Documents?

[Jared P]

Hello everyone, I am very much new to the world of photo editing and the  Affinity program. I have watched a bazillion tutorials online i have been able to edit photos and export but never creating a “document” just opening an image and doing touch ups. My question is what is the purpose or reason to create a document and then open the image on top of it ?

[firstdefence]

Welcome to the forum @Jared P

Think of documents as a container, it's a blank starting point, an environment to create. You could make a collage of your photo's, a composition, make a graphic out of shapes and text, use curves for all manner of things, frame and present your photo etc etc.

[thomaso]

A "document" creation enables you to define various parameters – e.g. size/dimension, resolution, colour space/profile – before placing one or more photos to this specific setup. Note that you also can create a design entirely without the use of a photo but text with illustrated elements for instance. Thus APhoto isn't a photo editor only but includes features for various types of graphic design layouts.

Another reason is the common file format with compatibility between the three Affinity apps which may contain multiple artboards (AD) or pages (APub) and still may get opened in APhoto, for instance to access specific APhoto features in an AD or APub document – and vice versa.

[Old Bruce]

51 minutes ago, Jared P said:

My question is what is the purpose or reason to create a document and then open the image on top of it ?

There is no requirement to create a Document. If you wish to add to some image (file) you have you may want to make a document, or you could just add to the original file. 

A real world example. My camera gives me images in a 1:1.5 aspect ratio. If I want to make an 8 inch x 10 inch print I would make an 8 x 10 document and place the camera's image on that document. I don't have to do that, it is just one way of working.

[Jared P]

Thank you all for the responses and for sharing your knowledge with me. It is greatly appreciated and i am blown away with how quickly you all have responded. I have asked questions on the internet before only to never get a response. This community is apparently much different and in fact very helpful. Thank you again for your time and help.