​[Documentation] AP menu > Document > Clip / Unclip Canvas is confusing

[cajhin]

I like most of the v2 changes I've seen so far. Bonus points for the "Click+drag layer visibility", a lovely little gui detail that makes me happy (I don't care who had it first )

This post is about an older issue.

 

Upshot

in the Affinity 2 Photo help, section "Changing Canvas Size",
I believe you should replace:

To remove unwanted canvas areas:
    From the Document menu, select Clip Canvas.
To expand the canvas to fit layer content:
    From the Document menu, select Unclip Canvas.

with

To resize the canvas to fit the layer content:
    From the Document menu, select Clip Canvas.

 

GUI
menu item "Clip Canvas" should be labeled "Fit canvas to content"
The "Unclip Canvas" command is redundant.

It's quite possible I don't understand it right - in that case, please explain.

 

Comments on Clipping, War&Peace edition

Affinity 2 has inspired me to dust off my tablet and also to continue with the Work Books.

Again, I stumbled after a few pages. Here is an example why I find Affinity hard to learn:

AP Work Book page 92: Cropping
I know I know, Affinity has no intuitive "crop to selection" like every other gfx software. Ok.

The chapter is all fine and dandy, until the concluding
"You can uncrop your image [...] by using [menu] Unclip Canvas"

wat? "unclip the canvas to uncrop the image"
I don't... really... understand this. Unclip the canvas to uncrop the image?

I guess in digital space, clipping a canvas to an image to use it as a clipping mask is possible, but the 'clip/unclip' functions seem to resize the canvas instead of clipping it.
(and the image is never cropped, only masked, which is why you can restore it; until you use "Rasterize & Crop", which is another bag of rasterized worms I don't grok)

Playing with 'Clip Canvas' and 'Unclip Canvas'
-> mild confusion

***F1 Help:***
 

To remove unwanted canvas areas:
    From the Document menu, select Clip Canvas.
To expand the canvas to fit layer content:
    From the Document menu, select Unclip Canvas.

It would be very smart, but 'Clip' does not remove "unwanted canvas area" (my ugly mug still in there, where's the AI we all need?)

"Clip Canvas" seems to "resize the canvas to fit the layer content".
"Unclip" is redundant, it means "Clip Canvas only if canvas < content"
Correct?

 

***duckduckgo... Online help:***
"menu> Clip to Canvas"... 3 minutes later... ah it's Clip TO canvas, this menu item exists only in Designer, not in Photo.
(why the difference? Sounds like this option would make sense for all 3 apps)

 

***Photo 2 help:***
Search "clip" does not find the menu item "Clip Canvas"
I wish that there was a hit for every GUI item.
(Ok, it's under 'Changing Canvas Size', fine)

 

***v1 Forum***
Generally speaking, other people don't seem to understand it, either?

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, cajhin said:

menu item "Clip Canvas" should be labeled "Fit canvas to content"
The "Unclip Canvas" command is redundant.

It's quite possible I don't understand it right - in that case, please explain.

I thought that once upon a time. And someone explained some subtle differences between Clip Canvas and Unclip Canvas.

Unfortunately, I do not remember what they are, and why they matter. Sorry. I hope someone else will be able to explain it.

[loukash]

15 hours ago, cajhin said:

menu item "Clip Canvas" should be labeled "Fit canvas to content"
The "Unclip Canvas" command is redundant.

It's not redundant. In specific scenarios each does a different thing:

• Clip Canvas will always resize the canvas so that each side snaps to the first pixel whose opacity is >0, regardless if the original canvas was larger or smaller. It crops all zero-opacity pixels while it also reveals hidden pixels or curves that were outside the canvas.
• Unclip Canvas will only expand the canvas to reveal the hidden parts, but it will not crop any already existing zero-opacity pixels.

Only if there are hidden pixels/curves on all 4 sides of the canvas, then both commands will logically do the same.
On the opposite, if there are fully transparent pixels on all 4 sides and nothing is hidden outside the canvas, Unclip will logically do nothing because there's nothing more to unclip.