Dan C

Hi requiredusage,
Welcome to the forums
This is possible in any Affinity app, using the Combine Boolean operation. I've created a quick video showing this below, after loading my background I created a white semi-transparent rectangle then typed my text above this. I then converted my text to curves and Ungrouped the auto-created group in the Layers studio. I selected the recently created rectangle, along with the aforementioned curves and used Layer>Geometry>Combine. This created one curves object that is semi-transparent, with the wording 'cut out' to be transparent. I hope this helps! Transparent Text.mp4

Ok, I figured out I had to open a picture first then it can be accessed and the changes there will stick.
This can be closed, sorry for the noise!

As already advised you will need to start with the Displacement Filter but after that you can "distress" it further to get whatever result you want.
 
 

Thanks for the input Dan C and Wosven, it was helpful.  The brushes I'm using were intended to be used as tool presets (with ALL of the tool adjustments included) rather than just rubber stamp brush shapes so they take some tweaking to get their intended effect.

I think it would be best if you kept your clothes on. 

Got it solved by removing preferences and re-installing. Feel free to close this.

This is really help thank you very much.

Hi Woody-TH,
Welcome to the forums
When using the export Persona for iOS you need to 'Select' the folder itself that you want to export to.
For example, in your screenshot provided, when Files opens to prompt for a save location go up one folder layer to your Documents folder. Here click Select, then select your slice folder and click Done in the top right. I hope this helps!

Be aware that the trial period starts when you first open the app & ends 10 days later, regardless of how much or little you use it, so it is a good idea not to open it until you have enough spare time available to test it thoroughly before the trial ends. In case you were wondering, any Affinity format documents created while running the trial will open fine if you decide to buy the app, so you won't lose any work.

Thanks Dan. Worked it out, with your help. Would never have got there otherwise.
Could I ask a supplementary question of you. My tree image has numbers of small areas that are of the background I want to make transparent. Can I force the flood tool to deal with all areas of the same colour even when they are 'separated' from the major areas of the background? I can also see this as being very useful when dealing with text: o, r, d b etc.

Yes the reboot worked however I had photo open also and had to shut down both of them thanks!!

Dear Dan, no need to apologize; I thank you for your attention .-) I think I have my answers. I hope it will be of help to others who find this topic. Thanks again. Best regards.

Edit > Preferences > Colour
Unless it's different on a Mac (I don't have one of those)
Oh, and you may want to upload some sample images and a APhoto file so we can see what you are seeing 
 
 

First six stages of vector portrait Crystal Reed as Sophia Falcone in Gotham. 100% vector, zero pixels. Created in Affinity Designer. Work in progress. More detailed progress sequence: https://communicats.blogspot.com/2019/05/crystal-reed-100-vector-portrait.html
 

Stage 7. Progress will be slower as I wish it to be due to a lack of time.
 
 
 

Stage 9 - working on accents and shadows
 

Stage 12 - accents, highlights, shadows & lip creases
 

Stage 13 - hair background drawn
 

Colour testing
 
 
 
 

Ok, that was a bit of an adventure, but I think I got there.
This is just an experiment (really).  I turned the attached PNG file into a “Textured Image” brush, and then made a stroke with the new brush.  The PNG consists of a combination of a fill and several strokes from standard-issue AD vector brushes - not that I could tell that by inspecting the PNG file.
So, thanks to Alfred and Dan C, your guidance helped me a lot.
Now I have to figure out if I really have a practical use for this.  That brush stroke got some laughs here; fun, but I’m not sure anyone is going to appreciate my artistic talents.
Thanks again!
Lionel
Custom Brush Stroke.afdesign

Both Affinity Photo and Designer support the same selection tools, so you do not need Designer to do the above. If you're looking to adjust images I recommend Photo over Designer, but the choice is ultimately yours

Hi Vimaleon,
Welcome to the forums
I can see your design contains a Colour Balance Adjustment, when exporting to PSD the same values are kept, however Affinity's & Photoshop's Colour Adjustments aren't exactly the same, meaning unless these adjustments are rasterised (either before or during export) then your image may appear slightly differently in PS. This has been raised with our developers previously and it's been marked as working as intended.

Hi Lionel
Vector brushes can't have a default colour option, as the stroke can be selected and changed post-drawing - unless you use Image brushes, in which case a 'transparent' stroke will use the original colours from the image it is comprised of!

When you tap on the ‘hamburger’ menu icon in the Brushes Studio, you’re offered three ‘New Brush’ options: ‘Solid’, ‘Textured Intensity’ and ‘Textured Image’. The latter is the one you want. (A ‘Textured Intensity’ brush uses the luminosity values of the image as an opacity map.)

I'm using Photo, and following @DanC's advice soved the problem. Thanks!

This appears to be fixed in the beta of 1.7 on Windows Desktop. So here's to hoping it remains fixed in the full release
Glad I wasn't the only one experiencing this issue and that it's been resolved.

Thankyou Dan for your reassuring reply. The technical bits are not my strength :) but the flatten transform setting seems to be working for my present requirement so I’m very happy it is there and am glad I discovered it.

There is no need for that because it is a ruler-like icon. I just thought it was a detail worth mentioning because I appreciate the effort the icon designer put into creating an icon that suggests its function.

For what almost nothing it is worth, in that video at about 22 second in the narrator says a "ruler-like" icon will appear. It is that, but if you look closely it looks a lot like a one bubble version of a "torpedo" spirit level, shown below at 2X magnification.

It's a nice little detail, easy to overlook.