How to rotate canvas in Affinity Photo on desctop PC

[John Rostron]

Have you tried the Crop Tool I mention earlier in this thread?

BTW, if you find the quality looks poor, you should always assess the picture quality at 100% zoom.

John

[Ever]

3 hours ago, John Rostron said:

Have you tried the Crop Tool I mention earlier in this thread?

BTW, if you find the quality looks poor, you should always assess the picture quality at 100% zoom.

John

Thank you for your answer. I have done that, but it's more of a workaround and does not really offer the fluidity needed, I wish it was something like photoshop, where you can quickly and finely rotate the canvas when painting just hitting R key and dragging with the mouse, you hit escape key and the rotation goes back to normal, but I know it's not photoshop, so, hope they add a similar function in the near future. About the quality, it is just a thing with the software as I see, I get this kind of bad quality visualization (image I took from someone on this thread) no matter the zoom:

Edited June 21, 2020 by Ever

[faedri]

For those interested in the rotate tool, add your comment to support this feedback/suggestion thread below:

 

 

[jay27flow]

Yes, i also miss this function a lot! :( (Windwos, desktop)

[eebee]

I added three keyboard short cuts: option + left arrow to rotate left 15 degrees, option + right arrow to rotate right 15 degrees, and option + up arrow to reset rotation. This works well for me, but I don't use it all that often.

It would be nice if the canvas/artboard could be rotated using the navigator panel, or as stated above, a key+pen drag anywhere on the canvas.

 

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, eebee said:

It would be nice if the canvas/artboard could be rotated using the navigator panel, or as stated above, a key+pen drag anywhere on the canvas.

In case you're not aware of the enhancements in 1.9, from the Help for Rotate Document View (on Windows):

[Ever]

Glad to see something being done about it. This is definitely better than not having the option, but the crappy quality of the image when rotating is is still there.

Also, it would be nice to freely rotate while dragging the mouse as opposed to using the scrolling wheel, which makes it slow.

Anyways, great software, I am using it a lot. Hope things like this keep improving.

[faedri]

16 hours ago, Ever said:

Glad to see something being done about it. This is definitely better than not having the option, but the crappy quality of the image when rotating is is still there.

Also, it would be nice to freely rotate while dragging the mouse as opposed to using the scrolling wheel, which makes it slow.

Anyways, great software, I am using it a lot. Hope things like this keep improving.

Completely agree with Ever.

To rotate in Photoshop, I hit 'R' and then use the cursor to rotate the image freely. I usually have one hand on my keyboard and the other holding my Wacom pen so I use the pen to rotate the image. Right now, using the mouse scroll requires me to put my pen down and then put my hand on the mouse scroll which really counters the workflow.

[SidK89]

YES!!!  You can rotate any degree you like.  With the CROP tool.  Select CROP ... your canvas will have the outer edges lit up.  Move around your cursor until it shows as a rotate cursor!  Then, rotate as you wish.  You must then hit Enter to save the rotation ... to accept it.  Done deal!!  I find that Affinity does have most the functions as Adobe, and they are usually not difficult ... like some peoples fixes have you jumping through 15 abstract gyrations in order to do it, but that usually isn't the case.  Once you figure it out.

Edited July 31, 2022 by SidK89
added more info

[Frank Jonen]

22 hours ago, SidK89 said:

YES!!!  You can rotate any degree you like.  With the CROP tool.  Select CROP ... your canvas will have the outer edges lit up.  Move around your cursor until it shows as a rotate cursor!  Then, rotate as you wish.  You must then hit Enter to save the rotation ... to accept it.  Done deal!!  I find that Affinity does have most the functions as Adobe, and they are usually not difficult ... like some peoples fixes have you jumping through 15 abstract gyrations in order to do it, but that usually isn't the case.  Once you figure it out.

Stop giving people harmful advice!
This answer (and those of the same ilk) should be removed by a moderator or at least flagged as inaccurate as following it will lead to data loss.

When you crop-rotate a document, you're changing the document itself. The pixels themselves are being changed. Do that a couple of times and you end up with a blurry image and you have to go back to an older backup, losing all the work you did since.

When you rotate the viewer canvas, you rotate the viewer canvas, nothing about the document changes.

 

[Alfred]

9 hours ago, Frank Jonen said:

When you crop-rotate a document, you're changing the document itself. The pixels themselves are being changed.

Cropping in the Affinity apps is always non-destructive by default, or at least it should be! Having said that, I agree that it’s important to be aware of the distinction between editing the document and merely changing the view.