Affinity Photo - Centering inside selection

[RedShirt]

Hi,

I'm sorry, I searched as best as I could but could not find an answer I understood.

How do I center an object inside a selection marquee? I've seen "Selection Bounds" referred to in a couple of posts but I don't see it in my Alignment drop-down. I guess I'm loooking for the equivalent of Align to Selection seen in Photoshop.

Thanks for any tips!

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @RedShirt

As far as I’m aware, the Align and Distribute functionality only works with whole layers and not pixel selections.

I don’t know what you mean by “center an object inside a selection marquee”, or how Photoshop works, so I’ll leave it to others to maybe give you techniques to do what you want to do, if that’s at all possible.

[markw]

If you are wanting to just move the star to the centre of the room’s window, I’m not sure you need the marquee at all, as from your screenshot there doesn’t appear to be any other content in the layer with the star that the star needs to be isolated from before moving it.
With the star layer selected switch to the Move tool and position the star by hand where you want it.
If I’ve not correctly understood it might help if you can say what it is that you wish to do in the area you have selected?

[carl123]

7 hours ago, RedShirt said:

I've seen "Selection Bounds" referred to in a couple of posts but I don't see it in my Alignment drop-down

From the Help file...

• Align to—the pop-up menu sets the alignment criteria for the operation. For example, you can align in relation to Selection Bounds, page Spread, page Margin or the first (or last) object selected during a multi-object selection (by marquee drag over or selection with ). If margins are not set, alignment is to the page edge instead.

But selection bounds does not relate to a pixel selection, it is selection of layers you have selected

[Dan C]

Welcome to the Affinity Forums @RedShirt!

One way of achieving this could be to Cut and Paste the selection area to a new layer, then you can align the Quick Shape to the bounds of this new layer and once complete, merge the newly created Cut pixel area, back into the original image.

I've created a quick screen recording of this below:

 

I hope this helps

[carl123]

Another way is to use the Pen Tool and draw two diagonal lines that will snap to the marquee corners, then snap the star to the intersection of the two lines

 

[thomaso]

Another workaround would simply create the selection as Rectangle object + align to its bounding box.  (without a pixel selection)

[MiWe]

In the layers palette select the layer containing the red star and the layer in which you made your selection marquee. Then you should be able to find the needed option in the alignment drop-down.

Greetings

[GarryP]

12 minutes ago, MiWe said:

In the layers palette select the layer containing the red star and the layer in which you made your selection marquee.

I think the OP wants to centre the star within the boundary of the pixel selection.

Doing as you say won’t achieve that as “Selection Bounds” in the Align & Distribute pop-up relates to the bounds of the selected layers, not the pixel selection.

Or maybe I’m wrong about what the OP wants.

[thomaso]

9 minutes ago, MiWe said:

select the layer containing the red star and the layer in which you made your selection marquee.

A pixel selection is not linked to a specific layer. Thus your suggestion doesn't work but aligns to the entire layer dimension instead.

[MiWe]

2 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I think the OP wants to centre the star within the boundary of the pixel selection.

Doing as you say won’t achieve that as “Selection Bounds” in the Align & Distribute pop-up relates to the bounds of the selected layers, not the pixel selection.

Or maybe I’m wrong about what the OP wants.

 

1 minute ago, thomaso said:

A pixel selection is not linked to a specific layer. Thus your suggestion doesn't work but aligns to the entire layer dimension instead.

Yes you are right. Did not test it by myself ... Now i did 🙄

[RedShirt]

Thanks to everyone who replied. Sorry if I explained wrong but @GarryP got it right: I want to center the star exactly in the middle of the rectangular selection.

From the replies, I understand that this is not available natively in Affinity Photo, and I have to use a workaround. The one sugggested by @thomaso seems the most straightforward.

I hope the Affinity team consider including this feature soon.

Thanks! 

[Old Bruce]

I would not use the Marquee selection, I would draw a Rectangle over the window (set the fill or layer opacity to a low value so as to be able to see through it while adjusting its size and location) then draw the star. Taking care that the star is within the "bounds" of the rectangle. Use the Layers panel to select both the rectangle and the star and then align them to the centre of the "selection bounds".

 

[oaksu]

An old post though I wanted to mention the workaround I found.

• Select the area you want to use for centering the object
• Create a new layer and fill the selection with a color
• Select the new layer and the layer which you would like to center
• When you click on the Alignment button you'll see First Selected & Last Selected. Depending on which layer you selected first, select the appropriate option.
• Once your object is centered, delete the new layer that was created.

[hambandana]

I cannot believe something so simple, that exists in pretty much every other similar tool, doesn't exist. Like...I really might just go back to paying Adobe stupid amounts of money because what the heck.

[Ron P.]

On 11/22/2024 at 4:18 PM, hambandana said:

I cannot believe something so simple, that exists in pretty much every other similar tool, doesn't exist. Like...I really might just go back to paying Adobe stupid amounts of money because what the heck.

It's not difficult in the Affinity apps. You can make it even easier by assigning keyboard shortcuts.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Ron P. said:

It's not difficult in the Affinity apps. You can make it even easier by assigning keyboard shortcuts.

I am not sure but I think @hambandana may be talking about centering something in a 'marching ants' selection made in AP. So as has been mentioned, this is not directly supported in AP (or AD).

[Stephen B. Anthony]

Here's an example of why this is needed as a quick-and-easy function within the software. In this image, I am laying out a book cover. I have a layer called Template-Hardcover that is set to 45% opacity. Anything printed on the back cover, spine, and front cover need to fall inside the red template.

In Photoshop, this is just a couple of clicks. I select the template layer, use the magic wand to select the front cover area (as shown). And then it's trivial two clicks to select the Cover-Title layer or the Cover-Author layer to center align them within the selected area.

I then do this with the spine layers after selecting the spine area from the template layer. And then I do it with the back cover text. Once everything is aligned I simply make the template layer invisible.

This needs to be quick and easy.

[psxfanpl]

Very useful tool in PS, any chance of adding a feature in AP? Select an area using the rectangular marquee tool, select the layers of interest, go to the move tool and by selecting align centre the contents of the layers centre themselves in the selected area.