Cannot copy and paste

[Musaffar]

Hi 

Steps to reproduce problem:

1.  Take a screen shot in windows (ALT+PRINT SCRN)
2.  Paste into new document using new from clipboard command in the file menu
3.  Make a new selection using rectangular marquee selection tool
4.  Edit > Copy

Now when pasting into the same document or a new document, the original image capured in step 1 is pasted,  Tried repeating the copy of the new selectioon a few times but to avail.

Kind Regards
Musaffar

 

 

 

 

 

[Move Along People]

-

[grelf]

This feature really needs to be highlighted very prominently. I really expected that on making a selection I should be able to copy what's in that selection. I have thought for weeks that it is a serious bug but it turns out, as explained above, that it is by design!

Mostly I am a huge fan of all 3 Affinity products. I have been promoting Affinity Photo in my photo club, with tutorial sessions, and many of our members have now bought it.

[Ushur]

Well, I find this irritating, too. I understand that it's not a pixel layer, but I can make a selection on that and pressing copy and paste doesn't inform me, I am not able to.

And I don't understand why I am not able to! I would expact to do a crop on the orginal image and copy the cropped image when pressing copy and paste.

 

[walt.farrell]

32 minutes ago, Ushur said:

I would expact to do a crop on the orginal image and copy the cropped image when pressing copy and paste.

A marquee selection is a pixel selection, and must have some pixels to work on. An (Image) layer such as you get by pasting in a screenshot is a kind of vector object, not a pixel object, and it has no pixels to select. So even though there is a marquee selection, when you do the Copy you are copying the currently selected object, not a set of pixels, and you get that object in its entirety.

And, actually, the marquee selection is not associated with any particular layer. It is just a marquee, and you could have it work with any pixel layer that is visible on the screen. But if the top visible layer is not a pixel layer then the marquee selection has nothing to work with.

[Cecil]

On 12/9/2019 at 6:43 AM, Musaffar said:

Hi 

Steps to reproduce problem:

1.  Take a screen shot in windows (ALT+PRINT SCRN)
2.  Paste into new document using new from clipboard command in the file menu
3.  Make a new selection using rectangular marquee selection tool
4.  Edit > Copy

Now when pasting into the same document or a new document, the original image capured in step 1 is pasted,  Tried repeating the copy of the new selectioon a few times but to avail.

Kind Regards
Musaffar

 

 

 

 

 

In the layers panel, it will say Image or Pixel.  

[Ushur]

Well

13 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

A marquee selection is a pixel selection, and must have some pixels to work on. An (Image) layer such as you get by pasting in a screenshot is a kind of vector object, not a pixel object, and it has no pixels to select. So even though there is a marquee selection, when you do the Copy you are copying the currently selected object, not a set of pixels, and you get that object in its entirety.

And, actually, the marquee selection is not associated with any particular layer. It is just a marquee, and you could have it work with any pixel layer that is visible on the screen. But if the top visible layer is not a pixel layer then the marquee selection has nothing to work with.

Well, still you can select and there is no feedback that you can't copy. That's not a good way for a user feedback

And well, as being in software industrie for close to 30 years now, I totally disagree. Also if it's not a pixel layer it's still a layer that could be cutted. You can cut anything - even triangles in 3d vector software. So perhaps the developers might didn't knew how to do that (I think it's easy, it would be just cutting out a part of the original image), it still should give feedback that the software can't do that

 

[Cecil]

3 minutes ago, Ushur said:

Well

Well, still you can select and there is no feedback that you can't copy. That's not a good way for a user feedback

And well, as being in software industrie for close to 30 years now, I totally disagree. Also if it's not a pixel layer it's still a layer that could be cutted. You can cut anything - even triangles in 3d vector software. So perhaps the developers might didn't knew how to do that (I think it's easy, it would be just cutting out a part of the original image), it still should give feedback that the software can't do

 

  I do hope this helps.

[walt.farrell]

8 minutes ago, Ushur said:

Well, still you can select and there is no feedback that you can't copy. That's not a good way for a user feedback

And well, as being in software industrie for close to 30 years now, I totally disagree. Also if it's not a pixel layer it's still a layer that could be cutted.

Well, first, you did copy.You just didn't copy using the pixel selection you'd made because a pixel layer wasn't what was visible. Again, the marquee is not a part of the layer(s) it is over, it simply marks a region which, if pixels, can be affected (copied, deleted, changed). If it's not over a pixel layer, it has no effect.

