No Gaussian Blur when Preserve alpha get's checked

[Roland Rick]

There is no blur if Preserve Alpha is activated.

The live filter is also not non-destructive. If the filter gets reopened by double click, the checkbox for Preserve alpha is no longer there.

FYC: The YT video link is set to hidden.

The video explains it all:

 

[MEB]

Thanks @Roland Rick.
I'm logging this to be looked at.

[Roland Rick]

39 minutes ago, MEB said:

Thanks @Roland Rick.
I'm logging this to be looked at.

Thanks @MEB 👍

[NotMyFault]

Can you check if the pixel layer has partially transparent pixels? This will irritating any “preserve alpha”, as pixels with alpha below a certain threshold will be rated as an edge, and consequently the blur effect gets removed over large areas, or the overall layer.

just add a rectangular shape with a fill in the color of the background as parent, and nest your pixel layer into it. The blur must be applied to the parent layer, preferably as live filter.

the screenshots shows this exact situation. There is one blur filter with protect alpha.

only the areas with the white rectangles get blurred, the left top is spared.

blur protect alpha.afphoto

[MEB]

Hi @Roland Rick,
The preserve alpha checkbox disappearing issue is now with dev to be looked at.
Regarding the preserve alpha not working, this is by design due to the presence of transparence pixels / areas within the pixel layer (because it was painted with a textured brush which didn't fully filled the layer leaving the aforementioned semi-transparent area within the layer. This can be clearly seen from the thumbnail of the pixel layer in your video where the checkerboard pattern is also present/over the painted areas. If you add a new layer below, filled with a solid white or light grey color and merge the two layers to fill in those semi transparent areas in the original layer, the Gaussian Blur - Preserve alpha option will work as you are expecting.
If you want/need to keep the original layer without merging, you can do as NotMyFault explained above clipping the painted/textured layer to the solid colour layer and applying the FX or Live filter to the solid colour layer (parent).

[Roland Rick]

Thanks to @MEB and @NotMyFault for all the hints, but it's kinda quite a workaround. I attached a psd, none of the elements I blurred gets this bevel effect at the images edges. And I'm pretty sure, 99.99% of Affinity Photo users don't want it either

https://assets.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:06229e7c-ce76-422c-bd73-0af28e1f3704?view=difile

If the link doesn't work and/or you can't download the file, please let me know.

[MEB]

Hi @Roland Rick,
I've raised this with the dev team to learn if there's some technical limitation or if it can be improved. Meanwhile if you use a destructive Gaussian Blur filter (from the filters menu) it should work as you are expecting which I believe is the equivalent of what Photoshop is doing.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "[macOS] Preserve Alpha box and label vanishes after calling dialog a 2nd time" (REF: AF-61) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.3.0.2083".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.