[Possible bug?] Exporting a mask also exports the masked out content of the original shapes bounding box

[MrSimmons]

When exporting a mask of something with Area set to "Selection Only", the content that has been masked out is also counted towards the final export size.

The attached video shows 3 export attempts.

- First attempt without the mask - NOTE: the size is 151px x 151px
- Second attempt with the mask (which has a size of 100px x 100px) - NOTE: the export png size is the same at 151px x 151px
- Third attempt is a resized original shape to demonstrate what the export should be displaying - which is an export of 101px x 101px

I think this is a bug as if you are wanting to export a masked out object, you only want to be receiving the masked object and not any of the original shape(s) bounding box.

 

 

Unrelated note, why does the export always seem to add 1 extra pixel to the file even though these shapes have no stroke?

[GarryP]

7 hours ago, MrSimmons said:

Unrelated note, why does the export always seem to add 1 extra pixel to the file even though these shapes have no stroke?

Your shapes( and/or the selection you are exporting) are not aligned to the pixel grid (in your case you don’t have integer X/Y values, see the Transform Panel) so the software has to ‘invent’ the extra pixels to cope with the fractions of pixels.

In other words, the software needs to add a whole extra pixel in order to handle a fraction of a pixel because raster images can't contain fractions of pixels.

[thomaso]

6 hours ago, MrSimmons said:

When exporting a mask of something with Area set to "Selection Only", the content that has been masked out is also counted towards the final export size.

In V1 the export dimensions are the document size – not 'only' the size of the mask / masked objects as in your video. That might point to an old issue that got slightly improved in V2 but not fixed.

Does V2 display only 1 layer symbol for both vector and pixel mask …

… or did you get a pixel mask in your collapsed Group as the layer symbol in your video may indicate?

[Hangman]

21 minutes ago, thomaso said:

In V1 the export dimensions are the document size – not 'only' the size of the mask / masked objects as in your video. That might point to an old issue that got slightly improved in V2 but not fixed.

That hasn't changed in v2... If the Mask layer is selected, Selection Only displays the whole document...

I think it makes sense that Selection Only uses the non-masked bounding box when the Layer is selected, but it seems that with the Mask Layer selected, Selection Only is ignored completely...

[thomaso]

33 minutes ago, Hangman said:

That hasn't changed in v2... If the Mask layer is selected, Selection Only displays the whole document...

In V1 also Selection Area seems to be buggy: Although it crops the masking object to the area of the unmasked objects as expected, it exports the dimensions of all unmasked elements and even includes their full size that exceeds the document edges. (no bleed)

-> selection height: 650 px | page height: 1000 px | blue rectangle = exported height: 1800 px

[Hangman]

19 minutes ago, thomaso said:

n V1 also Selection Area seems to be buggy: Although it crops the masking object to the area of the unmasked objects as expected, it exports the dimensions of all unmasked elements and even includes their full size that exceeds the document edges. (no bleed)

Same in v2 but I think it depends on the expected behaviour, i.e., whether or not Selection Only and Selection Area should or shouldn't consider the Mask. From a practical workflow perspective it makes sense it should but from a literal sense, the correct selection is made and dimensions shown...

I think someone from Serif needs to clarify the correct/expected behaviour here as this may (or may not) be a bug...

[thomaso]

19 minutes ago, Hangman said:

but from a literal sense, the correct selection is made and dimensions shown...

… but if masked the output does not correspond with the highlighted selection. If different layer selections lead to the same export result one of them might be wrong, especially if the other one can't get exported as its selection bounding box appears to indicate. Compare the layer selection below with the Group selection above. It appears the Group selection doesn't export as expected … while its child layers selection does. – Whereas I still wonder about the area outside the page, in particular without any bleed setting.

[carl123]

9 hours ago, MrSimmons said:

When exporting a mask of something with Area set to "Selection Only", the content that has been masked out is also counted towards the final export size.

Reported previously, for now you can use the Export Persona to achieve your desired result