Non destructive cropping?

[Jaffa]

I don't think that this is an option, is it?  Have checked through the video tutorials etc and cannot see anywhere.  Is there a workaround perhaps?

[Fixx]

Crop tools are non-destructive. You can check this as you can adjust crop anytime to any direction. Cropped out areas are there behind the image area and can be restored.

[Jaffa]

Hi Fixx, seems I should have explained myself better.  I mean that if I save what I have done the first day, including the crop, then next day open the Affinity file again then the original data before the crop is available.  I tried this a short while ago and that does not happen.  Would be very glad to be proved wrong!

[Dan C]

Hi Jaffa

Cropping is non-destructive until you rasterise the layer that has been cropped. At this point the data outside of the crop area is lost, making the crop destructive. I hope this helps!

[Jaffa]

Hi Dan, most of my work does not need rasterizing, so unfortunately you are saying that there isn't a simple way around.  I rarely use "place" and therefore Smart Objects.  Thanks for the feedback though.

[Fixx]

Your data behind the crop area should be available non-destructively as long as you 

• save in affinity format
• do not rasterise the cropped layer
• do not merge the cropped layer with others (causing rasterising)

Hope this helps..