Why does levels not work on this simple file?

[chippwalters]

I can't use Levels on this file to compress the darks and lights. Why not? Is this a bug?

crosshatch.afphoto

Nevermind, I just opened in Photoshop and their levels told me why. I don't know why Affinity doesn't use a Levels control like Pshop.

[GarryP]

You can use a Levels Adjustment on that layer but it probably won’t have much effect.
Open the Histogram Panel (menu “View → Studio → Histogram”) and look at the ‘spread’ of colours – see attached image. (Switch the Layer option ON in the same panel to see a different view of just the layer.)
Everything is ‘bunched up’ to the left so there’s not much to ‘compress’.
I think this may be because the effect has been produced by using transparency rather than colour, but an expert would know better.
One thing you can do is add a white rectangle behind the existing layer and then use menu “Document – Flatten”.
You should then be able to use the Levels Adjustment as you would expect.

[David in Яuislip]

42 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I think this may be because the effect has been produced by using transparency rather than colour

A non-expert said, "Spot on". If you look at the channels, rgb are all black, the info is in the alpha. Add an adjustment layer and switch from Master to Alpha