Placement of canvas/controlling work area in Photo

[Docwyatt]

Hi,

I have been using the Affinity suite for a while, especially Photo and I have run into something that I don't understand why it happened or how to fix it. If this has been addressed somewhere in the forum, I was not able to find it.

Whenever I create a new document, the document and canvas are correctly sized to each other, however, I have a huge, black area behind it, which allows the canvas/document to scroll around the screen. How do I get rid of this, and just have my canvas/document fill the screen with no extra space?  I have used cmd 0, and looked through settings with no luck.

I feel like I should be able to easily resolve this but can't.  I have attached a screenshot showing the area I am discussing marked in yellow.

 

Thank you,

Docwyatt

 

[walt.farrell]

Cmd-0 should try to fill the window, but it will depend to some extent on your window dimensions and your canvas size. It wants to leave a little bit, and from what I can see in that screenshot it's probably expanded as much vertically as it wants to for View > Zoom > Fit to Screen (Cmd-0). You have more space on the sides of the image due to your window dimension as compared to the canvas dimensions.

You could shrink your application window. Or you could zoom in a bit more using the Zoom Tool or the Navigator Panel. Or you could add some studio panels on the left.

But other than that I'm not sure what you can do.

[Docwyatt]

Hi Walt,

Thanks for the suggestions.  I've done all of that but that's not the fix needed.  I really thought Cmd-0 would have resolved it.

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

[thomaso]

19 hours ago, Docwyatt said:

 I've done all of that but that's not the fix needed.  I really thought Cmd-0 would have resolved it.

Workaround: If you want to avoid a boarder around the canvas (the default pasteboard area) being displayed you could use the "View Point" option in the "Navigator Panel" > "Advanced". If created/saved for a document then a double-click will set the according zoom level and place the canvas centred in the available application window area (varying with the current aspect ratio of canvas & window).

It does not eliminate the pasteboard, does not prevent the scroll bars and does not disable the canvas getting moved around with the Hand Tool within the window but it makes a specific, individual zoom level easier accessible. However, if you then hide the docked panels on one side this saved view point will remain the same and thus might not fill/fit the available space any more.

[Docwyatt]

Thank you.  I'll give it a try.  I just don't understand why I never had this issue before.

[thomaso]

4 minutes ago, Docwyatt said:

 I just don't understand why I never had this issue before.

Do you mean that Cmd-0 previously resulted in a view without any border (= pasteboard) around the canvas? Or is it more likely that the aspect ratios of your canvas/window were more similar and thus the border was simply smaller? Also note, showing the ruler may reduce the impression of a border.

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, Docwyatt said:

I just don't understand why I never had this issue before.

Have you:

• Changed the size of your monitor?
• Changed your monitor settings?
• Changed the size of the application window?
• Changed the size or location or content of your Studio panels?
• Changed something else you have displayed (e.g., the Ruler, as @thomaso mentioned)?
• Changed the size (dimensions) of your documents?

It's basic math that unless the aspect ratios of the available document space inside the window and the document itself match, you can't display all of the document without having some blank space around it.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Docwyatt said:

I just don't understand why I never had this issue before.

I can't understand why you apparently ever had CMD+0 do anything other than preserve a small pasteboard area around the document because it has always worked like that since the very first versions of these apps.

Like the others, I suspect it is likely you just never noticed the differences caused by different aspect ratios for the document & workspace window.

[Docwyatt]

Additional info:

I opened the same image in Photoshop and do not have the issue I have in Photo 2.

I'll try to clarify:  In Photo 2, the image has space to move around the pasteboard/black background.  I want it to stay stationary and not have it move around the pasteboard.  It didn't used to do this and it does not (still) do it in Photoshop.

More detail:  My image is 14 inches x 14 inches.  Many pasteboard/black background horizontally goes from -17 to 32 inches.  Vertically it goes from -11 to 26 inches.

I want the pasteboard to match the image.

I'm still thinking a setting is changed and I'm not aware of the setting.

Thanks for all your ideas!

 

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, Docwyatt said:

More detail:  My image is 14 inches x 14 inches.  Many pasteboard/black background horizontally goes from -17 to 32 inches.  Vertically it goes from -11 to 26 inches.

Please give us a screenshot of the complete application window, with the Rulers showing.

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, Docwyatt said:

 My image is 14 inches x 14 inches.  Many pasteboard/black background horizontally goes from -17 to 32 inches.  Vertically it goes from -11 to 26 inches.

What happens if you use CMD+0 to zoom to fit?

After doin that can you provide a screenshot of the entire application window including rulers so we can see what you see?

EDIT: LOL! Walt beat me to it!

[Docwyatt]

CMD 0 just centers the image in the oversized pasteboard.

These images are after CMD 0 showing the size of the pasteboard.

 

Images attached.  Thanks!

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Docwyatt said:

CMD 0 just centers the image in the oversized pasteboard.

This is the way it always has worked. As has been mentioned, it always preserves a small amount of empty space around the document but it cannot change the aspect ratio of the document window to match that of the document in it, so for example if you have a square document & a rectangular document window, there will always be larger empty spaces in one dimension than the other.

It's simply an expected geometric constraint.

