Affinity Designer 1.6.5.135 Copy/Paste does not works as I expected

[CarlosMtnez]

Hello, I start using recently Affinity Designer, I fall in love with this software, fast and powerfull, incredible combination of pixel + vector, ideal for website and logo creation.

But I Copy/paste behavior is not working like I expected, I explain:

I start working and create a vector composition in Draw persona, then I switch to Pixel Persona, and with Marquee Tool I selected a portion of my image, because I want to save it to PNG to use it in a website... Here is where I found a very annoying problem, something so very simple like select, copy, new-document, paste and save, I made this hundreds of times in Photoshop very easy, now is completely imposible. 

In Pixel Persona, with part of the image selected, the Copy menu is grayed out, can't click the option. Also I tried selecting all layers, but same happens. If I switch to Draw Persona (vector mode) can't copy a part of the image. Im using a lot the Copy combined Ctr+shift+c of photoshop.

I view all the tutorials about this software, I think its great, but I dont understant why something so simple like this is so complicated.

Any help?

Thank you!

[CarlosMtnez]

Well, after some time testing, I found that I can use Export Persona to create slices from my composition and customize the export format, quality and name, what is very great for Banner creation.

Export persona its great, but I think you should implement Copy combined in Pixel persona to copy the selection made with Marquee tool. This is totally basic and very annoying dont having it. The Selection+Copy is not working like I expected. Its the only thing I miss in this software.

 

[R C-R]

18 hours ago, CarlosMtnez said:

In Pixel Persona, with part of the image selected, the Copy menu is grayed out, can't click the option.

That is probably because there is nothing selected that is on a pixel layer. Vector shapes are not made of pixels; they are resolution independent objects defined geometrically.

[CarlosMtnez]

17 minutes ago, R C-R said:

That is probably because there is nothing selected that is on a pixel layer. Vector shapes are not made of pixels; they are resolution independent objects defined geometrically.

I tried that, in Pixel mode, selecting all layers, but menu Copy copy all the Objects to clipboard! and not the Selection area.  Thats not what Im expecting in Pixel mode. Also, a Copy combined would be very useful, like in Photoshop

[R C-R]

48 minutes ago, CarlosMtnez said:

I tried that, in Pixel mode, selecting all layers, but menu Copy copy all the Objects to clipboard!

The section tools in the Pixel Persona that produce "marching ants" selections only can select pixels on pixel layers. Selections made with the Move Tool (in either the Draw or Pixel Persona) can select any layer type, but only can select entire layers. If you want an all pixels selection that includes parts of vector or Image layers, you would need to rasterize them first (to convert them to pixels) & use one of the section tools in the Pixel Persona for that.

[CarlosMtnez]

9 minutes ago, R C-R said:

The section tools in the Pixel Persona that produce "marching ants" selections only can select pixels on pixel layers. Selections made with the Move Tool (in either the Draw or Pixel Persona) can select any layer type, but only can select entire layers. If you want an all pixels selection that includes parts of vector or Image layers, you would need to rasterize them first (to convert them to pixels) & use one of the section tools in the Pixel Persona for that.

I understand, but what about Marquee Tool in Pixel Mode?

The behavior I would like is to select a part of my composition in Pixel mode with Marquee Tool, then Copy combined, get that part of the image in my clipboard...then I can paste in other program or create new document and paste...  But that's the point, copy to clipboard a part of the image in pixel mode.

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, CarlosMtnez said:

But that's the point, copy to clipboard a part of the image in pixel mode.

That would be a new feature, I think. It would require transforming any vector content within the selection into pixels, because the existing vector objects are not pixels.

[CarlosMtnez]

5 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

That would be a new feature, I think. It would require transforming any vector content within the selection into pixels, because the existing vector objects are not pixels.

That would be awesome! is the only thing I miss in this program, but the good part is I discovered how useful is the Export Persona and the slices, for my workflow is better than copy->paste

Thanks for all your support.

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, CarlosMtnez said:

I understand, but what about Marquee Tool in Pixel Mode?

It is the same as for any of the other section tools in the Pixel Persona.

9 minutes ago, CarlosMtnez said:

But that's the point, copy to clipboard a part of the image in pixel mode.

To do that, the selection must be made on pixels. That is why vector objects must be rasterized if you want them to be included in the selection.

[CarlosMtnez]

1 minute ago, R C-R said:

To do that, the selection must be made on pixels. That is why vector objects must be rasterized if you want them to be included in the selection.

But I dont want to rasterize them, the software should do that internally, and keep my document with my vectors untouch. Rasterize a vector is a way of "loose" information, and make more dificult future changes.

[R C-R]

14 minutes ago, CarlosMtnez said:

But I dont want to rasterize them, the software should do that internally, and keep my document with my vectors untouch. Rasterize a vector is a way of "loose" information, and make more dificult future changes.

True, but rasterizing what could be hundreds or thousands of vector objects requires a lot of system resources, not the least of which is a sharp increase in the amount of memory needed to do that for all of them in one shot. That is probably why Affinity Designer does not provide a way to rasterize everything in one shot to begin with.

As an experiment, I tried tediously ungrouping & rasterizing every layer individually in an all vector document of mind with only about 70 or so vector objects. Even for that relatively simple document, the memory needed increased about 5 fold to around 1 GB, just by doing that, so I doubt it would be very practical for larger, more complex documents.

Of course, I could be totally wrong about that -- perhaps there is some way to reduce the memory needed. But it just seems simpler (& more flexible) to use slices instead, since the output is to new files that don't all have to be memory resident at the same time.

[JimmyJack]

22 hours ago, CarlosMtnez said:

..... selected a portion of my image, because I want to save it to PNG to use it in a website...

If I understand correctly:

Don't leave the draw persona. Draw a box with no fill or stroke. Keep it selected. Go to File> Export > Selection with background. 
(basically the same as exporting a slice but fewer steps)

[v_kyr]

2 hours ago, CarlosMtnez said:

But I dont want to rasterize them, the software should do that internally, and keep my document with my vectors untouch. Rasterize a vector is a way of "loose" information, and make more dificult future changes.

Well AFAIK a sort of selection based vector copy/paste to clipboard (aka a faked one) is only possible over detours with cropping (masking), something you possibly don't want to do. - However, if you would group all layers/groups in the Draw Persona (on the vector side) and perform a crop to the selection boundaries you had in mind, you can copy that cropped portion over to another document.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, JimmyJack said:

Don't leave the draw persona. Draw a box with no fill or stroke. Keep it selected. Go to File> Export > Selection with background. 
(basically the same as exporting a slice but fewer steps)

As usual, a very simple, easy to use technique from JJ that I never would have though of on my own. 

Just one question though: should this be considered "out of the box" thinking ... or the opposite of that?