Affinity Photo: When I Copy & Paste an Area from the Image, it is Leaving Behind an Outline

[andren]

I am having an issue with Copy & Paste that I don't remember having before. Maybe I'm doing something wrong here, but I'm not sure what it could be.

I selected an area from a photo using the Freehand Selection tool. Then I copied the selected area and pasted it on a different layer. Once this selection was pasted, I noticed something strange, where an outline from the copied area was also pasted into this new layer. So, in this new layer, I have the pasted area, but I also have an outline from the selected area.

I attached an image to show you the problem that I'm experiencing.

Thank you for your help!

[GarryP]

I’ve just tried this with Photo 2 on Windows 10 and the result was as I expected with no ‘extra outline’.
If you can give us a step-by-step workflow that reproduces this then we can probably help more.

[andren]

On 12/5/2022 at 3:48 AM, GarryP said:

I’ve just tried this with Photo 2 on Windows 10 and the result was as I expected with no ‘extra outline’.
If you can give us a step-by-step workflow that reproduces this then we can probably help more.

I'm still using version 1 of Affinity Photo. I haven't switched to version 2 yet.

All I did was select an area of the image, copy it, and then paste it. I have done this many times before and never had problems with it until this time.

I just tried this again though, and the problem is no longer happening. Maybe it was just a temporary bug.

[- S -]

It's because the freehand selection has antialiasing and/or feather applied.  Then when you move the newly pasted layer with the Move tool, you still have the selection enabled.  This means what you're moving is not the newly pasted layer as a whole, but the (still) selected part of the newly pasted layer (which still has antialiasing and/or feather applied).

Therefore, you need to go to [Select > Deselect] (CMD/CTRL + D) to deselect the active selection before moving the layer.
 

[andren]

On 12/10/2022 at 5:36 PM, - S - said:

It's because the freehand selection has antialiasing and/or feather applied.  Then when you move the newly pasted layer with the Move tool, you still have the selection enabled.  This means what you're moving is not the newly pasted layer as a whole, but the (still) selected part of the newly pasted layer (which still has antialiasing and/or feather applied).

Therefore, you need to go to [Select > Deselect] (CMD/CTRL + D) to deselect the active selection before moving the layer.
 

Thank you for pointing this out!

I will pay attention to this next time if the problem occurs again.

[FrançoisBrousseau]

If you're copying and pasting from one image to another, I've found a way that leaves no visible outline.

Make a selection. Copy. Paste in new image. Then choose Select, Selection From Layer. Move with Move Tool & Transform if necessary. Go to Layers, Choose Unlock. Then go to Arrange and pick Live Stack Group. Back to Layers, click New Empty Mask Layer. From here you can do pretty much what you want with it, add adjustments, Feather, etc...