KenNZ

@Pšenda Perhaps I have been unclear in my explanation. I understand the concept of the master page, and if I wanted to achieve what you describe I would apply an adjustment layer to the picture frame on the master layout - for example an adjustment layer that completely desaturates the image. If I do this it works as expected, and every picture placed into the relevant picture frame on any page that uses that master layout comes out in greyscale as anticipated. What I am talking about however, is an adjustment layer that is only applied to the specific image that is placed into the picture frame. This adjustment layer only affects that specific image and does not affect any other image on any other page that uses the master layout. This also works as I would expect. I see this adjustment layer as forming part of the 'content' that is placed into the picture frame, rather than a part of the picture frame or its master layout. Regardless, and in spite of Publisher recognising the placed image as 'content' that you are allowed to edit, it locks down the content's 'content' (as it were, namely its unique adjustment layer) as though it was a part of the master layout. This I find undesirable and unfriendly. @Hangman Thanks for the further clarification. I will follow your advice regarding using 'Edit Detached' rather than 'Edit Linked.' Please excuse my ignorance of the finer details of the software and thank you for your patience. With regards to making adjustments to the images before placing them in Publisher, you are most likely correct in your approach. I guess I was anticipating that only a handful of images would require changes, I could do these changes in a seamless integrated manner from within publisher, while leaving the source images untouched, and without having to have duplicate 'edited' images stored as well. Perhaps one of the other considerations was that I am still in a draft stage of placing, rearranging, and changing images. Of course, the obvious suggestion might be that when I have finished all this, I should then do the edits in Photo and update the images, which should also be linked rather than embedded... I would suggest that there may be occasions when it would be useful to edit an image in its Publisher context where the immediate feedback of adjustment layers etc like I have used could be desirable, even if it is the exception rather than the rule (and in my specific photobook case I agree it is not the exception).

Following your explanations, the workflow that I think will work best for my needs is to set up the master pages as previously mentioned, drop the images onto each page as jpg, and on the handful of images that need a specific tweak I'll add an adjustment layer(s) to the image. If I need to make adjustments to the adjustment layer I'll use 'Edit Detached' or 'Edit Linked' (also seems to work) as required. I understand the concept of master pages, and I've obviously got to work in with however Publisher currently works. I still think there is room here for Serif to make some improvements for the sake of consistency and user friendliness. On the bright side, with the exception of a few niggles (including the above) I'm finding it much, much easier to do this in Affinity Publisher than the last time I had to do something similar using Photoshop!

Thanks for your explanation and suggestion @Hangman. This appears to provide a way to achieve what I want, though from a workflow or even UI perspective it doesn't make complete sense to me. It is not clear that the Level's Adjustment layer is considered to be part of the master page, or why it is considered to be such. If it was applied to the picture frame itself I could possibly understand, but rather it appears to be applied to the specific image within the picture frame, and that image is specific to the page it is placed on, not the master layout. Consistent with this, the placed adjustment layer is specific to that specific image on that specific page and does not appear on or affect any other image on any other page with the same master layout applied. Accordingly, I would have thought that the adjustment layer attached to the specific image would be as editable as the image is, and therefore I still considered it to be an issue (both in functionality and design) that it is not. Put another way, I feel there is a consistency issue: Why is the image not part of the master layout (in the sense that it is editable) but the image's adjustment layer is part of the master layout (in the sense that it is not editable)? I realise all items are shown descended from the master page on the layer panel, but I see the contents (eg. the specific image) as being part of the page they are placed on rather than a part of the master page. In case anyone's curious about what am I trying to achieve: Essentially I am trying to use Affinity Publisher to create a photobook. Master page's will be used for a variety of different picture frame layouts (eg. 3 portait frames, 4 landscape frames, etc) which can then be applied to different pages within the photobook to allow for easy placement of images in a consistent manner. Owning all Affinity apps, I was hoping for a seamless workflow where I can edit specific images that I place as part of the workflow.

I'm having an issue where adjustment layers cannot be reedited, deleted or have their visibility changed. This occurs when I apply an adjustment layer to an image in a picture frame object that has been created by a master page. If I create a new picture frame on my page I can create and edit an adjustment layer without issue, but this workaround would defeat the purpose of using master pages. I have read through this post which sounded similar, but it doesn't appear to help - ie. I am sure I am clicking in the right place etc. After all, I can edit one of the adjustment layers, it is only a specific one that does not appear to work. Is there some step I am missing, or is this a bug? An example file is attached. al_test.afpub