Pixel selection to shape

[Alvaro64]

Hello, 

is it possible to export a pixel selection in Affinity Photo to a shape in Affinity Designer? For example if a make on a map the selection of the coastline to have that contour into a shape or line form

[GarryP]

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: Search the forums for selection path and/or selection shape and see what answers people have already given to similar questions.

Alternative answer: If you can give us more details about your precise requirements then someone might have an idea of what you can do in this particular case.

[GripsholmLion]

@Alvaro64 It has been requested several times in the last few months alone. You're welcome to add your support to one of those threads, but I won't be holding my breath. This is just a guess riding on a hope, but perhaps we may see it in AP around the same time as the much-requested image tracing is eventually added to AD.

[Alvaro64]

An example would be in the image below were you can see isobaths (contour lines where depth is equal). I'd like to be able to select the contour shape and move it to a Affinity Designer shape so that I can use different colours.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Alvaro64 said:

I'd like to be able to select the contour shape and move it to a Affinity Designer shape so that I can use different colours.

Do you want to colour the contour (stroke) only – or its fill, too? In case of the latter a new filled shape would cover the texts and other shapes unless those will get placed on top, too, right?

Apart from that, and if I understand your goal correct, the most difficult part appears to be not to vectorize a pixel selection but rather to get the pixel selection in the desired quality / precision, especially for the dashed lines. Once you got the wanted pixel selection you also could recolour this as pixel layer, without a need to convert its layer type to vector. To get the various shapes as pixel selection it might help to temporarily increase the contrast for the various subtle colour differences.

Workaround: If you have this image in a higher resolution you could try one of the various available online vectorizing tools. Nevertheless, the current colour contrast in the blue lines may be insufficient for this step, too.