wblackburn Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 I am moving to designer from Fireworks and still very new, and I cannot seem to figure out how to do this one thing, which does not appear in the tutorials. I have a picture and I want to select a portion of it, then remove everything else except the elected part. In Fireworks, I could create polygonal or freehand selections and then cut or copy the selected portion to 'disconnect' it from the larger image. I see and have tried the 'Freehand Selection Tool' in Designer, but the selection does not seem to do anything. What am I missing? Thanks a lot, B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Chris B Posted November 28, 2016 Staff Share Posted November 28, 2016 Hey wblackburn, there are two ways you can approach this 1. Pixel Persona - Drag out a selection marquee. At the top, click Select > Invert Pixel Selection > cmd+x to cut 2. Draw Persona - Draw out a shape over the top of the image. On the Layers Panel, drag the shape to the right of the background thumbnail and if you hold it there, you should see a preview of what will happen and then you can release the mouse. Quote How to format a bug report | Learning Resources | List of V2 FAQs | YouTube Tutorials Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted November 28, 2016 Staff Share Posted November 28, 2016 Hi wblackburn, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) - if your image is identified as an (Image) layer in the Layer's panel, right-click on it and select Rasterise..., otherwise you will not be able to manipulate it at a pixel level. - then select one of the selection tools, create your selection and copy (or cut) then paste. Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumblemania Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 Hi, I've also been trying to do this with the freehand selection tool. However, I'm having a different issue. For some reason, the two ends of the line I'm creating keep on joining up. Everything is going well, then very suddenly the end I am using zooms off to attach to the start point. Whatever I do I am unable to stop this happening. And for some reason, the edit menu will not allow me to go back and undo this last action. Any clues? It also changes the solid outline of the freehand selection tool to a moving series of dashes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveMalone Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 (edited) I've just bought Affinity Designer and beginning to think I have made a mistake. I'm trying to remove a background so I use the lassoo tool to select an image. Go to Select Invert selection and hit Cmd+X and.... the whole image disappears. So what am I doing wrong? Edited May 12, 2020 by SteveMalone typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 7 minutes ago, SteveMalone said: I've just bought Affinity Designer and beginning to think I have made a mistake. I'm trying to remove a background so I use the lassoo tool to select an image. Go to Select Invert selection and hit Cmd+X and.... the whole image disappears. So what am I doing wrong? Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums. Did you Open the image, or did you Place it into an existing document using File > Place or the Place Image Tool or drag/drop?If you used Placed it then you ended up with an (Image) layer rather than a (Pixel) layer, which you can see in the Layers panel. To operate on the pixels of an (Image) layer you need to Rasterize it. Layer > Rasterize... or right-click on it in the Layers Panel and choose Rasterize.... Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2, 16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveMalone Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 oh....why do none of the tutorials I watched mention that? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 53 minutes ago, SteveMalone said: why do none of the tutorials I watched mention that? I'm sure some do, but you'd have to watch the right ones (First, you need to be watching a tutorial that deals with using File > Place (or the Place Image Tool) or using Drag/Drop to add images to an existing document. Otherwise you never end up with an (Image) layer.) Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2, 16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shasta1799 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Why does my image become extremely blurry after rasterizing it? I want to be able to edit it, but have it keep its quality... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minus44 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 1 hour ago, Shasta1799 said: Why does my image become extremely blurry after rasterizing it? I want to be able to edit it, but have it keep its quality... First of all, which software are you working with? Photo or Designer? Is it possible that your source image (the ivy in this case) is actually a much lower resolution image compared with the working space you created for this project? