is Crop to selection possible

[Jowday]

2 hours ago, Ian Tindale said:

When will I be able to crop to selection in the normal way?

Expect never. Hope for earlier than that.

[bokeh-ape]

The fact that this topic is still open and Serif hasn't added this basic function is sad + laughable.   Many, many programs have this function - including many free programs...

[eobet]

I had to do an internet search for this today.

Very sad to see something like this still isn't possible yet.

[Leelz]

This is sad, really. Earlier this year I went ahead and purchased all the Affinity products thinking that, come September, I could cancel my Adobe CC subscription and move to Affinity.

All I can say is, thank god I didn't cancel my Adobe CC.

With a simple feature like this missing, I think that Affinity Photo is way behind in even being considered as a Photoshop alternative. Probably on the level of Paint or Paint.NET or something. Sad but kinda true.

Anyway, hopefully they'll pick up and move with feature parity.

[Unzyme]

I miss this feature a lot, but it hasn't been a deal breaker for me.

[bitkahuna]

didn't read all this, but just had to do this and with some of what i read, was able to do it.

i cropped a 'background' layer to the size i wanted on the original. i copied that and did new from clipboard to make the new doc the right size.

i then went back to the original and multi-selected all the pieces i wanted to have on the new doc at the right doc size and did edit/copy.

went to new doc and did paste.

voila.

 

[bokeh-ape]

16 minutes ago, bitkahuna said:

didn't read all this, but just had to do this and with some of what i read, was able to do it.

i cropped a 'background' layer to the size i wanted on the original. i copied that and did new from clipboard to make the new doc the right size.

i then went back to the original and multi-selected all the pieces i wanted to have on the new doc at the right doc size and did edit/copy.

went to new doc and did paste.

voila.

 

Congrats. It took you 7+ steps to do something that should only take 1-click.

[bitkahuna]

On 11/20/2020 at 4:00 PM, bokeh-ape said:

Congrats. It took you 7+ steps to do something that should only take 1-click.

first world problem, lol.

at least there's a way.

 

[SimonTheSorcerer]

It's pretty sad to see this going on for 8 pages and the devs not adding a simple command for this, saving everyone's time and effort. It just needs a macro that resizes the canvas to the selection's bounding box. I knew this wasn't here since it was one of the first things I tried many years ago, but I thought to check just in case.
Simple things like this make Affinity hard to recommend. You won a lot of users with the rapid initial development; users that had the expectation development would continue with that pace when they invested their time into using Affinity. But it has been stale for years now... It really gives the wrong impression.

[Ulysses]

The problem with threads like this is that a simple gripe of the day frequently becomes a stand of trees that prevents some from seeing the entire forest.

I'm glad I left Adobe behind. It got to the point that they were 1) asking more of me as a customer than I was willing to give up, and 2) they weren’t providing me with what I wanted as a creative pro. I didn’t leave them because they were lacking in features. I left because they ceased to be what I was looking for, and they weren’t supporting me. Perhaps this is the case for some when it comes to the Serif products. Thank goodness there are other tools out there to make everyone happy.

What drew me to the Affinity products years ago—and still does—is that although they may not be as feature-rich as Adobe, they really do listen to user feedback, and they steadily improve in the areas that matter most. They don’t catch and deliver on every single request. But honestly, I can deal with that. For example, this particular feature—Crop to a selection—is quite simple in Photoshop; but if I’m being honest, this isn't a feature that I constantly need. It’s not a deal breaker. I have far more advantages with Affinity software than without.The satisfaction in the workflow and in the results is well worth the cost of the transition away from companies in whom I’d lost faith.

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, SimonTheSorcerer said:

It just needs a macro that resizes the canvas to the selection's bounding box.

No macro please, no resize required, – just crop / eliminate on click.
Neither Ulysses nor Dedalus complexity, – that would be a Joyce.

[Andy05]

7 hours ago, Ulysses said:

They don’t catch and deliver on every single request. But honestly, I can deal with that. For example, this particular feature—Crop to a selection—is quite simple in Photoshop; but if I’m being honest, this isn't a feature that I constantly need. It’s not a deal breaker.

I agree with this. But the still missing non-destructive warp/envelope function for vector objects and—what really baffles me—NO real customisable vector brushes (sic!) in designer are deal breaking to a lot of (possible) users.

[Ulysses]

4 minutes ago, Andy05 said:

I agree with this. But the still missing non-destructive warp/envelope function for vector objects and—what really baffles me—NO real customisable vector brushes (sic!) in designer are deal breaking to a lot of (possible) users.

I have zero doubt that is the case for some. For many others like myself, it's not. And as I mentioned, for users like myself the total picture of where they are in the stream of time and relative to the very real annoyances and disappointments I experienced with Adobe are what tip the scales very far toward the Affinity products. This is the case for me even as they grow the feature set. Affinity covers my needs, and I simply enjoy the tools. 

Thankfully there are plenty of other tools out there to satisfy (almost) everyone.

[bokeh-ape]

7 hours ago, Ulysses said:

The problem with threads like this is that a simple gripe of the day frequently becomes a stand of trees that prevents some from seeing the entire forest.