BTW, I do not know why the other screenshots after the first one were included or what they are supposed to show unless they are somehow what you get after using CMD+0 or View > Zoom > Zoom to Fit. Are they?

[Docwyatt]

They are what I get after CMD 0.  The pasteboard stays dramatically oversized.  I know there is always some space but have not experienced so much space that the image constantly moves around in it.

[Docwyatt]

This screenshot is the same image in Photoshop 2023.  There is background as expected (the blue area) but the area of background showing is the only background.  The image does not move around in the background as in Photo 2 and the screenshots I shared of the extra background/pasteboard in Photo 2 cannot be taken in PS 2023 because there is no large background/pasteboard existing.

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, Docwyatt said:

that the image constantly moves around in it.

The image should not move around, except in response to you doing something that moves it. And it doesn't, in my experience.

What did you do between the first and second screenshots that caused the image to move?

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

The image should not move around, except in response to you doing something that moves it. And it doesn't, in my experience.

What did you do between the first and second screenshots that caused the image to move?

On my Mac it doesn't move around on its own for me either. So I suspect that as in the screenshots the Pan (Hand) Tool that is selected was used to move the document off-center, perhaps accidentally.

Regardless, after it moved off-center it would be interesting to know if using CMD+0 again returned it to centered like in the first screenshot.

[Docwyatt]

It moves on the huge pasteboard whether I am using the pan tool, the move tool, a brush, pretty much anything.  I can recenter using CMD 0 but it does not stay placed as it did previously or as it does in PS.  It can always be dragged around in the pasteboard because the pasteboard size never er reduces to match the image.

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, Docwyatt said:

It moves on the huge pasteboard whether I am using the pan tool, the move tool, a brush, pretty much anything.  I can recenter using CMD 0 but it does not stay placed as it did previously or as it does in PS.  It can always be dragged around in the pasteboard because the pasteboard size never er reduces to match the image.

The document window (what you call the pasteboard) will never change size unless you do that manually, like you would with any other Mac app by either grabbing a corner & dragging or by using the window control buttons, so I do not know why you expect it to resize when you change the zoom level.

But aside from that, what you are describing about the document in that window moving around on its own is not normal, nor can Walt or I duplicate that behavior on our systems, so I do not know what to suggest other than if you have some third party add-ons installed that affect the movement of displayed items somehow that might be something to investigate.

[Docwyatt]

Thanks for your help all.  I'll keep digging.  I feel it's a setting, or something I added (hadn't thought about add-ons.  Thanks!)  If i figure it out I'll let you all know.

[uburoibob]

On 9/12/2023 at 8:14 AM, Docwyatt said:

Thanks for your help all.  I'll keep digging.  I feel it's a setting, or something I added (hadn't thought about add-ons.  Thanks!)  If i figure it out I'll let you all know.

I am looking for the same answer. The document has a ridiculously HUGE area of space around it. And inadvertently scrolling causes the live area of my document to actually scroll out of view. Surely there has to be a way to set how much empty space there is so we are not constantly having to try and scroll the live area back into view.

I am also amazed at the answers you got that seemingly had no idea what you were talking about! It should work like any of the Adobe programs and have a bit of space in what Adobe and art professionals for years have called the Pasteboard area.

I will keep looking. It's this single thing that's kept me from making AFFINITY my choice because it's so damned annoying!

 

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, uburoibob said:

I am also amazed at the answers you got that seemingly had no idea what you were talking about! It should work like any of the Adobe programs and have a bit of space in what Adobe and art professionals for years have called the Pasteboard area.

Because it works like that for most of us if we use CMD-0 or the Windows equivalent, it is difficult to know why that isn't working for you, if that is what you are talking about.

[uburoibob]

18 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Because it works like that for most of us if we use CMD-0 or the Windows equivalent, it is difficult to know why that isn't working for you, if that is what you are talking about.

It's the annoyance of constantly scrolling WAY past the live area of the document on a seemingly ridiculously large pasteboard area - at least compared to InDesign or QuarkExpress. I guess you've never worked in either of those. All we are asking for is an adjustable pasteboard area so we don't end up in Paris when working in London. Yes, you can use CMD-0 to correct the issue and then take the time to find where you were working in your document.

Affinity is constantly compared to the #1 and #2 page layout programs, yet a simple thing like trying to keep your document in front of you as it is in the name-brand apps and not constantly scrolling away seems to be beyond them.

I JUST paid the upgrade to 2.1.1 figuring someone MUST have had the insight to take care of this, but no, same thing. Seriously, what would be so hard about making it work like the the top apps do? Or at least giving us the option of reducing the pasteboard area. I have no idea why I'd need to paste something so far off the screen.

"Most of us" use InDesign or XPress. I'd think that Affinity would want "most of us"...

[uburoibob]

On 9/4/2023 at 2:47 PM, Docwyatt said:

They are what I get after CMD 0.  The pasteboard stays dramatically oversized.  I know there is always some space but have not experienced so much space that the image constantly moves around in it.

THIS. The pasteboard IS dramatically oversized. If the best answer is "that's the way it always was", well, we advocate for change that makes it usable for professionals who value the time they have to spend re-scrolling to get to where we need to work. Again thanks for bringing this up.