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 9 hours ago, Shasta1799 said: Why does my image become extremely blurry after rasterizing it? I want to be able to edit it, but have it keep its quality... In addition to @Ulysses's thought, even if you have an image of appropriate size for your purpose, do you have it located on integer X/Y pixel coordinates? You can confirm that using the Transform panel, and an appropriate adjustment to the default number of decimal places that Affinity displays (see Preferences, User Interface, and set the number of decimals for pixel measurements to 3 or more). Minus44 1 Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2, 16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huy Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 On 11/28/2016 at 7:31 AM, MEB said: Hi wblackburn, Welcome to Affinity Forums :) - if your image is identified as an (Image) layer in the Layer's panel, right-click on it and select Rasterise..., otherwise you will not be able to manipulate it at a pixel level. - then select one of the selection tools, create your selection and copy (or cut) then paste. It'd be nice if Affinity automatically rasterise on paste, or offer a preference to do so? HeiligerBimBam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLamo Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 Hello everyone! I'm a fairly novice user, switching from Illustrator to Affinity and trying to make a simple mask using the pen tool to create the outline of a character within a larger image (.jpeg). I have watched every tutorial on making masks in this program and it is just not working. When I pull the icon of theshape layer over the icon of the image (in the Layers panel) per the instructions, the whole image disappears. I have tried masking with a simple vector shape as well, just to see if the pen tool outline was the problem. I have tried it with the image rasterized and unrasterized, even converted it to a .png to see if that made a difference. This was SO SIMPLE in Illustrator and I have been pulling my hair out for hours now trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I am operating with the 1.10.1 version. Any advice is welcomed!! Thank you! Liz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted September 28, 2021 Staff Share Posted September 28, 2021 Hi @LLamo Welcome to Affinity Forums Here's a small clip showing the basics in Affinity Photo. If you need to create a hole in the selection draw both the outline shape and the "hole" shape, subtract the hole shape from the outline shape then click the Mask button in the toolbar with the Pen Tool selected. masking.mp4 If you are using Affinity Designer the process is the same except that you don't have a Mask button in the Pen Tool context toolbar. In this case you can simply drag the shape layer over the thumbnail of the image layer until you see a small vertical line on the right of the image thumbnail - release the mouse at that point and the shape layer will be used as a vector mask nested to that image layer (which gives you the exact same result you get using the method i showed in the video below for Affinity Photo). IMPORTANT: make sure the shape is filled with a colour otherwise it will not mask anything. See the video below for Designer: designer_masking.mp4 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazmin Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 I am honestly starting to lose hope of being able to use Designer at all at this stage, but as a final last gasp here, is there ANY simple way, that does not involve a convoluted, overly complex set of steps in which to rasterise a layer in order to be able to trim up part of it without losing quality, or is this just a distant dream unless I find a way to install an ancient copy of PS7 again on a win10 machine?! I want to like Affinity, but it is so painfully awkward to do simple things with it that I am growing to loathe even opening it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotMyFault Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 (edited) 14 hours ago, Cazmin said: is there ANY simple way, that does not involve a convoluted, overly complex set of steps in which to rasterise a layer in order to be able to trim up part of it without losing quality Ensure the correct layer is selected in the layer stack, and Pixel Persona is active. Use any selection / marquee tool to draw you selection Rasterize Duplicate (Ctrl-J) If you are happy with the result and want to get rid of the original layer, delete it. If these 3 steps are beyond your acceptable level of complexity, I'm very sorry about it. Edited January 3, 2022 by NotMyFault Correction of shortcuts Quote Mac mini M1 A2348 | Windows 10 - AMD Ryzen 9 5900x - 32 GB RAM - Nvidia GTX 1080 LG34WK950U-W, calibrated to DCI-P3 with LG Calibration Studio / Spider 5 iPad