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In any given programs there is the ability to crop the canvas, however in Affinity Designer you have to go all the way to the Document Setup and do the guess work if you're cropping at a specific size.

 

Is there any possible ways to crop the canvas on the canvas itself, like in Photoshop or Illustrator you can just resize the canvas with the artboard tool, however that doesn't seems to be the case in Affinity Designer, unless I am missing something here.

 

Thanks!

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There is no guesswork in document setup, you can give specific dimensions. Artboard tool in in AD work about the same as in Illy.

 

Usually when people ask for cropping tool in vector app there is a workflow problem.

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Usually when people ask for cropping tool in vector app there is a workflow problem.

No, the machine has to serve the human, not the other way ’round. The software/UI has to do what the users want and if the users want a crop tool, give it to them! Especially since a “crop/trim canvas” function would be a tremendous time saver as opposed to going into document setup.

 

For example: I have three small objects on a large canvas (no artboard) and I want to export these three objects as one image — crop/trim canvas (better yet with a shortcut) and hitting Ctrl/Cmd-X would be a thousand times faster than selecting all objects to look at the transform panel and find out the dimensions, then unselecting them, going into document options, entering the dimensions, setting the scaling behavior, and then exporting the image. Likewise, using the export persona for such a simple operation is overkill because you still have to perform multiple steps just for a quick export.

 

The workflow problem is currently prevalent. That you can’t imagine the use of a cropping function doesn’t mean that everybody else is at fault.

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  • Staff

Hi VIPStephan,

You don't need to go through all that trouble. Just select the objects, go to File ▸ Export and select Selection with background (or without background) from the Area dropdown in the Export dialog. Only the three objects and the background area behind them will be exported. Usually document based crops are only used when working with single photos where they are the single elements on the composition, not so much in designs/layouts where the images are just a part (an element) of the whole composition/layout and usually the document size is already fixed to a specific dimension from beginning (paper dimensions for example). I understand that in some cases it may be practical to have a quick way to resize the canvas - even for design/layouts - but for that cases you can always convert the existing canvas into an artboard which you can easily resize with the Move Tool or with the Transform panel if you need to set a specific dimension. I believe some users are not aware of the ability to resize artboards directly with the Move Tool. In any case this is already in the Feature Requests section as you pointed out.

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  • 1 year later...
On 3/5/2017 at 12:43 PM, Fixx said:

There is no guesswork in document setup, you can give specific dimensions. Artboard tool in in AD work about the same as in Illy.

 

Usually when people ask for cropping tool in vector app there is a workflow problem.

Why people always assume things?

Many people love to do everything in a single place, not the hassle of having to switch programs constantly because one program have "x" tool but the other program not. Is not about a workflow problem.

Adobe understood this, and improved Photoshop to allow doing everything on it, animation, vectors, pathfinders, etc.

I came from Photoshop. I did everything there. Never needed Illustrator.

 

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  • 4 months later...
On 3/5/2017 at 4:33 PM, MEB said:

 understand that in some cases it may be practical to have a quick way to resize the canvas - even for design/layouts - but for that cases you can always convert the existing canvas into an artboard which you can easily resize with the Move Tool or with the Transform panel if you need to set a specific dimension. I believe some users are not aware of the ability to resize artboards directly with the Move Tool. 

I know this is an old topic, but thank you @MEB, this solved a huge issue I was having - I am exporting images to use in a formatted book page, and the close cropping to the line was causing pixelation at the edges (of the formatted page I was using - nothing wrong with Affinity.) I was completely unaware of how to use Artboard function, but it was exactly what I needed (instead of cropping the canvas.) And thanks for tirelessly answering questions on here.

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  • 1 month later...

All these 'solutions' are workarounds - can the Affinity Designer devs please just look at Adobe Fireworks, these may seem like trivial thiings buts its so infuriating when these little things are made difficult. I've been playing aorund with Affinity Designer and aa long time user of Fireworks the lack of some simple functions to crop and resize canvas is frustrating.

