A new Transparency Tool Type for feathering use

[dkistner1111]

Well, duh! I was watching Affinity Designer tutorials this morning, something I must make more time for, and discovered the Transparency Tool with balloons tutorial. And there is the solution to my problem of not being able to feather the edges of photos to blend in with color-matched backgrounds. Once I get skilled with this tool, it will give me far more control than Illustrator's simple edge-feathering tool has.

 

But the Elliptical type doesn't quite work the way I'd like it to, being that I often need to feather the edges of square or rectangular shapes. Linear works well, but then I have to make a copy of the photo for each edge I need to feather (usually two) and manipulate further in what should be a one-stop process.

 

It seems to me that a logical place to add a feathering-type effect would be here to allow for both vertical and horizontal adjustment on a square or rectangular shape. Something like the Elliptical type but more squarish. Or maybe there is a way to adjust the Elliptical type to make it more squarish? I'll keep playing, but I wanted to let you know that this was a real relief to me to discover. Thanks, folks!