Trim Transparency in Affinity

[Northerner_V1]

Hi everyone,

 

Just bought Affinity and love it. Sorry to ask what might be a dumb question but I searched and couldn't find a clear answer on any of the other forum threads. 

 

Is there currently an option to trim away transparent areas in Affinity? In Photoshop, for example there is an option under the Image menu for Trim... > Transparent Pixels. Is there anything similar in Affinity?

 

Thanks for any help, and well done to Serif for an outstanding product.  :)

[Lee D]

Welcome to the forums,

 

We do have an option to remove unwanted canvas areas, from the Document menu, select Clip Canvas.

[Northerner_V1]

Thank you for the quick reply! I'm so sorry but I can't see a Document menu on my screen. Could you explain where this is?

[MEB]

Hi Northerner_V1,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

The command @Lee D pointed out is only available in Affinity Photo which is our closest application compared to Photoshop. 

Currently there's no Trim (or similar) command for Affinity Designer.

[Northerner_V1]

Ah - I see. At least I'm not going mad!

 

Are there any plans to add this function to future updates of Designer? I've found myself looking for it regularly in my work and would be really useful.

[DrPocter]

I really could use a Trim command as well. Especially in web design, where you want the smallest image possible to, say, blend into a background of the same colour.

[MEB]

Hi DrPocter,

For web design you can use the Export Persona to achieve the same result and even automate the process a little. Export Persona allows you to create a slice (with the size) of the objects from a single layer (or single object or group). If you keep all icons/images/assets organised by layers this should speed up assets export considerably. You can also enable Continuous (Export) from the bottom of the Slice panel to automatically update all the assets in a specific folder every time you perform a change to one of the objects.

[Northerner_V1]

Hi MEB - 

 

Thanks for the reply, but I'm still having a little trouble with this:

 

1. When I enter the Export persona and select the Slice I want to export, I change the Export Options at the top from 'JPEG' to 'PNG' to preserve transparency. However, the file being exported remains a JPEG. Am I doing something wrong or could this be a bug?

 

2. Similarly, I think a 'Trim' option would be useful anyway so that I could take away transparent areas and then enlarge the output to a specific size (say, 800px wide). Having a slice do this automatically means the final PNG file is an unknown pixel size. Is there anywhere to make feature requests for future updates?

[MEB]

Northerner_V1,

Which version are you using, the Mac App Store or the Beta?

And which OS?

[Northerner_V1]

Hi MEB,

 

Thanks again for your super quick reply! I'm using the App Store version of Affinity Designer v. 1.1.2.

[MEB]

A lot of bugs were fixed since the last Mac App Store update, some related with the Export Persona. If you want to give it a try, you can get it from here (usually pinned at top).

Just remember to keep the MAS version installed (so you can run the Beta without time restrictions) and that files created or saved with the Beta cannot be opened in the Mac App Store version until the next update ( the file format is more advanced in the beta and not compatible with the current MAS version).

 

If you prefer you can wait for the next Mac App Store update which should be available (if everything goes well) in a couple weeks.

 

Yes, we have a section for feature requests here.

[DrPocter]

Hi Meb,

 

Thanks for your reply and for your tips.

 

As a matter of fact I already use slices to export assets for web design projects (and they are great).

 

But I still have the problem (not limited to web design) where I want to remove the superfluous, repeating pixels on the edges of an image. As the (or maybe just my?) artwork often blends into a background, it's not always easy to see where that boundary is. But it would be easy for an algorithm.

 

I don't need an elaborate dialog à la Photoshop either. Just a command that trims repeating lines of the same colour (or transparency, but that already exists if I understand correctly) at the four edges of an image.

[LilleG]

+1 for a Trim Transparency in Designer.  

[dannyj]

I would love Trim in Designer

[jkprg]

+1 for a

1) trim transparent pixels

2) trim pixels with top left color (or selected color)

 

both in photo and designer

[soulstatic]

Hmmm. The Clip Canvas in photo doesn't work the same as "trim" in photoshop. It just makes the image smaller, but creates more white space above--for me, at least. Is there a way to customize that? 

[MEB]

Hi soulstatic,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Yes, it doesn't work exactly like Photoshop.

If it's adding space it's probably because you have some objects/layers crossing the canvas. Basically it's removing the transparent areas where there's no content and adding space to encompass content that extends beyond the document boundaries. To avoid the added space right-click the layer(s) that's crossing the canvas and select Rasterise... to get rid of the content that lays outside the canvas. Then apply the Clip Canvas command again.

[Gonzini3000]

Adding my two cents here too (probably because Photoshop's "trim" function was integrated in my workflow).

I find it super useful to remove the most "top-left" (pixel) color all-around even if it's not transparent. A big plus would be to add the ability to remove it only from given sides… 

I'm missing this function since my jump to Affinity Photo.

[predick]

+1 for a Trim Transparency in Designer too.  

[Dams]

+1. Stop trying to impose us your workflow please.

 

We are the designers, we know our workflow. The workflow that the devs at affinity are trying to force us to do doesn't make any sense.

 

Thanks

[Vicente Sarmento]

+1

[Christian V]

+1

[Zbigg]

Hello,

Need to warm the thread up again: have lots of psd files with masked background, in PS its trims by transparency, ie to the rim of visible object,

Still trying to switch to APhoto but CLIP CANVAS does not do the job in such case. How could I trim/crop transparent/masked surrounding of the object /need to define an action for this because these are hundreds of such files/...

[carl123]

@Zbigg

You should upload a sample file or two if you want help with this

[toltec]

 

45 minutes ago, Zbigg said:

Hello,

Need to warm the thread up again: have lots of psd files with masked background, in PS its trims by transparency, ie to the rim of visible object,

Still trying to switch to APhoto but CLIP CANVAS does not do the job in such case. How could I trim/crop transparent/masked surrounding of the object /need to define an action for this because these are hundreds of such files/...

In normal ‘document’ mode, Affinity Designer works like a page layout program, such as Quark or Word for that matter. You set a page size, apply bleed, then place objects on the page. Neither Quark, Word or Designer (or any such program as far as I know) trims a page to an image placed on it?

That’s why there are canvas based programs like Photoshop or Photo, which are based around an image and make that job easy.

The choices are to use Photo (which is designed for that purpose) or use Designer’s artboard feature which does allow you to trim to a canvas (or artboard).

Photo does not ‘clip’ if there is a layer that extends outside the masked area, hidden or not. Could that be your problem?