adobe behind (even if I admittedly – however rarely – have to come back to my decades old version of Illustrator now and then to do something special that's possible there, but (still) and regrettably not yet in Designer…)

Certainly I'm usually "looking for smooth sailing“, too, but you always have to weigh your options and currently I'd rather give Affinity/Serif some more encouragement to finally listen more carefully to the more "professional“ members of their user base and keep improving and adding essential features than needlessly declaring the apps "useless" and going back to where I have been happy to escape...

But then, that's a strictly personal view in respect to the things that I need the apps for – might be different for others.

[Meliora spero]

We have different opinions and business needs, and surely we can both live with that, even in this day and age. My perspective is that Affinity – particularly Publisher – consistently fails to meet my fairly reasonable and current business needs, and I’m astounded that this is still the case nearly 10 years after Serif started over and retired their previous program(s). I simply cannot use them for my needs, which are neither basic nor exceptionally advanced.

So, the fact that you can use it is, of course, great for you – but others can’t, and you can’t object to their needs. I’d argue that the common denominator for those needs is that they lean toward the more demanding end of the spectrum. That’s the group Serif might now need to try to cater to, especially now that Canvas has acquired Serif and seemingly harbors ambitions of appealing to business clients. Achieving this, however, requires far more effort than most people realize.

Serif has simply taken too long to develop a new DTP program to replace what they had, so all the benefits of starting from scratch are hardly worth much when they've been behind from the start, and their competitors have moved even further ahead during that time. You don’t start over halfway into a 400-meter hurdles race. Not without losing. Unless you’ve received a significant boost of substantial magnitude. Serif didn’t. And I don’t see Canva investing the millions and staff expansions necessary either.

As can be inferred from a bit of scattered reading on the forum, many are likely waiting in vain for improvements and bug fixes. One can’t help but wonder if they are, in reality, sitting by the aforementioned 400-meter hurdles track, waiting for the restarted participant, who—wheezing for breath, with lactic acid buildup, and a cramp in their thigh—might not even make it to the finish line but instead drops out.

But in short, some can use Affinity, that's clear, but the almost total lack of adoption across the commercial market isn’t just because Adobe is the de facto standard. It’s also due to limitations, and I can only imagine that others have come to the same realizations I have. The lack of features and professional-grade algorithms, which are absolutely essential in professional workflows, is striking. And puzzling.

[issicus]

It's almost like they don't read the forums ... Hah

[GW1]

Why would the developers of Affinity leave this essential function out? it's such a fundamental tool. If you at Affinity do read these forums....FIX IT NOW please.

 

[hawkibambam]

Not only is it incredible that this has been coming soon for 11 years, but it also is a super easy thing to add. You already have the selection. How can it not be programmatically convertible to a path? There are so many use cases. WTF? Or maybe, just maybe,... it is SUPER hard to do. That would explain why they can't get er done. They just aren't clever enough.