In Fireworks:

edit > crop document (crops document to current selection)

modify > canvas > trim canvas (trims canvas to all objects

modify > canvas > fit canvas (fits canvas to all objects - used when objects are outside te bounds of the canvas)

I can see in Photo there is an option document > clip canvas

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12 hours ago, MCFC_4Heatons said:

I can see in Photo there is an option document > clip canvas

This is a non-destructive action -- off canvas objects are simply hidden, & the same option is available in Designer on the View > View Mode submenu.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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7 hours ago, R C-R said:

This is a non-destructive action -- off canvas objects are simply hidden, & the same option is available in Designer on the View > View Mode submenu.

Document > Clip Canvas (in Photo) and View > View Mode > Clip to Canvas (in Designer) are quite different.

Start with a document with a canvas, and create an object (say, a rectangle) that is off (outside) the canvas.

Designer gives you an option that simply controls whether off-canvas objects are visible or not. When visible, they are still off the canvas, and will not be exported.

Photo gives you an action that will enlarge the canvas to encompass all the off-canvas objects. Once the canvas is clipped (making it larger in this case), that off-canvas object is now on the canvas, and part of the exportable image. It is a destructive action.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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18 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Photo gives you an action that will enlarge the canvas to encompass all the off-canvas objects. Once the canvas is clipped (making it larger in this case), that off-canvas object is now on the canvas, and part of the exportable image. It is a destructive action.

Am I correct in assuming you are talking about Photo's Unclip Canvas item? 

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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30 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Am I correct in assuming you are talking about Photo's Unclip Canvas item? 

No. What I described is the behavior of Photo's Clip Canvas, though in fact for the scenario I described both Clip and Unclip perform the same function. They enlarge the canvas to include any items currently outside the canvas.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

No. What I described is the behavior of Photo's Clip Canvas, though in fact for the scenario I described both Clip and Unclip perform the same function. They enlarge the canvas to include any items currently outside the canvas.

OK, but either way, what is destructive about it? What is being destroyed that can't easily be recovered? :/

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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2 hours ago, R C-R said:

OK, but either way, what is destructive about it? What is being destroyed that can't easily be recovered? :/

In the sense that History will allow recovery, little is truly destructive, and that applies to this, too.

The main point was that the option in Designer and the action in Photo are not comparable, as they do very different things.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

In the sense that History will allow recovery, little is truly destructive, and that applies to this, too.

That isn't what I was referring to. Unclipping or clipping the canvas destroys nothing in the Affinity document itself. 

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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3 hours ago, R C-R said:

That isn't what I was referring to. Unclipping or clipping the canvas destroys nothing in the Affinity document itself. 

But they can change the size of the canvas, i.e., enlarge it. In that sense, they have "destroyed" the original canvas size.

The View Mode option in Designer merely makes objects outside of the canvas visible or invisible. The Clip/Unclip action in Photo actually incorporates the off-canvas object into the canvas.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • 1 year later...

I try to use Affinity, because there's so much to like...

But there's a few things like:

Quote

"Being able to change the size of my canvas, so I can export something at the right size"

- that keeps me using PhotoShop or Illustrator.

This isn't a user problem: it's a missing feature - (and probably a top 10 most important features) (at least for my workflow)

For example... I'm making something... and I don't know what size it is yet - because it's based on some other graphics or screenshots.

So, instead of just using the program: I end up just taking a screenshot instead, or opening up an Adobe product as my final steps.

This thread is pretty embarrassing to "Design" and "Thinking" in general...

--

Shift + o -> drag, done..

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30 minutes ago, Fixx said:

There are pages and artboards in Designer, no canvases...

You can only have pages if you're working on a document created in Publisher.

If you have a Designer document with no Artboards (and no pages) then it has a canvas.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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18 minutes ago, Fixx said:

but when you create a new document it is a page:

Well, it's consistent with the dialog in Photo and Publisher. :)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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23 minutes ago, Fixx said:

but when you create a new document it is a page:

Not really. Even though it is labeled "Page width" & "Page height," in AD you cannot create documents with pages (unless you use a template created in Publisher). It really should say "Document width" & "Document height" which works with or without the "Create artboard" box ticked.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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