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Affinity Publisher: Gaussian Blur Live Filter and Master Pages


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Affinity Designer 1.8.3.641 on Windows 10

Hi Everyone,

I want to add the same Gaussian Blur Live Filter to multiple spreads - but to be able to modify the radius later.

So I tried the same as with the Recolor Adjustment - create a Master Page, add a big white rectangle, set the layer mode to darken, add the Gaussian Blur Live Filter adjustment layer and group both and set the group to pass through. But this does not work as expected - it seems that the Gaussian Blur is applied only to the layers within the same Master Page

The second idea is to add the Gaussian Layer to the symbol panel - but this crashes Affinity Designer on Windows:

and

Any ideas for a workaround?

Thanks, Christian

Edited by Christian Luidolt
asset -> symbol
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Your adjustment layer will apply only to layers below it in the Layers panel, but by default a Master Page layer is at the bottom of the layer stack on the document page.

As long as you have applied your adjustment to a separate Master Page, and applied that Master to your document pages as an additional Master, you should be able to move it to the top of the layer stack.

On any specific  document page, you could right-click on that Master Page layer, choose Edit Detached, and drag it to the top of the stack.

Or, possibly, to affect all documents pages that currently exist, you could choose Edit Linked. Then use the "Move to Front" function to put it on the top of all existing layers on all the existing pages. (I'm away from the computer and can't test that right now.)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
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@walt.farrell  Thank you for your answer - I want a kind of linked edit. And of course the blur can only apply to layers below.

I've created a simple example to show my use case: I want to create a book with chapters - each chapter should have an image on a page itself and also use the same image on all further pages of the chapter as background, but modified in an uniform way. To be able to apply the modification in an uniform way I have created a master page "SaturationLighthness" which is included in all "Chapter X Background" master pages. So if I want to change the tint of the background I only have to modify the adjustment layer in the "SaturationLighthness" master page (this works now as expected)

Now I want also apply a gaussian blur effect to all background images - but the gaussian blur layer does not work as expected - If you enable the visibility of the gaussian blur layer in the "SaturationLighthness" master page, the background image vanishes in all pages.

template-blur.afpub

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Here's what seems to be happening:

  • a Master Page with mode Normal and containing an enabled blur filter is blended as Normal
  • a Master Page with mode Normal and not containing an enabled blur filter is blended as if the mode is Passthrough

Besides that anomaly, Passthrough should be a selectable mode, and the default mode, for a Master Page, just as it is for a Symbol or Group or Layer object. I wonder why that's not the case.

Back to the problem at hand: the quickest solution is to move the blur filter outside of the Master Page named SaturationLightness but still keep it inside each of Chapter1Background and Chapter2Background Master Pages. If you want to be able to adjust the blur in one place and have it simultaneously affect every page of the document that contains either Chapter1Background or Chapter2Background, use a Passthrough mode Symbol containing the blur filter.

 

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1 hour ago, Christian Luidolt said:

@anon2 thank you - I also think that the blend mode Passthrough should be available for Master Pages. Using a symbol does not work, because Affinity Publisher Crashes when you add a symbol containing an Gaussian Blur Layer to the symbol (see original posting).

You wrote about a crash when adding a blur layer to the Assets panel. I suggested you use a Symbol, not an Asset.

Here is your file modified: template-blur with symbol.afpub

 

1614395993_blursymbol.thumb.png.9b649a6a47148c9fbbc57675c4aa87ae.png

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1 hour ago, Christian Luidolt said:

@anon2 Thank you for the file - but it cannot not displayed correctly on Affinity Designer 1.8.3.641 or Affinity Designer 1.8.4.648 beta - the blur effect is not applied - and Affinity Designer crashes if you open the Symbol Studio panel (in Designer Persona)

 

I've now had the app crash on my Mac when making edits in that file. Also, at some view magnifications, the blur suddenly is not rendered. I think I'm now seeing the problems you've had with the file, so the problems are not on Windows only.

Here is a file without a Symbol containing the blur, but you'll need to edit the blur independently in each of the two background Master Pages.

template-blur without symbol.afpub

 

552918308_blurwithoutsymbol.thumb.png.641e91051c95e11934ec148595411035.png

 

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