keyboard short cuts on windows

[nathanapffel]

I just installed photo and am watching a beginners tutorial.  Some of the keyboard shortcuts mentioned in the training, don't work for the version of photo that i have installed on my pc. I remember affinity used to be only mac. So i assume the difference i am seeing is due to the windows version being different. the first wired thing is the selection. I learned that i am supposed to be able to add to a selection using the control key. which is fine. however this doesn't work for me. the the control key on the pc dosen't seem to do anything. I see you can add to a selection by holding the right mouse button. which makes using a stylus not work.  

If control doesn't add to selection is there another keyboard shortcut for windows?

 

the second weird thing. is the paint brush tool. i'm supposed to be able to hold control and alt and drag left right and up down for functionality. I get an magnified circle value inspector thing when ever i press alt. is this functionality available for the pc version?

Thanks

[MEB]

Hi nathanapffel,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Here's the Shortcut keys equivalency between Mac/Windows:
Mac Command key = Windows Ctrl key
Mac Shift key = Windows Shift key
Mac Alt key = Windows Alt key
Mac Ctrl key = Windows Right Mouse button

Regarding the second question: you have to press and hold both the ALT key and the right mouse button (keep the right-mouse button pressed) while performing the left-click/drag horizontally to set brush size and vertically to set the brush hardness.

[nathanapffel]

Thanks for your reply. I am aware of the right mouse functionality. This makes affinity basically unusable in a production context. Holding the right and left buttons down at the same time while drawing is unfamiliar and clumsy at best. It works a bit better with the stylus but still clumsy. To replace photoshop i will need to remap the shortcuts. I've noticed Affinity uses many of the standard photoshop shortcuts that we have all committed to muscle memory over the last decades. This was a good idea, unfortunately the designers seemed to have fallen short in one of the most important shortcuts. The best solution here would be to make the shift, ctrl, alt shortcuts the same as photoshop. with some effort I could get used to a different keyboard shortcuts, but right mouse is not going to work. 

 I see in the preferences-keyboard shortcuts that a shortcut profile can be loaded. I wonder if someone has already created a corrected shortcut profile that i can download instead of having to created it myself. Affnity seems to have gotten some things very right. unfortunately holding the right and left mouse button at the same time is a fail. 

 

thanks

[toltec]

When it comes to resizing the brush, if you press Alt, then both buttons and start to drag you can release the Alt key and the right mouse button. The brush will keep adjusting until you release the left button .

I find that helps.

[nathanapffel]

59 minutes ago, toltec said:

When it comes to resizing the brush, if you press Alt, then both buttons and start to drag you can release the Alt key and the right mouse button. The brush will keep adjusting until you release the left button .

I find that helps.

Thanks for the reply. Changing the brush size with both mouse buttons isn't bad. it's trying to draw a line or selection holding both buttons down that is just weird. 

 

Thanks

[R C-R]

10 hours ago, nathanapffel said:

Changing the brush size with both mouse buttons isn't bad. it's trying to draw a line or selection holding both buttons down that is just weird. 

I must be missing something because I don't understand why you would hold down both buttons while trying to draw a line or selection. Like MEB said, the only time you would need to do that is when invoking the two axis shortcut to use the mouse to adjust both brush size & hardness at the same time, but you can't do that while you are drawing something. It is one or the other, not both.

If you want to change brush size while you are drawing, you can do that on-the-fly with the keyboard shortcut for that (normally the [ & ] keys on English language keyboards). That does not involve clicking any extra buttons.

Are you sure you understand how these functions work in the Affinity apps?

[nathanapffel]

My original post was asking about two different situations. the first was about adding to a selection using the free hand selection tool. the second was about changing the brush size. This may have confused you.  My reference to drawing a line was in regards to adding to a selection. On my pc in order to add to a selection while masking, instead of being able to hold shift as with photoshop you need to to hold the right mouse button. So to draw a line that adds to a existing selection, which is something i need to do quite often.  You need to hold down the left and the right mouse button at the same time to draw the additional selection. As I was trying to say in the post that you quoted using the having to use the right mouse button to change the brush size isn't bad. but trying to draw a selection (one that adds to an existing selection) while holding the down both buttons is not ideal. Photoshop uses shift to add and ctrl to subtract. Which i'm used to and doesn't involve the right mouse button. 

I'm not sure that i understand how the functions work as I've only used affinity for about an hour. If there is a way to add to a selection without the right mouse button please enlighten me.