Is there a way to automatically fit Export Persona Blue Image boundary boxes?

[jasblack]

Hey, 

I want to know if it is possible to make this process faster. I am exporting multiple layers as separate images, first by resizing the images in the photo persona, then going to export persona and turning into slices. The problem is that I then have to manually change all the blue boundary boxes to fit the image size too. Is there a faster / automatic way to do this?

Thanks

[thomaso]

Hi @jasblack, Welcome to the Affinity forums!

I might misunderstand your problem but do you want to resize multiple images to the same height or width?
If yes, a macro might help to resize a folder of images without the need to place them in an Affinity document.

Or is your issue that various layers of different sizes exceed the size of the canvas after you scaled them individually?
If yes, menu Document -> Unclip Canvas in the Photo Persona could be wanted.

Or something else… ?

[jasblack]

Hey @thomaso thanks for replying. 

Yes I do want to resize many images to the same width and height, but they are all irregular, so I was first framing them to my liking within Affinity Photo.

The issue comes when then trying to export all at once, I resolved it manually this time, but I find it quite annoying after manually placing and composing all images, I then have to do another manual task in the 'Export persona' tab. I was just wondering why there is not a "Fit all to image boundary" option or such. 

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, jasblack said:

The problem is that I then have to manually change all the blue boundary boxes to fit the image size too.

21 minutes ago, jasblack said:

Yes I do want to resize many images to the same width and height, but they are all irregular, so I was first framing them to my liking within Affinity Photo.

Sorry, I still don't get your point. – For what purpose do you need to "manually change all the blue boundary boxes"? The visible area for all layers gets set in the document/canvas size, the visible area for each slice gets set in the Export Persona (usually automatically in the layer size or optionally in an adjusted, cropping size if wanted), and the size for export of all slices get set in the Slices Panel respective saved in an according Export Preset and applied to all slices.

• Did you "first frame" every image to define the wanted section/detail for export?
• Do the slices in your screenshot correspond for each image with its wanted export area (regardless of the black appearance)?
• Do all slices have the wanted setting to result in the same width or height (e.g. "2500w")?

If yes, go to the Photo Persona and choose menu Document -> Unclip Canvas. Then no slice should appear cropped (black) in the Export Persona and each slice would export with the wanted contents and all in the same width or height.

48 minutes ago, jasblack said:

I was just wondering why there is not a "Fit all to image boundary"

What "image boundary" do you mean:

• The individual boundary of each placed image resource,
• the boundaries of your scaled layers in the Photo Persona,
• the boundaries of the canvas in your document?
• the boundaries of every slice as shown in your screenshot,
• or the boundary of the exported images?

If you set the layers, the eventually slice cropping, and the value (h or w) of the export size as desired, each exported image will be fitted to the boundary of the specified dimensions.

[Old Bruce]

3 hours ago, jasblack said:

I want to know if it is possible to make this process faster. I am exporting multiple layers as separate images, first by resizing the images in the photo persona, then going to export persona and turning into slices. The problem is that I then have to manually change all the blue boundary boxes to fit the image size too. Is there a faster / automatic way to do this?

I am guessing you want to have the individual slices be the size of the Document/Canvas area. I have guessed that the size of the Document/Canvas is the orange area in my screenshot of your screenshot, am I close to correct?

This seems to be a simple ask. Give me each layer as a slice whose dimensions are restricted to the dimensions of the Document/Canvas. However I have never found a simple way to do this. Your solution of manually resizing each slices size is the only way to do this.

What you want (and what I too want) is to have the Document's dimensions act as a sort of cookie cutter for the individual layers which you have made layers from.

It would be quite useful to be able to do this. A fair number of questions about this non existent functionality have been asked by people who want to use Designer in an animation workflow. They need their slices to be the size of the Document/Canvas even if the layer is larger or smaller than the Document/Canvas.

[Old Bruce]

20 minutes ago, thomaso said:

What "image boundary" do you mean:

• ...
• the boundaries of the canvas in your document?
• ...

If you set the layers, the eventually slice cropping, and the value (h or w) of the export size as desired, each exported image will be fitted to the boundary of the specified dimensions

I am guessing that @jasblack is wanting the Canvas dimension. I am unaware of any easy way to achieve this.

What do you mean by "If you set the layers,..."?

[thomaso]

49 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I am guessing that @jasblack is wanting the Canvas dimension. I am unaware of any easy way to achieve this.

For what purpose or need? – If the Canvas shows all contents of all layers (-> 'unclip canvas') the scaling of each placed image with its individual size happens on export to the wanted size. There is no need or advantage to scale each images to exactly fit the canvas boundaries before export.

49 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

What do you mean by "If you set the layers,..."?

It seems the OP wants to crop some of the placed images, for instance to exclude a specific image area from export or simply to affect the visible area for placed images with a different aspect ratio than the required export size. – So, my "If you set the layers,..." (image -> layer -> slice) refers to this aspect of layer rescaling or cropping. That's at least how I understood the OP's info about "first framing them to my liking":

2 hours ago, jasblack said:

Yes I do want to resize many images to the same width and height, but they are all irregular, so I was first framing them to my liking

[jasblack]

Hey @thomaso

Sorry if I was not using the right words. I am not an advanced user of Affinity, hence the questions.

