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Delete Selection [Affinity Photo]


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5 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Use a Mask

Masking something does not delete it.

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1 minute ago, carl123 said:

Use a Mask

wow. ok. So you are saying:
 - it is impossible to delete selection without rasterizing
 - that every time I just want to delete a part of an image I need to DRAW a mask in THAT SHAPE?  And who is going to pay me for the lost hours?

I don't believe what I'm reading here. That's something that is done in almost any other tool in seconds..

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13 minutes ago, SlavaUX said:

- that every time I just want to delete a part of an image I need to DRAW a mask in THAT SHAPE? 

If you keep in mind that an "(Image)" layer & a "(Pixel)" layer are two different types of layer objects created by different processes, that the former can easily be converted to the latter (via rasterizing it), & that "marching ants" selections are not by themselves part of any layer, you should be able to do what you want.

Edited by R C-R

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19 minutes ago, R C-R said:

In this respect they are somewhat like vector objects -- you can scale, rotate, stretch, shear, etc. them non-destructively & either via the Transform panel or with the popup on the context toolbar of the Move Tool, reset them to their original properties with no change to their 'native' resolutions.

That's simply not a good explanation of why deleting is not possible. Vectors consist of multiple geometric shapes laid on top of each other, which is the reason you can't select by color or delete that selection. Image layer still contains one single bitmap. Scaled, rotated, stretched or not, there is nothing that makes Select Brush > Delete impossible to build in.

Users are complaining about this missing basic feature since 2016. I don't think it is anyone's interest to defend the lack of it and point people to the workarounds.

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24 minutes ago, SlavaUX said:

that every time I just want to delete a part of an image I need to DRAW a mask in THAT SHAPE? 

No you draw/make the selection as normal then use that as the basis for your mask

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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13 minutes ago, SlavaUX said:

Image layer still contains one single bitmap.

But the resolution of their bitmaps are independent of the resolution of the document. It is in this respect that they are similar to vector objects.

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  • Staff

Hi SlavaUX,
The Image layer acts as a container for the original full resolution image data. You are not manipulating the pixel data contained inside (directly) unless you rasterise the layer (which is done using the dpi specific for the document). You can only affect it indirectly through masks, adjustments, live filters or transforms (scaling, skewing etc). If you really want to manipulate it at a pixel level rasterise the image layer so it becomes a "regular" pixel layer as you are used to in Photoshop and other editors. Check this video tutorial for more details.

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3 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi SlavaUX,
The Image layer acts as a container for the original full resolution image data. You are not manipulating the pixel data contained inside (directly) unless you rasterise the layer (which is done using the dpi specific for the document). You can only affect it indirectly through masks, adjustments, live filters or transforms (scaling, skewing etc). If you really want to manipulate it at a pixel level rasterise the image layer so it becomes a "regular" pixel layer as you are used to in Photoshop. Check this video tutorial for more details.

Thanks. I got that from the previous posts in this thread. The functionality is a useful addition, which allows out of the box image manipulation without losing the resolution and revert changes.

I also understand that current versions of Affinity Designer/Photo are unable to delete bitmap pixels form a selection on top of an Image layer.

From my perspective it should be possible to implement ('walking ants' selection path is a single vector path anyway, so just apply size/scale/skew from the image layer in reverse order to the underlying original bitmap and delete those pixels. voila). This should be applicable to Erase Brush tool just as easy. Please put this on your roadmap. You know people want it.

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  • Staff

Have you tried to insert/place an afphoto document containing the image instead? It will be inserted as an embedded document (not an image layer) which you can double-click on canvas or in the Layers panel (on its thumbnail) to open and edit in a new document tab as if it was a "smart object" (as in Photoshop).

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2 hours ago, MEB said:

Have you tried to insert/place an afphoto document containing the image instead? It will be inserted as an embedded document (not an image layer) which you can double-click on canvas or in the Layers panel (on its thumbnail) to open and edit in a new document tab as if it was a "smart object" (as in Photoshop).

Saving to file and embedding otherwise simply pasted bitmaps, just to be able to delete selection once? For each bitmap in every new design document?  ehm..

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5 hours ago, SlavaUX said:

'walking ants' selection path is a single vector path anyway...

No, it is a document level pixel-based selection, one that may enclose partial as well as whole pixels. It does not 'belong' to any specific layer nor is it itself a layer.

