Automatic fill colour when enlarging canvas?

[johanna]

In Photoshop, before I enlarge the canvas I can choose what colour to fill the extra pixels with. How can I do this in Affinity photo?

This far, I've first enlarged the canvas and then manually filled the extra pixels using either the the Flood Fill or Paint Brush tool, but there ought to be a better method. Brush painting is tedious, and in Photoshop, using the Paint Bucket tool sometimes has unintended effects on nearby elements, and I don't want to risk that happening in Affinity Photo.

[toltec]

Hi @johanna

You can go Edit > Matte

With Custom Colour selected (default) click the swatch and choose any colour you like, or

Primary is the bottom right 'colour well' colour.

Secondary is the top left 'colour well' colour.

[johanna]

Thanks, but it doesn't seem to be what I'm looking for.

Let's say I have a white 200 px x 200 px image.

When I choose pink as the matte custom colour and increase the canvas to 250 px x 250 px, I would expect there to be a 25 px thick pink border around the otherwise white canvas, but that doesn't happen.

When I choose pink as the fill custom colour, the whole canvas is filled with pink right away. I don't want that either. However, if I increase the canvas size further the extra pixels are also filled with pink, which is good.

[Lee D]

Hi johanna,

Nothing has been placed/inserted onto the empty canvas, you could simply use a square quick shape, specify the size and add a stroke border specifying the width. A method similar to that of PS has been requested and my be added in the future. 

[MEB]

Hi johanna,
Here's another alternative:  go to menu Layer ▸ New Fill Layer, place it on the bottom of the layer's stack. Increase the canvas size as you see fit. The Fill layer will always fill it. To change it's colour select it in the Layers panel and click the colour you want in the Colour panel or use the colour picker to pick a colour from the image itself.

[toltec]

3 hours ago, johanna said:

Thanks, but it doesn't seem to be what I'm looking for.

Let's say I have a white 200 px x 200 px image.

When I choose pink as the matte custom colour and increase the canvas to 250 px x 250 px, I would expect there to be a 25 px thick pink border around the otherwise white canvas, but that doesn't happen.

You didn't say what is wrong?

1/ You do have to apply the matte after resizing.

2/ If you have cropped the image, remember that Photo keeps the cropped part outside the visible canvas, so that will reappear when you resize the canvas. Right click on the layer and choose Rasterize to get rid of it.

 

Right, start with 200 x 200 pixel image

Go Document > Resize Canvas (note the position of the blue anchor point square) and set the Size to 250 x 250 pixels

clicking Resize equals a file 250 x 250 pixels with a 25 pixel white border on all four edges

Go Edit > Matte and click the  Custom Colour swatch to choose pink, (as shown). 

one 200 x 200 image with a 25 pixel border all around = 250 pixels x 250 pixels.

 

[C_W]

Thank you!!! I use the resize canvas method in Photoshop all the time to print with boarders and cut lines. I couldn't figure out how to do this in photo affinity.  An extra step but exactly what I need.