Essentially I am trying to make all of the outputs 1920x1080, I pull a load of images into Affinity that are different sizes, then place them in the composition that I want. Then I want to export each layer as a separate image - with slices... But the problem is that if I just export it without changing those Blue boxes to fit the image size, then it ends up with really weird outputs. See the attached examples. I have to manually move the corners of each image to fit the image size otherwise there is this issue. Just wanted to know if there was an automatic way to do this?

[jasblack]

@Old Bruce Yes I think you understand what I am trying to do! So it seems there is no easy way to do this?

Sometimes I have to make 200-300 images the same dimensions, and it takes forever to move the blue boxes

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, jasblack said:

Sorry if I was not using the right words. I am not an advanced user of Affinity, hence the questions.

No, it wasn't your fault, I was totally on the wrong track! Sorry! – And "the right words" seem to be quite difficult in this case of various types of sizes without clear names for each.

4 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

What you want (and what I too want) is to have the Document's dimensions act as a sort of cookie cutter for the individual layers which you have made layers from.

@Old Bruce helped to point me in the new direction, though I didn't initially understand the "cookie cutter" and "layers which you have made layers from", maybe influenced by my limited English skills.

It is indeed a pity that slices can't get cropped on export to the canvas dimensions (as an option at least) but insist in the full area of the auto-generated slices but in the export size that is wanted for the visible contents, not the white slice space.

My workaround would be to mask each image (or group of layers) with a rectangle shape. The rectangle sizes are at least easier to edit than slices in the Export persona. With cmd-J you can first create the required number of rectangles and then drag them one by one on the image layer thumbnails. I don't know of a way to do it for more than one image at a time.

The multiple unmasked vs. the limited masked sizes and the canvas:

Clean slice appearance, each in canvas size.

The exports:

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

My workaround would be to mask each image (or group of layers) with a rectangle shape. The rectangle sizes are at least easier to edit than slices in the Export persona. With cmd-J you can first create the required number of rectangles and then drag them one by one on the image layer thumbnails. I don't know of a way to do it for more than one image at a time.

 

I too have had to resort to that, but as you describe it, it is still a lot of work for something which could be so simple. A Crop to Canvas size option.

[thomaso]

6 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I too have had to resort to that, but as you describe it, it is still a lot of work for something which could be so simple. A Crop to Canvas size option.

Did you ever try to use Symbols for the cropping rectangles, to make a change of the canvas size easier?

If I had many images to crop + rescale to one size I would not choose APhoto. If it would have to be Affinity I would use APub instead: Place one image per page, scale/move each image as wanted and export all pages as images in the required resolution. No need to crop'n'slice at all.

Actually I'd expect this 'crop to canvas' output as the default for an export of auto-generated slices, … and the version with blank backgrounds + canvas contents in differing sizes as an optional feature. I can't even think of any use case for this export method, can you?

[Old Bruce]

Just now, thomaso said:

Did you ever try to use Symbols for the cropping rectangles, to make a change of the canvas size easier?

Still have to place each symbol on each layer to crop.

We are not wanting to change the size of the Canvas. We want to crop to the Canvas size.

[StuartRc]

Which applications are available to you?
Affinity Designer only
1. Set up artboard to size you need 1920 x 1080 (px or mm!)
2. Place your image into the artboard. (you could add another image onto Artboard using place but that is just extra layers!)
Use the artboard to define the dimensions of your image
3. Adjust position and scaling using Image + dropdown on context toolbar
4. Export in Export Persona Using the artboard as the slice!

With Publisher you have a more options and controls over the placement of each image
1. Create new file to size required 1920 x 1080 + res +margins
2. On page (Master or just page) add image placement and adjust the requirements for
a. Properties (Scale for Max fit)
b.  Add a border if you wish
3. Duplicate the page accroding to the number of images you wish to add!
4. Place you images into image placement box and adjust as necessary.
5. Save and close file

To get the export Persona you need Designer
1. Create same file dimensions in Affinity Designer
2. Create Artboard
2. Use file > Place to import the Publisher file
4. Place you file onto the artboard and adjust for effect
5. Duplicate the artboard and name
6. Use the options on the context toolbar to adjust the image | Spread number | Page Box
7. Go to Export Persona and export your files with desired requirements using the artboard as slices
 

[thomaso]

54 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Still have to place each symbol on each layer to crop.

True. The symbol would have an advantage just in case you would want to use a different canvas size after you placed the images + cropping rectangles already. In that case all nested rectangles could get adjusted in one step.

[NotMyFault]

Not sure if i understand the request correctly.

If you want to crop all images at the canvas select all layers use rasterize and trim.

 

[thomaso]

4 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

select all layers use rasterize and trim

A pretty time-saving workaround* for V2. (in V1 it had to be done layer by layer).

* I haven't even thought of a destructive solution to this problem... and for an app that focuses on non-destructive workflows, I just wouldn't expect the expected non-destructive way to not work but require the destructive way, especially in the Export Persona which was developed to increase efficiency.

[jasblack]

@NotMyFault This is the solution I was looking for! I don't mind that it is destructive, it works perfectly. 

Thanks everyone for your help, and discussions

[NotMyFault]

Great to hear this helped. I filed a feature request in 2021 and was more than happy when it was added in 2023 in V2.