Can’t make new layer from selection

[RealSkyDiver]

When I mark an area and then to “create layer from selection” it just copies that whole layer and if I invert the selection to delete everything around it, it deletes that whole layer?

[walt.farrell]

Sounds like you do not have a (Pixel) layer. Perhaps it's (Image), in which case you cannot operate on individual pixels. In that case you can right-click on it in the Layers panel and choose Rasterize. Or use Layer > Rasterize from the menu.

[RealSkyDiver]

Thanks that worked! For some reason the tutorial I followed never rasterized it. I thought if it’s a pixel image it’s always rasterized automatically. What’s the difference?

[DM1]

59 minutes ago, RealSkyDiver said:

What’s the difference?

An Image layer retains all the original image data intact. After rasterising this data is no longer available.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, RealSkyDiver said:

For some reason the tutorial I followed never rasterized it.

Then you probably did something different than shown in the tutorial, probably in getting the image into Affinity in the first place.