Merging layers causing blurring

[bernard1980]

Hi all,

I posted similar issue 1 year plus before.

Recently I installed the latest build and the problem is gone! I haven't check in depth but so far so good. The deal killer is no longer there.

Very happy customer

[eyeEmotion]

Got the latest Affinity Photo, yet this still happens. Whatever option I do in that Snapping manager, it still blurs the image when merging down. Even the workaround with grouping the layers and then rasterizing this group, although a better solution, I have noticed still blurs it a bit (I noticed in on the hair).

This is a big issue for me, since I merge down regularly, for something that straightforward.
I now need to extend my background, so I duplicated the layer, brought it down, used inpainting to remove the person, transformed that layer in width to have the extensing filled. But this creates an obvious border. So I want to merge those 2 layers and use inpainting again to remove those edges from the original layer I duplicated. But I can't do this know without blurring the person.

[CarlosK]

I have a similar/the same probelm, although I interprete it as unsharpness. It's really annoying, although I understand that building an alternative to adobe isn't easy.

[bernard1980]

On 9/13/2019 at 4:56 PM, bernard1980 said:

Hi all,

I posted similar issue 1 year plus before.

Recently I installed the latest build and the problem is gone! I haven't check in depth but so far so good. The deal killer is no longer there.

Very happy customer

Weird, now the merging that causes blurring is happening again.....

[bernard1980]

this may be a workaround, layers looks to stays the same and not blurred as long as "rasterise" is applied regardless if the layer is image/pixel mode.

can some explain what affinity photo's "rasterise" means and does?

[Mekokos]

I made an account here just to say that I'm disappointed that developers didn't take any action in order to address this issue.
It have been almost a two years now and still nothing have changed. I have lost hours of work becouse of this unexpected behaviour.
I'm going back to photoshop and I'm going to dissuade everyone in my environment from using this software.

pathetic

[Anton Petrov]

Same issue!

I have a base layer with an image (screenshot from a game)

And two layers above it which are mostly transparent. I used Move Tool to scale and move parts in these layers.

When I merge down layers I see that entire base image gets blurred!!!!

It does not relate to antialiasing or filtering or pixel snapping - it is a buggy merging algorithm.

Restarting Affinity does not help.

[MEB]

Hi @Anton Petrov,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Are the base layer to which you are merging the others down, pixel aligned? That is, are its X, Y coordinates and width/height integer pixel values? Do you mind attaching the file for inspection please (just the affected layers you can delete all the rest)?

[Erikxtz]

I have alligned image by whole pixels as well as whole document, settings are force pixel alignment ON, move by whole pixel ON. The result of merging two same layers 1624 x 1082px with no transformation (only copied over each other!!!) is layer which have size 1623,4 px x 1081,4 px!!!!!

Update: I found that solution is rasterize layers, but I miss the point of this Affinity behavior.

 

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Erikxtz

[MEB]

Hi @Erikxtz,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
If the layers have the same pixel size (and dpi) and you are simply duplicating them (without moving) then the merged image should have the exact same size and remain sharp. Can you attach the file you are having issues with?

[Erikxtz]

39 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @Erikxtz,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
If the layers have the same pixel size (and dpi) and you are simply duplicating them (without moving) then the merged image should have the exact same size and remain sharp. Can you attach the file you are having issues with?

Here are scrrennshots:

1. Screenshot-original-texture.png
2. Screenshot-merged-texture.png
3. Screenshot-merged-10x-texture.png (it is insane)

It seems that this behavior is dependent to uderlaying layer - if underlaying is rasterised, then merging is OK, if not then merging causing blurriness and pixel size change (it goes to "not whole pixel")

Edited February 4, 2021 by Erikxtz

[MEB]

Hi @Erikxtz,
I see the final image is blurred but without the Affinity Photo file to inspect there's nothing i can do. Do you mind attaching the afphoto file shown above before merging the layers?

[Erikxtz]

2 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @Erikxtz,
I see the final image is blurred but without the Affinity Photo file to inspect there's nothing i can do. Do you mind attaching the afphoto file shown above before merging the layers?

Here is - simply copy that layer and merge selected and you will see it

Blurried-textures-original-photo.afphoto

[MEB]

This image was stretched (differing dpi for width/height). It doesn't become blurred with regular/matching dpi values.

[Erikxtz]

22 minutes ago, MEB said:

This image was stretched (differing dpi for width/height). It doesn't become blurred with regular/matching dpi values.

Here is file with unstretched original ratio layer (only changed size to fit canvas) - and it behaves the same.

