Shirt design with Designer

[Threadzpeak]

Hey guys! CAN you open a .png select a part of it, then copy and paste it? 
Im used to using pixelmator, and Designer is supposed to be super amazing, 

I just don't get it perhaps...help out, what can this thing do

when it comes to copying images from pics, and then making them setting them 

onto transparent backgrounds so I can quickly make new t-shirt designs. 
Thanks so much. 

[MEB]

Hi Threadzpeak,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

Yes, Affinity Designer is able to do it. You have to change to Pixel Persona first to be able to work with pixel selections (the second icon right below the traffic lights). Then create the selection with one of the selection tools from the toolbar on right and press ⌘ (cmd) + J to duplicate the selection to a new layer. If you have placed the image over an existing document (instead of opening it directly) using the Place Image Tool or the File ▸ Place command it will be inserted as an Image layer type (you can check this looking at the label between parenthesis after the layer's name in the Layers panel). This type of layer cannot be manipulated at a pixel level. You must rasterise it first going to menu Layer ▸ Rasterise to be able to select and perform pixel based operations on it. Then just hide the original layer and export the file or create a new document and copy/paste the new layer there.

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @Threadzpeak.

If your PNG image is designated as '(Image)' in the Layers panel, it is treated as a single object which can only be transformed globally or have adjustments applied to the entire image. In order to work at the pixel level (e.g. to copy and paste only a selected region instead of the whole image) you need to right-click on the layer in the Layers panel and choose 'Rasterize...' to convert it to a pixel layer: the layer type will change to '(Pixel)', and you will then be able to duplicate the selection to a new layer, or copy and use the 'New From Clipboard' option on the File menu if you want a completely separate image.

[Threadzpeak]

HI! This didn't work at all. I opened a screenshot using image placer tool then I used the freehand marquee tool to select some piece of the picture. 

Now there was the typical rotating lines where I used the tool. I then clicked new layer, and then tried new pixel layer Then I did the rasterize thing. This did nothing.

what is going wrong?

[Threadzpeak]

[Threadzpeak]

and from Youtube, I stumbled around till I found out what I needed to do. This is not an intuitive program. 

Gravit seems to do as much or more, and is free. 

[Alfred]

8 hours ago, Threadzpeak said:

HI! This didn't work at all. I opened a screenshot using image placer tool then I used the freehand marquee tool to select some piece of the picture. 

Now there was the typical rotating lines where I used the tool. I then clicked new layer, and then tried new pixel layer Then I did the rasterize thing. This did nothing.

what is going wrong?

It sounds as though you added a new (blank) pixel layer and then tried to copy the content from that layer. In my previous post, I described how to convert the current image layer to a pixel layer, rather than adding a blank layer on top, and if you had done that there would have been some content to copy.

[Threadzpeak]

Thanks you guys! You ROCK! 

[Threadzpeak]

Have opened image. It's a pixel image. Nothin I do including freehand tool, and crop has the desired effect.

My understanding is if it's a pixel image, then you should be able to select with freehand tool, then use command V or X to get 

rid of what wasn't selected. This is probably the most un-intuitive app I've ever touched. Please help me with simple 

specific directions, as I don't seem to get it. Thank you again. 

[Threadzpeak]

Hi! Help me understand here. 

I have used the magnetic selector version of freehand selector tool to remove the background of an image. 
Ok. Success, right? But I want to understand what is going on here. So I used the tool again to select a part of an image as in provided

pic. Doing the same process (use selector tool then invert pixels, didn't give me the same result. In fact, it gave me no result at all. WHY??? 

[MEB]

From your screenshot seems you don't have any layer selected so the program doesn't know from where to copy or delete pixels. You must have a layer selected to perform these changes.