GarryP

Welcome to the forums @OldSwede Please see: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/181324-affinity-photo-2-on-macos-cant-open-heif-files/&do=findComment&comment=1049376 (That issue was raised for macOS but I imagine it’s the same problem.)

Welcome to the forums @Darstrial Just because a layer is a child layer of another layer, and it looks to be in the ‘same place’ as the parent layer if you look at the Layers Panel, doesn’t mean that it can be seen inside that parent layer. One of the first things to do is make sure that the child layer you are trying to clip with the parent layer is visible within the extents of the parent layer. For example, in my screenshot, the “Blue Right” Curve layer is not within the visible extents of the “Right” Curve Layer and so cannot be seen, but the “Black Right” Curve layer can be seen.

Whenever you apply an Effect to a layer, that layer – and its child layers – will always be rasterised upon export, no matter what the export file type is. (Unless you choose “Rasterise: Nothing” when you export, which will cause the Effects to be removed from the layers upon export.) This is not a bug; it is expected behaviour in the Affinity applications. There’s no way round it that I know of other than to reorganise your document in a way so that the things you don’t want to be rasterised do not have any Effects applied to them. Note: The same thing goes for Adjustments, Live Filters, and maybe some other things that don’t come to mind at the moment.

Apologies for the confusion, I was only thinking of a closed curve. I’ve amended my post above accordingly.

Welcome to the forums @Mark Beattie If your line only has one dimension – it’s is just a simple closed curve then Contour Tool should only ‘offset’ on one side of the line (unless the line ‘curves back on itself’ somehow). If you are getting an ‘offset’ on both sides then that would suggest to me that your line is either an open curve or a 2D shape which looks like a line (e.g. an expanded stroke). Check the Layers Panel to see if your layer is a Curve layer or a Curves layer; a Curves (plural) layer will have more than one curve in it. Also, check to see if the curve is open or closed. In that case there’s probably not much you can do other than remove the inner our outer stroke before or after using the Contour Tool. If this doesn't help then we may need to see a document containing the curve so we can check it for ourselves before giving further advice. Edit: Amendments in italic or struck through.

You're welcome.

One way to do what I think you want to do is shown in my attached video. Note: This only works with Designer as I use the Point Transform Tool (in Translate mode) to get the two end points of the curves to the same position before the join. (If the two ends aren’t in the same position you will get a line between them.) 2023-09-17 09-58-34.mp4

You’re welcome. (I’m pretty sure that I had to be told about it rather than finding it out for myself.) Since the gist of this request is about a way to select multiple nodes, but the actual need is to have some existing functionality documented, I would say that a new request should probably be created. (You can add a link to that request in a post in this one so there’s some kind of continuity.)

Would anyone looking at the image know, or care, that the amount of the shape that was filled was exactly the value required? For instance, which of the shapes in my attached image is filled with exactly 50% red and 50% black? Also, the exact fill percentage may not look ‘right’ for the shape, or the shape of the image may not allow for ‘pleasing’ results when exact measurements are used. An automatic solution might not look ‘nice’ and therefore impel you into messing around with the result to get it looking ‘nice’. Also, filling the shape exactly would prevent you from using certain psychological ‘tricks’, such as filling the shape ‘faster’ at the start to perhaps get more people to join in with ‘the rush’. My advice would be to do it by eye rather than worrying about precision.

I had a look in the Help, specifically the pages for: Node Tool; Edit curves and shapes; Draw and edit shapes; Draw curves and shapes; Transforming curves and shapes; Selecting and aligning nodes... ...and there’s no mention of this, that I can see. (Why are there so many separate pages about drawing/editing curves/shapes? Maybe some 'consolidation' would be useful.) I think this should be mentioned in the “Selecting and aligning nodes” page, at least – the “To select multiple nodes” section would seem appropriate. It might be worth adding a feature request to ask for this.

You can already select all of the nodes of a Curve layer by selecting a node on the curve and choosing menu “Select → All”, or by using the shortcut key. You can also select all of the nodes of multiple curves in a Curves layers by Shift-selecting one node in each individual curve and then using the same method. See attached video. Does your suggestion extend the current functionality in any way, or am I missing the point of what you want to do? 2023-09-14 14-39-13.mp4

If the print shop is insisting that you can only supply an Adobe file format document then there’s probably not much you can do about that, other than using Adobe software or changing to another print shop. Each print shop which has this ‘limitation’ will have their own reasons for it – procedures/costs/experience/etc. – and most customers will have no control over that. (I’ve even heard of some print shops refusing to print from PDFs which were not produced via the Adobe software – sometimes they check the PDF Producer” attribute of the PDF and simply reject anything that doesn’t have “Adobe” in it.) If you absolutely have to send them an Adobe file format document then that’s what you will need to send them, and it will probably need to be produced by an Adobe application – anything “close” may not be “close” enough.

You will get the best answer to that question from your print shop as they will know what they need.

As soon as you add an Effect to a layer, everything in that layer (including its child layers) will be rasterised upon export to any file type*. There’s no way to stop this from happening other than to redesign the document so that an Effect is not applied to the layer which you don’t want rasterised. In this case you can probably duplicate the text layer and only add the Shadow Effect to the lower copy. * You can stop this from happening by selecting “Rasterise : Nothing” upon export (if available) but that will cause the Effect to be lost.

As soon as you add an Effect to a layer, everything in that layer (including its child layers) will be rasterised upon export to any file type*. There’s no way to stop this from happening other than to redesign the document so that an Effect is not used. Someone may be able to help you with that but they will need to have much more information about the construction of the document, e.g. the document itself and a good description of your requirements. (The Emboss Effect may be very difficult to replicate without an Effect.) * You can stop this from happening by selecting “Rasterise : Nothing” upon export (if available) but that will cause the Effect to be lost.