Transparency issue

[bushgirl]

My issue is that anytime I insert a photo that I want to edit and need to remove any type of white, it will not let me. I have it unlocked and turning transparent background barely helps. Currently, I have transparent background on yet there is still a white section I need to remove. I try erasing and nothing. I also tested out erasing the transparent part just to see what would happen and white appears from what I am erasing. This is making me very frustrated as I'm just trying to remove any white that I see. I've looked at many forums and videos trying to find what can help me fix it and nothing has worked. Just to remind, turning on transparent background has not fixed my problem. Just to make this a little more simple, I've used paint.net before and it easily becomes transparent with an eraser tool, that is what I am trying to do here. I hope someone can help if this even makes sense but this is really frustrating. I have included a photo and video to help.

[bushgirl]

It also will not let me copy and paste my selection when I have what I want selected. I will paste and the layer is white.

[Old Bruce]

45 minutes ago, bushgirl said:

 there is still a white section I need to remove. I try erasing and nothing.

 Do you see the checkerboard pattern after you have erased some of the white? That white and grey is the way of showing transparency.

Try using a selection tool to select the white and then erase the selection.

[bushgirl]

1 minute ago, Old Bruce said:

 Do you see the checkerboard pattern after you have erased some of the white? That white and grey is the way of showing transparency.

Try using a selection tool to select the white and then erase the selection.

Through the video its showing that its working but for some reason its not showing on my screen that its turning transparent? I don't know why that is happening

[Old Bruce]

Put a fill layer with a colour, like blue or green under the Background layer and take a look see, most of your image is slightly transparent.

[bushgirl]

6 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Put a fill layer with a colour, like blue or green under the Background layer and take a look see, most of your image is slightly transparent.

I do see what you are talking about. Though, when I make the background layer invisible it goes all white. Is there a way for that to not happen?

[Dan C]

Hi @bushgirl,

Welcome to the Affinity forums!

16 hours ago, bushgirl said:

Through the video its showing that its working but for some reason its not showing on my screen that its turning transparent? I don't know why that is happening

I suspect this is related to Hardware Acceleration, our latest update implemented OpenCL Hardware Acceleration to Windows, which utilises your Graphics Card to help render the Affinity document.
A few users are experiencing issues with this enabled, the number one cause of which is outdated Graphics Card drivers. Please visit the manufactures link below to download the latest driver available -

- Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html 
- Nvidia: https://www.geforce.com/drivers
- AMD: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-driver-autodetect

Note: you may need to go direct to your PC manufactures website for the driver, if you see a warning regarding 'OEM drivers' when trying to install one from the above sites.

Once downloaded and installed, please restart your computer and then launch the Affinity app again. Does the transparent canvas now display correctly within your document?

[bushgirl]

7 hours ago, Dan C said:

Hi @bushgirl,

Welcome to the Affinity forums!

I suspect this is related to Hardware Acceleration, our latest update implemented OpenCL Hardware Acceleration to Windows, which utilises your Graphics Card to help render the Affinity document.
A few users are experiencing issues with this enabled, the number one cause of which is outdated Graphics Card drivers. Please visit the manufactures link below to download the latest driver available -

- Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html 
- Nvidia: https://www.geforce.com/drivers
- AMD: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-driver-autodetect

Note: you may need to go direct to your PC manufactures website for the driver, if you see a warning regarding 'OEM drivers' when trying to install one from the above sites.

Once downloaded and installed, please restart your computer and then launch the Affinity app again. Does the transparent canvas now display correctly within your document?

I downloaded the correct driver and it still does not work

[Dan C]

Thanks for trying that and I'm certainly sorry to hear this!

Can you please open the Affinity App and navigate to Edit > Preferences > Performance and disable Hardware Acceleration, this can be done by unticking the last option in the Performance settings dialog.

Restart the app and try creating a new document with a transparent background - it this now displayed correctly for you?

[bushgirl]

6 hours ago, Dan C said:

Thanks for trying that and I'm certainly sorry to hear this!

Can you please open the Affinity App and navigate to Edit > Preferences > Performance and disable Hardware Acceleration, this can be done by unticking the last option in the Performance settings dialog.

Restart the app and try creating a new document with a transparent background - it this now displayed correctly for you?

No, it does not  😞 I think I may just give up. As you can see there is some transparency but once I erase that part I want to erase it just turns white. I would like to still see the transparency once I erase it, not see white. 

[telemax]

In your video, I see transparency, not white.

Or do you want to erase everything except the black wireframe?

[bushgirl]

7 minutes ago, telemax said:

In your video, I see transparency, not white.

Or do you want to erase everything except the black wireframe?

I don't know why it's doing that! That's what I am trying to fix. I want to see it transparent and why is it showing on the video but not on the program ???

[telemax]

Can you provide a file?

[Old Bruce]

35 minutes ago, bushgirl said:

I don't know why it's doing that! That's what I am trying to fix. I want to see it transparent and why is it showing on the video but not on the program ???

