Inpainting tool doesn't work on the left side of the image

[VipulK]

Hi. I'm new to Affinity and having trouble with the inpainting tool. I need to extend the width of an image which I used to do with content aware fill in Photoshop. AFAIK the inpainting tool is the analogue of that tool in affinity. It works on the right side of the image but doesn't do anything on the left side. This is not specific to this particular image. It behaves the same way with all images.

If there's a better tool to do this, please do let me know.

Edit: Not sure why but the cursor is not displayed in the right position in the recording. Its south east of where it was actually.

Edited January 11 by VipulK

[carl123]

Just prior to using the Inpainting Brush Tool, select the layer and do Layer > Rasterise & Trim

Does it now work as expected?

[NotMyFault]

The inpainting tool is sometimes tricky when working with transparency. It may not pick enough color information from the neighboring opaque area. So you may need to enlarge the overlap.

 in this case of a rectangular area, I would avoid the inpainting brush. Instead, use the rectangular selection tool and draw a rectangle which overlaps about 4-8 pixels to the colored area. The use the inpainting function from the menu. Alternatively brush over the selected area and carefully ensure that every pixel is included, e.g. using a 100% hard brush and using multiple strokes (without lifting the brush).

another better way is to use the colum selection brush and select one to 4 pixel wide area. Then add a pattern layer, and move it behind the background layer. This extends the transparent area with suitable colors. You need to merge visible, then start inpainting (if required) to fine tune.

[thomaso]

With backgrounds like this you could alternatively use a masked copy of the image and stretch it horizontally. The wider the selected area, the less stretching is required.

[anto]

On 1/11/2025 at 7:36 AM, VipulK said:

Hi. I'm new to Affinity and having trouble with the inpainting tool. I need to extend the width of an image which I used to do with content aware fill in Photoshop. AFAIK the inpainting tool is the analogue of that tool in affinity. It works on the right side of the image but doesn't do anything on the left side. This is not specific to this particular image. It behaves the same way with all images.

I think this is a bug.

If you have a complex image, you can use a Сlone Brush Tool.

 

 

[VipulK]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

@NotMyFault I think this tool does have a bug. Whatever area I overlap with the inpainting tool also becomes transparent. The rectangle selection and Edit > Inpaint worked perfectly though and this is now my preferred method of accomplishing this task. Thanks mate.