How to use one shape to subtract from another?

[afinally]

I zoomed in because I can't show the entire thing, but basically, the design will be printed on a black t-shirt. The only part of the design that will be saved is the white part. To make it easier for me to see when designing it, I made the background black, which I will remove before exporting the file to send to the printer. Because I only want the file/image to contain white (but forgot that I would be removing the background before exporting the file), in order to create a 'hole' in the white section, I used the pen tool to create the shape that I want to remove from the white part and filled it with black. Again, I forgot I would be removing the black background, so now I have a white layer with a black layer on top of it, but really I just want the white layer with an empty space where the little black shape is. The problem is, I have so many of these little black shapes that need to be 'subtracted' from the white layer, so I need to somehow do just that, subtract it, or use it as a mask I guess, rather than using the eraser.
Any help, please?

Thanks!
 

[toltec]

Not 100% sure I understand but could you not just fill the shapes with white?

[LyricsGirl]

When you create a SHAPE you want to REMOVE from the White ( so the black shirt shows through after printing... at the top right of AD you will see (or should see) a group of images in a box titled

OPERATIONS. Ensure you SELECT the WHITE image that is to be printed TOGETHER with the Shape you want to REMOVE from the white. Then with these Selected go to the OPERATIONS Box and SELECT the second image to the right. It has a light blue square with a grey circle  by it.The grey circle has the  mathematical MINUS sign  ( - ) on it. Click on that icon and Voila! there is now a Transparent area on the white image to be printed, where the black shirt will show through.

 

 

[afinally]

@LyricsGirl thank you! You got it right on. Much appreciated!

[LyricsGirl]

Welcome! Post a piccy of the shirt when its printed please!

 

 

[afinally]

@LyricsGirl I'm having a bit of a problem now It was working up until just now. It still is working intermittently, but now I'm trying to subtract one shape (black, in front) from another (white, in back) using the same method, and it's instead deleting the white shape altogether, and turning the black shape's fill to white. Any ideas? Thanks again! I really appreciate it.

[afinally]

Okay, so, I figured it out by clicking buttons lol... What I essentially had was, from back to front, white, black, white, black. So I selected the whites, and the black sandwiched between them, and hit combine. That did exactly what I wanted. Then I took the front-most black and selecting both it and the rest of the white, hit subtract, and it did what it should (basically burn a hole through the white).

Thanks again for the help! And yes, I'll share a pic when it's all done and printed

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, afinally said:

Okay, so, I figured it out by clicking buttons lol... What I essentially had was, from back to front, white, black, white, black. So I selected the whites, and the black sandwiched between them, and hit combine. That did exactly what I wanted. Then I took the front-most black and selecting both it and the rest of the white, hit subtract, and it did what it should (basically burn a hole through the white).

 

If you have a white object at the bottom of the stack, the result of the 'Combine' operation will be white. It doesn't matter what the other colours are.

 

[JimmyJack]

9 hours ago, afinally said:

...... and it did what it should (basically burn a hole through the white).

 

 

An alternative:

You can also just set the black bits to the Erase blend mode. That'll burn a hole right through multiple layers of any type (if you want it to ).

(this assumes you don't mind a rasterized final output)

 

As far as the Boolean Subtract method goes.... a little tip.

Select all (or a lot) of the black "to erase" bits at once, Boolean Add them together and do just one (or at least fewer) Subtract(s).

(rather than subtracting one at a time)

[andrewio]

On 8/26/2017 at 9:22 AM, LyricsGirl said:

When you create a SHAPE you want to REMOVE from the White ( so the black shirt shows through after printing... at the top right of AD you will see (or should see) a group of images in a box titled

OPERATIONS. Ensure you SELECT the WHITE image that is to be printed TOGETHER with the Shape you want to REMOVE from the white. Then with these Selected go to the OPERATIONS Box and SELECT the second image to the right. It has a light blue square with a grey circle  by it.The grey circle has the  mathematical MINUS sign  ( - ) on it. Click on that icon and Voila! there is now a Transparent area on the white image to be printed, where the black shirt will show through.

 

 

 

Hi! How can I make it in Affinity Photo? I can't see operation box. Thanks.

[dutchshader]

@andrewio select both and go to layer geometry.

you can allso drag the toolbox in, view costumize toolbar.

[andrewio]

23 minutes ago, dutchshader said:

@andrewio select both and go to layer geometry.

you can allso drag the toolbox in, view costumize toolbar.

Thx, Why option is not available?

[dutchshader]

32 minutes ago, andrewio said:

Thx, Why option is not available?

It won't work with pixel objects only with vector objects, like the basic shapes.

[LyricsGirl]

Can you firdst convert to curves? I am still learning the basics of this part in Photo.

[Gibsonion]

There really need to be a better way of doing this. It's like 2 clicks in Adobe, there's some stuff that Affinity does great, and other bits they've really made a headache.

[GarryP]

There are a lot of things discussed in this thread, going back nearly three years.
Is there something specific that you need to do? (There may have been improvements made since.)

[GryphonArt]

And how do you undo subtract in Affinity design?

[GarryP]

It depends on how you did the Subtract operation and how long ago it was.
If the last thing you did was the Subtract – and you haven’t closed the document since – then you can just use the Undo function.
If the Subtract was done a while ago and you don’t want to keep any changes – to anything – after it was performed then you can use the History to go back to before the Subtract (as long as your document contains the History).
If the Subtraction was a Compound Subtraction then you can remove the subtracted layer from the Compound layer.
If you can’t do any of the above then you can probably use an Addition to fill the gap in again.
If none of these things work then you will need to give us more information about what you have got.

[Mr. Review]

On 8/26/2017 at 8:22 AM, LyricsGirl said:

When you create a SHAPE you want to REMOVE from the White ( so the black shirt shows through after printing... at the top right of AD you will see (or should see) a group of images in a box titled

OPERATIONS. Ensure you SELECT the WHITE image that is to be printed TOGETHER with the Shape you want to REMOVE from the white. Then with these Selected go to the OPERATIONS Box and SELECT the second image to the right. It has a light blue square with a grey circle  by it.The grey circle has the  mathematical MINUS sign  ( - ) on it. Click on that icon and Voila! there is now a Transparent area on the white image to be printed, where the black shirt will show through.

 

 

That helped me a lot after hours of searching! Thank you so much!

[beblo]

Hello

 

I can not seem to make it work for me. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?

 

Thanks

subtrack.mov

[Alfred]

29 minutes ago, beblo said:

I can not seem to make it work for me. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?

Try changing the Fill mode of either or both of the shapes.

[beblo]

57 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Try changing the Fill mode of either or both of the shapes.

Yes! It worked. Thank you soo much!