Air Gen 5 (2022) A2589 Special interest into procedural texture filter, edit alpha channel, RGB/16 and RGB/32 color formats, stacking, finding root causes for misbehaving files, finding creative solutions for unsolvable tasks, finding bugs in Apps. My posts focus on technical aspects and leave out most of social grease like „maybe“, „in my opinion“, „I might be wrong“ etc. just add copy/paste all these softeners from this signature to make reading more comfortable for you. Otherwise I’m a fine person which respects you and everyone and wants to be respected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy05 Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 10 hours ago, NotMyFault said: Ensure the correct layer is selected in the layer stack, and Pixel Persona is active. Use any selection / marquee tool to draw you selection Copy-Flattened (Ctrl-Shift-C) (only available in Photo) Rasterize Copy (Ctrl-C) Paste (Ctrl-V) If you are happy with the result and want to get rid of the original layer, delete it. If these 3 4 steps are beyond your acceptable level of complexity, I'm very sorry about it. Three steps are right! Just use the shortcut (on Windows, it's CTRL+J as per standard) for copying the selected parts as a new layer and you can combine steps 3 and 4. 😀 Quote »A designer's job is to improve the general quality of life. In fact, it's the only reason for our existence.«Paul Rand (1914-1996) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotMyFault Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 9 minutes ago, Andy05 said: Three steps are right! Just use the shortcut (on Windows, it's CTRL+J as per standard) for copying the selected parts as a new layer and you can combine steps 3 and 4. 😀 But only if you have a bitmap layer. If you start with an image layer, ctrl-j ignores the selection. I wanted the steps to be simple (not complex) and independent from layer type. Quote Mac mini M1 A2348 | Windows 10 - AMD Ryzen 9 5900x - 32 GB RAM - Nvidia GTX 1080 LG34WK950U-W, calibrated to DCI-P3 with LG Calibration Studio / Spider 5 iPad Air Gen 5 (2022) A2589 Special interest into procedural texture filter, edit alpha channel, RGB/16 and RGB/32 color formats, stacking, finding root causes for misbehaving files, finding creative solutions for unsolvable tasks, finding bugs in Apps. My posts focus on technical aspects and leave out most of social grease like „maybe“, „in my opinion“, „I might be wrong“ etc. just add copy/paste all these softeners from this signature to make reading more comfortable for you. Otherwise I’m a fine person which respects you and everyone and wants to be respected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy05 Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 10 minutes ago, NotMyFault said: But only if you have a bitmap layer. If you start with an image layer, ctrl-j ignores the selection. I wanted the steps to be simple (not complex) and independent from layer type. So what? See your step 2. You already made a pixel layer! If you wouldn't have done that, your copy/paste steps wouldn't work either. Quote »A designer's job is to improve the general quality of life. In fact, it's the only reason for our existence.«Paul Rand (1914-1996) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotMyFault Posted January 3, 2022 Share Posted January 3, 2022 3 hours ago, Andy05 said: So what? See your step 2. You already made a pixel layer! If you wouldn't have done that, your copy/paste steps wouldn't work either. correct. I got distracted by Ctrl-Shift-C unavailable in Designer, and over-reacted. Original post corrected. Quote Mac mini M1 A2348 | Windows 10 - AMD Ryzen 9 5900x - 32 GB RAM - Nvidia GTX 1080 LG34WK950U-W, calibrated to DCI-P3 with LG Calibration Studio / Spider 5 iPad Air Gen 5 (2022) A2589 Special interest into procedural texture filter, edit alpha channel, RGB/16 and RGB/32 color formats, stacking, finding root causes for misbehaving files, finding creative solutions for unsolvable tasks, finding bugs in Apps. My posts focus on technical aspects and leave out most of social grease like „maybe“, „in my opinion“, „I might be wrong“ etc. just add copy/paste all these softeners from this signature to make reading more comfortable for you. Otherwise I’m a fine person which respects you and everyone and wants to be respected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nonov Posted August 4, 2022 Share Posted August 4, 2022 I am giving up and I won't purchase affinity designer after trying it for days, some very simple tasks are just to complex to do, or take too many steps. Tutorials such as this one above do not give the solutions. I am so disappointed to have to go and purchase Adobe Illustrator and pay every month. I hope Affinity will make an effort to be more user friendly. Also it should have a 'image trace' option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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