Cropping - am I going crazy?

[BkkGreg]

Hi,

 

I'm trying to something seemingly simple but simply cannot figure it out. It's frustrating me to the point of wanting to delete Affinity and forget I ever bought it.

 

I drag a photo/icon on to another photo, which creates a new layer. I want to crop the new layer, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it. I can crop the entire canvas no problem, but I ONLY want to crop the new layer. 

 

Okay, I can do a workaround - I can just open the new photo/icon in its own tab and crop that, then bring it in to my work layer. But when I do that, I can still see the whole canvas. When I copy and paste the cropped photo/icon onto my work layer, the entire uncropped image shows up.

 

Am I mental, or what? It should NOT be this hard to figure out, should it?? Searching online doesn't turn up much that I can see.

[Frank Jonen]

Cropping means to crop the entire document. The crop tool is hard enough to use as is, but it's not what you're looking for.

I think what you're looking for is masking a layer.

 

You can do two things. Draw a marquee selection (rectangle) over the image and add a layer mask. The selection then gets used to 'crop' the layer to the dimensions of the rectangle masks you've drawn.

 

The other way is to draw a rectangle shape (vector) over your image, then drag your image underneath the shape and the shape will mask the image. You can edit the shape but it will distort the image. To prevent this, drag the image out again and resize the shape, then drag it back in again.

[BkkGreg]

Thanks very much, that worked perfectly...though I'd love the ability to just crop the layer to my specifications, but that's just me.

[Frank Jonen]

Use a rectangle shape then. You can type in the sizes after you've selected it, in the Transform panel. 

Then check "Lock Children" and you're good to keep resizing the crop area as you see fit. I totally just noticed this option today.

 

 

 

 

Thanks very much, that worked perfectly...though I'd love the ability to just crop the layer to my specifications, but that's just me.

 

[kirkt]

You can also use the marquee tool to select the "crop" area/dimensions of your layer - then invert the selection (SHIFT+CMD+I) and hit delete to get rid of the pixels on that layer outside of the original selection (the inverted selection will persist until you change it or deselect).  In Photoshop, for example, you can crop with a selection by making a selection and then using the Image ... Crop menu item.  Here, it appears there is no "Crop" command for a selection.  It may save some time to make a macro that inverts your selection, deletes and then deselects.  Then you can crop with a selection in one step.

 

It would be nice to be able to assign a keyboard shortcut to a Macro to make this kind of operation a quick keystroke.

 

kirk

[s900]

Thanks very much, that worked perfectly...though I'd love the ability to just crop the layer to my specifications, but that's just me.

Affinity Designer already uses an object/layer non-destructive Crop tool. 

Hope this will be possible in AP soon.

[anon1]

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/32113-how-to-crop-destructively-and-how-to-clip-mask/?p=155890

I tried to cover the crop options in AP and AD as extensively as possible in this written piece so if you are looking for further explanations this will be for you  :)

 

cheers

[Ulysses]

Thanks very much, that worked perfectly...though I'd love the ability to just crop the layer to my specifications, but that's just me.

 

I understand what you're trying to achieve, Greg. But in image editors (at least most of the ones with which I'm familiar, things don't work that way. Not even in Photoshop. You'd need to mask away the portion you're visually trying to "crop" from that layer. Masking is what you're looking for here. A different sort of editor, for example something in a publishing editor, would be able to do what you're attempting. Hopefully by now you've found an acceptable solution. 

 

This is a more a matter of how your brain wants to do it versus the way image editing software actually works. But you can relearn and re-wire your thought process on this. :) 

[Alfred]

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/32113-how-to-crop-destructively-and-how-to-clip-mask/?p=155890

I tried to cover the crop options in AP and AD as extensively as possible in this written piece so if you are looking for further explanations this will be for you  :)

 

cheers

 

I've just followed that link (although I'm sure I've seen it before) and I noticed that you mentioned "clipping" twice. The second instance (with the "blue horizontal line, indented a bit") is indeed clipping, but the first one (with the blue vertical line) is cropping, as indicated by the cropping icon that you can see on the thumbnail. The screenshot below illustrates the difference.

 

BTW, there's a typo ("suing" instead of "using") that looks as though it has been copied and pasted from one section to the other.

[anon1]

 

BTW, there's a typo ("suing" instead of "using") that looks as though it has been copied and pasted from one section to the other.

thanks Sherlock  :rolleyes: sure thing 

 

clipping and cropping and nesting, remembering the right terminology is just a time sink for me  -_-

this double-temrinology of cropping is nuts especially 

[Alfred]

clipping and cropping and nesting, remembering the right terminology is just a time sink for me  -_-

this double-terminology of cropping is nuts especially 

 

It doesn't help that people talk about clipping, cropping, masking and nesting as if they're four different things! :o