Option to enable to see images outside the canvas for reference purposes

[99Combo]

Just like one can have images outside de artboard in Affinity Designer. It could be and option in preferences for users that prefer to work like this.

It could help with digital painting so that artists can look at references while they paint or pick color from the images that are outside the canvas.

Images that were inside the canvas and had some part outside it would be cropped in the outside, but when they are fully out they can show themselves completely.

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by 99Combo
New idea

[loukash]

• Document > Unclip canvas

or:

1. File > Edit in Designer
2. add artboards as you see fit
3. File > Edit in Photo
4. place your other image layers into the artboards
5. to move the artboards with the objects, disable Lock Children

[walt.farrell]

50 minutes ago, loukash said:

• Document > Unclip canvas

In Photo that actually increases the canvas size to include the other images, which may not be desired.

 

51 minutes ago, loukash said:

3. File > Edit in Photo

In my experience, due to some bugs that have not been fixed yet, using Photo to work on documents that contain artboards can lead to very puzzling situations. So I would not recommend this approach.

[loukash]

Just now, walt.farrell said:

that actually increases the canvas size

The canvas it virtually unlimited in size anyway. (Technically it is likely limited somewhere, but I just created a canvas of 1,000,000 × 1,000,000 px and I can't even zoom out to see it all on my measly 15" MacBook… :D) That's also why the crop tool is non-destructive.

So, when you're finished, simply crop it to the final dimension again. Takes just a few clicks.

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

due to some bugs that have not been fixed yet, using Photo to work on documents that contain artboards can lead to very puzzling situations.

Fair enough, I haven't used this method for any real life projects yet, only as a "proof of concept". So I don't know what can happen "if [insert your custom filter here]".

But on the other hand, you could also simply work the other way around, create an afdesign document with artboards as a starting point first, and edit it in Photo for any task that can only be done in Photo. That's what the interchangeable Affinity document format is meant for.

Whatever, you can also easily create "fake artboards" in Photo by adding a temporary passepartout layer, be it a pixel mask or vector shapes:

[blurred]

FEATURE REQUEST: I would also like the idea of being able to toggle on and off visibility of images/object that are outside the document area in AF-Photo.

As a work-around using only AF-Photo:

1. Create a Simulated-Artboard document which is 3 times the size of your planned document with a transparent background.

2. Create a Background-for-Artboard document which is the size of your planned document.

3. On the Background-for-Artboard document, add a pixel layer with a flood fill of 87% gray and copy this layer into the Simulated-Artboard document.

4. Use Alignment to center the new layer in your Simulated-Artboard document, then lock this layer and make sure it is always at the bottom (background) of your stack.

5. Before you start working, save the Simulated-Artboard document as a template for repeated use on later projects. Close the Background-for-Artboard document without saving.

6. Now you can add stuff to your document and shuffle things around. Once everything is tickety-boo, then you just crop to the background layer you created and save your crop to a new document.

I have attached a template for a letter sized landscape document to demonstrate the procedure.

If somebody has a better solution, PLEASE share it. I tried the artboard suggestion posted previously with an attempt to edit an AF-Photo V2 document in AF-Designer V2 and the only thing that keeps happening is the error failure to open in Designer. My document is lost to both Photo and to Designer. The same thing happened when  trying to go to Photo from Designer.

 

simulate-artboard.aftemplate

[LSDJE]

You probably already know this by now but - Go to...    View>View Mode>Uncheck Clip to Canvas

It's similar to the Preview Mode of Publisher - I used to go to Publisher, activate Preview Mode and go back to Designer - that doesn't appear to work any more - BUT in Designer "UNcheck clip to Canvas" is it - NO changing back to other programs.

I love this option as well - use it all the time - Affinity also has a keyboard shortcut worked in that could cause you to turn it off/on without knowing it - BACKWARDS SLASH is keyboard shortcut.

You all probably know this - but I am a HUGE fan of being able to see what's "out there" beyond my canvas.

 

 

 

 

 

[LSDJE]

This is in addition to post I just made about Clip to Canvas...Forgot to mention - the Clip to Canvas post I just made works on V1 and V2. I'm on a Mac.

[kat]

I had hoped there was a way to see image on canvas like you can in AD. Until this gets added…

I'm going back to my Puref app. https://www.pureref.com/index.php It's a good clipboard app, works great with Affinity. I can cycle through one or many images for reference.