TitlesGuy Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 Hi, I'm new to Affinity, and need some help understanding what I'm seeing. I copied an object from InDesign and pasted it into Publisher, and it gives exactly the effect I need, but can someone explain how it works? this is a solid yellow 12-pt line (curve) over a placed B&W graphic. It appears to overprint the image. It is not "transparent" (It has 100% opacity), but is somehow blended with the underlying image. When I disassemble the line (pasted from InDesign), it reveals what appears to be a yellow-stroked curve grouped with a large mask. How does this work, and how could I recreate it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 Hi @TitlesGuy and welcome to the forums, You may find you don't need the Mask layer but basically with the yellow line selected have a play with the Blend Modes in the Layers Panel... Music.mp4 TitlesGuy and Alfred 2 Quote Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 MacBook Pro M3 Max, 36 GB Unified Memory, macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, Magic Mouse HP ENVY x360, 8 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, Windows 10 Home, Logitech Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 As @Hangman has demonstrated, if you position a yellow shape on top of a B&W graphic and set the blend mode for the shape layer to ‘Multiply’, the black areas of the graphic will show through. The colour values are literally multiplied together and then adjusted to be within the allowable range, so black (value zero) always prevails. If you were to use a colour graphic instead of B&W you’d see different colours, but anything lighter than yellow would remain unchanged. Hangman and firstdefence 2 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitlesGuy Posted March 1 Author Share Posted March 1 Cool! Thanks, Hangman. One of the first things I tried was the blend settings under Layer Effects: Color Overlay, but that didn't do anything useful. Never would have thought to look at the Opacity dropdown. Couldn't be easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 Hi @TitlesGuy, The Opacity slider may not be the best option because that will decrease the intensity of your yellow 'bar'. Selecting the Multiply Blend Mode will maintain the intensity of your yellow 'bar' while at the same time revealing the music notes beneath as the two layers are 'multiplied'... Alfred 1 Quote Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 MacBook Pro M3 Max, 36 GB Unified Memory, macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, Magic Mouse HP ENVY x360, 8 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, Windows 10 Home, Logitech Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitlesGuy Posted March 1 Author Share Posted March 1 3 minutes ago, Hangman said: The Opacity slider may not be the best option because that will decrease the intensity of your yellow 'bar'. Selecting the Multiply Blend Mode will maintain the intensity of your yellow 'bar' while at the same time revealing the music notes beneath as the two layers are 'multiplied'... I understand. I referred to the "Opacity dropdown" because the untitled "Blend" dropdown is right next to the opacity slider, so they seemed to be all part of "Opacity". I'm well aware that I don't want to change opacity. Hangman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 5 minutes ago, TitlesGuy said: the untitled "Blend" dropdown That's a good point. The 'Blend' dropdown doesn't even display a tooltip when you hover over it, at least not on Windows. Hangman 1 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 3 minutes ago, Alfred said: That's a good point. The 'Blend' dropdown doesn't even display a tooltip when you hover over it, at least not on Windows. It's the same on Mac, there are numerous options where no tooltip is displayed so I completely understand the confusion for new users... Tooltips.mp4 Alfred 1 Quote Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 MacBook Pro M3 Max, 36 GB Unified Memory, macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, Magic Mouse HP ENVY x360, 8 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, Windows 10 Home, Logitech Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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