Stroke?

[Ralph Tomaccio]

I used the Stroke command in PS a lot, but now that I am learning Affinity, I can't seem to find a similar command. I would frequently use the Marque tool, a freehand selection or come up with a shape in conjunction with using guides and then stroke them. Is there a way to do that in Affinity as easily as in PS?

[GarryP]

I’m confused by your combination of the Marquee Tool (there are more than one), and shapes, and guides, and “stroke them” in the same sentence.

Can you give us a more detailed example of what you are trying to do, preferably with a visual example and/or a document?

[David in Яuislip]

You need to use Select/Outline then fill the gap. Far too tedious so I wrote a macro
It's not as versatile as Photoshop, you can't choose inside/centre/outside as that is frozen during macro recording and was set to outside but it does what I need

StrokeSelection.afmacro

[thomaso]

30 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said:

You need to use Select/Outline then fill the gap. Far too tedious

… indeed odd that the menu "Edit" > "Fill…" dialog is simply missing "Stroke" options.

[David in Яuislip]

21 minutes ago, thomaso said:

… indeed odd that

I prefer idiosyncratic to odd. My next reply in the bugs section is indeed odd though 🙂

[Ralph Tomaccio]

18 hours ago, GarryP said:

I’m confused by your combination of the Marquee Tool (there are more than one), and shapes, and guides, and “stroke them” in the same sentence.

Can you give us a more detailed example of what you are trying to do, preferably with a visual example and/or a document?

I made a simple example of using guides, creating a rectangular shape using the Rectangular Marque Tool, and stroking that using a black line centered on the Marque. Within that is another shape using the Lasso Tool and then stroked a green line on the outside of the marque. Hopefully, this will better explain my original post.

I know how to use guides and am familiar with the various Marque tools in AF2 Photo, I just can't find a way to "stroke" them. I am not looking to fill the shapes, just outline them.

[Ralph Tomaccio]

18 hours ago, David in Яuislip said:

You need to use Select/Outline then fill the gap. Far too tedious so I wrote a macro
It's not as versatile as Photoshop, you can't choose inside/centre/outside as that is frozen during macro recording and was set to outside but it does what I need

StrokeSelection.afmacro 880 B · 1 download

David, I am not familiar enough with AF 2 Photo to know where to place the macro or how to use it. Would it be too much to ask where I can get more info on the process, please?

[Alfred]

3 hours ago, Ralph Tomaccio said:

David, I am not familiar enough with AF 2 Photo to know where to place the macro or how to use it. Would it be too much to ask where I can get more info on the process, please?

I’m not David (obviously!) but I think the Help tells you everything you need to know.

Affinity Photo 2 Help: Macro panel

[GarryP]

3 hours ago, Ralph Tomaccio said:

I made a simple example

Thanks for supplying extra information.

For regular shapes (e.g. rectangle, ellipse, and such forth) I would probably just use a Quick Shape (e.g. Rectangle Tool) instead of messing around with selections.

For irregular shapes I would probably use a variant of what I show in my attached video using a Spare Channel, which I suspect could be what David’s macro does. (Make sure that the first selection is smaller than the second selection so it can be subtracted.)

[Alfred]

10 minutes ago, GarryP said:

For irregular shapes I would probably use a variant of what I show in my attached video using a Spare Channel, which I suspect could be what David’s macro does. (Make sure that the first selection is smaller than the second selection so it can be subtracted.)

Instead of subtracting one selection from another, you can choose the ‘Outline…’ option on the Select menu.

Affinity Photo 2 Help: Creating outline selections

[GarryP]

Thanks for the reminder, that’s probably an easier method in most situations.

[David in Яuislip]

4 hours ago, Ralph Tomaccio said:

David, I am not familiar enough with AF 2 Photo to know where to place the macro or how to use it. Would it be too much to ask where I can get more info on the process, please?

Start with the Help. It might be a bit cryptic on first read but keep at it
The Macro panel handles .afmacro files containing a single macro
The Library panel handles .afmacros files containing multiple macros
I keep the Library panel available next to the Histogram/Colour/Brushes. If I need a Macro panel, I click on the Library then right click on any macro and choose Edit
You need a Macro panel open, click the Import icon on the right. Once it's imported click the Add to Library icon

As stated above, you can't choose inside/centre/outside, to achieve that you'd need three macros

[David in Яuislip]

27 minutes ago, GarryP said:

using a Spare Channel, which I suspect could be what David’s macro does.

Nah, it's not that clever

[GarryP]

I forgot about the Outline functionality which Alfred mentioned later.

[NotMyFault]

Isn’t outline selection the tool that does the trick?

[Alfred]

12 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Isn’t outline selection the tool that does the trick?

 

18 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I forgot about the Outline functionality which Alfred mentioned later.

 

36 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Instead of subtracting one selection from another, you can choose the ‘Outline…’ option on the Select menu.

Affinity Photo 2 Help: Creating outline selections

 

[Ralph Tomaccio]

To all of you that have responded, Thank You!

I obviously need to spend more time both in the Help section as well as in taking a deeper dive into Affinity 2 Photo.