Feather dialog shows twice when using keyboard instead of mouse

[Kepa Online]

At one point Affinity Photo started doing this slightly annoying behavior.  Repro steps:

1. Use the loop selection tool to select part of the image.

2. Shift-F6 (on my system I use Shift-Fn-F6 because of how I have the F shortcut keys set up).

3. Tab to the pixel input box (it has 0px to start) and type "30px" (for example) in the input box.

4. Press Enter (this is very important- do not click Apply, just press Enter and you will need to do it twice because the first Enter just "commits" to "30px" input in the input itself while the second Enter essentially triggers the default action button which is "Apply" for this dialog)

5. Watch in horror as the dialog just re-appears with 0px as the input once again. 🙂

I know, it isn't a big bug, but it just annoys me that this is really the only bug I encounter with an otherwise perfect product.

 

*Edit: after getting feedback from others below, I'd like to clarify that this only appears to be an issue on Mac OS X with Affinity Photo v2.x (specifically use v2.4.1 so you're on the latest version because it is possible that this bug was only introduced after a minor update to v2- maybe the initial v2 worked fine... I can't recall exactly when I started seeing the issue, but I know that v1.x did not have it).

Edited March 31, 2024 by Kepa Online
Clarify version + OS used

[thomaso]

15 hours ago, Kepa Online said:

4. Press Enter (this is very important- do not click Apply, just press Enter and you will need to do it twice because the first Enter just "commits" to "30px" input in the input itself while the second Enter essentially triggers the default action button which is "Apply" for this dialog)

5. Watch in horror as the dialog just re-appears with 0px as the input once again. 🙂

Both doesn't happen to me in macOS, APhoto, V1. After typing the value pressing 'Enter' closes the dialog directly + keeps the feathering preview applied.

What versions of operating system and APh are you using? – Does it work without issue if you use the tab key to move from the value field to the 'Apply' button before pressing 'Enter'?

[walt.farrell]

Photo 2 (2.4, and 2.4.2 beta) on Windows does not behave that way for me.

16 hours ago, Kepa Online said:

3. Tab to the pixel input box (it has 0px to start) and type "30px" (for example) in the input box.

I am already on the input box at this point. Tabbing would put me on the Apply button.

16 hours ago, Kepa Online said:

4. Press Enter (this is very important- do not click Apply, just press Enter and you will need to do it twice because the first Enter just "commits" to "30px" input in the input itself while the second Enter essentially triggers the default action button which is "Apply" for this dialog)

Pressing Enter the first time commits the 30px and removes focus from the input box. Pressing Enter a second time does nothing. I must press Apply.

16 hours ago, Kepa Online said:

5. Watch in horror as the dialog just re-appears with 0px as the input once again. 🙂

Does not happen.

[Kepa Online]

3 hours ago, thomaso said:

Both doesn't happen to me in macOS, APhoto, V1. After typing the value pressing 'Enter' closes the dialog directly + keeps the feathering preview applied.

What versions of operating system and APh are you using? – Does it work without issue if you use the tab key to move from the value field to the 'Apply' button before pressing 'Enter'?

Sorry, I thought I included the Affinity Photo version number... I'm on the latest version: v2.4.1.  This issue was introduced later v1 because I used v1.x happily until I think this issue started in v2 or one of the minor releases of v2.

[Kepa Online]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Photo 2 (2.4, and 2.4.2 beta) on Windows does not behave that way for me.

I am already on the input box at this point. Tabbing would put me on the Apply button.

Pressing Enter the first time commits the 30px and removes focus from the input box. Pressing Enter a second time does nothing. I must press Apply.

Does not happen.

Ah, Windows probably works differently.  I'm on Mac OS v14.2.1 (Sonoma).  I'm using v2.4.1 of Affinity Photo.  Out of curiosity, how would I get access to a beta version?

[Komatös]

3 minutes ago, Kepa Online said:

Out of curiosity, how would I get access to a beta version?

Have a look here: https://affinity.serif.com/affinity-beta-program/

[Kepa Online]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Photo 2 (2.4, and 2.4.2 beta) on Windows does not behave that way for me.

I am already on the input box at this point. Tabbing would put me on the Apply button.

Pressing Enter the first time commits the 30px and removes focus from the input box. Pressing Enter a second time does nothing. I must press Apply.

Does not happen.

I just tried it on v2.4.1 on Windows and I can confirm that Affinity Photo on Windows performs the way you describe (focus is on different UI element to Mac so tab key is unnecessary to get to input box and it doesn't have the dialog re-appear after pressing Enter when Apply button has focus).  So, yes, this seems to only be an issue on v2.x on Mac OS X.

[walt.farrell]

I've tried it on macOS now, and I can confirm the sequence in your first post.

Note, though, that although the second Enter just seems to set the input box back to 0px, it actually does two things:

1. Apply the Feather operation; then
2. Redisplay the Feather dialog with the input set to 0px.

So, for a workaround for now, you can just click Cancel when the dialog reappears.

By the way, it's always a good idea to tell us the OS, application, and application release you're using

[NathanC]

Hi @Kepa Online,

Thanks for your report, I've replicated and logged this with the developers.