MG2 Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Hi, newbie here, trying to learn Affinity Photo. Sorry if duplicated question. I have a helpful guide "Essential Affinity Photo" by Robin Whalley. It refers to older versions c 2019. He describes how to create a Stamp Layer to avoid destructive edits when applying Filters. The function seems to be absent in AP 1.10.4. Is this because the filters are no longer destructive (I notice some (but not all) work on a separate layer) or is there another way of achieving the same thing as a Stamp Layer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron P. Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Welcome to the forums @MG2, I think what you're referring to as Stamp Layers, are just Blank Pixel Layer. Create a New Pixel Layer With the Clone Tool selected, go to the Context Toolbar, (along the top) To the Right side you should see by default Current Layer. That's a drop-down menu. Click on it to open it, and will be provided with two more options, Current Layer and Below, Layers Beneath If you just want to clone from the layer immediately below the Pixel layer, Select the Current Layer and Beneath. Selecting the Layers Beneath, will allow cloning from all layers below. Quote Affinity Photo 2.4..; Affinity Designer 2.4..; Affinity Publisher 2.4..; Affinity2 Beta versions. Affinity Photo,Designer 1.10.6.1605 Win10 Home Version:21H2, Build: 19044.1766: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s);32GB Ram, Nvidia GTX 3070, 3-Internal HDD (1 Crucial MX5000 1TB, 1-Crucial MX5000 500GB, 1-WD 1 TB), 4 External HDD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG2 Posted December 10, 2021 Author Share Posted December 10, 2021 Hi and thank you @Ron P.. Yes, I think you are right. If I create a new pixel layer as you have described and apply a filter to it, then the effect of the filter will be limited to that position in the layer stack and can therefore be deleted later (by deleting the pixel layer). I will give it a go. I did try before but some of the filters I tried did not seem to want to apply to pixel layers (some seem to make there own). I think it will be because I may not have set the parameter of the pixel layer as you have described. Anyway, that is extremely helpful, thank you and the question can be regarded as solved! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Whalley Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 On 12/10/2021 at 11:04 AM, MG2 said: Hi, newbie here, trying to learn Affinity Photo. Sorry if duplicated question. I have a helpful guide "Essential Affinity Photo" by Robin Whalley. It refers to older versions c 2019. He describes how to create a Stamp Layer to avoid destructive edits when applying Filters. The function seems to be absent in AP 1.10.4. Is this because the filters are no longer destructive (I notice some (but not all) work on a separate layer) or is there another way of achieving the same thing as a Stamp Layer? The Stamp Layer is a layer that consolidates all the other layers in the image into one new pixel layer. It's never been available as a menu command which is why I recommend learning the shortcut keys. You can though achieve the same things using two steps in the menu. In the Edit meny seelct "Copy Merge" which copies all the layers in the image onto the clipboard and consolidates them. You can then use Edit and Paste to paste the clipboard as a new layer in the image. I recommend doing this if you ever need to apply a change to the image that's going to be destructive. That way if you go wrong, you can throw away the layer and try again. MG2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smadell Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Apologies to Robin Whalley, but this function has (and still is) available from the beginning. Under the Layer menu, simply choose Merge Visible. Affinity Photo will create a new pixel layer which incorporates the entirety of your layer stack, essentially merging all of the visible layers into a single pixel layer. If you're interested in preserving all of the non-destructive edits, but don't want to wait for them to be re-computed and re-drawn with each subsequent editing change, you can create a Merge Visible layer and then turn OFF all of the layers underneath it. MG2, R C-R and Alfred 3 Quote Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme Mac Studio with M2 Max (2023}; 64 GB RAM; macOS 13 (Ventura); Mac Studio Display - iPad Air 4th Gen; iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 47 minutes ago, smadell said: Under the Layer menu, simply choose Merge Visible. Merge Visible is also available by right-clicking on any layer in the Layers panel, or via a keyboard shortcut. The default shortcut in the Mac version of AP is awkward 4 key combination Option-Shift-CMD-E, so if you use it often you might want to change it to something else. MG2 1 Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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