Unable to create border

[David Lever]

I have the latest upgrade of Affinity Photo and I am using a mac os ventura 13.2. I am unable to resize the canvas to increase its size to make a border, every time I try the document also increases. Is this a glitch in the new software, or is there something else I need to know?

[joe_l]

34 minutes ago, David Lever said:

Is this a glitch in the new software

Did you use "Resize Document" or really "Resize Canvas"? Resize Canvas works for me (on Windows).

[Dangerous]

57 minutes ago, David Lever said:

I have the latest upgrade of Affinity Photo and I am using a mac os ventura 13.2. I am unable to resize the canvas to increase its size to make a border, every time I try the document also increases. Is this a glitch in the new software, or is there something else I need to know?

As Joe says it is the 'Resize Canvas' you need to do, That increases the canvas and leaves the document size as it was.  Works perfectly on Windows.

 

[loukash]

Alternatively you can use the Crop tool to resize canvas. See also all its options in the context toolbars.

[Dangerous]

1 hour ago, loukash said:

Alternatively you can use the Crop tool to resize canvas. See also all its options in the context toolbars.

Yeah, I keep forgetting you can crop bigger as well as smaller but it can go wrong if you have some vector work in the document that extends beyond the canvas and you don't want to lose the vector stuff by using 'rasterise & trim', that is ok if it is all raster. You have the same issue with resize canvas but in either case you can always create a rectangle, make the stroke the width you need for the border and make it white so it hides any vector work that was off canvas.

 

 

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Dangerous said:

it can go wrong if you have some vector work in the document that extends beyond the canvas and you don't want to lose the vector stuff by using 'rasterise & trim'

The Crop tool is always non-destructive.
Use snapping options, if you want to crop precisely. It won't snap to objects, but otherwise it snaps to guides, grids, even to marquee pixel selections.

[David Lever]

It doesn't seem to make any difference which method I use, the document and the canvas stay linked together. I'm unable to change the size of one without changing the size of the other.  When I use an earlier version I.42 with a macOS Catalina I don't have that problem, which suggests to me that the problem is in the new software.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, David Lever said:

It doesn't seem to make any difference which method I use, the document and the canvas stay linked together.

Open Document > Resize Canvas (not Resize Document) & you should be able to increase the size of the canvas without changing its content.

If you cannot get that to work, please post a screenshot of what you see  when you open the Document > Resize Canvas  window in AP V2.

[David Lever]

It doesn't seem to make any difference which method I use, the document and the canvas stay linked together. I'm unable to change the size of one without changing the size of the other.  When I use an earlier version I.42 with a macOS Catalina I don't have that problem, which suggests to me that the problem is in the new software.

[David Lever]

HI - Here is an image on the canvas before it is re-sized, when I add the resize dimensions and click resize the document also changes size so that i'm unable to get a border. I've tried "unclip canvas"  and tried enlarging the canvas with the crop tool but nothing makes any difference.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, David Lever said:

It doesn't seem to make any difference which method I use, the document and the canvas stay linked together.

I don't know what to tell you, other than in V2 it works for me just like it does in the video @anto just posted. Are you sure you are entering dimensions smaller than the originals in the resize canvas window?

 

[David Lever]

I've tried reducing the document size, I've tried increasing the the canvas size, Ive tried everything I can think of. When I used Affinity 1 and an older mac it works perfectly every time. It's all very frustrating!

[David Lever]

I just do what works on Affinity 1. Go to File, select new then select A4 adjust to 300dpi then click on create - so that's my canvas. Next, go to file and select open and import the image that I want which will already be 300 dpi and maybe alter the size. So now the canvas will automatically be the same size as the document, then under the document heading, I select resize canvas (as in the screenshot posted earlier) and add the extra amount into the dialogue box, click resize and then the document and the canvas come out larger and both the same size.

[David Lever]

17 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

@anto You showed how to make the canvas larger.
Now do add a border to that image and provide a video about that.
My guess is you can't.(by simply adding a stroke)

The way I get a border  is to extend the canvas around the document, then use the rectangle tool and cover the whole canvas, then fill with the colour I want, place the new coloured layer over the document layer and then I end up with a coloured border.

[David Lever]

Thanks to anto, I just have to go to file and select place instead of open and everything is fine. I've spent nearly a week on and off trying to solve this and have aged by a couple of years - it just drives me nuts!

[loukash]

44 minutes ago, David Lever said:

I've spent nearly a week on and off trying to solve this and have aged by a couple of years

Sometimes it's worth to invest a few hours and watch a few tutorials.  
There are many ways to add a border: a background fill, a vector rectangle, a layer effect, nesting, masking…

affinity.serif.com/learn

[R C-R]

46 minutes ago, David Lever said:

Thanks to anto, I just have to go to file and select place instead of open and everything is fine.

FWIW, any time you Open a file, it is treated as a separate document, so it does not matter what other documents you also have opened or their sizes. IOW, creating a new document does not 'inherit' any of the dimensions or other properties of any other document you might also have open.

[David Lever]

After much experimentation I now realise that I can only get the border with the extended canvas method, it only works when the image is dragged onto the canvas and then crop the canvas. Whenever I click open it fails to work. Presumably it's something to do with the software resizing the canvas automatically and the canvas and document become linked in some form.

Quote

 

 

[R C-R]

29 minutes ago, David Lever said:

Whenever I click open it fails to work.

It should if you use  Document > Resize Canvas on a document you open normally. I have no idea why this is not working for you because it is for others.

[David Lever]

That's why I think it is a glitch in the software that only comes to light when using Mac Ventura 13.2 as nobody else seems to have the same problem.

[R C-R]

15 minutes ago, David Lever said:

That's why I think it is a glitch in the software that only comes to light when using Mac Ventura 13.2 as nobody else seems to have the same problem.

AFAIK, no other user running Ventura has reported this not working as expected. If you have seen such a report, can you provide a link to it?

[R C-R]

19 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

Like said you cannot set a stroke to a resized pixel layer in afphoto or any persona in publisher.

But you can resize the canvas using the Resize Canvas item just like you did in the first of your two videos, right?

What version of the macOS are you using, Ventura or an older one?

[R C-R]

18 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

Time to clean your glasses me thinks.

Sorry for not being clearer about this but what I am asking is if you have a Mac version you can test with; if so what macOS version you are using; & if it behaves any differently than in the Windows version.

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

This has nothing to do with any os it just is in both version1 and 2.

The OS version is relevant to what @David Lever said about there being a glitch in the Resize Canvas item when using Ventura on a Mac.

[R C-R]

Just now, N.P.M. said:

As you can see clearly in my video's I certainly can resize the canvas without a problem on windows.

I can do the same using Catalina on my Mac, but the crux of the issue here is how it behaves in the macOS version David is using.