Merge down seems to freeze the program in Affinity Photo

[CaroleA]

I am using Affinity Photo 2.6.2 on Windows 10.

I had a little image (296x1 pixel). I resized the image to 300x300 pixels.

Since the image seemed partially translucent, I duplicated it, and then chose Merge Down.

Twice in a row, it froze the program and I had to shut it down with the Task Manager.

I tried the Merge Visible, and although it didn't freeze the program, it created a separate merged layer above the two layers I was merging (so I ended up with three layers instead of one).

I tried selecting all the layers, and use Merge Selected. It froze again.

Am I the only one experiencing this or others see the same thing?

In the meantime, how can I merge layers? any workaround?

[NotMyFault]

While you may observed an actual bug, merging down to a layer only 1px high makes no sense.

at least you should use rasterize once on the lower layer to  ensure the layer gets the document dpi in both axis, or use merge visible, or group the layer you want to rasterize and use rasterize on the group.

[CaroleA]

12 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

While you may observed an actual bug, merging down to a layer only 1px high makes no sense.

at least you should use rasterize once on the lower layer to  ensure the layer gets the document dpi in both axis, or use merge visible, or group the layer you want to rasterize and use rasterize on the group.

I am not merging the 1px high image. I resized it to 300 pixels before trying to merge.

Interestingly, rasterizing before duplicating seems to allow the Merge down to work.

Since my layer was already a Pixel layer, how does it differ from a "raster" layer? Or how do I know when to rasterize a layer since it starts as a Pixel layer and once rasterized, it is still a pixel layer?

Note that Merge Visible still creates a new  layer, so I end up with more layers than I need.

[Old Bruce]

45 minutes ago, CaroleA said:

Since my layer was already a Pixel layer, how does it differ from a "raster" layer? 

You could have a pixel layer that has been stretched or compressed or cropped or who knows what else.

[CaroleA]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

You could have a pixel layer that has been stretched or compressed or cropped or who knows what else.

Maybe I need an explanation on what a Raster layer is then. Does any modified pixel layer need/can be rasterized? And for what purpose?

[Old Bruce]

Consider your case of the 1 pixel height being stretched to 300 pixels. If you were to drag that pixel layer to cover the 300 pixels then you would have one pixel covering 300 pixels, if you rasterize that pixel layer you'll get 300 pixels covering 300 pixels. If the 1 Pixel layer is moved to be on a fractional pixel boundry then you have 1 pixel covering 2 pixels, or each pixel will cover 4 pixels if it is shifted up and over.

[CaroleA]

2 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Consider your case of the 1 pixel height being stretched to 300 pixels. If you were to drag that pixel layer to cover the 300 pixels then you would have one pixel covering 300 pixels, if you rasterize that pixel layer you'll get 300 pixels covering 300 pixels. If the 1 Pixel layer is moved to be on a fractional pixel boundry then you have 1 pixel covering 2 pixels, or each pixel will cover 4 pixels if it is shifted up and over.

OK so is it the fact that the layer was modified that requires me to rasterize it? it is like "set it with the new value"? I am just not clear how to know when to rasterize or not. I have rastrized an image layer, which then turns to a pixel layer, but here, i am starting with a pixel layer so it was not obvious to me why I would have needed to rasterize it other than it freezes the Merge down command.

[NotMyFault]

If you want to „blow up“ a 296x1 layer:

• have the layer active in layer stack
• Selection from layer
• new pattern layer from selection
• if you need only a specific part of it, make a selection, copy merged, paste
• Deactivate or delete other layers no longer used

Do not use move tool to stretch pixel layers, you will get blurriness as you already observed yourself

 

[CaroleA]

8 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

If you want to „blow up“ a 296x1 layer:

• have the layer active in layer stack
• Selection from layer
• new pattern layer from selection
• if you need only a specific part of it, make a selection, copy merged, paste
• Deactivate or delete other layers no longer used

Do not use move tool to stretch pixel layers, you will get blurriness as you already observed yourself

In fact, I want to create a plaid pattern from a thin selection in an image. That way, I get the perfect colors from the picture. So far, my steps were:

- make a 1 pixel selection on my photo, copy it, and New from clipboard which creates a new image
- resize document to 300x300 pixels (yes, I was getting transparency, and that is why I was initially trying to duplicate and merge down to address that)
- duplicate the end result, and rotate it 90 degrees and reduce opacity to 50%
- here I would have tried to Merge Down, but I found the I could Flatten

Then, I could use that, on my project as a patterned layer.

Obviously, I will have to tweak the process  

[NotMyFault]

To regain full opacity, use channels panel, choose pixel layers alpha, and fill.

[NathanC]

Hi @CaroleA,

Do you have a copy of the document pre merge selected where you experienced the freeze/app hang? we can then confirm if the issue can be reproduced and logged.

Thanks

[CaroleA]

38 minutes ago, NathanC said:

Hi @CaroleA,

Do you have a copy of the document pre merge selected where you experienced the freeze/app ahng? we can then confirm if the issue can be reproduced and logged.

Thanks

Although I don't have the original file (since the program has to be shut down), I replicated it with this attached file (that I saved before trying the merge down). Let me know if you need any other files or information.

MergDownFile.afphoto

[NathanC]

Thanks @CaroleA, I can definitely replicate the app hang using the merge commands. The app evidently has a problem with these pixel layers and the alpha channel, as I got a similar hang when attempting to Fill the Alpha channel via the Channels panel. Exporting to PNG -> Duplicating -> Merge selected worked, but If I copied the contents to a clipboard and created a new document and tried the merge again, it would still hang the app.

Since you were able to replicate this again from a different file, do you have the relevant steps to re-producing this issue from scratch or from a new document? I can then log it internally with more information. I did attempt this with a pixel layer that was 296 x 1px rescaled to 300 x 300px and then duplicated + Merge selected, but the same hang didn't occur. If not, it's no problem.

[CaroleA]

1 hour ago, NathanC said:

Since you were able to replicate this again from a different file, do you have the relevant steps to re-producing this issue from scratch or from a new document? I can then log it internally with more information. I did attempt this with a pixel layer that was 296 x 1px rescaled to 300 x 300px and then duplicated + Merge selected, but the same hang didn't occur. If not, it's no problem.

Sure. Here are the steps I took.

- start with a photo that is a pixel layer.
- make a selection with the Rectangular Marquee tool, that is 1 pixel high and about 400 pixels long  (i was not specific for the length but the height needed to be 1 pixel)
- copy (Ctrl-C)
- File > New from Clipboard
- Document > Resize Document, and set it to become 300x300 pixels
- at that point, there is transparency (not sure why, but that is where I needed to duplicate it to address the transparency)
- right-click on the Background layer in the Layers panel > Duplicate
- right-click on the top layer > Merge Down

That is where it would hang/freeze. When it freezes, it will have a progress window appear in the middle saying Merging....

I noticed that ONCE, it did not have that progress window, and as I thought it was still hanging, I checked in the Task Manager (where I expected I would have to stop the program), and it turned out it was not hanging, and the Merge Down command did execute, after a long time.

[NotMyFault]

8 hours ago, CaroleA said:

at that point, there is transparency (not sure why, but that is where I needed to duplicate it to address the transparency)

Duplicating or merge down or any combination of both is no useful way to get rid of transparency.

 

[CaroleA]

4 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Duplicating or merge down or any combination of both is no useful way to get rid of transparency.

Thanks. I found another way, yet this still illustrates a "malfunction" of the Merge Down command, and that was the initial reason for the report.