Advanced Curve/Path to Selection – Feature Suggestion

[NamelessRoe]

The option for the pen tool that lets Affinity Photo users transform curves into a selection is an important feature for photo manipulation and digital art in general. It's presently limited for now in Affinity Photo. To maximize overall workflow, I think the feature should be improved and expanded so that creating precise selection adjustments with the pen tool is easier than relying on the Context Toolbar with limited options.

In Photoshop, users can make a selection with the pen tool, too. While the option to convert a curve into a selection doesn’t appear on the context toolbar like in Affinity, it can be found in the context menu that pops up when a user right-clicks on a selected object, albeit a curve, which is then availably transformed into a selection when clicking the 'Make Selection' option.

Furthermore, it doesn’t stop there like Affinity would with its Context Toolbar. After making that action, a menu appears, which Photoshop gives you an advanced option to create a new selection, add, subtract, or intersect it with an existing selection by using the pen tool alone. This is incredibly useful for making quick and efficient edits or adjustments to a selection with precision.

Whereas in Affinity Photo, you have to save the created selection from a curve to the Channels panel, and that’s when you’re able to add, subtract, or intersect it with another selection. That alone is time-consuming, so that's why I'm suggesting a quick feature for it. Implementing this advanced feature would benefit Affinity users and allow it to better compete with Photoshop's.

Edited April 13 by NamelessRoe

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @NamelessRoe

I can see where something like this could be useful.

However, rather than right-clicking and selecting from a menu to get a dialog to determine how the selection was made, I would suggest converting the existing “Selection” button on the Context Toolbar to display a pop-up, like the Alignment button on the Toolbar, from which the user could choose the desired action.

With, maybe, a companion “Quick Select” button next to the “Selection button to quickly repeat the same action which was last chosen. Or, perhaps, using a modifier key with the “Selection” button to perform the “Quick Select” action instead.

Some of the above could, of course, be duplicated via context menu items for people who prefer to do it that way.