Cropping

[alecspra]

Is there a way to crop an image in Affinity Photo based on what you see on the canvas? In other words, to determine how I want to crop an image, I use the navigator and the zoom and move around the picture until I find exactly the frame I want. At that point, if I want to crop my image exactly as I am seeing it, I have to go back out, turn on the cropping tool and play around with it until I hopefully find the same frame I liked. Is there a way to crop an image directly based on how I framed it when using the navigator? By the way, I would love to see Affinity implement a cropping system like the one in Photo in Mac which allows you to see exactly what the cropped image would look like if it is cropped and if you like what you see, you can do the crop right then and there.

[MEB]

Hi alecspra,

There's no "automated/designed" way to do this, however there's a workaround you may use here: got o menu View ▸ Show Rulers, then place the image as you want in the Navigator. When you are happy with it drag guides from the rulers and place them in the limits of the work area, to mark the area you are interested. Zoom out, change to the Crop Tool and drag/adjust the crop grid to match the guides you placed before (the crop should snap to the guides).

 

I believe there will be more improvements to the Crop Tool later.

[alecspra]

HI MEB,

 

Thank you for your response. I tried what you suggested and I can't see any guides connected with the ruler even though I have the Show Guides turned on. I tried turning Show Guides on and off and it makes no difference. Any ideas of why that may be happening?

[MEB]

Hi alecspra,

You have to drag the guides yourself from the rulers using the Move Tool and place them near the limits of the workspace area.

So click and drag (with the Move Tool selected) from the horzontal ruler to create the first guide, then position the guide near the top of the workspace almost touching the ruler on top. Do the same for the other sides, then you can change to the Crop Tool and adjust/position its grid using the guides as a reference. 

[R C-R]

Alternately, you can use the Guides Manager on the View menu to set guides numerically. You can use whatever units you want (inches, mm, whatever) or percent.

[alecspra]

Thanks! it works. 

[need406]

I'm trying to crop a photo but the crop tool does not work for me in fact I can't get any of the tools to work for me. I like some aspects of Affinity photo but certain features need an overhaul in my opinion. Not enough plugin filters work and things that should be easy (like using the clone stamp and cropping an image) are way too difficult to use. I'm close to just going back to photoshop because it's becoming clear to me that the learning curve on AP is too steep and I am too versed in photoshop to overcome it. I won't go as far to say that I wishI never bought Affinity Photo because like I said before there are some things I like about it. As for trying to crop the image I saved the images closed out of AP and tried to use the crop tool with no luck at all. I'm calling it a night and will just finish editing the photo in photoshop where I can get it done in about 30 seconds.