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Hello,

The new Publisher is really impressive. Due to new coding I've rebuilt my base template of a 6 page circular with great ease, but I noticed one feature I use every month is missing. In my monthly circulars I create with PP9 requires the process of removing the backgrounds of maybe 75 to 100 images per circular (a very easy process with PP9). Then some of these items can be used again in later issues, but any new products need this feature. Due to new coding is the plan for removing Image Background going to be done in Photo or implemented in to Publisher? Image editing isn't a problem, but over the last 4 years my product Image data base is about 2,650 images.

Thanks,

-Kevin

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@Kevin G

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :) 

We have taken a different approach with the Affinity range than we did with the legacy Plus range. The Plus range had files that were locked down to the application they were made in. Consequently many features (like cut out studio) were added to many of the applications. With the Affinity range every application can load and save the files from the others in the range, and so although there are many shared simple features, something like extracting an image is left to the specialist application Affinity Photo. So someone like you who needs this functionality would also need Affinity Photo. Others who do not extract objects from backgrounds would just use Affinity Publisher. Alternatively you could save money and use PagePlus or DrawPlus cutout studio and export the resultant object as an image

 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

thank you for your answer, Patrick. I tried to do as you told, as I have page plus and Photo plus. But the picture, even saved as  'cut-out' jpeg, appears with background when I insert it in Affinity publisher. What did I do wrong?

But, I am thrilled with alle the new possibilities AP offers! It is smashing! I hope to use it a lot!!!

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Try exporting a .tiff in (PP8 or PP9) and select CMYK and in the bit depth section, this will open the option for transparency. It works when I import the .tiff in to Publisher. Hope this helps.

I own both Designer and Photo Suites, they are awesome! So I've been using Photo to editing out backgrounds and then saving them as a transparent .tiff in CMYK.

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In PagePlus I did it by 
i) copying the background layer of my image [as say 'work layer'] then deleting the background layer
ii) making a selection of the image foreground that I wanted then on the Layers tab, making a mask with the selection visible then deleting the 'work layer'
iii) again select the image using freehand selection tool and going Select menu and inverting the selection so that the background (black and white checks) is selected then pressing Delete  and finally going to Select and choose Deselect.
iv) Next I exported the image as PNG but I found that the background was still opaque white.  I then found that if I increased the colour depth to 32 in the export to PNG dialogue box the background became transparent

Once you have a transparent background you can insert your image into Publisher and then wrap your text to the image so that text covered by the image becomes visible.
In my example below I do not claim that the result is pleasing, but it does show what happens. Obviously you should use images with reasonably regular outline, not one with irregular shape as in my example.

GIMP (free image manipulation software) makes it easier to do and there are lots of tutorials on web explaining 

image with tranparency.afpub

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  • 5 months later...

After using AP for just two days I can see lots of useful  tools of PP have been dropped  such as "Cut Out",  Inserting image from scanner , changing Page size once you have created a page (ie, open with a A4 and now want to make it A3) , Mail Merge.   etc  I am sure there will be a  more yet to be discovered. 

This was the Advantage of using PP it offered a lot without the need for using other software and still does. While AP may have many advantage it would have to improve a lot to compete with PP for ease of use

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22 minutes ago, iscom said:

changing Page size once you have created a page (ie, open with a A4 and now want to make it A3)

Try 'File  > Spread Setup...'

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Iscom was concerned about Publisher not "  Inserting image from scanner , ".  My way of working is to collect all of the images that I want to use into a single folder, including scanned images and then using the Place Image tool 1186556613_AffinityPlaceImagetool.PNG.5e79197a0532e304e1694c240d39cb71.PNG to select them from that one location.

The selected images then appear in the Place Images tab 369363537_AffinityPlaceImagesTab.PNG.fb30a1a8b108fd7bd9e3f28097107f8e.PNG and you can then select and drag them as required for placement. Having them to hand like this is much quicker than selecting 1 item at a time from wherever you have stored them or waiting while your scanner produces your input.

I have used PagePlus for many years and still do for some work and agree that some things seem better in PP but to use Publisher effectively means re-training yourself. Publisher is still Beta so can't be guaranteed so don't use it for something that you can't afford to lose - however I haven't yet lost anything I have worked . Maybe mail merge might be in the pipeline so keep practising with Publisher and loading new Betas as they arrive -it is a much more powerful tool  than PP in many ways [eg -look how Master pages have improved in functionality in the last month alone] and once full integration with Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo is implemented it will far exceed PP.

Pman

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Most of the photos I scan are "One Offs" never to be saved . . I make posters and banners for Birthdays, special occasions  etc  where the the client would give me a photo for me to scan, and produce a Large poster.  But I can scan and send image to file on my PC but then maybe have to crop it , whereas scanning within PP I can just scan the part of the photo  I need. 

