Clip to Canvas in Affinity Photo

[rusty5]

Clip to Canvas is a very useful feature found in the View menu (View Mode). Clip to Canvas allows the user to see or hide assets that are on the canvas, but are not placed in the current document layout. Clip to Canvas works fundamentally the same on both Affinity Designer and Publisher. However this same functionality does not exist in Affinity Photo. My initial thought is why, and beyond that, can this feature be brought over to Affinity Photo? It just seems like it would be a good fit for Photo as well.

 

[loukash]

13 hours ago, rusty5 said:

can this feature be brought over to Affinity Photo?

And my initial thought is also: Why?

APhoto is primarily a bitmap image editor. The image itself is the canvas. The other two apps are layout apps, hence they need space outside artboards/pages to place additional content.

But in fact, you can move any object outside the canvas if you want, they just aren't visible. But you can select them in the Layers palette and move back if needed. You can also Document > Unclip Canvas to resize the canvas to fit all hidden objects. And Clip Canvas to trim again. That's how I, for one, am expecting pixel based editing to work.

[rusty5]

On 1/23/2021 at 7:55 AM, loukash said:

The image itself is the canvas.

I'm not sure I would agree (but acknowledge a high probabllity that I could be wrong). I'm guessing most often a document is started with a very specific size or resolution in mind. The mere fact that Photo allows you to Clip Canvas or Unclip Canvas suggests to me that the Document and the Canvas are two distinct entities. Personally I like to play with objects moving them in and out of a picture, therefore it would be nice to be able to see those objects on the canvas while also working on the document. However, I'll be the first to admit I'm not a professional image editor so my work flow may be a bit unique. Bottom line, I'd still like to see Clip to Canvas implemented into Photo the same way it's set up in Designer and Publisher : )

[loukash]

19 minutes ago, rusty5 said:

my work flow may be a bit unique

That's okay. But perhaps you may want to work in Designer more often and switch back and forth to Photo for "pixel pushing"…?

[rusty5]

I already spend most of my time in Designer and Publisher. The only reason I created a post in the "Feature Requests & Suggestions" section is to encourage the folks at Serif to consider providing the same functionality to Photo that already exists in their other two companion apps : )

[Fixx]

On 1/25/2021 at 12:55 AM, rusty5 said:

I'm not sure I would agree (but acknowledge a high probabllity that I could be wrong). I'm guessing most often a document is started with a very specific size or resolution in mind. The mere fact that Photo allows you to Clip Canvas or Unclip Canvas suggests to me that the Document and the Canvas are two distinct entities.

Clip/unclip is quite weird in AP. Basically it is some kind of trimming function. 

[loukash]

3 hours ago, Fixx said:

Clip/unclip is quite weird in AP

I, for one, like it simply for what it does. No matter how "weird" the concept may seem at first – myself coming from PS CS5.5 – I can make good use of it.

[Patccc]

On 1/26/2021 at 10:05 PM, loukash said:

I, for one, like it simply for what it does. No matter how "weird" the concept may seem at first – myself coming from PS CS5.5 – I can make good use of it.

New user here, what exactly does it (Document > Clip Canvas/Unclip Canvas) do? 

tia

[Alfred]

22 minutes ago, Patccc said:

New user here, what exactly does it (Document > Clip Canvas/Unclip Canvas) do? 

tia

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @Patccc. 

‘Clip to Canvas’ (as per the topic title) clips the document so that only the objects in the canvas area are visible. ‘Clip Canvas/Unclip Canvas’ clips/unclips the canvas rather than the document (which is particularly useful for things like stock images, where the canvas is often too small initially).

[loukash]

2 minutes ago, Patccc said:

what exactly does it (Document > Clip Canvas/Unclip Canvas) do?

affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/SizeTransform/canvasSize.html

Note that Clip Canvas will have no effect if you have top level layers with "infinite" size, for example adjustment layers. I don't know if it's "by design", an oversight or a bug, but it doesn't even help if you disable them.

To clip the canvas to actual alpha>0 bounds, you'd have to – temporarily, if you wish – clip such infinite layers to a layer with "finite" size, i.e. a pixel layer or a (temporary) shape.

[Patccc]

7 minutes ago, loukash said:

affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/SizeTransform/canvasSize.html

Note that Clip Canvas will have no effect if you have top level layers with "infinite" size, for example adjustment layers. I don't know if it's "by design", an oversight or a bug, but it doesn't even help if you disable them.

To clip the canvas to actual alpha>0 bounds, you'd have to – temporarily, if you wish – clip such infinite layers to a layer with "finite" size, i.e. a pixel layer or a (temporary) shape.

thanks. that sounds very similar to PS's Trim and Reveal All, after changing canvas size. 

[Michal17]

Hello, I am new to Affinity Photo (I have purchased it today) and to the forum so I am sorry I'll ask a stupid question – is there a way to work with canvas/artboards in AP like in Designer? I want to create multiple versions of banner and don't wanna use snapshots.

Thank you for your answers.

[loukash]

26 minutes ago, Michal17 said:

is there a way to work with canvas/artboards in AP like in Designer?

If you have Designer, then yes. The document format for all three apps is universal, so all features are seamlessly possible. You just need the respective app to activate them. Go to File>Edit In Designer, add as many artboards you need, then switch back to Photo to use its features.