Exporting problem with grouped object

[Gokhan Eser]

I cannot properly export a grouped layer. It saddens me to still see these issues in V2. We have mentioned this many times before on the forum. And those were V1 issues.

You upgraded to V2 without completing these issues. Everything is as before.
And these problems change my mind.

[Gokhan Eser]

I don't think I'm doing anything logically wrong. I'm having the same issue with the Vector Crop Tool.

[NotMyFault]

5 minutes ago, Gokhan Eser said:

I don't think I'm doing anything logically wrong. I'm having the same issue with the Vector Crop Tool.

I think (hope) N.P.M. may wants to express that if you would use his advise as workaround you would get the desired result with all Affinity versions. It does‘n mean you made anything wrong.

I agree this looks like a bug, but a bug with an easy and well known workaround.

Affinity may prioritize other bugs higher, e.g. fixing Apps crashed when using negative input for filter radius, so agree with Affinity to not solving this issue immediately.

[Gokhan Eser]

I can already export the file in different ways. But this causes problems when exporting complex files.

I don't always check the file I export and I send them to company. That's why my work is coming back for revision, and I have to re edit them🤷🏻‍♂️

[NotMyFault]

4 minutes ago, Gokhan Eser said:

I don't always check the file I export and I send them to company. 

Unfortunately it is recommended to check every export for various reasons, especially when exporting selections.

• any filter or layer fx like blur, shadow, outlines can affect alpha, and extend the shapes bounding box.
• You found the issue with groups and vector masks
• Objects with seam-transparent edges in RGB/16 are exported wrong to RGB/8 formats (having unwanted transparent edge areas)
• Pixel mis-alignment for raster exports can lead to blurriness

So if you don‘t check before sending to a client, it is your own risk.

[Gokhan Eser]

8 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Unfortunately it is recommended to check every export for various reasons, especially when exporting selections.

• any filter or layer fx like blur, shadow, outlines can affect alpha, and extend the shapes bounding box.
• You found the issue with groups and vector masks
• Objects with seam-transparent edges in RGB/16 are exported wrong to RGB/8 formats (having unwanted transparent edge areas)
• Pixel mis-alignment for raster exports can lead to blurriness

So if you don‘t check before sending to a client, it is your own risk.

Yes, I agree with you on this.

[Hangman]

I'm sure I will likely be castigated for this but I'm not convinced this is a bug for the following reasons...

When you group the two images, as shown in the original post and then apply a mask to the group, which in the example shown is smaller and contained within the bounding box of the two grouped images, by selecting the Group in the layers panel, exporting and then choosing Selection Only your physical selection is still effectively the two images and not the mask you just so happened to have applied, so to me what is exported is correct, it is your physical selection, i.e., in this example, the two images.

If the mask happened to be the same size as the two images or smaller than currently shown, then Selection Only exports exactly the same size image only it shows either more or less of the two images because the mask is now either larger or smaller.

When you do the reverse and you clip the two grouped images inside the square and you select the Square in the layers panel, export and choose Selection Only, your physical selection in the layers panel is no longer the two grouped images, it is now the square, hence it again correctly exports the physical selection, i.e., in this example, the square.

I think what is perhaps confusing here is that when using the mask option and selecting the group in the layers panel, the physical selection's bounding box is shown on the canvas as that of the mask rather than that of the actual physical selection which in this example is infact the two images.

[Gokhan Eser]

Actually, it would be better if a Serif official could answer this. So we can see what is right or wrong.

But when we mentioned for V1, they said it would be checked. If i'm not mistaken, I remember it like that.

[Hangman]

7 minutes ago, Gokhan Eser said:

Actually, it would be better if a Serif official could answer this. So we can see what is right or wrong.

Agreed, it would be good to get clarification... but my take is that Selection Only refers to the bounding box of the parent element, i.e., the selected layer in the layers panel. That is both logical and results in the outcomes we are seeing in both cases based on the physical selection made.

[Gokhan Eser]

5 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Agreed, it would be good to get clarification... but my take is that Selection Only refers to the bounding box of the parent element, i.e., the selected layer in the layers panel. That is both logical and results in the outcomes we are seeing in both cases based on the physical selection made.

If I need to avoid this problem, I need to rasterize the mask or grouped image first. Then I have to export it again. If I have i.e. 30 different files in my artboard, I need to apply it to all of them. This is a terrible experience for me. Then export makes no sense to me. Or Export persona panel..

[Hangman]

5 minutes ago, Gokhan Eser said:

If I need to avoid this problem, I need to rasterize the mask or grouped image first. Then I have to export it again. If I have i.e. 30 different files in my artboard, I need to apply it to all of them.

I'm not sure of the full extent of what you are creating so may be talking out of turn, but would the approach @N.P.M. suggested, i.e., using a clipping path rather than a mask not provide the solution?

[lepr]

3 hours ago, Hangman said:

my take is that Selection Only refers to the bounding box of the parent element, i.e., the selected layer in the layers panel. That is both logical and results in the outcomes we are seeing in both cases based on the physical selection made.

If the selected masked object is a Group (or Layer), an Export Selection Only is as large as the entire Group.

If the selected masked object is not a Group (or Layer), an Export Selection Only is just large enough to contain the masked region of the object.

That difference seems illogical to me, and I think the export should be the size of just the masked region in both cases. 
In other words, the output of Export Selection Only of a masked Group (or Layer) is wrong currently, in my opinion.

[Hangman]

17 hours ago, ,,, said:

If the selected masked object is a Group (or Layer), an Export Selection Only is as large as the entire Group.

If the selected masked object is not a Group (or Layer), an Export Selection Only is just large enough to contain the masked region of the object.

That is a very valid point, in which case my previous assumption is clearly wrong and I agree this is indeed a bug that needs fixing...

[Dan C]

Hi all,

This is indeed a known issue, so I can only say we hope to fix it soon.

Lee