Crop AND resize in same operation

[Oceanwatcher]

Here is what I am used to do in Photoshop:

Select crop tool
Enter specific size in pixels
Drag/resize the frame so I get what I want from the picture
Hit enter to crop AND to resize to the exact pixel numbers I chose.

When I try to do this in Affinity Photo, the pixel numbers I chose changes when I drag the frame. The reason for choosing and exact number of pixels was to lock that. But it seems like it behaves exactly as the unrestricted crop. Is there a setting I am missing?

[MEB]

Hi Oceanwatcher,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

This is not possible in the current version of Affinity Photo (1.5.2). You have to crop and scale in two different steps/operations but we already have improved the Crop Tool for  an upcoming update so this should also be possible soon.

 

 

[Oceanwatcher]

Sounds great! So I am hoping this release comes soon! Really need this functions. Preparing images for a webshop is a real pain if it has to be done in multiple steps. And I was hoping to avoid buying Photoshop for this...

Any chance of letting us know a ballpark time for the update?

[MEB]

There's no eta for this, sorry. It will be added as soon as the dev team considers it ready for release.

[Fixx]

Not in Beta version yet..

[MEB]

No, it's not in the Betas either (yet).

[R C-R]

As I understand it, in Photoshop 'crop & resize' is done by setting a resolution for the crop in the resolution field, which at some point must resample the pixels of the cropped selection if the resolution (as DPI, ppi, or whatever) is different from the 'native' resolution of the document. Is this correct?

[toltec]

Yes. 

[Oceanwatcher]

On 8/15/2017 at 9:49 AM, R C-R said:

As I understand it, in Photoshop 'crop & resize' is done by setting a resolution for the crop in the resolution field, which at some point must resample the pixels of the cropped selection if the resolution (as DPI, ppi, or whatever) is different from the 'native' resolution of the document. Is this correct?

Yes and no. It has to be resampled as the number of pixels will be different from the original.

But resolution as you call it, is not relevant for a digital file. Only for print. It is just a flag that tells a printer how close to output the pixels. So you could easily keep the same resolution when you change the number of pixels in a file. If you print the file, it will of course be a different size. A file that is 1000px x 500px @ 150 PPI will print much bigger than a file that is 1000px x 500px @ 3000 PPI. But both of them will look exactly the same if you put them on a web page.

This is easily demonstrated by opening a file in Photoshop, changing only the PPI and save it with a new name. The file should be the same size as the original give or take a few bytes. PPI is just information to a printer.

[toltec]

3 minutes ago, Oceanwatcher said:

Yes and no. It has to be resampled as the number of pixels will be different from the original.

But resolution as you call it, is not relevant for a digital file. Only for print. It is just a flag that tells a printer how close to output the pixels. So you could easily keep the same resolution when you change the number of pixels in a file. If you print the file, it will of course be a different size. A file that is 1000px x 500px @ 150 PPI will print much bigger than a file that is 1000px x 500px @ 3000 PPI. But both of them will look exactly the same if you put them on a web page.

This is easily demonstrated by opening a file in Photoshop, changing only the PPI and save it with a new name. The file should be the same size as the original give or take a few bytes. PPI is just information to a printer.

 

I think you need to clarify that. 

 

Using inches for websites does not work either. At 1000 px your web image will appear at a very different size on a 52" tv or a smart phone.

 

You don't need to use Photoshop. Us poor Affinity Photo users can do that too 

 

[Oceanwatcher]

1 minute ago, toltec said:

Using inches for websites does not work either. At 1000 px your web image will appear at a very different size on a 52" tv or a smart phone.

Two images 1000 px wide, but with different PPI will display exactly the same on the same monitor. I am not talking about differences between sizes of monitors  Same display, two images, different PPI for the images.

And yes, you should be able to do the test with Affinity as well!

[toltec]

Exactly, it's this strange obsession with inches that causes most of the confusion. How big is an inch when it comes to PPI?

 

A 72 pixel image is going to be a lot bigger on a 52" 1920 x 1080 TV than on 2,560 x 1,440 5" 4k phone. And yet 72 ppi is often quoted as a screen standard 

[Oceanwatcher]

11 minutes ago, toltec said:

A 72 pixel image is going to be a lot bigger on a 52" 1920 x 1080 TV than on 2,560 x 1,440 5" 4k phone. And yet 72 ppi is often quoted as a screen standard 

 

Better to say a 250 pixel images so it is not confused with the PPI. But yes, 72 PPI has nothing to do with resolution on a screen. Like I said - PPI is for print. Not for display.

