Affinity Photo 2. Crop tool dimmed (unselectable) when image is selected...

[jackb2]

What conditions could make the crop tool dimmed when an image is selected? In a new document the crop tool works, but in the document i am working on the crop tool is always dimmed when i need it. thanks, jack

[Komatös]

Hi @jackb2 and welcome to the forums.

Can you provide us with a screenshot showing the Studio Layer Panel (including the selected layer)?

[jackb2]

i think the problem stems from my inexperience with Artboards. I may have incorrectly built them. I can crop in a new document without artboards and pull it into my work (not optimal, but it works). Thanks for your help.

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by jackb2
better pic

[walt.farrell]

In a document with Artboards (somewhat unusual for Affinity Photo), you have a Vector Crop Tool (like Affinity Designer and Publisher), not the usual raster Crop Tool that Affinity Photo usually has. 

But the Crop Tool on the Tools panel should still work, just differently. Have you tried clicking on it?

Edit: I'm sure that used to be true for documents with Artboards, but it's no longer working that way (or never did). It's definitely true for documents with Pages, though. Sorry.

Edited October 8, 2023 by walt.farrell
Correct error.

[jackb2]

HI Walt:

yes i have tried. it is dead. when i open a new document with just the jpeg it works as expected

tnx,

jack

[carl123]

Can you upload a document with artboards where the Crop Tool is greyed out?

[jackb2]

here is a pic with crop tool greyed out and a simple document with the crop tool working.

tnx,

jackb

 

[loukash]

The pixel Crop Tool *) doesn't work with artboards in Photo. Obviously never did, I just checked with v1 as well. That's "by design". (hm, possibly a bug after all, see below)

To crop your image:

• create a shape directly in Photo and crop the image with it
• go to File → Edit in Designer and crop it there with the Vector Crop Tool
• go to File → Edit in Publisher and then Layer → Convert to Picture Frame

*) Strictly technically, the Crop Tool in Photo should have been called Crop Canvas Tool because that's what it does. 

Edited October 8, 2023 by loukash

[carl123]

8 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Can you upload a document with artboards where the Crop Tool is greyed out?

I think he meant an Affinity document, not screenshots.  (e.g. a .afdesign or .afphoto file)

We would need that to see if we see what you are seeing and to then see if we can figure out why

I can't initially recreate the "problem" but it may be Windows v Mac issue

But we still need that document

[jackb2]

carl: here is a file with the cropped file (using a work around). I made a new artboard (last one) where i tried to guess how Loukash's suggestion of Cropping with a shape might work, i don't know that trick (yet) where you use a shape to crop. How can i do that? That would solve my problem too...

tnx,

jackb

allCards Plus test crop.afphoto

[loukash]

3 minutes ago, carl123 said:

if we can figure out why

It's pretty simple: as long as there are any artboards on the canvas, the Canvas Crop Tool will be blocked. 
However, since the Crop Tool changes to Vector Crop Tool if you are editing a document with pages (i.e. coming from APu) in Photo, it starts to smell to me like a bug.

9 minutes ago, carl123 said:

it may be Windows v Mac issue

Yes, Mac here.
Does it mean on Win you have the Vector Crop Tool with artboards?

[jackb2]

when i send you a file with a novel font, can you still open the file? The test crop file i just sent is using Humanist 970

[loukash]

3 minutes ago, jackb2 said:

i tried to guess how Loukash's suggestion of Cropping with a shape might work

1. draw a rectangle (or any vector shape of your choice for that matter)
2. in the Layers panel, drag the image onto the name of the vector shape (not onto the thumbnail) so that the full layer is highlighted, then drop
3. voilà

[carl123]

7 minutes ago, loukash said:

Does it mean on Win you have the Vector Crop Tool with artboards?

No, in APhoto you have the normal APhoto crop tool but it's not greyed out

You can't crop the artboard document but the straighten and rotate functions of the Crop Tool still work

 

[loukash]

Just now, carl123 said:

You can't crop the artboard document but the straighten and rotate functions of the Crop Tool still work

Well, at least one of those scenarios appears to be "not by design"…  
Let's see if staff eventually chimes in next week, otherwise it might be worth to post a bug report.

[jackb2]

loukash:
That is SWEET! exactly what i was looking for. Is there a tutorial for that? I didn't know how to ask the right question, clearly

I am liking this program more and more. I had used Photoshop since it was scanning software from the knoll brothers...., now retired for 6 years old clients are asking for updates and i didn't want to rent PS for incidental work. The unlearning curve is steep with your program, and i imagine Adobe legal had a lot to do with that. So sorry. Adobe used to be an important asset to the creative community, but it has become a sad shell of Warnock's original ideas....

tnx,

jackb

 

[loukash]

4 minutes ago, jackb2 said:

The unlearning curve is steep

Ah, been there done that, too. Photoshop user from v2.5 until CS5.1, circa 1993 to 2019.
It takes time to free oneself from the stiff Adobe Mindset™. It took me literally years after buying Affinity Designer in 2014 and Photo in 2015.  Eventually with Publisher in Serif's portfolio I decided that it's time to move away from my aging Adobe CS5.
Just take your time…

[jackb2]

true that!

In the end it is the community support that makes a program really sing

[loukash]

@jackb2, looking at your screenshots, in this project you actually don't need to work in Photo at all, unless you want to add some bitmap filters to your images that are only available in Photo. Since you're actually seem to be working on layouts, Designer or rather Publisher provides to most useful tools overall. Note that in Publisher you can seamlessly switch between all three apps via the Studio Link personas, make use of each app's focused features as you need them.

The one thing to keep in mind that Affinity documents can be either artboards or pages, you can't mix them.

Also keep in mind that technically, the Affinity document format is the same for all three apps (take that, Schmadobe!). The file suffix only defines which of the three should open the document by default. I.e. you can change the default app simply by changing the file suffix in Finder.

[jackb2]

Thanks for the insight. I only started in photo because I used PS for the originals 10 years ago. I will, just for the practice of it, try all three apps so I can feel the differences - one of the nice features of being retired, more time to play. 
 

thanks for looking beyond my novice question and helping me grasp the bigger picture. 
jack