Clone tool difficulties

[Eftaliotis]

The InPainting tool in Affinity Photo is wonderful for correcting small blemishes and invaluable for cleaning up scanned film negatives. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing about the Clone tool, which I’m finding unusable for anything except large areas without any detail at all. There are two problems: There seems to be no way to set the source accurately, and you also can’t adjust the target before “placing” what you are painting before applying it.

As far as I can see you can only set the clone source with your finger, not with the Pencil, and this is not very accurate. Also, when re-setting the source by pressing Affinity often misunderstands and paints instead, making a mess in what is supposed to be the source area. Once you do have the source set there is no way to “line up” what you are cloning, for example when there are lines or edges involved. You can achieve this to a certain extent with the Patch tool, but sometimes this ability with the Clone tool would be more appropriate.

Am I missing something here, or is there really no way to a) set and change the source point accurately and b) adjust the position of what you are painting with the Clone tool before applying it?

Also, even when the Clone source has been set it often seems to jump to a new position while working. 

[DM1]

8 hours ago, Eftaliotis said:

Am I missing something here, or is there really no way to a) set and change the source point accurately

When you set the source point (finger) an eyeglass appears. In the centre of the eyeglass is a small cross. After pressing with finger to get eyeglass, slide your finger to position cross on exact Centre of area you want to clone. Video shows setting position accurately.

8 hours ago, Eftaliotis said:

adjust the position of what you are painting with the Clone tool before applying it?

If you have a Touch for Gestures Only turned on, you should be able to touch/rotate/zoom etc, without cloning. Only the pencil will clone. See video
 

8 hours ago, Eftaliotis said:

Also, even when the Clone source has been set it often seems to jump to a new position while working. 

Tapping the white triangle next to Context menu brings up a submenu that’s allows you to set how the clone point behaves. Aligned on causes clone point to remain a fixed distance from pencil point. Aligned off  and the clone point returns to original set point when ever you lift the pencil. Aligned is on by default.

There is a good description in the help file. Just type Cone in the search box.
 

 

 

 

 

[Eftaliotis]

Thanks a lot! That makes a lot more sense now. I think what I was looking for was an equivalent to the little preview screen you get on the clone tool in Photoshop, which is so great for cloning matching hard edges and patterns. However, I think I can approximate that with the Patch tool in Affinity if I’m a little more careful. It’s like defining a brush for each small stroke. A little more work, but doable. 

[Philf]

If you have the apple keyboard on the iPad Pro pressing the option key let’s you set the source point with the pencil.

[DM1]

On 1/31/2023 at 5:19 AM, Philf said:

If you have the apple keyboard on the iPad Pro pressing the option key let’s you set the source point with the pencil.

Works with Command Controller too (no keyboard).