Export Selection Area of flattened image

[KM70]

I'm in Photo on PC and I have a multi layer image.  I selected a rectangle area and I want to export the entire layer stack within that rectangle as a jpg.  Right now, it only wants to export the top layer.  Is there a way to do this?

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums. 

Edit > Merge Visible would give you a new merged layer on top, and you could export the selection from there. 

Or after merging you could use Edit > Copy and then File > New from Clipboard and then Export from there.

Or, depending on your OS, you might use Edit > Copy Merged or Copy Flattened and then File > New from Clipboard.

[thomaso]

Hi @KM70, Welcome to the Affinity forums!

Although you don't say it literally it seems you created a pixel selection with one of the Selection Tools. This selection type doesn't work to define an export area. Choose the Rectangle Tool instead and create a new rectangle in size and position of the wanted area for export. It does not matter where the rectangle is created in the layer hierarchy and it does not need a fill or stroke colour assigned. – With the Move Tool select this rectangle only, then choose in the Export dialog the area option "Selection Area".

[KM70]

thanks everyone, the rectangle approach was exactly what I was looking for.

I generally work on the entire original file and save that with all the layers, but when I want a jpg I may want to crop.

As a long time photohop user (CS 5.x, one of the last standalone pre-subscription versions) I'm working on switching to Affinity.  I'm trying to develop my new affinity work flow and I saw the export's "Selection Area" option and thought it could improve what I'd had been doing for years in photoshop (basically merging all layers, and pasting into a new file and then saving as jpg).

The new rectangle layer works great, is far faster than creating a new flattened image, and lets me save in the master file what the eventual crop was.  Also, by working from the master file, the file name defaults to the original, which saves some time!