How to crop an image on a selected layer - Affinity Photo?

[cseeman]

How to crop an image on a selected layer - Affinity Photo v1.3.4?

 

It seems the Crop Tool is a global function. How would I accurately crop an image in a selected layer?

[MEB]

Hi cseeman,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Currently Affinity Photo crop is document based as you discovered.

To "crop" an image in a specific layer, create a selection around the area you need to crop, press ⇧ (shift) + ⌘ (cmd) + I (to invert the selection - you can also go to menu Select ▹ Invert Pixel Selection) and hit delete on your keyboard.

 

If you need to adjust the selection before cropping, press Q to enter in Quick Mask mode, change to the Move Tool and transform the selection on canvas using the bounding box controls. Press Q again to quit Quick Mask mode.

 

I believe we will improve this later to enable object/layer based crops too.

[cseeman]

Currently I think the key problem with Selection/Deletion with Object/Layer is that it's destructive. Of course things that are masked can be revealed again by removing the masks though.

 

I'd like to see two features in that regard (time to suggest them in the Feature Request forum):

• There should be a Non Destructive Crop

• It should have handles/points  (much as the crop tool does). That can work for both "straight lines" or on bezier and b-spline curves.
* Ideally it should have x, y point readout which might help in some cases.

[MEB]

If you want to keep the data intact, you can use a mask or a clipping object instead.

Affinity Designer already uses an object/layer non-destructive Crop tool.

When i said that this will be improved later i meant that we will eventually port Affinity Designer's way back to Affinity Photo.

[cseeman]

...we will eventually port Affinity Designer's way back to Affinity Photo.

 

Looking forward to it. It's badly needed I think Thanks.

[pkeew]

I was about to post that this didn't work for me in Affinity Photo v1.5.2, but then I realized the layer needs to be rasterized. Not immediately obvious for a lightweight user like me.

[MEB]

Hi pkeew,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
If you want to invert the selection and delete it, yes you need to rasterise the layer first. Image layers are considered object layers - they can't be edited at a pixel level, however they can be transformed (scaled, rotated etc) without losing losing quality since they retail all original image data. To convert an Image layer type to a Pixel layer type right-click the image layer in the Layers panel and select Rasterise.

[cseeman]

@MEB to be complete you may want to explain how to rasterise the layer.

[MEB]

To convert an Image layer type to a Pixel layer type right-click the image layer in the Layers panel and select Rasterise.

I've updated the post above to include that info.

[cseeman]

Thanks for including those details.

BTW what I do these days is use the shape tool (rectangle, etc) and draw an object (usually a rectangle but it depends...) and use it as a mask by adding it to the layer I want to crop. It's non destructive that way.

[MEB]

That's what i suggested in post #4.

[toltec]

54 minutes ago, MEB said:

That's what i suggested in post #4.

 

I think he means "clipping", rather than "masking" ?

 

As described it the Affinity video "Clipping vs Masking".

[MEB]

Yes, he's referring to clipping, but you can also do it with a mask. Both methods will keep the pixel layer intact although clipping is more convenient, similar to what Designer does with its Crop Tool. I should have been more clear in post#4. Thanks for the heads up. Post updated.

[Techworks Pro]

My workaround was to open up the object of the crop as a separate page in AP, crop it there, save as a new document and paste onto the background image. Seemed to work OK. Saved the entire thing in the save resolution as the original logo (300dpi). Then exported as a lower rez and size for web (800x600p@72dpi). Probably have some trimming and further adjustment to do. But you get the idea. Needed to size for 4x3 aspect. 4:3, not 4:1

[duch_suva]

On 7/12/2015 at 6:12 PM, MEB said:

To "crop" an image in a specific layer, create a selection around the area you need to crop, press ⇧ (shift) + ⌘ (cmd) + I (to invert the selection - you can also go to menu Select ▹ Invert Pixel Selection) and hit delete on your keyboard.

there's no delete on my keyboard

if i press backspace it deletes everything inside the selection although it is inverted (deletes indside the original selection)

what exactly do you mean by "hit delete on your keyboard"?

im on mac

[walt.farrell]

23 minutes ago, duch_suva said:

Of ipress backspace it deletes everything inside the selection although it is inverted (deletes indside the original selection)

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Make sure you're working on a layer that shows as (Pixel) in the Layers panel, not (Image). If it's an Image layer you'll need to Rasterize it before you can perform pixel operations on it.

[duch_suva]

On 3/30/2020 at 10:59 PM, walt.farrell said:

Make sure you're working on a layer that shows as (Pixel) in the Layers panel, not (Image). If it's an Image layer you'll need to Rasterize it before you can perform pixel operations on it.

Thanks!

[Nathan Shirley]

Quote

When i said that this will be improved later i meant that we will eventually port Affinity Designer's way back to Affinity Photo.

Looking forward to this.

[Garteth]

So after 6 years, when is it going to be possible to crop a layer rather than the whole document?

[Fixx]

17 hours ago, Garteth said:

So after 6 years, when is it going to be possible to crop a layer rather than the whole document?

Cropping is document operation, masking is what is done to layers.

[Catshill]

On 12/1/2021 at 6:57 AM, Fixx said:

Cropping is document operation, masking is what is done to layers.

Only with APh though. ADe and APu crop layers.

[Fixx]

10 minutes ago, Catshill said:

Only with APh though. ADe and APu crop layers.

Sure. Question was about Affinity Photo.

[Nathan Shirley]

On 7/12/2015 at 3:41 PM, MEB said:

Affinity Designer already uses an object/layer non-destructive Crop tool.

When i said that this will be improved later i meant that we will eventually port Affinity Designer's way back to Affinity Photo.

 

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, Catshill said:

Only with APh though. ADe and APu crop layers.

And in those applications, users ask how they can crop the document, like they can in Photo.