Simple gripe of the day?   This thread has been going on for nearly 4 years...1,396 days to be exact.    This is a standard feature available in many image editing apps, including Photoshop, MS Paint, Paint.NET, Gimp, and Paintshop Pro.   The kicker is the most basic programs, like Paint and Paint.NET, have this feature.

[Ulysses]

1 minute ago, bokeh-ape said:

Simple gripe of the day?   This thread has been going on for nearly 4 years...1,396 days to be exact.    This is a standard feature available in many image editing apps, including Photoshop, MS Paint, Paint.NET, Gimp, and Paintshop Pro.   The kicker is the most basic programs, like Paint and Paint.NET, have this feature.

Hopefully Serif is listening. It'll certainly be great to not wait for as long as Paint has been around. 🙂 

[Andy05]

1 hour ago, Ulysses said:

I have zero doubt that is the case for some. For many others like myself, it's not. And as I mentioned, for users like myself the total picture of where they are in the stream of time and relative to the very real annoyances and disappointments I experienced with Adobe are what tip the scales very far toward the Affinity products. This is the case for me even as they grow the feature set. Affinity covers my needs, and I simply enjoy the tools. 

Thankfully there are plenty of other tools out there to satisfy (almost) everyone.

Hm. Seems to be a limited field you'd need the apps for, if you don't miss vector brushes in a vector app. But anyways, this whole discussion was started initially about pixels, so my examples might not affect you as you probably don't work with vectors. Still weird, if you sell a vector app, which lacks basic vector functions. It's like selling a car without steering wheel. Yes, you could drive it nevertheless, i. e. if you use a pipe wrench for steering.

[Ulysses]

8 minutes ago, Andy05 said:

Hm. Seems to be a limited field you'd need the apps for, if you don't miss vector brushes in a vector app. But anyways, this whole discussion was started initially about pixels, so my examples might not affect you as you probably don't work with vectors. Still weird, if you sell a vector app, which lacks basic vector functions. It's like selling a car without steering wheel. Yes, you could drive it nevertheless, i. e. if you use a pipe wrench for steering.

This thread is all over the map. It started out as a discussion about the Crop tool. So I hope it's OK if we digress again.  

About your thoughts on vector brushes, Affinity Designer does work with vector brushes. And you can customize them. You can download and install other vector brushes and customize those as well. But perhaps I'm misunderstanding exactly what you're asking for? 

Does this video touch on what you're looking for?

 

[Dazmondo77]

6 minutes ago, Andy05 said:

if you use a pipe wrench for steering.

Shame there's nothing comparable for missing vector distortions and proper vector brushes from within Affinity - I'd be chuffed with 'pipe wrench for steering' until the super, ultra, mega proper steering wheel is added - oh yeah, crop to selection would be fairly handy and like vector distortions and proper vector brushes, I couldn't fathom why we didn't get these basics six years ago  

[Dazmondo77]

11 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

Affinity Designer does work with vector brushes.

Affinity vector brushes are bitmaps that flow along vector paths - useless for a proper vector workflow

[thomaso]

9 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

About your thoughts on vector brushes, Affinity Designer does work with vector brushes. And you can customize them. You can download and install other vector brushes and customize those as well. But perhaps I'm misunderstanding exactly what you're asking for? 

Various posts are missing "true" vector brushes. The currently availabe / customizable draw their curves as vector – but filled with a pixel image. The painted structure (e.g. "brush") of such a curve currently isn't allowed /enabled to be vector.

[Andy05]

13 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Various posts are missing "true" vector brushes. The currently availabe / customizable draw their curves as vector – but filled with a pixel image. The painted structure (e.g. "brush") of such a curve currently isn't allowed /enabled to be vector.

Exactly. Even Affinity removed the term "vector brushes" on their website. A pixel brush following a (vector) path is not a vector brush.

@Ulysses Check the first comment on the video you recommended... »Need to rename this video. Making a brush from a PNG is not vector.«

[Ulysses]

25 minutes ago, Dazmondo77 said:

Affinity vector brushes are bitmaps that flow along vector paths - useless for a proper vector workflow

Thanks for mentioning that distinction. Very helpful.

[lepr]

1 hour ago, Andy05 said:

Exactly. Even Affinity removed the term "vector brushes" on their website. 
 

"Vector brushes" is still in the features list today: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/full-feature-list/

[Andy05]

11 minutes ago, anon2 said:

"Vector brushes" is still in the features list today: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/full-feature-list/

Oh, wow! Must have added them (again) after some of the recent releases? I was sure they've removed it in the international/English version a while ago, too, when I looked at them. As they did that in the German version.

On the German page it's since then "a solid brush" for (intuitive and natual) drawing... Probably they changed the localised wording here, because we have strict laws in Germany concerning false advertising?

EDIT: No, you're right. Further down in the wall of text, they still call them "Flexible Vektorpinsel" (flexible vector brushes). 

[Ulysses]

13 minutes ago, Andy05 said:

Oh, wow! Must have added them (again) after some of the recent releases? I was sure they've removed it in the international/English version a while ago, too, when I looked at them. As they did that in the German version.

EDIT: No, you're right. Further down in the wall of text, they still call them "Flexible Vektorpinsel" (flexible vector brushes). 

This is what I was referring to earlier. That's why I was confused by some of the earlier comments about the lack of customizable vector brushes. Designer can work with other pixel-based brushes, too. But the behavior of those is very different.