Mac Desktop: Saving Selections v. 1.7.3

[VectorCat]

Some tutorials show a "Save selection" menu item; I see no such thing in my version of AD. Also don't see channels, or any way to save selections. 

Can selections be saved in version 1.7.3 for MacOS?

 

Thank you!

[carl123]

"Save selection" and the Channels panel are in APhoto not AD

[VectorCat]

What about while in pixel persona in AD?

[carl123]

4 minutes ago, VectorCat said:

What about while in pixel persona in AD?

Nope, only available in APhoto

[VectorCat]

So.. if you’re creating in designer, move to pixel persona - with all kinds of selection tools available, but no way to save them... then what’s a person to do?

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, VectorCat said:

So.. if you’re creating in designer, move to pixel persona - with all kinds of selection tools available, but no way to save them... then what’s a person to do?

Only Affinity Photo has a Select menu. The "selection" in its Save Selection menu item refers to 'marching ants' selections. Marching ants selections define an area of the canvas but are not themselves layers nor do they belong to any particular layer. To actually select anything with them, a "(Pixel)" layer must also be selected. Do that & the selection will be whatever part of that specific pixel layer is inside the boundary of the marching ants.

In Affinity Designer, while you cannot save these selections directly, you can copy them to the clipboard & then use File > New from Clipboard to open them in a new document. This is functionally equivalent to the Affinity Photo Select > Save Selection > To File menu item.

[carl123]

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

Only Affinity Photo has a Select menu.

All 3 apps have a Select menu

 

 

 

 

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

In Affinity Designer, while you cannot save these selections directly, you can copy them to the clipboard & then use File > New from Clipboard to open them in a new document. This is functionally equivalent to the Affinity Photo Select > Save Selection > To File menu item.

File > New from Clipboard copies the contents of the clipboard to a new document.

Select > Save Selection > To File does not copy any content to the file. It simply saves the selection (i.e. the marching ants pattern you have created) to a file. Which is useful if you want to recreate exactly the same selection but on a different document.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, carl123 said:

All 3 apps have a Select menu

Doh! I am a victim of my own sloppy editing! At one point before I posted it, I had written "Only Affinity Photo has a Select menu with a Save Selection menu item on it" but then I tried to combine that with the next part about what 'marching ants' refers to & totally blotched it. Sorry for any confusion that might have caused.

As for the other part, I was talking about what can be done in Affinity Designer to do what @VectorCat asked for to save pixel selections. At least on my Mac, I can make a 'marching ants' selection in Designer's Pixel persona with a pixel layer selected, copy that to the clipboard, & then use "New From Clipboard" to create a new .afdesign file that includes the pixels of that pixel layer enclosed by the marching ants, not the marching ants pattern.

You are of course correct that it is not functionally equivalent to Affinity Photo's Select > Save Selection > To File. Instead, it is the same as doing that in either app, give or take the file extension "New From Clipboard" uses. That is something else I botched but I can't blame that on sloppy editing. 

[VectorCat]

I’m grateful for your responses.. this is a very good and helpful discussion -

ALL parts of it!