Affinity Photo - Moving a Portion of an Image

[Robert Gibson PWES]

Forgive me if this is the wrong forum for this question.

I have been given a flat PDF file to upload my client's book onto Amazon's KDP, but the person who designed the pages has the page numbers too low down - Amazon paperbacks have their pages fitting specific technical specifications, and the page number is exactly on the line where the margin is, so KDP won't accept the document for publication.

I am trying to use Photo to select the small elliptical image that contains the page number and I just want to slide it up a centimeter or two... but not sure how to do it.  I have done some research but it seems like it's not as easy as a simple select-cut-copy-paste.

I've attached one of the pages. The page number just needs to come up a smidge. How can I do that without having the original file that has the layers? 

[Hangman]

@Robert Gibson PWES, assuming you're unable to get the person who designed the pages to move them and supply a new pdf file, there will be numerous ways to achieve this, you could add new page numbers, positioned where you need then in vector format by drawing and ellipse and then adding the page numbers if you know the font used and then re-export the file to a new flattened pdf.

Though your current approach should also work… just make an antialiased selection of the current page numbers using the elliptical marquee tool, copy and paste the selection and move the page numbers to the correct position and then use something like the Inpainting brush tool to remove the page number from the current postion...

In both cases use a guide set to the right position on the artwork to ensure you position all the page numbers in the same, new position, so something along these lines...

Out of interest, how many do you have to move?

[Robert Gibson PWES]

3 minutes ago, Hangman said:

 

Out of interest, how many do you have to move?

 

26 in total.

In some of the instances I don't have a flat colour underneath; it's a children's book so some of the characters or background might be off if I cut and paste the background ... I'm new to using Photo so I'm trying to follow the video.

[Hangman]

Is there no opportunity to request a new pdf from the person who created the illustrations either with the page numbers repositioned or without the page numbers so you can add these yourself?

The technique shown in the screen recording ‘should’ still work though you may have to use a combination of Inpainting and Clone brushes but it would be so much easier and quicker if you’re able to get a revised pdf.

[Robert Gibson PWES]

I totally agree. I'm asking if I can get the source material, but I'm asking for my own knowledge so I can learn a new skill. I've spend thousands of hours on Affinity Publisher, but I don't use Photo or Designer much. I'm also trying to be ready just in case the person who did them doesn't want to give up the source documents or fix the error himself. The client came to me; I've already recommended they reach out to the original designer once I identified the issue.

[Robert Gibson PWES]

Thanks for that. I'll see if I can get the original files. And I'll keep trying to follow the video so I can practice the technique on my own.

[NotMyFault]

For me the patch tool is superior to inpainting or clone tool.

• inpainting is great for colored aras without structures. If you have lines, its hit or more often miss.
• clone brush requires first to define start position, and often you need many tries.

The patch tool is more flexible and allows interactive adjustment of source area in size and rotation, so you can easily match e.g. diagonal lines even if perspective changes, or re-create curved lines.

[Hangman]

2 hours ago, Robert Gibson PWES said:

In some of the instances I don't have a flat colour underneath; it's a children's book so some of the characters or background might be off if I cut and paste the background ... I'm new to using Photo so I'm trying to follow the video.

It will likely be a case of experimenting to see which tool works most effectively for the image in question... For the second image you uploaded, again, the Inpainting tool works well...

in this screen recording, rather than marquee selecting the original number, followed by a copy and paste I simply recreated it using an ellipse and typing in the number and then used the Inpainting tool with a large brush size and a single click to remove the original number...

[thomaso]

For both your examples (and in addition to @Hangman's page number as new objects) you could replace the image at the current page # without any pixel editing but with a copy of the image, masked / clipped with a vector ellipse + moved accordingly + blur fx to smoothen its edge.

The moved image copy with deactivated mask:

[Robert Gibson PWES]

Thank you! I'll practice using these techniques!