 

And the weird thing - this is sometimes confused even in documentation, training manuals etc. Even by Adobe :-)

If anyone is in doubt: When you are making graphics for web, screen etc. you do not have to set PPI to 72. Actually, it might be better to set it to 300. In some image editing programs, the PPI has an influence on how the sizes of fonts are displayed inside your document while you are creating it. With 300 PPI it might be easier to do finer adjustments.

[toltec]

If you create a document (like A4) and set the dpi it should affect the size of any bitmap you create, like a line you draw using a pixel brush.

 

It you set the document at 300 dpi it should make a 2" line 600 pixels.

If you set the document at 400 dpi it should make a 2" line 800 pixels..

[R C-R]

Hi @Oceanwatcher! To clarify, I was using "resolution" as it appears in the Photoshop crop field, where (as I understand it) users can either leave it blank, resulting in no resampling; or enter a number & choose for example DPI as the units, resulting in resampling.

 

There have been many, many discussions in these forums about the various meanings of "resolution" & the (often technically incorrect) use of DPI, ppi, the  metric equivalents, etc. throughout the graphics industry. I have contributed to quite a few of them, including pointing users to the Affinity Photo Understanding DPI video.

 

Here, I was just trying to clarify a point about what PS does to crop & "resize" simultaneously.

[MarcoDuf]

On 14/8/2017 at 5:14 PM, Oceanwatcher said:

Here is what I am used to do in Photoshop:

Select crop tool
Enter specific size in pixels
Drag/resize the frame so I get what I want from the picture
Hit enter to crop AND to resize to the exact pixel numbers I chose.

When I try to do this in Affinity Photo, the pixel numbers I chose changes when I drag the frame. The reason for choosing and exact number of pixels was to lock that. But it seems like it behaves exactly as the unrestricted crop. Is there a setting I am missing?

 

Any update on this topic? I'm looking forward to it!

[MEB]

Hi MarcoDuf,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

The dev team is rewriting/expanding the Crop Tool. it will include new functionality/features (including crop & resize). 

[Munro]

On 14 August 2017 at 5:14 PM, Oceanwatcher said:

Here is what I am used to do in Photoshop:

Select crop tool
Enter specific size in pixels
Drag/resize the frame so I get what I want from the picture
Hit enter to crop AND to resize to the exact pixel numbers I chose.

When I try to do this in Affinity Photo, the pixel numbers I chose changes when I drag the frame. The reason for choosing and exact number of pixels was to lock that. But it seems like it behaves exactly as the unrestricted crop. Is there a setting I am missing?

Hi. Just new to using AF and also missing this feature from PS. Looking forward to this update.

[sk4nner]

On 12/27/2017 at 12:55 PM, MEB said:

Hi MarcoDuf,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

The dev team is rewriting/expanding the Crop Tool. it will include new functionality/features (including crop & resize). 

Hi there,

are there any updates regarding this request/feature?

 

[MEB]

Hi sk4nner,
No, not yet, sorry. Maybe v1.7 will include it but i may be wrong. It's certainly one of the most commented/requested features.

[johnhardy]

Yes Definitely needed

I used Adobe Fireworks for many years to resize batches. Never a fault.

Unfortunately on a new machine I cannot get Fireworks cs3 working anymore.

 

[MEB]

Hi johnhardy,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
The Crop Tool is being rewritten to include these functions (crop and resample) in the same operation. It should be included in v1.7 if everything goes as planned.

[vwatson]

Another vote for this.  Currently I pull up an old version of photoshop if I need to crop/resize. Once you get used to doing it in one step, it's very hard to revert to the 2-step process, especially if you have multiple images.

[Alfred]

As noted in another recent thread, all you need to do is create a new document with the desired pixel dimensions and then use the ‘Place’ command to add the image that you wish to crop. The canvas will act as a window onto the placed image, allowing you to resize and/or reposition the image to display the part that you want.

[vwatson]

2 minutes ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

As noted in another recent thread, all you need to do is create a new document with the desired pixel dimensions and then use the ‘Place’ command to add the image that you wish to crop. The canvas will act as a window onto the placed image, allowing you to resize and/or reposition the image to display the part that you want.

Thanks for the info, but that's still more work than the resize operation being incorporated into the crop -all in one step.