Affinity Photo
Evaristo Nicholls
Just purchased the product and overall it is excellent. That said, it is missing a genuinely needed option within cropping. This being the ability to lock/align the cropping tool to the center of the image so that when you click and drag from the left; the right also crops to the same amount, and like wise from top to bottom. Most importantly to me is the need to crop from a corner and for all other points to move the same amount (whilst being locked at the center) framing the image equally and effectively.
I believe although do not fully remember that to do something similar in the overly priced competitor of affinity photo is by holding down alt (or maybe it was shift, but not both together) whilst cropping.
So one could draw a rectangle from the center (which is supported), then place guides (which would snap to the rectangle), and then crop by snapping to the guides. If one needs to crop from the center as a common part of their workflow that's too complex.
This is what that certain overpriced AP competitor does. Once you use center-origin transformation it's hard to go back. Allowing users to hold crl / cmd to transform from center means that you only have to click and drag once to proportionally crop in from all sides. Without it, you have to click and drag four times to accomplish the same thing (and it's not even going to be accurate). It literally takes 4 times as long.
I've been very surprised discovering that Photo is missing such a basic feature. This is not the only aspect where it's lacking the flexibility of Photoshop in very basic operations. I don't want it to be a simple PS clone, but there are things that should be a standard. When you're used to work fast because the app allows you to do it, and suddenly you find yourself decades back, mmm... Fifty points from Gryffindor.
In Designer you can work out from the rulers how much space you want to remove then go to File -> Document Setup, and on the Dimensions tab, adjust the dimensions accordingly, with Anchor To Page selected, and the anchor point set in the center.
Note that I'm not arguing against the requested feature, as I can see some value in it as well, but rather I am pointing out a possible alternative that may work for you in the meantime while using the current feature set of the software.
@AffinityMakesMeSmile @fde101 Although I figured out a workaround and so have others here, the workarounds are tedious and annoying when this is usually a core feature (either via key command or a top menu button) in any other mainstream photo editor I have worked with. It's not that there is not a workaround; it's the simple fact that it's the year 2020 and a workaround for such a simple command is needed.
Yeah I was going to say that he should be using Affinity Designer, too, but I still 100% agree that the crl modifier for crop and other tools is necessary with his job. You need to be able to symmetrically crop in from all sides. I'm a professional product photographer and it is the same story for me. I think the devs at Affinity Photo have no idea how important this feature is. Because they don't have it, I have to click and drag from each edge, one by one (or on the two vertices, but that offers less control for me). It is so, so painful.
You see, I usually have my item centered directly in the frame, and I always shoot wider rather than tighter (in case I need to do a square crop or something weird). So I always have to crop... ergo I always have to deal with Affinity Photo's awful lack of a crl modifier. This would take the devs half an hour -- maybe minutes -- to add. Please just add it. Even if I have to buy Affinity Photo 2.0 for it, I will.
To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.
You assume that photographers only know photography? Are you really going to insult me like that? I am actually familiar with Java and have done some programming. To be fair, it's simple stuff -- basic GUIs, bots to control my computer and do silly stuff like a graphing calculator in ms paint, bot to auto list items and scan screen, click on buttons, etc.
But, to be clear, I am not saying I know anywhere near as much as these devs. However, am I wrong to say that it wouldn't take longer than maybe an hour? Maybe 30 minutes? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this does not seem like it is a hard thing to add.
Of course sometimes the most deceptively simple things can be complicated to implement -- I have learned that from my (slight bit of) coding experience. Still, I doubt this would be a multi-day project...
Add to this the need to update the product documentation (in multiple languages), the time taken to test the feature (and to verify that adding it did not break something else), possibly determining how well the selected modifiers work across different keyboard layouts...
Suddenly that 1 hour coding change could amount to a several days or more of work when spread across multiple individuals involved in making it happen (developer to write the code, testers, documentation team, management...), depending on how Serif structures their project internally, assuming it was even that fast of a change to begin with (which is by no means established here - only Serif knows how this is coded internally or what it would take to add this feature).
Lol, leave it to coding forum posters to sideline the entire point and chime in to say that this feature would turn the entire world as we know it upside down just to try to shoot someone down to... idk... feel better about themselves or something, lolol. This thread is so off topic now. I just want to say that I have some coding experience too and good point @HuniSenpai.
I think the point being made is being lost on the details. This feature is missing in Affinity and should have long since been implemented, whether it takes 30 mins or multiple days for them to do so.
There isn't a whole lot to test for a feature like this. I guess I'd try thing like letting go of crl while doing the center-locked cropping, double tapping crl, pressing crl after I start moving an edge, try crl on edge vs vertex, etc. Really it's just a matter of having a play around with the tool in a few different scenarios. 10 minutes. It doesn't need to be perfect at this stage because it will then be tested again by hundreds of people (including me) once the beta is released -- free bug testing!
Secondly, if Serif has done this right, they would update their documentation across different languages in bulk. That is, once every major update. You don't call up your translator and have them translate just a sentence or two (on a feature that is still in development and may be adjusted later). Rather, you have them translate things after you have finished a significant portion -- i.e., finished the update or a large amount of it.
As for adding this feature to the English documentation, this is literally a sentence or two mention. As much as you are trying to claim otherwise, this really isn't all that time consuming -- and my opinion is as good as yours, because neither of us are Serif devs. Moreover, the devs are updating the documentation dozens of times throughout the update; this addition to the documentation is just a drop in the bucket.
Anyways, to be clear, no hostility here. I'm glad we're having a (civil) conversation about the implications of adding this feature. Certainly better than when my thread was sitting here silent for around half a year, lol!
Actually, it's slightly worse than that screenshot lets on. The scanned image has utterly muddled its colour information as well. There are colours in it, but I can't tell if they're the result of weird offseting or just artefacts.
Hi, I am also getting issues when scanning from within Affinity Photo (v1.9.3). I'm currently using a Canon CanoScan LiDE 400 scanner, using the latest drivers running on macOS Big Sur 11.4 . Scanning is perfect when using the Canon IJ Scan Utility or Apples own Image Capture app. I noticed that when AP is opened and 'Aquire Image' selected for the first time, an error message appears 'Failed to open a session on the device. (-9921)'; the window then closes. The overview/preview image is perfect, but when a scan is actioned, the output is garbled similar to futuraprime's post. I've tried most options to try and resolve the issue - removing printers/scanners, reset the printing system and reinstalling all printers/scanners. Sadly, same results occur. Thank you in advance for any help with this problem.
As I understand it, this panel is an Apple API that we 'hook into' and then use the image that the OS feature provides for us - so it's certainly interesting to hear this is producing different results from scanning outside of the Affinity app.
Sadly, I'm still getting the same results. Not sure if this helps, but I've attached a screen shot of the error message which appears the first time 'Aquire Image' is selected in AP. The Apple API opens fine, then a couple of seconds later the error message appears then disappears shortly after.
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