The other thing missing in AP is the "Photo Edge Effects"  which I do use a lot 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Sorry but it seems like Publisher made a lot more work for me. I would be further ahead to continue with Page Plus. The prospect of purchasing Affinity Photo JUST  so I can cut out images is a major turn off since that would be its only purpose for me...... and as it seems many other users as well. 

I hope Affinity reconsiders their position on this tool.

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On 2/19/2019 at 12:50 PM, iscom said:

After using AP for just two days I can see lots of useful  tools of PP have been dropped  such as "Cut Out",  Inserting image from scanner , changing Page size once you have created a page (ie, open with a A4 and now want to make it A3) , Mail Merge.   etc  I am sure there will be a  more yet to be discovered. 

This was the Advantage of using PP it offered a lot without the need for using other software and still does. While AP may have many advantage it would have to improve a lot to compete with PP for ease of use

I agree I will not be making the "Upgrade" to AP anytime soon. The lack of cut out studio really makes this impractical for me. I do a lot of image cutouts and the Affinity Photo process is much more complex and time-consuming.

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One workaround is to create a vector mask. ...but it's an awful chore when a "crop to shape" is missing.

Another workaround is to create a mask and select "refine mask" and you'll have familiar foreground and background tools. But it's awfully slow.

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I explained a while ago that this was unlikely to happen (in this thread above and here),  but perhaps I should explain further why I think this is.

The Affinity range has taken a radically different approach to software development than the legacy Plus range.  Affinity software is a 100% shared codebase creating amazing possibilities in synergy between applications. The shared file format means that you can create your document in the most suitable application, but you can go on to perform extra tasks in whichever other application you own with no compromises. Because switching between applications could be a little unwieldly the Designer and Pixel personas are built into Publisher to achieve this switch smoothly.

In the Plus range we shared many libraries in the code and so it was possible for all the applications to have lots of the features in common BUT each crucially application had it's own file format, and that your document was tied to using that application. Consequently, when a feature was developed (like cut-out studio) we tended to put it in every application we could because we could see how people with that sort of document would need to perform that task. With the Plus range file format non-interchangeable you could not just swap between applications at will, so shared features was essential.

Remember also that the legacy Plus range software was priced accordingly for it's potential stand-aloneness. PagePlus X9 was £89.99 and PhotoPlus X8 was £79.99 and DrawPlus X8 was £79.99 (I believe). Affinity applications are priced at around half that of the Plus range, and so that should be considered when we suggest that for your workflow you personally may need more than one of them to perform tasks you were used to performing in a single application in the Plus range.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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Whilst I would agree the Ap price is a lot lower than  Page plus and the other serif programs,  I would say that there are many 1000s like me who already have paid for the Serif upgrades over the years not only for PP but for the whole range of serif programs and are satisfied with them would have continued to upgrade.  At present, PP does everything  I need plus my 8-year-old daughter can use PP with very little help from me. .  .So Why Change?

   Now the beta version has ceased the chances of me ever getting to use AP has ceased also.

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58 minutes ago, iscom said:

  At present, PP does everything  I need plus my 8-year-old daughter can use PP with very little help from me. .  .So Why Change?

For you, there seems to be no need. I am personally please don't feel you need to buy software that you don't want, I would not have it any other way. [Other companies do not see it this way it would appear]

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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Just leaving my support for a cut out or crop to shape feature to be added to AP.  Altough I was happy with PP, I bought AP because I tend to use a lot of past works as templates for new jobs so I prefer not dedicate my time creating a templates that can only be opened with a discontinued software that may not be working in 5 years. So far, AP is great even with these small setbacks. Thumbs up for Serif.

Since I use the cutout feature often, I tried Affinity photo and I find there is a bit of a learning curve which I would rather not have to face. I would have paid a bit more to have the top 10 most used image editing features built into AP - cutout and a simpler way to apply basic styles (black and white, sepia, warmer, etc..) would be 2 of them. Maybe a AP Plus version could be an option for the future? just a suggestion for Serif.

 

Edited by Liegemg
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@Liegemg

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums :)

Thanks for your input on this feature request. There is, as you say, quite a learning curve with Affinity Photo. There are tutorials including one on removing backgrounds here https://affin.co/phototuts

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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On 6/25/2019 at 8:28 AM, SirAnoke said:

One workaround is to create a vector mask. ...but it's an awful chore when a "crop to shape" is missing.

A “crop to shape” feature isn’t missing, it just goes by another name! Cropping and masking are one and the same — there’s a clue in the icon that you see in the Layers panel when a layer has been moved to the masking position — so all you need to do is place the shape on top of the target object on the canvas and then drag the shape layer to the masking position in the Layers panel. In the desktop apps there’s also a ‘Mask to Below’ option on the context menu which is displayed when you right-click on a layer in the Layers panel.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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