Cropping Multi-layered Image

[bwackv]

I just switched over to AF Designer and can't figure out how to crop my entire multi-layered image. I'm posting a picture to illustrate. I work in really large files with hundreds of layers and then I cut them down into rows. So the longer image (before.png) would be cut down to just the first two vertical guides (after.png). I used the crop tool in photoshop. How can I easily do this? I searched around but couldn't find an easy way. This would be a major bummer as I can't use AF designer without being able to do this.

 

[toltec]

 

Hi @bwackv

The problem is, you appear to be comparing Designer to Photoshop? whereas Photo is comparable to Photoshop.

In Designer, you start off by creating a page, so like any page based program (Quark, Word etc) you set the page size first and then place objects on the page. So what you are actually trying to do is resize the page to cut off parts of the page and the objects on it. A bit back to front. 

Photo, like Photoshop, is based on a canvas which is intended to be cropped. The cropped image would then be placed on a page in a page based program, like Designer.. 

There are a couple of ways round it. If you have Photo, you can load the Designer file into that and then use Photo's Crop Tool.

If not, convert the Designer page into an artboard. To do that, select the Artboard Tool and with Size set to Document, click on Insert Artboard.

You can "crop" artboards just like you would a canvas in Photoshop (or Photo). Just drag on the corner handles.

After 'cropping', it is possible to convert the artboard back into a 'normal' document. Select it with the Move Tool and in the Layer menu, click on Convert Artboard to Object. As Designer does not discard the outer parts of original objects, they are still there in their entirety, but the new page boundaries 'crop' the objects. There is probably no reason why you can't just use the artboard as it is though as mostly, it works like a normal page.

An artboard is more like a layer, so all your objects are clipped inside that, but they can be dragged out of the artboard if you really need a normal document.

For what you are doing, it might be better to consider using Photo, which is more like Photoshop and does not use pages but a canvas which can more easily be cropped, or use Designer artboards instead of pages.

 

[bwackv]

Hi @toltec

Thanks for your reply. Does Photo allow for drawing, image editing, lassoing and all of the "photoshop" digital drawing stuff that I do? I would describe my process for this work as digital drawing and collaging on the fly with lots of manipulation of individual elements (from color correcting to painting over them to erasing and selecting areas for removal).

Also, while I understand that this is a page based program, it offers almost everything that illustrator and photoshop do in one, so why not just have an option to let the crop tool crop the entire page so that I can achieve this simple result without having to move into another program?

[Alfred]

2 minutes ago, bwackv said:

Does Photo allow for drawing, image editing, lassoing and all of the "photoshop" digital drawing stuff that I do?

Why not see for yourself?

https://affin.co/phototrial

[bwackv]

Thanks Alfred. After thinking about it though the entire point of using designer is that it offers so much of what I do without having to switch programs. I work on the fly with huge files and loading them into another program for this one crop would greatly reduce the efficiency of my process. *unless it does everything that designer is doing for me haha

 

EDIT: The artboard tool work around is easy enough and then I can just revert back to it after exporting the crop. Thanks @toltec !

[Alfred]

I suggest that you investigate the Export Persona. You may find that you can achieve the desired result by creating slices.