Mysterious Shortcut on Photo! Pressing G+G blurs selected layer!

[SKT7]

From yesterday I am noticing a mysterious shortcut on Affinity Photo!

If I press G+G it blurs the current layer and opens the Gaussian Blur dialog.

I am not able to find where it's coming from as there is no such shortcut assigned to Gaussian Blur filter.

 

And once it's used, pressing G once opens the Gaussian Blur dialog instead of fill! 

If this is an intended feature, could anyone please demystify it?

[Gabe]

Hi @saikat,

 

This is definitely not an intended feature. By default, G cycles between Gradient Tool and Flood Fill Tool.  If you don't have any custom shortcuts, go to Edit>Prefferences>Keyboard Shortcuts>Reset. This will reset any custom shortcuts to default.

 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[IanSG]

I can duplicate something like this by starting with an open Gaussian blur dialog and then repeated Gs - AP toggles between flood fill and displaying the Gaussian Blur dialog / creating another filter layer.  This behavior happens with all the filters.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, GabrielM said:

This is definitely not an intended feature. By default, G cycles between Gradient Tool and Flood Fill Tool.

On the Mac version, I noticed in the Keyboard Shortcuts preference pane, there is this:

I am not sure what the difference between "Fill Tool" & "Gradient" is supposed to be, but if I set "Gradient" to also use G the little popup indicator showing the other tools assigned to the same shortcut confirms both of the other fill tools share it:

However, the tooltip for the Gradient tool in the Tools panel never shows the shortcut key in parentheses like it does for the other tools, regardless of what key it is set to use. And even if I remove the G key for the Fill Tool & do not assign anything to "Gradient" pressing G repeatedly toggles between the Flood Fill Tool & Gradient.

[SKT7]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

 

@GabrielM: I have reset the shortcuts, I thought this issue is gone but it's back again after pressed G few times!

It's quite annoying, as, once it gets activated pressing G just once opens the Gaussian Blur dialog...

and if I am using any vector path or shape it leaves it rasterized, even if I press escape and cancel it.
Ctrl+z brings the vector back but one can miss it easily while working on a large number of vector shapes.

 

@IanSG: What do you mean by "This behavior happens with all the filters." ? Not just Gaussian Blur ?
Do you mean G+G is bringing up last used filter dialog?

 

@ RCR: The shortcuts on Windows look different than yours.

 

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, saikat said:

@ RCR: The shortcuts on Windows look different than yours.

Your screenshot is showing a G shortcut for the "Gaussian Tool," which is shared with the "Flood Fill Tool," so it is not too surprising that pressing G repeatedly toggles between them. AFAIK, at least on the Mac version there is no default shortcut key set for the Gaussian Tool, which may be why we see different behaviors. Regardless, if you remove the G shortcut for the Gaussian Tool, does this change anything?

 

Also, if you scroll up a bit in your Keyboard Shortcuts window, is there a "Fill Tool" item like in mine (two above "Flood Fill Tool")? I suspect that at least for the Mac version, this "Fill Tool" item is for the same tool as the "Gradient" tool. Designer has a Fill Tool that is functionally the same as Photo's "Gradient" tool, uses the same tool icon, & has a default G keyboard shortcut. I think somehow this made its way into Photo so Photo has two keyboard shortcut entries for what is really the same tool, & that is causing problems in how the shortcuts are assigned, if that makes any sense.

[IanSG]

3 hours ago, saikat said:

@IanSG: What do you mean by "This behavior happens with all the filters." ? Not just Gaussian Blur ?
Do you mean G+G is bringing up last used filter dialog?

Not exactly - it's only if I don't close the filter dialog before typing "G".

[toltec]

This is the shortcut list for my Affinity Photo, Windows 10.

 

G is shared with the  Flood Fill Tool and the Gradient Tool. Which is the default.

 

In your case, G would indeed toggle between the Fill Tool and the Gaussian Tool.

 

I would suggest you change it.

[R C-R]

Just now, toltec said:

This is the shortcut list for my Affinity Photo, Windows 10.