Blurried-textures-original-photo-original-ratio.afphoto

[MEB]

The height of this layer is not an integer value (540,135 px). Go to Preferences, User Interface, Decimal Places for Units Types section and increase the Pixels value so you can see more decimal places in the Transform panel. Try with an non-stretched image with integer width/height values and you should have no blurring issues when you merge them.

[Erikxtz]

42 minutes ago, MEB said:

The height of this layer is not an integer value (540,135 px). Go to Preferences, User Interface, Decimal Places for Units Types section and increase the Pixels value so you can see more decimal places in the Transform panel. Try with an non-stretched image with integer width/height values and you should have no blurring issues when you merge them.

It is almost impossible have nonstretched image with whole pixel value on both sides If you scale down any image you will have one side whole pixel and other side will be non-whole pixel. If you want to have whole pixel value on both X/Y sides you have to stretch it. So final result is that you need to rasterize layer before merging as a rule, Affinity photo simply cannot work user-friendly with merging non rasterized layers, it is confusing behaviour. Or can you imagine researching every sigle layer if the layer is stretched or have whole-pixel value in any advanced photo manipulation? Not in real world

 

[BitBull]

I am new here and have to say that the way Affinity deals with this is painful, it really shouldn't be as complicated as it is to get thing not to anti-alias for pixel art.

Having struggled for quite some time wondering why I was getting the issue of layers anti-aliasing on merging, despite having it set to 'force off' and all 'snap' values set to pixel I discovered the following.

1. 'Paste' was not adhering to the 'snap' settings so pasted layers were appearing at fractional pixel offsets.

2. 'Move by whole pixels' overrides 'snap to pixel, so once pasted at a fractional offset the layer was never snapping to an 'exact' pixel.

Conclusion - it's probably best to leave 'move by whole pixels' OFF and just use the 'snap to pixel setting' for pixel-art.

There really needs to be some kind of global rasterization setting for this IMO. 

 

 

[MEB]

Hi Erikxtz,
If you are scaling layers then yes, you have no other way than to rasterise them first.

Hi @BitBull,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
What applications and tool(s) are you using to create pixel art? Haver you tried the Pixel Tool (Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer's Pixel Persona)?

[BitBull]

Hi,

I am using Affinity Photo in the default 'Photo' persona. I don't see a dedicated 'pixel' persona with the others at the top left?

I also purchased Designer and Publisher - haven't looked at Designer at all yet.

cheers

[MEB]

Hi @BitBull,
Click and hold the Paint Brush Tool (or any other tool with a small grey triangle/corner) to display the rest of the tools in the same group.

[BitBull]

12 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @BitBull,
Click and hold the Paint Brush Tool (or any other tool with a small grey triangle/corner) to display the rest of the tools in the same group.

Oh yeah, thanks. I had been using that and it's generally much better than constantly switching between pencil and eraser as in Photoshop.

I thought you meant there was a persona dedicated to pixel art that would automatically get rid of anti-aliasing and lock everything to the pixel grid without having to change a multitude of settings.

I am not sure where you file bugs, but to my mind the fact that 'paste' doesn't lock to the pixel grid when the snap options are set to do so should be one!

[BitBull]

Another issue with this is that snapping to object (and possibly other snap settings) overrides the 'align to pixel' setting, so if you have a layer that's an odd number of pixels in either dimension another layer that contains an even number of pixels will get snapped to a half pixel offset at the midpoint (and vice versa) causing layers to suddenly go blurry for no apparent reason. So I have to turn that snap setting off as well!

There really needs to be a global setting to turn off this kind of behaviour. if I want to work in whole pixel increments I should be able to do it without having to change a gazillion other settings.

Am extremely impressed with the software on the whole, though!

 

[takopup]

Signing onto this as the merge system is horribly broken, and since 2018 has been blur merging, sadness that after all this time it was still not addressed. However, give this person a f-ing medal! solved hours of work lost. Thankyou for your workaround. 

On 2/4/2021 at 7:06 AM, Erikxtz said:

It is almost impossible have nonstretched image with whole pixel value on both sides If you scale down any image you will have one side whole pixel and other side will be non-whole pixel. If you want to have whole pixel value on both X/Y sides you have to stretch it. So final result is that you need to rasterize layer before merging as a rule, Affinity photo simply cannot work user-friendly with merging non rasterized layers, it is confusing behaviour. Or can you imagine researching every sigle layer if the layer is stretched or have whole-pixel value in any advanced photo manipulation? Not in real world

 

I work with layers alot and my recent project was linework and was surprised that each time i merge my lines got blurry, so had to retrace over and over.... so many lost hours.

Edited February 24, 2021 by takopup

[Roxfall]

Post self-censored for sarcasm.