Classic engraving effect (copperplate engraving) for Affinity Photo

[Andy05]

I had to edit some images for a client, who wanted to embed them into some kind of bank notes. The motives on them used to be classic copperplate engravings. So I created some macros for AP, some of which I want to share with the community. 

Requirements:

• The image needs to be square format (it will get resized to 3000 x 3000 px)
• The image needs to be flat (only 1 layer)
• The styles provided in this post need to be added prior to starting the macro

I got an error message when trying to upload the files (probably due to their size, hence some google cloud links:
Engraving Styles (2.2 MB) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aHP4golVVLoidsw_aLs_EcMltfsM3oIu/view?usp=sharing
Engraving Macros (1.8 MB) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mMbZFTd-fLDuACyRCa7bne7cd0wksYUu/view?usp=sharing

The macros and assets have been moved to Gumroad. (https://thargoran.gumroad.com/l/engraving_effect) 

It's still for free—just enter the code APforum2023 (I'd appreciate some stars rating nonetheless).

[W.Ingendahl]

Vielen Dank ist ein gutes Macro! /translate_google/….Thank you very much is a good macro! 😀

[dcarvalho84]

Really cool! Thank you!

[Hilltop]

That's really nice! Thank you for sharing.

[Michael S Harvey]

This is the closest I've seen to the effect of the art styles used on older banknotes. The intricate lines look magnificent.  This macro style combination is almost as good.  Thank you.

[Sergio R.]

Thanks a lot. It looks great!

[brokemc]

beautiful! saved me hours. Thank you!!

[andybits]

Thank you. I look forward to playing with these and using with my Silhouette electronic cutting machine

[RosM]

Hi, the google drive links don't work anymore. Are these still available?

Thanks

[mrs68tm]

Links available no more....

[walt.farrell]

@Andy05, who provided these resources, seems to visit the forums regularly, and Follows this topic. Perhaps they will comment about this, and whether they can restore access to them on Google Drive or (better) upload them here.

[mrs68tm]

Hope so.

[Andy05]

7 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

@Andy05, who provided these resources, seems to visit the forums regularly, and Follows this topic. Perhaps they will comment about this, and whether they can restore access to them on Google Drive or (better) upload them here.

Thanks Walt, for the reminder! Although I received @RosM's notification days ago, I completely forgot about it again due to some urgent projects keeping me busy lately.

I've transferred the files to gumroad (https://thargoran.gumroad.com/l/engraving_effect) and updated the initial post with the link to it. It's still for free—just enter "0" into the price field. (But I'd appreciate some stars rating nonetheless.) Gumroad makes it easier for me to update it, if I ever feel like I should add/improve anything to this.

[thomaso]

On 6/13/2020 at 1:58 AM, Andy05 said:

Requirements:

• The image needs to be square format (it will get resized to 3000 x 3000 px)
• The image needs to be flat (only 1 layer)
• The styles provided in this post need to be added prior to starting the macro

Very nice, especially with the various tonal masks, Thank you!

I wonder what would happen if the pixel size wouldn't get set by the macro, or could get set by the user, possibly depending on the image details / the resolution / or a different unit instead of absolute pixels?

Interestingly the .afstyles file does not need to be added (I haven't). And it works also appears to work with several layers if they are grouped.

In APub it works with the photo persona but converts the document dimensions (page/spread) to the mentioned 3000 x 3000 px even if the page + selected layer get set before to a squared ratio. Which means the macro is able to change the document dimensions although in the photo persona this menu option is grayed out for the user.

APub before / after using the macro:

[Andy05]

5 hours ago, thomaso said:

I wonder what would happen if the pixel size wouldn't get set by the macro, or could get set by the user, possibly depending on the image details / the resolution / or a different unit instead of absolute pixels?

Yeah, as mentioned in the initial post, I created the macros for working on a client's brief. Hence the fixed size/aspect ratio. Unfortunately, editing existing macros in Affinity apps is still a nightmare/not possible at all.

Quote

Interestingly the .afstyles file does not need to be added (I haven't). And it works also appears to work with several layers if they are grouped.

It's interesting that it works without installing the styles, but that explains the macro's size. IIRC, it wasn't working with the Affinity Photo version back the days (when I created the assets) with installing the macro only, hence I had to add them to the downloads.

Same applies to grouped layers. I had to add the advise to flatten the layers and/or mark only one, because I had two users reporting problems when not doing so. But there might have been different reasons for their issues, I just remembered that I worked on flat images only for my client. 

To be honest, I just did a quick check, if the macro is still working "as it was originally" before moving the files to gumroad.