Robert Gibson PWES Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 I have recently bought Affinity Photo to assist me with a project. I have gotten a book cover from a printer, but the lady's photo is in the wrong place. I could go back to him and ask him to shift it for me, or I could use Affinity Photo and learn something new. Ideally, I would love to extract the image to create a PNG of just her headshot, removing it from the cover file, so that I could then place the headshot exactly where I want to using Affinity Publisher and the Picture Frame tool. Any advice for a newbie to graphic manipulation? I'm eventually trying to take the publisher's 11x17 cover and create a 5.5 x 8.5 cover file with text and the headshot on the back cover placed higher than where it is right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 I used the selection brush tool then made several copies. I blacked out the area where the original photo was by using the colour picker. There are other ways to do this, but this is simple and quick. Steps: 1. Use selection brush tool on photo. 2. Edit tab/copy/paste. 3. Use the move tool to place the photo where you want it to go. 4. If needed the copied selection can be saved as an independent PNG file. Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Gibson PWES Posted May 20, 2022 Author Share Posted May 20, 2022 Yes I want to do both - save the selection as an independent PNG file and then black out the selected image. I used the selection tool to select the image, But when I went to Edit and Cut The whole thing disappears rather than the selected image: And ironically the same section is selected but the whole layer is gone. What am I doing wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 Are you sure you are selecting the layer where the picture is? Your screen shot of the layer panel shows that the layer called picture frame is highlighted, is that the correct layer? Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Gibson PWES Posted May 20, 2022 Author Share Posted May 20, 2022 I had been using a picture frame and trying to cut out the image using the selection tool, but when I substituted with the image itself, I was still getting the same result. And it was a "Yes" to your question. Using the image itself instead of in a picture frame: Same thing happens: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 If the file you're using is an Image file, the copy & paste will not work - the file will have to be rasterised. What type of file are you working with? You could upload the file, it might help solve the problem quicker? Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Gibson PWES Posted May 20, 2022 Author Share Posted May 20, 2022 1 minute ago, AffinityJules said: If the file you're using is an Image file, the copy & paste will not work - the file will have to be rasterised. What type of file are you working with? You could upload the file, it might help solve the problem quicker? The original file is a PDF. I originally converted it to an image file before I started working thinking that was what I was supposed to do. Should I attempt this with the PDF? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 1 minute ago, Robert Gibson PWES said: The original file is a PDF. I originally converted it to an image file before I started working thinking that was what I was supposed to do. Should I attempt this with the PDF? I don't know how PDF's work or behave in photo, and as your file is an image file the copy & paste will not work properly. If you make another copy of the original file and then rasterise the photo layer itself the copy & paste function will work. Give that a go. Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Gibson PWES Posted May 20, 2022 Author Share Posted May 20, 2022 1 minute ago, AffinityJules said: I don't know how PDF's work or behave in photo, and as your file is an image file the copy & paste will not work properly. If you make another copy of the original file and then rasterise the photo layer itself the copy & paste function will work. Give that a go. I'm a complete newbie to this lol so which Rasterize should I use? (I'll Google what Rasterize means later) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 2 minutes ago, Robert Gibson PWES said: I'm a complete newbie to this lol so which Rasterize should I use? (I'll Google what Rasterize means later) Go to the layers tab, and near the bottom of the drop down list select rasterise. Or right click (with the layer selected) and choose rasterise from the drop down list therein. Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Gibson PWES Posted May 20, 2022 Author Share Posted May 20, 2022 Okay the Rasterize works and now I can copy and paste. How do I use the color picker to black back out the space left by the Cut? Also I tried to Export the image selected to give me a PNG, but I am not sure I'm doing it right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 Use the colour picker tool to on the black area to get the right black tone. Use a hard brush and paint over the white area, or use the bucket fill tool. File/Export/PNG of your selection should give you a saved copy. Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Gibson PWES Posted May 20, 2022 Author Share Posted May 20, 2022 I do the File Export/PNG but it doesn't show just the image. I see lots of background. How do I just select the headshot? And thanks for the advice so far. I'll try the hard brush or bucket fill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 In the export menu choose selection rather than whole document. Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Gibson PWES Posted May 20, 2022 Author Share Posted May 20, 2022 6 minutes ago, AffinityJules said: In the export menu choose selection rather than whole document. But that's the thing. I figured that's what it was and I kept choosing Selection and it still wasn't just exporting just the headshot.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bruce Posted May 21, 2022 Share Posted May 21, 2022 On 5/19/2022 at 6:32 PM, Robert Gibson PWES said: But that's the thing. I figured that's what it was and I kept choosing Selection and it still wasn't just exporting just the headshot.... My guess would be that in this case Selection is the entire layer that is selected in the layers panel, not just the pixel selection. You would need to copy and paste the Pixels into their own layer and then select that layer, you could then get rid of the pixel selection. Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 Affinity Designer 2.4.1 | Affinity Photo 2.4.1 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.1 | Beta versions as they appear. I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 On 5/20/2022 at 3:32 AM, Robert Gibson PWES said: I kept choosing Selection and it still wasn't just exporting just the headshot "Selection" in the export dialog refers to objects = layers. Such a selection may be created by clicking only, whereas a pixel selection with the marquee or freehand tool can never be created by just clicking, but only by dragging. Accordingly, a pixel selection is simply ignored as export selection, i.e. without a selected object (= highlighted layer) the export selection is not an available option, regardless of a possibly active pixel selection. (Yes, you can also select objects on the page by dragging: depending on your preferences, then dragging either affects only those objects which are entirely included in the dragged area or also those which are just touched by your dragging) Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Gibson PWES Posted June 9, 2022 Author Share Posted June 9, 2022 I am not sure how I got it to work, but I did. I thought I'd come back and say thanks for all the help. I just attended my client's book launch a few days ago! Dan C and Old Bruce 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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