Select all not working in the way expected

[AlisonB]

Hi, 
I am creating a custom size document in Photo. It is 2000 X 2000 Pixels, transparent background, 300dpi.

I am making tiling images for fabric printing which I have done many times before with no problems. I put together my image then go through the next steps but when I want to 'select all' it is selecting everything but only three, or occasionally two sides of the marching ants are viewable. If I then go through the next steps of making this tile the small slither of selection that is outside of my document shows as a white line. Then when tiled the white lines appear on each part of the final tiled image. 

I have attached an example of the selection. 

Any help appreciated, I would love to get to the bottom of this problem as it is driving me nuts!

[Dan C]

Hi @AlisonB,

Usually the marching ants not appearing happens at low zoom levels (mostly under 15%), though with the size of your document in your screenshot, it doesn't appear as though you were zoomed out this far at the time.

I've created a document following the sizes you've provided and this is working as expected for me - just so I can confirm, are you able to provide a copy of a document where this occurs?

With the aforementioned zoom issue, even when the marching ants are not being drawn, the selection should still remain the same size and cover the full canvas

32 minutes ago, AlisonB said:

If I then go through the next steps of making this tile the small slither of selection that is outside of my document shows as a white line.

What steps are these exactly, after making your selection?

[AlisonB]

Hi, 

Thank you for the reply. I have attached a doc that I have been working on. As you can see from the screenshot the marching ants are only appearing on two sides on this one. 

Here are the steps I usually take to make the tile. 

• Make the document and do first part of the design
• Document>flatten
• Select all of the design
• filters>Distort>Affine
• Offset X and Offset Y
• Fill in any empty spaces on design
• Test to see if it tiles as desired

[Dan C]

No problem at all, unfortunately it doesn't appear as though your document attached correctly - could you try this once more for me?

[AlisonB]

Mmm strange, it is showing as attached for me, here it is again. 

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, AlisonB said:

Mmm strange, it is showing as attached for me, here it is again. 

I think what @Dan C was asking for is the afphoto document file itself, not a screenshot of what you see.

[AlisonB]

Ah ok, sorry, I wasn't getting that was I 😂

The one I have attached now is one of the works in progress. 

I have also attached a screen shot of the layers palette, there are four layers containing items I have worked on, what is the layer second from the bottom? It doesn't  contain anything, not sure what that is about either. 

Purple and blue dice.afphoto

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, AlisonB said:

I have also attached a screen shot of the layers palette, there are four layers containing items I have worked on, what is the layer second from the bottom? It doesn't  contain anything, not sure what that is about either. 

When I open that file in AP on my Mac, that layer shows with a group icon & its visibility checkbox (also visible) is unticked. Expanded, that part of the panel looks like this:

I do not know why for you the group icon, the expand triangle, & the visibility checkbox are not shown.

[thomaso]

12 hours ago, AlisonB said:

when I want to 'select all'

The 'select all' command for a pixel selection (running ants) always selects the canvas size only and excludes pixels / objects outside the canvas.

I get the same "(Group)" appearance as R C-R for your missing layer. It is currently larger than the canvas. To select this you would not use the 'select all' command but simply choose the MoveTool + click this layer in the Layers Panel. Then dragging the bounding box handles let you resize the selected object(s), or use the Transform Panel for numerical scaling.

[Dan C]

Many thanks for providing a copy of your file!

21 hours ago, AlisonB said:

As you can see from the screenshot the marching ants are only appearing on two sides on this one. 

I can confirm I see the same bug when using Select All in your document, however this is simply a visual rendering bug due to Affinitys use of mipmaps, as the number of sides shown in the marching ants changes based on zoom level.

This doesn't mean that the full canvas is not included in this selection, from my testing the full 1000px x 1000px is selected for pixel manipulation.

21 hours ago, AlisonB said:

If I then go through the next steps of making this tile the small slither of selection that is outside of my document shows as a white line. Then when tiled the white lines appear on each part of the final tiled image. 

I'm not able to replicate this using the file you've provided, I selected all of your layers and grouped them, duplicated this group and then rasterised the copy - such that I have a Pixel layer containing the full design.

I then used Select > Select All (CTRL + A) and at this point I see marching ants around 3/4 sides of the canvas, but as mentioned above the full canvas is selected.

From here I can use the Affine filter, or cut/copy the selection to be pasted in a new doc, where the full layer is pasted as expected.

Are you able to provide a screen recording showing the steps you're taking when  this white line issue occurs?

If you're unsure how to take a screen recording, please check out our FAQ linked below - 

Many thanks once again

[AlisonB]

11 hours ago, thomaso said:

The 'select all' command for a pixel selection (running ants) always selects the canvas size only and excludes pixels / objects outside the canvas.

I get the same "(Group)" appearance as R C-R for your missing layer. It is currently larger than the canvas. To select this you would not use the 'select all' command but simply choose the MoveTool + click this layer in the Layers Panel. Then dragging the bounding box handles let you resize the selected object(s), or use the Transform Panel for numerical scaling.

Thank you. It is weird that that layer is showing blank in my layers palette as I deleted that layer so should not be there at all. 

[AlisonB]

11 hours ago, thomaso said:

The 'select all' command for a pixel selection (running ants) always selects the canvas size only and excludes pixels / objects outside the canvas.

 

Yes, this is what I wanted it to do, just select all of the canvas size, select nothing outside of that which is visible. Perhaps I am not understanding this correctly. When I used to use Photoshop I would just select all and it worked. In fact the last time I did it with Affinity, it worked

 

[thomaso]

6 minutes ago, AlisonB said:

Perhaps I am not understanding this correctly.

I think you understand this correctly.
I had mentioned this only because it was unclear to me whether your goal was to select those parts of any layer which are outside the canvas.

Like Dan C I can't reproduce your selection / white line issue. So it would be useful to see it in a screen-recording from your computer, in particular because you did not tell which layers in the Layers Panel you have selected if you "then go through the next steps of making this tile", respectively what these "next steps" or "when tiled" are. (e.g. move, scale, crop, duplicate, copy/paste, … ?)

[AlisonB]

2 hours ago, Dan C said:

 

Are you able to provide a screen recording showing the steps you're taking when  this white line issue occurs?

Thanks for this, I love screen recording, I have done it a few times to share 'how to' videos, so useful. 
I just ran through the process with that file and came to the conclusion of why am I selecting all? I just tried the same process without selecting all and it worked fine. So I reckon I will just do that instead. 
I would like to thank you folk for the help. Much appreciated. I am sure I will be back at some point. 

[AlisonB]

7 minutes ago, thomaso said:

I think you understand this correctly.
I had mentioned this only because it was unclear to me whether your goal was to select those parts of any layer which are outside the canvas.

Like Dan C I can't reproduce your selection / white line issue. So it would be useful to see it in a screen-recording from your computer, in particular because you did not tell which layers in the Layers Panel you have selected if you "then go through the next steps of making this tile", respectively what these "next steps" or "when tiled" are. (e.g. move, scale, crop, duplicate, copy/paste, … ?)

Thank you, excellent, glad that was sorted  If you see my reply to Dan C above, I think I can just remove the select all part of the process. 
Thanks again for your help.