Creating text masks.

[PhilDarb]

With Photoshop I'm used to creating graphic shapes with text cut out to reveal the layer below, but so far I've been unable to replicate this with Affinity Photo. Can anyone help? Image shows simple example of what I have been doing.

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, Phil.

There are several ways to do this, but one simple way is to set the blend mode of the text layer to ‘Erase’ so that it punches a hole through the layers beneath it.

In the attached file there are two copies of the text layer. The lower one has a solid fill but also has its blend mode set as described above; the upper one has a white stroke and has its blend mode set to ‘Normal’ but it has no fill. The lower text layer is grouped with the blue rectangle so that the ‘erase’ effect is restricted to the rectangle (instead of also punching through the ‘target’ image).

wrong-target.afphoto

[PhilDarb]

Hi Alfred

Thanks for responding. I'm looking at Affinity for the first time today as a replacement for Adobe, but I'm finding difficult to locate the controls.

I appreciate that you spotted I had added a white outline to the text to help contrast with the darker areas of the background image.

I'm struggling to find the "blend mode" control for the text. I can see in the text layer's fx panel a "blend Mode" for "outline", which I'm assuming is the stroke. However, I can't find any control where I can set he text fill to "Erase". Neither can I find a way to set the text to not have fill.

Also, if you can find the time to help me further, should I group the layers before or after adjusting the text layer?

I appreciate it if you don't have time for this.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, PhilDarb said:

I'm struggling to find the "blend mode" control for the text.

Select the text layer & then in the Layers Studio panel click on the popup that currently says "Normal."

[Alfred]

4 hours ago, PhilDarb said:

I'm struggling to find the "blend mode" control for the text. I can see in the text layer's fx panel a "blend Mode" for "outline", which I'm assuming is the stroke. However, I can't find any control where I can set he text fill to "Erase". Neither can I find a way to set the text to not have fill.

@R C-R has described how to change the blend mode for the text layer. (‘Outline’ is a layer effect which is quite separate from any stroke attributes that you may choose to set.) Use the controls in the Colour panel to set the foreground and background — or fill and stroke — colours: the swatch with a diagonal line through it indicates no fill.

4 hours ago, PhilDarb said:

Also, if you can find the time to help me further, should I group the layers before or after adjusting the text layer?

Either way should work fine. Please go back to my previous post and download the file ‘wrong-target.afphoto’ that I attached there. When you open it in Affinity Photo you will be able to inspect the structure via the Layers panel.

[PhilDarb]

Thanks Alfred.

I'm just catching up after a busy weekend. I'll take a look tomorrow.

I appreciate your help.

Thanks

Phil

[PhilDarb]

Thanks R C-R.

Thanks for your help. I'll be taking another look tomorrow.

Phil

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