is Crop to selection possible

[stinkykong]

Is it possible to have a selected area and crop to selected pixels?

[Callum]

Hi Stinkykong,

 

Welcome to the Forums :)

 

Its not currently possible to Crop to Selection I'm afraid.

 

C

[Mr. Doodlezz]

Hey there,

 

I’d like to see this option as well!  :)

 

Greetings

Dennis

[uncle808us]

If it's rasterized you can copy paste. the selection then open that? I think....

[Cre83D]

Hi,

 

such a basic tool....

Yes, please add this

[CodeKnight]

I can't recommend Affinity Photo to anyone until this is added, sorry. I just bought the software and it's the very first thing I needed to do.

[toltec]

On 9/11/2017 at 9:59 AM, CodeKnight said:

I can't recommend Affinity Photo to anyone until this is added, sorry. I just bought the software and it's the very first thing I needed to do.

 

Sorry, but that is a terrible idea. Not cropping to selection, but destructive cropping which is what it would mean. One of the best things about Photo is a non-destructive workflow, including cropping (normally) which is like having the undo facility. Why would anyone want to change that ? Personally, I would recommend Photo to anybody because it does not throw stuff away. Surely it is better to embrace new improved methods, especially if they could prevent making mistakes. And what is the difference between crop to selection and a normal crop ?

 

What you want is simple and easy to do in Photo and without losing all the data. Although you can still delete the data easily enough afterwards if you want to but as a two step process, which at least makes you think before deleting.

 

If you prefer to work in a destructive way that cant be undone, fine. You need a program with a Destructive workflow. Try Photoshop, a destructive cropping process and only ten times the price. 

 

Surely better to stick with Photo though and adapt to a non-destructive workflow though? Personally, I much prefer the Photo non-destructive cropping. If you really feel you still need it, you could put in a feature request.

 

If you need, it is easy enough to make a crop. Just crop the document as normal, press the C key and draw a crop box, that's it. No need to even make a selection first. Admittedly, the information is still there, Photo is persistent in trying to save you from yourself, so go Document > Flatten and it's all gone for good.

 

Here are two very easy non-destructive.methods that crop to a selection and still keep the original information

 

Make a selection first, press Ctrl + J. That copies the selection, and only the selection, to a new layer. copy it, (Ctr + C) then go File > New From Clipboard. It makes a new document exactly to the selection  Plus, the original information is kept in the original file for safety.

 

Alternatively, draw a Rectangle above the the image, right click on the rectangle layer and go Mask to Below. Just the "selection".will be in it. Copy the layer Ctr + C and then go File > New From Clipboard again.

 

Ctrl + C then File > New From Clipboard is a two stage presses, and the original data is still there.(just in case) which has to be a good thing for safety, right ?. File > New From Clipboard.even has a keyboard shortcut or you can easily set your own.

 

 

 

[JAQ]

On 9/15/2017 at 9:24 AM, toltec said:

 

Sorry, but that is a terrible idea. 
....
If you prefer to work in a destructive way that cant be undone, fine. You need a program with a Destructive workflow. Try Photoshop, a destructive cropping process and only ten times the price.

 

Such self-important arrogance. If this is the kind abusive, do-it-our-way-or-sod-off response people can expect when they come here for help, maybe I should stop recommending Affinity software.

[Alfred]

29 minutes ago, JAQ said:

Such self-important arrogance. If this is the kind abusive, do-it-our-way-or-sod-off response people can expect when they come here for help, maybe I should stop recommending Affinity software.

 

Although I don’t agree with @toltec’s assertion that ‘Crop to Selection’ is a terrible idea, he quite rightly points out that there are several quick and easy ways of achieving the desired end result.

[HVDB Photography]

If it is a multi layered document you also could make a flattened copy of your selection:
Edit > Copy Flattened
and then
File > New From Clipboard
 

[Friksel]

@HVDB Photography that 'new from clipboard' option is a great way to already do this before this feature is implemented. thanks!

[jullit31]

On 9.4.2018 at 5:02 PM, HVDB Photography said:

If it is a multi layered document you also could make a flattened copy of your selection:
Edit > Copy Flattened
and then
File > New From Clipboard
 

The problem is just that this doesn't work in macros and is destructive... So I would still very much appreciate a "Crop to Selection" function.

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, jullit31 said:

The problem is just that this doesn't work in macros and is destructive...

 

If it doesn’t work in macros then that is clearly a problem, but ‘Copy Flattened’ isn’t destructive: it just creates a flattened copy, leaving the non-flattened original untouched.

[jullit31]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

but ‘Copy Flattened’ isn’t destructive: it just creates a flattened copy, leaving the non-flattened original untouched.

Well, technically that is of course true, but in that sense anything is non-destructive if you keep a copy of the original document... What I meant with destructive is that you can't just "Unclip Canvas".

I also found a (destructive [by any definition]) workaround for macros: Create the selection you want to crop to > Invert Selection > Delete > Clip Canvas

I've also made a macro that handles multi-layer documents.

clip_to_selection.afmacro

[shushustorm]

Why would crop to selection have to be destructive?

I am missing this feature as well and I read about this numerous times here on the forum.

 

Of course, there are ways around it, but if you

- use this frequently or

- use it in a specific manner*,

it can save quite some time.

 

*Personally, I like to select multiple areas which I know I want to include in the image and then crop so that the image includes the selections. This seems rather hard to do with the current crop tool.

 

I am actually quite surprised this isn't implemented yet, since it seems like rather straight-forward to implement.

