Add to or Subtract from Selection

[John Bloor]

I cannot find any way to do this in Affinity Photo 2 but it seems a very basic requirement. I used it all the time in Photoshop.

If it isn't a feature then it would be great if it could be added!

 

 

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Assuming you mean a pixel selection, with one of the Selection tools active, look at the Status Bar at the bottom of the window for some hints. And/or look at the Context Toolbar for some tool-specific options such as Add or Subtract.

If that doesn't provide what you need, please provide more details and possibly a screenshot to illustrate what you need.

[John Bloor]

Thank you Walt, I see that you can add and subtract from a selection using one of the selection tools.

And I'm really pleased to see you can add each layer to a selection by shift clicking on the layer icon, so that is great. But you can't remove from a selection by Alt-clicking on a layer icon can you? Is there any way to do that?

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, John Bloor said:

And I'm really pleased to see you can add each layer to a selection by shift clicking on the layer icon, so that is great. But you can't remove from a selection by Alt-clicking on a layer icon can you? Is there any way to do that?

On Windows, you can add another layer to a layer selection by Ctrl-Clicking on it in the Layers panel. Or if it's already selected you can remove it from an existing layer selection by Ctrl-clicking on it. Standard Windows handling.

Or, you can select a range of layers by clicking on the first one in the Layers panel and Shift-Clicking on the last one, Again, standard Windows handling.

If that's not clear, please provide some screenshots to help explain what you have and what you want. It would be best to show the complete application window, and the Layers panel with the relevant layers in view.

[John Bloor]

There doesn't seem to be a way to delete from the selection on the Mac. Normally it would be Command-Alt click on the layer but that doesn't do anything.

[Bit Disappointed]

12 minutes ago, John Bloor said:

There doesn't seem to be a way to delete from the selection on the Mac. Normally it would be Command-Alt click on the layer but that doesn't do anything.

I don't think there is, no.

[John Bloor]

So I'm suggesting it as a new feature!

Ability to subtract from a selection by clicking on a layer icon using a modifier key.

[carl123]

28 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

On Windows, you can add another layer to a layer selection by Ctrl-Clicking on it in the Layers panel

I think he's talking about pixel selections not layer selections

Pixel selection/Mask shortcuts (Windows)

Select All Ctrl+A  
Deselect Ctrl+D  
Invert Pixel Selection Ctrl+Shift+I  
Add to selection (Marquee/Freehand selection tools only) Ctrl+Alt-drag  
Remove from selection Alt-drag  
Grow/Shrink Ctrl+B  
Feather Shift+F6  
Refine Edges Ctrl+Alt+R  
Nudge selection1 Arrow key 
Modified nudge selection1 Shift+arrow key  
Selection from layer Ctrl-click layer thumbnail or Ctrl+Shift+O  
Selection from layer luminosity Ctrl+Alt-click layer thumbnail  
Add layer contents to existing selection Shift+Ctrl-click layer thumbnail  
Add layer luminosity to existing selection Shift+Ctrl+Alt-click layer thumbnail  
Polygon selection (Freehand Selection Tool only) Ctrl+Shift-click on page.  
Quick Mask Q 

 

 

[John Bloor]

I am talking about selecting all pixels on a Layer by clicking on the icon.

And I'm using a Mac.

 

[PeeGeeBee]

Hi Walt (and others). I see mention here of an option to add or subtract from a brush selection, but I can't see anything in the tool menu. Where should I be looking and is there a (on Mac) keyboard shortcut to add / subtract when brushing over an image? Many thanks

 

[AgnieszkaLorelai]

I agree with John Bloor.
I use this feature very often.
I have same mask, but need to substract from it the area of specific layer.

In Phostoshop when I click on the icon of the layer on layer list, it adds it's area to mask. (In Affinity also)

BUT

when I click CTRL+ALT on the icon of the layer - it substract it's area from the layer!

Very useful.

[Trippul G]

On 12/7/2024 at 8:05 AM, AgnieszkaLorelai said:

I agree with John Bloor.
I use this feature very often.
I have same mask, but need to substract from it the area of specific layer.

In Phostoshop when I click on the icon of the layer on layer list, it adds it's area to mask. (In Affinity also)

BUT

when I click CTRL+ALT on the icon of the layer - it substract it's area from the layer!

Very useful.

I'm surprised this feature isn't already available in Affinity Photo. Would love to see it added; it'd be a great QoL feature for selection manipulation!