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Hi, sorry if this is a stupid query, but I would like to copy part of one image, and paste it into another. Using the tutorials I can manage the select and copy part but I'm stuck with how to get the it into another image?

 

I would be grateful for any pointers as to where I can find out how.

 

Thanks  Petej

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  • 2 months later...

Jack I took a look at the tutorial you mentioned above and it was very helpful but it still didn't answer the question of how you copy one image (or a portion of one image) and then paste it into a second image. In Photoshop I just select and copy the first image and then draw a selection box on the second image and Paste the copied image into the box (and only into the box, it restricts the image to the size of the selected area). How can this be done in Affinity? Paste or Paste Inside don't seem to work. I can get it to work with File - Place but what if I don't want to go find the image, if I've already opened it and copied it? Or I just want to use a portion of an image and I've copied that? 

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There are several ways.
1. Make your selection in the background  (b.)l ayer first. Invert the selection (S.), copy and paste.

2.Copy and paste the whole layer (S.) and paste on (b.9. Make a selection and make a mask.

3. Make a selection of on top of (b.), copy (S.) and paste on (b.).

4. Copy the whole layer (S.) Paste on (b.). Add a mask and paint with black on the parts you don't want..

- Affinity Photo 2.3.0
- Affinity Designer 2.3.0
-Affinity Publisher 2.3.0

 

MacBook Pro 16 GB
MacOS Sonoma 14.1.2

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I am very much a Newbie, too and have made my own tutorial in language simple enough for me to understand and will share it with you in hopes that it can help you. It is most likely the same process that Madame but mine is basic for dummies (me, not you).

 

1. Use Selection Brush Tool making sure you have Snap to Edges checked and select White circle at top of Left Panel

2. Draw around what you want to cut and Command C to copy

3. Make New Document and Command V to paste image you copied.

        - Crop down as close to this image as you can and Apply>Save As .AF Photo

4. Choose Open in AP and bring in the Photo you want to add this image that you just cut/saved into and choose "Place">choose your                  saved >AF Photo (your cut image)

5. You can adjust size and move it (V) around to position this image you have brought in

6. When it looks like you want it>Export it

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photonewbie, just some quick notes about your workflow (maybe i'm just missing something):

 

2 - i'd rather say "draw inside what you want to cut": drawing around (meaning around its boundaries from the outside) would select the sourrounding area - but, again, maybe i just misunderstand, since english is not my own language - my apologies.

 

3 - saving the selection to a new document is useful, imho, if you need to build a sort of library of images to be later used as stock. after you've copied the selection to the clipboard, you can just select the destination image and paste the selction (cmd-v): it will be added as a new layer

 

an alternative approach would be to very roughly select what you want to copy (that is, leaving quite a bit of backgroud around it), paste it into the target image and add a mask to the new pasted layer. using the paint brush with black colour you can make the unwanted background to disappear. the advantage is that you can always take instantly back what you painted out just changing the colour to white and refining the shape, with a non-destructive approach.

take care,

stefano

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Jack I took a look at the tutorial you mentioned above and it was very helpful but it still didn't answer the question of how you copy one image (or a portion of one image) and then paste it into a second image. In Photoshop I just select and copy the first image and then draw a selection box on the second image and Paste the copied image into the box (and only into the box, it restricts the image to the size of the selected area). How can this be done in Affinity? Paste or Paste Inside don't seem to work. I can get it to work with File - Place but what if I don't want to go find the image, if I've already opened it and copied it? Or I just want to use a portion of an image and I've copied that? 

 

Give your drawn selection a fill first (on it's own layer), THEN "Paste Inside"  :) .

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  • 11 months later...

I find the process described above to be maddeningly complex.

All I wanted to do is select part of an image, copy or delete it, and paste it into another part of the image. Or even select and option-drag it to another part of the same image -- or even paste or drag it to a new layer so I can move it around. 

 

For a long time, I could not find a way to do it in Affinity Photo and had to use another program (Pixelmator) to do it.

Every time I tried to copy the selection in AP, it copies the whole pixel layer, not the selection. Cutting deletes the whole layer.

 

After much trial and error. I found a simple way to do it. This writeup seems long, but only takes 1 or 2 seconds once you know how (and know the pitfalls).

1) Using the Marquee tool (press letter M), select what you want. Or use any other selection tool like oval, lasso, etc.

 

2) Select "Copy Merged" from the edit menu (shift-cmd-C) -- Copy (cmd-C) or Cut (cmd-X) won't work. These will only copy or cut the whole layer.

 

3) Select "Paste" from the edit menu (cmd-V)  Nothing will look different, but this creates a new layer automatically and pastes the selection into that layer.

    Now, if you try to use the marquee move tool (4 little up-down-left-right arrows) to move the selection, you only move the marching ants selection, NOT what you pasted.

 

4) Switch to the black arrow Move Tool (press letter V) Now things look different. The selection now has a solid box around it and you can drag it where you want.