So a few lines above the Flood Fill Tool line, do you also have a Fill Tool line, or is this just a quirk of the Mac version?

[toltec]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

So a few lines above the Flood Fill Tool line, do you also have a Fill Tool line, or is this just a quirk of the Mac version?

 

Must be a Mac thing 

[Alfred]

Interesting discussion. Until now, I wasn't even aware of the existence of a Gaussian Tool (as distinct from a Gaussian Blur filter effect).

 

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, toltec said:

Must be a Mac thing 

I guess so, & apparently not a good thing because there does not actually seem to be a separate "Fill Tool" in the app. 

 

I wonder if this somehow has anything to do with the inconsistent naming of the tool between Affinity Photo & Affinity Designer, & the lack of a "Tool" suffix in the Photo version. Every other tool has the suffix, so why not the "Gradient" one?

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Interesting discussion. Until now, I wasn't even aware of the existence of a Gaussian Tool (as distinct from a Gaussian Blur filter effect).

At least on the Mac version, View > Customize Tools... shows a plethora of items that can be added to the Tools panel, among them what the tooltip popup identifies as the "Gaussian Tool" (circled in red):

[SKT7]

Thanks guys. Looks like Gaussian Tool was assigned to it G, now after resetting and restarting Photo it seems to have resolved.
However, as G was triggering Gaussian Blur - I had checked Shortcuts>FIlters>Gaussian Blur and it was not assigned any shortcut! 
 

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, saikat said:

I had checked Shortcuts>FIlters>Gaussian Blur and it was not assigned any shortcut! 

However, in your screenshot in this earlier post of yours it shows the G shortcut is assigned to the "Gaussian Tool." From what @toltec said, that is not a default shortcut in the Windows version.

 

From what I can tell by adding it to the Tools panel, the "Gaussian Tool" is just a tool that opens the Gaussian Blur filter window, so I have no idea why there are two places where a keyboard shortcut that effectively does the same thing exists in the keyboard preferences.

[toltec]

6 minutes ago, R C-R said:

 

 

From what I can tell by adding it to the Tools panel, the "Gaussian Tool" is just a tool that opens the Gaussian Blur filter window, so I have no idea why there are two places where a keyboard shortcut that effectively does the same thing exists in the keyboard preferences.

 

The "Gaussian Tool" just applies a Gaussian Blur filter, (Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur) as opposed to adding a Live (Gaussian Blur) Filter Layer.

 

It is destructive but you do get a Split / Mirror View.

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, toltec said:

The "Gaussian Tool" just applies a Gaussian Blur filter, (Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur) as opposed to adding a Live (Gaussian Blur) Filter Layer.

From what I can tell, it does exactly the same thing as choosing the Gaussian Blur filter from the Filters > Blur menu, so until you press the "Apply" or "Cancel" button in the Gaussian Blur window it doesn't apply anything.

[SKT7]

8 hours ago, R C-R said:

From what I can tell, it does exactly the same thing as choosing the Gaussian Blur filter from the Filters > Blur menu, so until you press the "Apply" or "Cancel" button in the Gaussian Blur window it doesn't apply anything.

 

True, except if you are using vector path or shapes then it leaves it rasterized, even if you press escape and cancel it.
You need to press Ctrl+Z to bring back the vector shape..

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, saikat said:

True, except if you are using vector path or shapes then it leaves it rasterized, even if you press escape and cancel it.
You need to press Ctrl+Z to bring back the vector shape..

On my Mac, neither the "Gradient Tool" (if that is added to the Tools panel) nor the Gaussian Blur on the Filters > Blur menu has any effect on vector shapes -- in fact, everything on the Filters menu is greyed out if a vector layer or a group with a vector layer is selected as the target for the blur. It doesn't work on Image layers either, only on pixel layers or groups that include only pixel layers.

[SKT7]

@ R C-R

[R C-R]

You can change that by changing the Assistant's options to "Take no action" when filters are applied to vector layers. But either way, the "Gradient Tool"  from the Tools panel & the Gradient Blur from the Filters menu do the same thing.