Lasso tool

[mitch33]

New to Affinity

Running v 1.5.2 on Mac

 

The Lasso selection tool is nowhere to be found.  Tried resetting studio.  Didn't work. Please let me know how to activate this tool.. Thanks

[JFisher]

Hi mitch33

Welcome to the forum :)

You should be able to find the Freehand Selection tool in the drop down menu under the Marquee tool. I have provided a screenshot which should help. 

[Alfred]

Slightly OT, this tool has a lasso as its icon, so why is it named 'Free hand Selection Tool' instead of 'Lasso Tool'? And since it is so named, shouldn't it be either 'Freehand' or 'Free Hand' rather than 'Free hand'?

 

[toltec]

Word for today  "Pernickety"

 

Placing too much emphasis on trivial or minor details; fussy.  ;)

 

:P

[Alfred]

I do admit to having a pernickety nature, but in this particular case the "Free hand / Free Hand / Freehand" thing is secondary to the infinitely more practical point that users looking for a Lasso Tool are generally going to expect it to be named as such. :)

 

[toltec]

Agreed. Like the Magic wand Wand Tool and the Paint bucket Bucket Tool.   :)

[toltec]

And don't get me started on a "Nesting" command!

[mitch33]

Thanks all, I found it in spite of the confusing name.

[R C-R]

If you think about it objectively, "Magic Wand" is about the silliest & least descriptive name possible for a graphics tool. "Lasso" describes the icon but not how the tool works because a lasso is a rope with one free end & a noose at the other. The Pan tool hand icon could refer to anything done with a hand & "pan" has a different meaning in the video world. "Raster" & "rasterize" are terms borrowed from the video industry when CRT images were created using parallel scan lines called rasters. Digitally rasterizing an image actually converts it to a bitmap (a map of pixel values) but "bitmap" can also refer to a one bit deep monochrome image.

 

We sometimes refer to the pixels in a bitmap/raster image file as if they had a direct, one-to-one correlation to something in the physical world but they don't. We often use ppi & dpi interchangeably but they refer to two very different things. "Color" (or if you prefer "colour") is a property of light but we also think of it as a property of things that do not emit light. We think of both light emitters & non emitters as having a single specific color but that is never really true -- our brains just evaluate the relative strengths of different parts of the spectrum of emitted light we are sensitive to & pick the most dominate part of the spectrum as its color. That varies by individual & even by the physical & psychological state of a given individual. We make an artificial distinction between color & grayscale because our eyes have different kinds of receptors for colors & for intensity. They have different sensitivities & are not evenly distributed on the retina so 'color vision' is most acute at the center of our field of view & much less so elsewhere, but we don't notice that because we move our eyes, head, & body to compensate for that & build a mental image of what we are seeing that changes over time.

 

So basically, most of the terminology we use is in some way inaccurate, contrived, ambiguous, or silly. 

[mitch33]

Well, language is always symbolic.  If one were to say "corde" instead of "lasso" it would make little sense unless you understood the symbol designated by the word in the French language. 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, mitch33 said:

Well, language is always symbolic.

 

I watched a science fiction movie yesterday. Its key plot element was that the symbolism of language fundamentally shapes how we think. I got curious about how much real science there was to that & discovered this article. It implies that not just the names assigned to graphics tools but all of the language used for such things profoundly affects our cognitive abilities.

 

There is nothing trivial about that!

[mitch33]

Thanks for linking the interesting article. Interesting, but I'm not sure about its conclusions based on my personal observations on the subject.

 

I speak four languages:  English, French, Spanish and Russian, none of which I studied, but just, somehow, picked up. Spanish and Russian were my first languages. My parents were Russian and we lived in Mexico so I was immersed in both.  I picked up English when we moved to the States; I was about 12. Other than ordinary "English" classes in public school, etc.   I never studied the language per se. I was given a trip to France as a High School graduation present.  When I arrived in France I couldn't count to three in the language.  But then I met a girl.  She spoke no English whatsoever, so I learned French on the pillow, as the French would say.  My current wife of 54 years is French and perfectly bilingual with English.  At home we sometimes speak French, other times English, but it has become so automatic that I would be unable to tell you why we break into one language rather than the other, at times it has to do with the subject being discussed, at other times I really don't know.  As for having different cognitive skills and/or different manifestations of personality in one language or another I would be unable to say.  My father spoke 8 languages, so perhaps genetics enters the picture, but who knows?

 

I only wish I could pick up Affinity as easily. 

[toltec]

8 hours ago, mitch33 said:

perhaps genetics enters the picture, but who knows?

 

I only wish I could pick up Affinity as easily. 

 

That's funny, I really struggle with languages . Picking up Affinity was not too difficult.

 

I guess you are right about genetics, My brother is very good with computers, although they were a bit after my fathers time.

[DavidMac]

On 7/18/2017 at 1:18 AM, mitch33 said:

Thanks for linking the interesting article. Interesting, but I'm not sure about its conclusions based on my personal observations on the subject.

 

I speak four languages:  English, French, Spanish and Russian, none of which I studied, but just, somehow, picked up. Spanish and Russian were my first languages. My parents were Russian and we lived in Mexico so I was immersed in both.  I picked up English when we moved to the States; I was about 12. Other than ordinary "English" classes in public school, etc.   I never studied the language per se. I was given a trip to France as a High School graduation present.  When I arrived in France I couldn't count to three in the language.  But then I met a girl.  She spoke no English whatsoever, so I learned French on the pillow, as the French would say.  My current wife of 54 years is French and perfectly bilingual with English.  At home we sometimes speak French, other times English, but it has become so automatic that I would be unable to tell you why we break into one language rather than the other, at times it has to do with the subject being discussed, at other times I really don't know.  As for having different cognitive skills and/or different manifestations of personality in one language or another I would be unable to say.  My father spoke 8 languages, so perhaps genetics enters the picture, but who knows?

 

I only wish I could pick up Affinity as easily. 

 

I find I definitely go through personality change when I speak French or English. I am English by birth but worked a lot in France and have for the last fourteen years lived in Brussels, Belgium. Like you I learned by ear. When speaking English I use body language less and vocabulary more - in French the reverse. This to some degree reflects the physical structure of the languages. French has less vocabulary and more intonation whereas English relies much more on play of words. But language is a mirror of the culture that created it and so I find my actual mindset changes according to which I am speaking. I have two perfectly bi-lingual French/English sons and they switch back and forth from one sentence to the next with no discernible reason or logic other than some things can be better expressed in one and some in the other. The switch however, they tell me, is completely unconscious and instinctive. Often they don't even realise they are doing it. Brussels, as the capital of Europe, established in a country that itself speaks two languages, has a multi national population representing just about every European language. It is common at a dinner part of as few as half a dozen people to have several languages batting back and forth across the table at the same time and we all take it completely for granted. I think language is the best gift we can give our children .........

How's that for off topic .......... ? 

[toltec]

9 minutes ago, DavidMac said:

 

I think language is the best gift we can give our children .........

How's that for off topic .......... ? 

I'm going to buy my daughter a copy of Affinity Photo ;)

[DavidMac]

Next best thing ............