 

5) Drag the selection with the black arrow MOVE tool (letter V) to where you want it. You can also use the keyboard arrow keys for fine movements. BUT you can't do both, not yet. If you use the Move tool (black arrow) to move the selection and then try to use the arrow keys for fine movements, the selection jumps back to where it was. This is because the Marquee selection is still active. Bummer, but there's a fix.

 

6) To fine-adjust the position, Deselect the marque selection (cmd-D), You won't see any difference. But, then you can drag it with the Move tool (letter V) or move it with keyboard arrow keys, or both.

 

NOTE: If you use the Move Tool without deselecting the marquee, it will allow you to do it, BUT if you then use the arrow keys on the keyboard for fine movements, the selected object will jump back. If you initially move the selected object with keyboard arrow keys, it will also let you. BUT if you now try to use the Move Tool it won't let you. It reverts back to the marquee selection. In both cases this is because the marquee selection is still active. Conclusion: If you deselect the selection (cmd-D) either before or after moving with either the black arrow Move tool (letter-V) or with the keyboard arrow tools, then you can reposition with either the black arrow Move Tool or keyboard arrow keys. So deselect the marquee selection if you want to use both the Move Tool or keyboard arrow keys to reposition your pasted object. You can also use "Paste Inside"(option-cmd-V) instead of Paste (cmd-V) and the object is pasted into a new layer nested inside the original layer instead of above it. This also works the same way and it keeps the layers together. 

 

6) Merge the layers if you want to.

 

Perhaps not quite as efficient as Photoshop, but only takes a couple of seconds once you know how.

I hope this helps remove the frustration of trying to do this simple task. It is simple if you know the secrets.

 

Windows users, of course, will use control-letter instead of command (cmd) which is used on the Mac

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Every time I tried to copy the selection in AP, it copies the whole pixel layer, not the selection. Cutting deletes the whole layer.

 

Copying or cutting only copies or cuts the whole layer if it's an image layer, denoted by "(Image)" in the Layers panel. If you right-click an image layer and choose the 'Rasterize' option, it will become a pixel layer and you will see "(Pixel)" in the Layers panel. An image layer is a type of object which can only be modified as a single entity, but a pixel layer can be edited at the pixel level.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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  • 9 months later...

Yes I have asked this many times . As long ago in 2000 I started off using MGI photo suit , And the tools in there were great

you could literally put two images into the window side by side.

Cut or copy bits and just drag them to the other photo and place them Or better , edit and manipulate the taken image and then place it with out using layers.

For resorting photos fast This was wonderful and fast. I re build a persons face , and pats of the room they were in .

just a shame its not available , bigger shame Mac up grades Those annoying OSX developers don ad something to enable old programs to be used.

Why does it get more complicated ?

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Hi photoangel,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

It's possible to do what you are describing, but you have to make sure you are working with a pixel layer (type). When you drag an image from Finder (or use File ▸ Place) the image is be added to the document as an Image layer type (look at the label between parenthesis after the layer's name in the Layers panel). This type of layer retain all the original image data so you can transform it globally without losing quality (rotate, scale etc) however you can't change/edit at pixel level. To do this you must convert it to a pixel layer type right-clicking the layer in the Layers panel and selecting Rasterise. You can then use the selection tools to select part of that pixel layer and paste wherever you want.

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5 hours ago, photoangel said:

Why does it get more complicated ?

 

Because user's needs are more complicated.

 

One of the reasons placed images are treated differently is because of the requirement to create slices for websites, often at a higher resolution.  Old programs didn't have to worry about the complication caused by websites, pixel alignment, Progressive JPEGs, 32 bit HDR, colour profiles and so forth. 

 

MGI didn't have to worry about that sort of stuff in 2000. Not to mention all the extra features that Affinity Photo has. 

 

Because people want more features, software companies have to add them, which makes the programs more complex. A fact of life.

 

If there wasn't progress we would still be living in caves. And it's very hard to get good phone reception in caves ;)

 

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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  • 5 months later...

Thank you Photo Newbie!  This achieved what I wanted.  I will eventually read through the rest of the posts on this topic as I've saved it to Pocket!  But thanks.  

On ‎18‎/‎01‎/‎2016 at 0:39 PM, PhotoNewbie said:

I am very much a Newbie, too and have made my own tutorial in language simple enough for me to understand and will share it with you in hopes that it can help you. It is most likely the same process that Madame but mine is basic for dummies (me, not you).

 

1. Use Selection Brush Tool making sure you have Snap to Edges checked and select White circle at top of Left Panel

2. Draw around what you want to cut and Command C to copy

3. Make New Document and Command V to paste image you copied.

        - Crop down as close to this image as you can and Apply>Save As .AF Photo

4. Choose Open in AP and bring in the Photo you want to add this image that you just cut/saved into and choose "Place">choose your                  saved >AF Photo (your cut image)

5. You can adjust size and move it (V) around to position this image you have brought in

6. When it looks like you want it>Export it

 

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