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1 minute ago, R C-R said:

No, it is a document level pixel-based selection, one that may enclose partial as well as whole pixels. It does not 'belong' to any specific layer nor is it itself a layer.

Seriously, I don't know why just wrote that. That message contains no added value to the matter in question.

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1 minute ago, SlavaUX said:

Seriously, I don't know why just wrote that. That message contains no added value to the matter in question.

The value I was hoping to add is to let you know that your comment about 'walking ants' selections being single vector paths is incorrect. That's why it does not work as you assumed it should.

All they do is select an area of the canvas. They can be used with some but not all layer types to define whole or partial pixels for certain pixel-level operations (like masking, erasing, or painting).

It is easy enough to show this. One way is to create a document with a single pixel layer. Deselect it in the Layers panel. Now make a 'marching ants' selection with any of the selection tools. Try painting with a brush without reselecting the layer. Note that the deselected layer is unaffected.

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1 minute ago, R C-R said:

The value I was hoping to add is to let you know that your comment about 'walking ants' selections being single vector paths is incorrect. That's why it does not work as you assumed it should.

All they do is select an area of the canvas. They can be used with some but not all layer types to define whole or partial pixels for certain pixel-level operations (like masking, erasing, or painting).

It is easy enough to show this. One way is to create a document with a single pixel layer. Deselect it in the Layers panel. Now make a 'marching ants' selection with any of the selection tools. Try painting with a brush without reselecting the layer. Note that the deselected layer is unaffected.

I'm sorry I do not get why you are telling all this stuff about where selection belongs to. What does it matter? Selection is still a vector (a geometric, connected shape defined by X.Y coordinates of its points), and in its nature it cannot have overlapping areas of its own parts. Which makes it simple and perfectly suitable for implementing the requested delete feature by applying the exact same modifications as the "Image layer" has, and deleting the pixels in the original bitmap even though the original bitmap is contained inside a scaled and skewed "Image layer". I'm willing to bet two beers that once I got familiar with the codebase of Affinity I could code such operation in a day. This is not what I call hard to build.

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31 minutes ago, SlavaUX said:

I'm sorry I do not get why you are telling all this stuff about where selection belongs to. What does it matter?

Maybe this will help Marching ants selection with no layers.afphoto. It does not belong to any layer because there are none, it is not aligned to whole document pixel boundaries, & it is feathered so the 'marching ants' do not accurately define what would be affected if applied to a layer even if there was one.

P.S. I am partial to robust ales made by craft breweries like Full Sail, Peticolas, New Belgium, & Texas Ale Project. 😄

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Pixel layer added, Flood Fill Tool used to fill the marching ants selected, 1000% zoom of part of the result:

1433925175_filledselection.jpg.0fc95aa357acb667d2c6f00746470483.jpg

This demonstrates that the 'marching ants' do not accurately define what would be affected if applied to a layer even when there is one.

This is because it is a feathered selection of the canvas (not of any layer) & only shows canvas pixel areas that will be affected by 50% or more by actions applied to pixel elements.

Also note that unlike vector objects, the width of the marching ants remains constant at any zoom level.

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  • 3 months later...

I'm glad I found this thread, it looks like an software wierdism. I had four layers, one where i selected an open Affinity image and two where I dragged them in from explorer, plus the origibal image.

The pasted image behaved as expected but the two dragged layers just got deleted rather than the selection. All were pixel images, so I cannot see why the problem exists but MEB's response works perfectly.

There are some wierd aspects to Photo but c'est la vie.

The problem is, really, that the image layer is an undocumented feature.

Edited by Lightsmith
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  • 1 month later...
On 1/27/2016 at 4:02 AM, MEB said:

That's because you are working with an Image layer type. Right-click on it in the Layers panel and select Rasterise... (to convert it to a Pixel layer). You should now be able to delete just the part you selected.

Image layers are considered an object layer type, like Text or Shapes and can only be transformed at a global level (scale/skew/rotate etc). To work at a pixel level you must convert them to a Pixel layer as described above. You can identify the type of layer you are working with looking at the label in parenthesis after the layer's name in the Layers panel.

Thanks you so much! Also glad Google indexed your answer high up.

