Pixel Tool does not fully erase.

[jbikeler]

I'm attempting to use the erase alternate action for the pixel tool. It does not fully erase the pixels. Rather it acts more like the eraser tool and makes the pixels slightly more opaque. I have to go over multiple times to fully erase the pixel. Only a week ago I was using this feature and it was fully erasing. I have not changed anything in my settings or brushes.  Any ideas on how to fix? Here's a screenshot of my settings.

[NotMyFault]

Please re-select a basic round brush, and try again.

to check, use a layer filled with solid color, and increase brush size to e.g. 32px, then make a stroke.

[Bob-NL]

Same problem in my AP while opacity, flow and hardness are 100% with standard/normal brush. I attach a sample with one erase stroke through the green area (background is black) and same stroke until halfway. Mark the diferences. NB. In AP V1 erase tool its is working fine.

MacOS Big Sur 11.7.2

AP V2.0.3

[laurent32]

Could it be you have this activated ?

[Bob-NL]

Yes, "wet edges" was activated. Ik was not aware of this option. Thanks!!!!

[jbikeler]

14 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

Please re-select a basic round brush, and try again.

to check, use a layer filled with solid color, and increase brush size to e.g. 32px, then make a stroke.

I follow these instructions. The problem is that I'm not attempting tp use the basic round brush. I would like to pixel paint one pixel at a time. Even at one pixel the basic round brush will paint multiple pixels at a time with varying opacities. I am then trying to use the pixel tool to fully erase using the alternate operation (holding ctrl). My issue still occurs. While testing this an interesting thing occurred as well. I filled the whole layer with the like you said (using the flood fill tool). I then switched to the pixel tool, chose a different color, and painted a stroke. I then held control and attempted to erase straight through everything and the background, that was flood filled, seems to erase properly but my stroke that was painted still does not fully erase. This is still all on one layer. Here's a screenshot of the result.

[jbikeler]

Just in case the settings for different tools effect this operation, here of the settings I have for each tool.

[loukash]

50 minutes ago, jbikeler said:

but my stroke that was painted still does not fully erase

One problem with the Photo persona in Publisher – and with *.afpub documents in general – is the absolute pixel grid of the document.
If your document has a bleed, the absolute pixel grid will start at the top left corner of the bleed. If the bleed doesn't have an integer pixel value, your brushes will always appear off the absolute grid, thus causing antialiasing on display. On bitmap export, the actual pixel appearance might be correct though.
Same pixel grid bug also affects documents with multiple pages.

Your problem seems to show typical symptoms.

We've investigated similar issues with @NotMyFault just recently, among others in this thread here: 

 

[jbikeler]

I see. Thank you for making me aware. I prefer using Publisher's workflow for jumping between designer and Photo. Nevertheless, do you know if this issue occurs if we only use Designer(stand-alone not the persona within Publisher)? Hopefully this gets fixed because the workaround would be way to complicated every time you want pixel paint. 

[loukash]

15 minutes ago, jbikeler said:

do you know if this issue occurs if we only use Designer(stand-alone not the persona within Publisher)

If you create a document with no bleed, or use strictly integer pixel values overall including bleed and page/artboard size and position, and you have Force Pixel Alignment on, then all should be fine. Also remember to use the Pixels view mode.

As soon as you add a non-integer pixel bleed, all will be off the grid again and won't come back unless you create a new pixel aligned document and copy all previous content over…

This conceptual flaw and the related bugs is a major p.i.t.a. ever since the Affinity beginning.

[loukash]

27 minutes ago, jbikeler said:

I prefer using Publisher's workflow for jumping between designer and Photo.

As a consequence of our findings, I made me new document presets based strictly on integer pixels. E.g. a standard DIN A4 300 dpi document with 3 mm bleed is then 2480×2508 px with 36 px bleed. The actual difference in mm fractions is really negligible.
With Force Pixel Alignment on, this will already fix all pixel misalignment issues on page 1.
The next problem in Publisher is the hardcoded vertical spread gap of 30 mm (!). That will bring all pixel objects off the grid vertically, starting page 2. There are workarounds in my aforelinked thread.

[NotMyFault]

7 hours ago, jbikeler said:

The problem is that I'm not attempting tp use the basic round brush. I would like to pixel paint one pixel at a time. Even at one pixel the basic round brush will paint multiple pixels at a time with varying opacities.

Here is a misunderstanding. 
Even if you are using the pixel tool, you need to choose a brush. If you (by accident) selected a different brush like spray brush, you can resize brush to 1px, but this brush won’t paint or erase with full opacity because of its structure. 
 

So please, while using the pixel tool, select a basic round brush, then set the size etc as needed. It is essential, to avoid one source of trouble.

The only alternative option is to create a rectangular brush on your own. This does not matter at all at 1px, but you then can use it with e.g. 8px to paint larger rectangles or other shapes, getting hard edges and corners.

The round brush is perfectly fine to paint or erase exactly 1px. But you need to activate snapping and force pixel alignment, and deactivate move by whole pixels.

