Stop blurring pixel art with simple moving or copying (Affinity Photo 1)

[Ssinssrigg]

I've noticed that AP really likes to blur graphic in numerous occasions.
I work on pixel art a lot and it messes up everything. Is there any way to prevent it?
I'm attaching png that was not moved or copied at all, and the one that I adjusted positioning.

Notice the difference between top left sprite and bottom right. Move moving, more blurring (no size changing).
Any ideas or solutions, my friends?

[Old Bruce]

13 minutes ago, Ssinssrigg said:

Any ideas or solutions,

Most likely you have not turned on in the snapping section "Force Pixel Alignment".

When doing Pixel Perfect Work you have to have the following on for the snapping. 

If you have a Pixel based grid made you can then turn on Snap to grid as well.

Under no circumstances turn on Move by Whole Pixels.

[Ssinssrigg]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

Most likely you have not turned on in the snapping section "Force Pixel Alignment".

When doing Pixel Perfect Work you have to have the following on for the snapping. 

If you have a Pixel based grid made you can then turn on Snap to grid as well.

Under no circumstances turn on Move by Whole Pixels.

I wish that would help but it doesn't  I noticed that resizing works better under this setup, but it still blurs the image when moving or copying... or merging.

Any other ideas? 😅

[Ssinssrigg]

3 hours ago, Red Sands said:

Does it make any difference if you set View Quality to nearest neighbour?

Sorry, I should mention this straight away. Yes, I have "Nearest Neighbour" view quality...

[Pšenda]

12 hours ago, Ssinssrigg said:

I wish that would help but it doesn't  I noticed that resizing works better under this setup, but it still blurs the image when moving or copying..

You need to ensure that the original "pixel perfect" images are "pixel perfect" even after moving (Force pixel alignment setting and Move by whole pixels disabling) and after resizing (2x, 3x). Shifting or resizing by a non-integer part will result in blurring because the original pixel has to be split/blurred into multiple pixels.

[GarryP]

In addition to the advice above about pixel alignment, why is there so much ‘space’ between the sides of the non-transparent pixels and the sides of the selection bounding box? (Red ‘arrows’ in my attached image.)

Could something in this ‘space’ be causing a problem?

Could those graphics be clipped inside a shape which isn’t pixel-aligned?

Note: Full-screen screen shots are often much more useful in problem diagnosis than small cut-down screen-grabs.

[NotMyFault]

Working with Pixel Art in Photo requires 100% accurate workflows and detailed knowledge about what matters.

some does and donts:

1. Pixel aligned positions
2. Exact sizes (never resize objects unless you know how to, e.g. using Pixel Art resize)
3. in Designer: pixel aligned artboards
4. use px as units for documents and lines and font size
5. use snapping options
6.  Use transform panel, set 6 decimal digits
7. Don‘t use nearest neighbor for view mode. It can hide issues until it’s to late. Use bilinear to allow spotting issues immediately. Use NN only at export.
8. Vector objects with px strokes (or uneven numbers in general: don’t use stroke centered, or position to 1/2 px positions 
9. Use anti-aliasing (on vs. off) and profiles in Blend ranges (except iPad)
10. Avoid partial transparence
11. use pixel brush (instead regular brush)
12. Correct usage of merge / rasterize, avoid merge down
13. use of grid / helper objects
14. in Designer: use of constraints

[Ssinssrigg]

15 hours ago, Pšenda said:

You need to ensure that the original "pixel perfect" images are "pixel perfect" even after moving (Force pixel alignment setting and Move by whole pixels disabling) and after resizing (2x, 3x). Shifting or resizing by a non-integer part will result in blurring because the original pixel has to be split/blurred into multiple pixels.

I'm sure it was "pixel perfect" before (I think it can be ensured with maximizing and merging alpha curve... at least that is how I sometimes do that)

15 hours ago, GarryP said:

In addition to the advice above about pixel alignment, why is there so much ‘space’ between the sides of the non-transparent pixels and the sides of the selection bounding box? (Red ‘arrows’ in my attached image.)

Could something in this ‘space’ be causing a problem?

Could those graphics be clipped inside a shape which isn’t pixel-aligned?

Note: Full-screen screen shots are often much more useful in problem diagnosis than small cut-down screen-grabs.

Nothing was clipped. There is so much space just because I selected it like that, just to make sure I tried to move it when selecting more carefully. Same effect. BTW its not a problem with this one specific graphic, its with all images I work on.
About the "full screen thing". Thank you, I didn't know it matters, I will post full screen shots in the future.

13 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

Working with Pixel Art in Photo requires 100% accurate workflows and detailed knowledge about what matters.

some does and donts:

1. Pixel aligned positions
2. Exact sizes (never resize objects unless you know how to, e.g. using Pixel Art resize)
3. in Designer: pixel aligned artboards
4. use px as units for documents and lines and font size
5. use snapping options
6.  Use transform panel, set 6 decimal digits
7. Don‘t use nearest neighbor for view mode. It can hide issues until it’s to late. Use bilinear to allow spotting issues immediately. Use NN only at export.
8. Vector objects with px strokes (or uneven numbers in general: don’t use stroke centered, or position to 1/2 px positions 
9. Use anti-aliasing (on vs. off) and profiles in Blend ranges (except iPad)
10. Avoid partial transparence
11. use pixel brush (instead regular brush)
12. Correct usage of merge / rasterize, avoid merge down
13. use of grid / helper objects
14. in Designer: use of constraints

Wow, that looks good. But, I'm not a professional, honestly, I don't even fully understand some of that. Is there some guide or video that will explain how to do all of that?
- What do you mean by pixel aligned positions?
- I try to use exact sizes and I modify that only if necessary,
- I always use px as units,
- I use snapping options (as it was discussed earlier),
- I rarely use transform panel,
- I changed view mode as you advised,
- I don't think I use vector objects at all,
- how to use anti-aliasing and profiles in Blend ranges?
- I'm avoiding partial transparence like a fire (if possible)
- Pixel brush is main tool I use
- I think I'm using merge / rasterize correctly, but I'm not a professional, so cannot be sure here, I'm avoiding merge down (usually go with merge visible)
- I'm using grid / helper objects
I was kinda hoping that there is some one-click option or a profile or something like that to prevent Affinity from all that blurring. I mean... how difficult can it be?
Microsoft Paint resize, copy, move etc. without blurring by default...

Thank you guys for all your help and advice! I really appreciate your time 😁

[debraspicher]

On 5/7/2023 at 12:45 PM, Ssinssrigg said:

I've noticed that AP really likes to blur graphic in numerous occasions.

@Ssinssrigg You may want to skim/peak at this thread aka "a rabbit hole" for future reference:

You are expected to learn: "Pixel" layers are not actually pixel layers. So it is important to Rasterize everything BEFORE merging layers to connect them to document DPI (your document's actual resolution)...

See in particular: @fde101's post:

Maybe give my whingepost a thumbs up in Feedback area if your head has not completely melted and what I requested makes more sense to you:

[Pšenda]

14 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

some does and donts:

15. Watch out for object rotation! At least in V1 it did mischief when converting to pixels.

[NotMyFault]

6 hours ago, Ssinssrigg said:

I was kinda hoping that there is some one-click option or a profile or something like that to prevent Affinity from all that blurring. I mean... how difficult can it be?
Microsoft Paint resize, copy, move etc. without blurring by default...

Unfortunately, such an imagined one-click option is not available. Affinity apps are so much powerful, at the cost of being far more complex to handle.

[Ssinssrigg]

Tanks everyone!
All help appreciated!