Where are these files coming from? You are not generating them in Photo, we would need to see one or more of them. It could be something like the program which is making these files needs to export them in a different manner.

[bushgirl]

1 hour ago, telemax said:

Can you provide a file?

If this is what you mean then here is the file:

thompson_UV.tiff

[bushgirl]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

Where are these files coming from? You are not generating them in Photo, we would need to see one or more of them. It could be something like the program which is making these files needs to export them in a different manner.

My files are just coming from blender where I am exporting a UV layout, they come out as PNG and then open it with affinity photo.

[telemax]

Eraser work fine for me.

1. Try using the mask layer to erase it.
 

---

2. Try using a regular brush in Erase mode.

---

3. Try using vector shape in Erase mode.

 

[bushgirl]

1 hour ago, telemax said:

Eraser work fine for me.

1. Try using the mask layer to erase it.
 

 

---

2. Try using a regular brush in Erase mode.

 

---

3. Try using vector shape in Erase mode.

 

 

Thank you for your time in doing that but it still does not work. I would like to let you know that I just tested affinity photo on my macbook to see if I'm able to see transparency with the same file and it works, but its still confusing to why it is not working on my PC. On my laptop I can see the transparent parts that i am supposed to see and easily erase to get transparency of what I want. Again, something is still not right with my app on my PC

[carl123]

@bushgirl

It's looking like there is either a problem with your PC or your installed version of APhoto

Can you download the beta version and see if that works correctly - doing that should tell us where the problem lies?

The beta can be installed in addition to your current installation and does not affect it in anyway

[Dan C]

Thanks for trying other methods and confirming this regarding your mac - I believe I may have discovered the cause of this on your Windows machine, although I need some further confirmation to verify this.

I can see in your screen recording, that you have a hidden pixel layer beneath this pixel layer, which according to the Layers thumbnail and Colour Studio, should be filled in Green. Can you confirm for me, did you change this colour to green? Or is this actually white (the default fill colour) and the Affinity app is displaying the white as green?

If this is the case, I suspect you have a custom ICC profile set for your monitor within your OS and this may be causing both your transparency and potential incorrect colour issue within the Affinity app - this would also explain why this file works correctly for you on mac but not Windows.

Can you please open the Start Menu and search for 'Colour Management', in the dialog that opens, please set this to the following profiles so that it matches mine below - 

Once this is set, please open the Affinity app again - is transparency now displayed correctly for you?

I suspect the document-to-screen colour conversion that Affinity does is not replicated in the screen recording software and this would explain why the recording is 'seeing' something different to yourself.

Please do let me know if this is correct and helps resolve the issue?  

[telemax]

22 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Once this is set, please open the Affinity app again

Also, in some cases, a reboot is required after these changes.

[dutchshader]

On 3/13/2021 at 11:04 PM, bushgirl said:

On 3/13/2021 at 10:56 PM, Old Bruce said:

Put a fill layer with a colour, like blue or green under the Background layer and take a look see, most of your image is slightly transparent.

I do see what you are talking about. Though, when I make the background layer invisible it goes all white. Is there a way for that to not happen?

@Dan C

[bushgirl]

10 hours ago, carl123 said:

@bushgirl

It's looking like there is either a problem with your PC or your installed version of APhoto

Can you download the beta version and see if that works correctly - doing that should tell us where the problem lies?

The beta can be installed in addition to your current installation and does not affect it in anyway

How do I download a beta version?

[bushgirl]

5 hours ago, Dan C said:

Thanks for trying other methods and confirming this regarding your mac - I believe I may have discovered the cause of this on your Windows machine, although I need some further confirmation to verify this.

I can see in your screen recording, that you have a hidden pixel layer beneath this pixel layer, which according to the Layers thumbnail and Colour Studio, should be filled in Green. Can you confirm for me, did you change this colour to green? Or is this actually white (the default fill colour) and the Affinity app is displaying the white as green?

If this is the case, I suspect you have a custom ICC profile set for your monitor within your OS and this may be causing both your transparency and potential incorrect colour issue within the Affinity app - this would also explain why this file works correctly for you on mac but not Windows.

Can you please open the Start Menu and search for 'Colour Management', in the dialog that opens, please set this to the following profiles so that it matches mine below - 

 

Once this is set, please open the Affinity app again - is transparency now displayed correctly for you?

I suspect the document-to-screen colour conversion that Affinity does is not replicated in the screen recording software and this would explain why the recording is 'seeing' something different to yourself.

Please do let me know if this is correct and helps resolve the issue?  

I went to my color management and I had all the same settings as you did as a default, I still made sure and I went back on to affinity photo and it is still the same. Another thing is that I have photoshop as well on this PC and that also works for me on this computer, I am able to see transparency. Does this have something to do with the affinity program??

[iconoclast]

If you want to remove all white pixels on your image, have you tried removing it with blend modes? It's the gear at the right top of the layers panel. In the Blend Modes Panel you just need to drag the right point of the left window to the bottom. That should blend out all white - presumed there is no technical problem that impeds that.