[NotMyFault]

If possible, please upload the actual affinity file. This helps us to inspect other possible sources of the unwanted behavior.

[NotMyFault]

Please include the following panels in screenshots:

• layer panel (expanded)
• color panel (showing color opacity)
• Try to open the file directly in Photo. Use the info panel to inspect color values. If issue is gone: you are impacted by the „publisher misalignment bug“, linked by Loukash
• for a test, activate settings(preferences) -> performance -> view quality nearest neighbor. If the issue is gone, your pixel layer is misaligned.
• If the problem persists, it is more likely a brush or color opacity issue - we need to dig deeper.
• Don’t forget to activate „Bilinear“ again, otherwise you are unable to spot such issues

[firstdefence]

Just out of curiosity, is Wet Edges turned to ON in the brush settings?

It's one of those settings that are easily missed.

 

[jbikeler]

On 1/22/2023 at 10:14 PM, NotMyFault said:

If possible, please upload the actual affinity file. This helps us to inspect other possible sources of the unwanted behavior.

Attached.

On 1/22/2023 at 10:18 PM, NotMyFault said:

Please include the following panels in screenshots:

• layer panel (expanded)
• color panel (showing color opacity)
• Try to open the file directly in Photo. Use the info panel to inspect color values. If issue is gone: you are impacted by the „publisher misalignment bug“, linked by Loukash
• for a test, activate settings(preferences) -> performance -> view quality nearest neighbor. If the issue is gone, your pixel layer is misaligned.
• If the problem persists, it is more likely a brush or color opacity issue - we need to dig deeper.
• Don’t forget to activate „Bilinear“ again, otherwise you are unable to spot such issues

Here are the expanded panels. 
Changing to nearest neighbor did not solve the issue.
It does works as intended in the standalone Photo and Designer application. It must be the misalignment bug. Still going to attach the files for more data in the investigation.

Button.afpub

[- S -]

@jbikeler

As another poster mentioned, this is caused due to the Pixel tool inheriting the "Wet Edges" setting from another brush.  The Pixel tool just doesn't show the "Wet Edges" setting in the Context Toolbar at the top.

Selecting a basic round brush in Affinity Photo 2 also won't reset it.  Therefore, I would create a new square brush like "NotMyFault" mentioned and use this to reset the Pixel tool.  If you keep this newly created brush in your Brushes panel, you can select the brush again in the future to reset the Pixel tool if the issue occurs again.

See below video.

[NotMyFault]

7 hours ago, - S - said:

As another poster mentioned, this is caused due to the Pixel tool inheriting the "Wet Edges" setting from another brush.  The Pixel tool just doesn't show the "Wet Edges" setting in the Context Toolbar at the top.

I would call this a bug - inheriting a setting which is unsuitable, but hiding the control which would allow to deactivate it.

One more questions, to avoid the same issue in future:

• why is pixel tool inheriting only “enforce”, but not “disable”?
• does it make a difference if you share brushes across tools?
• what are the circumstances who trigger inheriting wet brushes?

You can reach the "wet edges settings of the brush via "more", and modify the settings

[NotMyFault]

10 hours ago, jbikeler said:

Attached

Thanks a lot.

I’ not yet fully convinced its related to wet edges.

i opened the file on iPad, there the wet edges is visible and off, but the issue persists.

But i noticed something that might cause the issue: you have pixel layers stretching over 2 artboards. This is bad and must be avoided.

If you

1. select one artboard
2. create new pixel layer (inside that artboard)
3. start to use brush or pixel brush
4. everything is fine

snapping settings might play into this, never use “move by whole pixels”.

[pigeon]

Is there any way to reset the pixel tool to its default settings (affinity photo)? I have changed brush type for this tool and can't get it back to how it originally was (1x1 square). I've created my own square image brush, but it does behave a bit differently than the default one.

[walt.farrell]

23 minutes ago, pigeon said:

Is there any way to reset the pixel tool to its default settings (affinity photo)? I have changed brush type for this tool and can't get it back to how it originally was (1x1 square). I've created my own square image brush, but it does behave a bit differently than the default one.

Which application and what release are you using?

[walt.farrell]

If you're using V2, @pigeon, here's the default Pixel Tool brush from Affinity Photo:

Default Pixel Tool Brush.afbrushes

[brunhilda]

Hi,

I might have the same problem with a pixel erase brush tool in Designer.

I can never erase a bitmap with one click only, even thought the wet edges or other brush settings are on default.

updated macOS Sonoma (but the problem persists for a year or longer)

 

 

[Old Bruce]

37 minutes ago, brunhilda said:

I can never erase a bitmap with one click only, even thought the wet edges or other brush settings are on default.

Is it a square brush or a round brush that you are using? I will wager it is a round brush.

[walt.farrell]

40 minutes ago, brunhilda said:

even thought the wet edges or other brush settings are on default.

What you show as "the default" is "don't set wet edges", which means "do not turn it on if it's off already, and do not turn it off if it's on already".  If you want to make sure it's off, set it to turn off.