switching from paint.net to affinity photo: multiple issues and annoyances

[mumbojumbo]

i'm using paint.net to edit scans and photos of printed documents on a daily basis. i also do photo editing in photos app for macos. i'm willing to switch to affinity photo because it seems to be modern and well-maintained app. while testing app in windows 10 ltsb n anniversary update i came across some issues. please have a look and tell me what you think:

1. 20–75% larger jpeg file size vs paint.net with similar quality when saving with the same quality and resampling settings (95% quality - +35% size, 99% quality - +75% size)
   
   i attach bilinear- and fant-downsized (fant is for supersampling) images so you could zoom in 600% and see paint.net provides same quality or better and a considerably smaller file size
2. no auto-suggest to use bilinear resampling for downscaling and bicubic for upscaling (explained), annoying to double-check every time, should be able just set it to 'best quality' like paint.net so affinity photo chooses algorithm depending on task (upsize - bilinear, downsize - bicubic) 
3. abnormal ram usage like it never goes back to 120 mb after editing multiple images and closing them, please take a look on the screenshot - 
   
   affinity photo uses 840 mb of ram with no images open after editing a couple earlier; while google chrome 69 uses 130 mb with 22 heavy tabs; paint.net was editing same images as affinity photo and after closing edits ram usage went back to normal 133 mb
4. image zoom ratio would drop to 100% after a while for images that are on background tabs, very annoying
5. blurry 200% zoom - 
   
   
   300% zoom is ok - 
   
   
6. no image size under viewport or anywhere on screen, have to use resize dialog to check size
7. aspect ratio locked or unlocked when resizing is not being remembered and resets to locked every time, annoying when dealing with a lot of images, refer to paint.net as example how it should be done
8. aspect ratio anchor setting when resizing is resets to top left every time, annoying when dealing with a lot of images, refer to paint.net as example how it should be done
9. no option to save 16-bit png (65536 colors), this option is included in paint.net low color filetype plugin from 2009 (https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/15317-low-color-filetype-bmp-gif-png-tiff-20091204/)
10. navigator viewport selection better be able to snap to image borders (separate setting required)
11. quick zoom in and zoom out on the down right would be handy (similar to paint.net)
12. windows 10 dark theme has inverted tabs colors (inactive tab color should ba same as other ui background and active tab color should be a bit lighter, refer to google chrome incognito mode for example on how to do it better)
    
13. flood select tool rmb click to add not working
14. when drag n dropping several images their alphabetical order is not being respected for tabs (while list >> order is ok)

thanks for your time. i'm quite happy with the product overall and will report more bugs/suggestions later on. hope you'll fix small shit i'm talking about. it would make life so much easier.

— MUMBOJUMBO

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums.

Just a response to a couple of your points:

1 hour ago, mumbojumbo said:

2. no auto-suggest to use bilinear resampling for downscaling and bicubic for upscaling (explained), annoying to double-check every time, should be able just set it to 'best quality' like paint.net so affinity photo chooses algorithm depending on task (upsize - bilinear, downsize - bicubic) 

Depending on the image, you may find that Lanczos (separable, or non-separable) will be better than either bilinear or bicubic. I don't know for sure, but as the results are image-dependent the Affinity designers may have decided to leave that choice entirely in the hands of the user.

1 hour ago, mumbojumbo said:

6. no image size under viewport or anywhere on screen, have to use resize dialog to check size

If I understand what you're looking for, check the image just before item 6 in your list:

You get that when the View Tool (hand) is selected.

[Aammppaa]

13. The right mouse button works just fine, it is just an unusual modifier.

Hold the right button down (and keep it held down), then click and drag with the left button as usual.

[Aammppaa]

11. For quick zoom in and out I recommend the mouse wheel.

Default is Ctrl+Mouse Wheel to zoom, or change the option in Preferences > Tools.

But there are many many other ways to zoom in Affinity.

• Zoom tool (Click, Drag, Alt-Drag, Slider)
• Navigation Panel (Slider)
  • I leave the panel floating in a corner of the image, and double click the tab to minimize.
• Layers Panel (Double Click)
• Keyboard (Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 etc.)