Some have suggested that perhaps there could be an option in the Assistant to automatically rasterizel an (Image) layer if one tries to operate on it in a pixel-based way. And as an option, I might agree, as I could simply leave it off.

As for cutting, you cannot cut a vector layer using a pixel selection. That is true (at least consistently in the Affinity applications) of all vector layers, not just (Image) layers.

[grelf]

Nowhere in the otherwise excellent help or workbook does it explain that an image has to be rasterised before a selection can be copied. The workbook does mention rasterising a few times but it never says WHY that needs to be done. I think this is a fundamental omission that needs to be rectified urgently because it will be making people think AP has a glaring bug.

I have been developing image processing and analysis  software since the early 80s so I do understand the difference between vector and raster graphics but it was not obvious to me at all that what you call an image layer is not an array of pixels (ie, raster).

I still think the Affinity products are otherwise superb.

[carl123]

4 minutes ago, grelf said:

Nowhere in the otherwise excellent help or workbook does it explain that an image has to be rasterised before a selection can be copied.

From the help file...

"The placed image is added as an image layer rather than a pixel layer. This allows its native resolution to be kept. Some brush operations (e.g., cloning, dodging, etc.) will automatically rasterise image layers to the document resolution; inpainting or selection manipulation on an image layer will require manually rasterisation via right-click of the image layer in the Layers panel. You can control automatic rasterisation behaviour using the Assistant."

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, grelf said:

Nowhere in the otherwise excellent help or workbook does it explain that an image has to be rasterised before a selection can be copied.

You've left out an important word, there. You can copy a selection without rasterizing, but if you're working with a vector layer then it's a layer selection.

If you want to copy pixels, you need a pixel selection (not a layer selection) and to get a pixel selection you need to be working with a pixel layer, not a vector layer. The same thing would happen if you drew a rectangle with the rectangle tool, created a marquee selection of part o it, and tried to copy. You would get the complete rectangle copied.

For another quote from the Help:

Quote

Types of layer

There are several types of layers that can be created:

• Pixel layer—containing raster images where pixel-based editing takes place.
• Mask layer—special layer that allows you to define what content is hidden to reveal layers beneath.
• Adjustment layer—special layer that can be used to correct or enhance the layers beneath.
• Fill layer—special layer that contains an adjustable solid or gradient color.
• Snapshot layer—special layer that contains a predefined project snapshot as a single, flattened pixel layer.
• Vector layer—vector content, such as curves, shapes, text and placed images, occupy their own unique layer.

Pixel-based editing (which includes copying pixels) happens in pixel layers. Placed images are vector layers.

[grelf]

I have realised that the reason this problem has hit me more than perhaps most people is that I have been doing a lot of "File/New from clipboard" because I have been documenting something by using screenshots - frequently - by getting a whole screen with the PrtScn key rather than using the snipping tool. Then of course I want to select the parts I need.

I now think the relevant question is "Why does New from clipboard not produce a pixel layer?", as I for one expected/assumed. If you open an image file you get a pixel layer. Why should new from clipboard be different?

(I can see why placing could be different.)

[walt.farrell]

21 minutes ago, grelf said:

I now think the relevant question is "Why does New from clipboard not produce a pixel layer?", as I for one expected/assumed. If you open an image file you get a pixel layer. Why should new from clipboard be different?

New from Clipboard seems to be treated more like a copy/paste or drag/drop operation. Sort of a sequence: New, then Paste. Thus it's acting like pasting into an open document.

Perhaps it could work differently (with an option, I hope). But that should be discussed in a Feature Request, I think

[carl123]

11 hours ago, grelf said:

I now think the relevant question is "Why does New from clipboard not produce a pixel layer?",

Probably because an image layer has certain advantages over a pixel layer and if "New from clipboard" immediately produces a pixel layer you would not be able to capitalize on those advantages when needed.

 

 

 

1

11 hours ago, grelf said:

I have been doing a lot of "File/New from clipboard" because I have been documenting something by using screenshots - frequently - by getting a whole screen with the PrtScn key rather than using the snipping tool. Then of course I want to select the parts I need.

You can do that on your screenshots by using a rectangle (or any other shape) to mask/clip just the area you want to show and still keep the layer as an image layer, thus retaining its benefits over a pixel layer.

Then again, if you don't need or understand the advantages of an image layer over a pixel layer it's easy enough to convert the image layer to a pixel layer (rasterise it) but converting a pixel layer to be the original image layer is somewhat more convoluted/complicated/impossible(?).

Hence starting with an image layer would seem to be the best option to cater to all users in their use of the app.