Affinity Photo - Importing PSD Files and editing layers

[webyonder]

I have a PSD file where there are multiple editable layers grouped together within a single layer. In Photoshop, you would open the layer, right click on the 'sub' layer you wish to edit, and click Edit Contents.

 

Attached is a PDF where on Page 2, it will give the steps I'm referencing.

 

When I attempt to do this in Affinity Photo, there is no such option. Am I missing something?

 

Thanks in advance.

Help.pdf

[R C-R]

I am not exactly sure what you are asking but the Affinity Photo Layers panel has disclosure triangles similar to those in PS. But instead of right-clicking to get an "Edit contents" option, you just keep opening the disclosure triangles until you get to the layer you want to edit. You can also select the layer in the workspace in several ways.

 

Is this anything like what you are asking about?

[webyonder]

I am not exactly sure what you are asking but the Affinity Photo Layers panel has disclosure triangles similar to those in PS. But instead of right-clicking to get an "Edit contents" option, you just keep opening the disclosure triangles until you get to the layer you want to edit. You can also select the layer in the workspace in several ways.

 

Is this anything like what you are asking about?

 

Thanks for your reply. 

 

I know about what you're referencing, but it only seems to apply to the topical layers. In this example, there are disclosure triangles, yes. When you click the triangles to view the layers in that group, there are no additional triangles. 

 

In Photoshop when you reach this point, you can right click on a layer (Where additional layers are hidden? That's the only way I can describe it.) and select "Edit Contents" and you can edit the layers within those layers.

 

However, in Affinity Photo, there's no way to do this (that I know of). Hoping someone can help.

[R C-R]

I don't know what you mean by "topical" layers but in Affinity each layer is identified by its type, shown in parentheses in the Layers panel. "(Group)" & ("Layer") types can have child layers, so they have disclosure triangles. Layers that do not have no children, so they are edited with the appropriate tool, like the Node tool for vectors, the text tools for text blocks, or the brush tools for pixel layers.

 

What layer type(s) are you unable to edit with the provided tools?

[webyonder]

After further investigation (and an explanation from a friend that actually knows PS, because I don't), what I am actually referencing here is Smart Objects and the ability to edit a PSD file with Smart Objects inside of Affinity Photo.

[Medical Officer Bones]

Not possible yet: Photo does not offer a similar function as Smart Objects. The developers mentioned that a similar feature will be implemented at some point. Not sure when, though.

[Butler To Cats]

A little similar (but not identical) are Affinity's embedded documents, perhaps?

 

Create a document in Affinity Photo or Designer, and save it.

Create a new document, use File menu, Place to load the other file as an embedded document.

 

Now the embedded object acts as a single object/layer, you can apply effects, etc.

To edit the embedded document, either double-click the layer content on the canvas or select the object in the layer list or on the canvas and then click the Edit Document above the canvas. When you finish editing the embedded document and close it, changes will appear back in the "enclosing" document.

 

I don't think you can do it with a PDF at the moment, only Affinity files.

Depending on your needs, you might be able to keep your original in Affinity format and generate PDFs as needed.

[webyonder]

Thanks for your responses.

 

 

 

A little similar (but not identical) are Affinity's embedded documents, perhaps?

 

Create a document in Affinity Photo or Designer, and save it.

Create a new document, use File menu, Place to load the other file as an embedded document.

 

Now the embedded object acts as a single object/layer, you can apply effects, etc.

To edit the embedded document, either double-click the layer content on the canvas or select the object in the layer list or on the canvas and then click the Edit Document above the canvas. When you finish editing the embedded document and close it, changes will appear back in the "enclosing" document.

 

I don't think you can do it with a PDF at the moment, only Affinity files.

Depending on your needs, you might be able to keep your original in Affinity format and generate PDFs as needed.

 

 

Thanks so much for this - it might be a workaround for now. It sounds like I should be able to open up the document I have in Photoshop, save edit and save each layer as their own document, and then open them up inside of Affinity Photo and be able to accomplish the same thing - does this sound about right?

 

Ridiculous, I know. I own the Adobe suite (thanks to a friend that gave me a license), but I HATE using Adobe products. I find the software too bulky and just not as user-friendly as Affinity. Ha.

[Butler To Cats]

Yes, that sounds about right, although I suspect that it's often more convenient for multi-layer discrete "chunks".

 

Good for throwing together similar documents for different audiences/clients out of a bank of document pieces.

 

I suspect the bulkiness is often a result of feature creep - need to keep adding features to not look like abandonware, until you end up with something like the ground controls for a space mission.

Unless a company is willing to take the bold step of redesigning from the ground up, like Serif did with Affinity, or to use some sort of simple-base-plus-optional-plugins architecture, their software might just keep getting bigger and potentially clumsier.

[Pedro Soares]

HI webyonder,

 

What I normally do when I have a Photoshop file with smart objects, is to open the smart objects layers and save them back (you can also copy them) as normal layers into the host document. This way I have a unique file with the full list of layers available. Save the PSD and if you now open it in Affinity Photo, you have also all the layers available.

 

Cheers,

Pedro

[nickimacwriter]

What I do is click on the layer I want to add to, go to filters then apply image. Just load the image you want to use and it will add it to the layer. I've taken some screen shots in case that helps? Xx

 

Nicki