Of course, this depends heavily on how the developers integrated the current crop functionality, but I could imagine a simple approach like this could already solve this with just altering the input of the current crop tool (Mode -> Absolute Dimensions):

CropSelection.cs

[toltec]

55 minutes ago, shushustorm said:

Why would crop to selection have to be destructive?

 

It's all about the non-destructive cropping feature in Affinity Photo.

 

If you use the crop tool, it does not remove the parts outside the crop, so at any time later in the process, no matter what new layers you add and so forth, you can retrieve the "cropped" areas by either increasing the canvas size, or going Document > Unclip canvas.

 

If you want to be include certain areas, as you suggest, you can crop, then change your mind simply by adjusting the canvas size. You can do that at any time afterwards. It requires a slightly different way of working but it is always there, always editable. Non-destructive.

 

As far as I am aware, if you crop to selection, you can't do that? Therefore it is destructive, at least in comparison to the proper Affinity crop tool.

 

I'm also rather curious about what happens with crop to selection on multi layered documents ?

[lepr]

.

 

[jullit31]

14 minutes ago, toltec said:

As far as I am aware, if you crop to selection, you can't do that? Therefore it is destructive, at least in comparison to the proper Affinity crop tool.

With the current workarounds you can't, but if, as per shushustorm's suggestion, the new Crop to Selection just called the existing crop function, it would be non-destructive.

14 minutes ago, toltec said:

I'm also rather curious about what happens with crop to selection on multi layered documents ?

Again, the same thing that happens with the current Crop-tool.

[toltec]

1 minute ago, jullit31 said:

With the current workarounds you can't, but if, as per shushustorm's suggestion, the new Crop to Selection just called the existing crop function, it would be non-destructive.

Again, the same thing that happens with the current Crop-tool.

 

So basically, are you just renaming the Crop tool 

 

9 minutes ago, owenr said:

 

There's absolutely no need for crop to selection to be destructive. All that's needed is for the bounding box of the current selection to set the cropping rectangle of the non-destructive document cropping tool that's in AP, instead of the user having to drag the edges of the cropping rectangle into position.

 

So, make a pixel selection, then use that to define the Crop tool area ? Yes, that would probably please everybody. 

 

Are you listening Serif ?

[shushustorm]

38 minutes ago, toltec said:

 

It's all about the non-destructive cropping feature in Affinity Photo.

 

If you use the crop tool, it does not remove the parts outside the crop, so at any time later in the process, no matter what new layers you add and so forth, you can retrieve the "cropped" areas by either increasing the canvas size, or going Document > Unclip canvas.

 

If you want to be include certain areas, as you suggest, you can crop, then change your mind simply by adjusting the canvas size. You can do that at any time afterwards. It requires a slightly different way of working but it is always there, always editable. Non-destructive.

 

As far as I am aware, if you crop to selection, you can't do that? Therefore it is destructive, at least in comparison to the proper Affinity crop tool.

 

I'm also rather curious about what happens with crop to selection on multi layered documents ?

 

I know what you're talking about. I am aware of the non-destructive approach Serif chose for their cropping tools, which I think is quite useful. And while Adobe may use destructive cropping for crop to selection (I'm not positive), Serif doesn't have to implement the tool in the same manner.

 

Also,

 

- including this feature, even if destructive, would add functionality many users would care about (non-destructive cropping is nice, no doubt, but that's just icing on the cake. If the cake is missing, you don't want any icing?) 

 

- The sample code I included would approach cropping to selection in a non-destructive manner, since it basically uses the already existing crop tool and enhances its spectrum of application.

 

9 minutes ago, toltec said:

So basically, are you just renaming the Crop tool 

 

Not renaming, but defining a different custom input for the tool and give that input a name.

It could be implemented as a cropping mode ("To Selection"?) for the current cropping tool.

Writing the last selected cropping mode as preference to disk would be nice as well. So you don't always have to change modes when you use one a lot.

 

9 minutes ago, toltec said:

So, make a pixel selection, then use that to define the Crop tool area ? Yes, that would probably please everybody. 

 

Exactly!

[lepr]

.

[shushustorm]

5 minutes ago, owenr said:

 

Not exactly. You'd have a selection and do Crop To Selection to make the document instantly become non-destructively cropped. You wouldn't be entering the Crop tool, fiddling with its controls and then clicking Apply.

 

You don't even have to click Apply (in the UI), you can just press the return key.

So if "To Selection" was a mode for the current cropping tool that is saved as preference, you could just

- select something

- press C

- press return

- done

[toltec]

2 minutes ago, owenr said:

 

Not exactly. You'd have a selection and do Crop To Selection to make the document instantly become non-destructively cropped. You wouldn't be entering the Crop tool, fiddling with its controls and then clicking Apply.

 

 

It's alright, I wasn't being serious. Your idea to make a pixel selection, then use that to define the Affinity crop tool area sounds like a good one.

[lepr]

.

[shushustorm]

6 minutes ago, owenr said:

 

Doing it that way, if my previous use of Crop Tool wasn't "To selection", I'd need to change its mode to "To selection" and then press Enter or click Apply.

No, I'd prefer to have a separate command that wouldn't even make the Crop Tool interface become visible when all I want is to instantly crop to selection.

 

How about both? Once the feature was there, they could just include it in both the cropping modes as well as the menu bar's drop down menu (including a shortcut?).

Using this as cropping mode could have the advantage of the cropping tool adjusting when removing some selections on the borders.

EDIT: The last part probably won't work since you have to select a different tool to make further selections, resulting in the cropping tool not being active.