I do get where the person is coming from you gave this answer to. I bought Affinity about a year ago, and from having used Photoshop for many years but refused to pay subscription fees, I just assumed that most of the operations would more or less follow the same paradigm, since i presume photoshop users are part of affinity's core target market, but maybe not... Anyway, not bitchin, but seriously  almost every operation I take a shot at using just by guessing based on tool icons and tool tip descriptions, 9 time out of 10 there's a different operational paradigm and i just don't get it. What you say makes sense re images being considered an object that must be rasterized... and maybe somehow photoshop would handle that automatically when i drag and drop objects onto the image area to create layers. What's impt is now i know, but i cant tell you how many videos i started to watch in Youtube about background removal using flood tool, only to follow their directions but after selecting,  and what appears to be an intelligent selection based on pixel color, hitting delete thinking the selection will be deleted only to find the whole layer deleted. 

it just never occurred to me that i'd have to take an action on an image beforehand...  Really appreciate your quick to the point answer which was the secret sauce! thank you much!

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  • 2 months later...

Count me as another user who ended up in this thread after pulling my hair out trying to figure out why I couldn't simply delete a selection from a layer. (Ironically, I had moved my work over to Affinity Photo an hour earlier to get around a frustration with a competing photo editor.) After reading through the thread, I understand the concept of image layers vs. pixel layers, although I agree that it is not at all intuitive to a new user. Might I suggest an "always/never/ask" preference regarding rasterization of drag and drop images? Or perhaps a dialog that asks if you intend to delete the selection rather than the layer and offers to rasterize in the former case?

Regardless, there does seem to be a bug involved. Just like user Macoun back on 27 January 2016, after I read the solution here and returned to my document in Affinity Photo, I found that the layer was already indicated to be a pixel layer. Nevertheless, I converted my pixel layer to a pixel layer and that solved it. As a test, I dragged the same image into another file and it indeed showed as an image layer, so something else is going on that sometimes changes the labeling of the layer without actually changing its state. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

And I am yet ANOTHER person here for this same undocumented, unexplained in the UI, and unintuitive/uncommon behavior. I copied an image on a Safari page and pasted it into Affinity Photo. Couldn't delete parts of it. Repeat over and over. I found the Edit menu has some kind of masking command, but it seemed stupidly obtuse and I KNEW I'd been able to delete before. Came here and... 

Affinity need to come up with some different behavior or visual to indicate what's going on to the user. The concept is not a bad one, but the implementation is utterly opaque.

Another inconsistency is using Control modifier key to Add to a selection instead of the Shift or Command modifier. I know I could edit the keyboard commands, but the default most everywhere else is to use Shift or Command. Control is not used as often on Mac OS, and certainly not for these kinds of things. Usually Shift is a sequential add, while Command is a non-sequential add.

Edited by dysamoria
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  • 1 month later...

same. i got angry and solved by Pixelmator Pro. the manual said nothing so searched the forum because i couldnpt think to be the only one in the world with this huge problem.. which is being discussed since 2016!

NB: i have the Affinity suite, but too often i think there are still some big UX problems

 

ciao

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  • 2 months later...

Oh my...! I had to use google search to find out how to delete a part of image that I past from clipboard. It is not clear that word (Image) is something special. It is not clear. I agree witn @stefano.cecere this program has weird UX problems which it couldn't have if just UX designer was an active image editors user. E.g. this case I guess could be solved by displaying small icon depicting embedded document whereas (Pixel) layers shouldn't have anything. This way user could understand that by pasting image they have something different than usual layer.

It is not only UX issue that drives me nuts and reminds me of Gimp which is a horrible nightmare IMO in terms of UX.

 

P.S. don't want to be mean, just wanted to be able to easily recomend Affinity Photo to my fellow digital artists as viable replacement for Photoshop.

Edited by AlexanderEmashev
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1 hour ago, AlexanderEmashev said:

It is not clear that word (Image) is something special.

The "Image" format is somewhat the equivalent of PS's Smart Objects.
The difference being that APh is perhaps smarter out of the box, whereas in PS (at least CS5.1 which is the last version I'm using) you must tell it to be smart first.

1 hour ago, AlexanderEmashev said:

reminds me of Gimp which is a horrible nightmare IMO in terms of UX.

Now you're comparing apples to … fennel.

Anyway…
We've all been brainwashed by Schmadobe.
It takes times to restore the damaged brain cells.

To paraphrase George Clinton:

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Free your mind and your Aff(inity) will follow!

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