Transparency can be applied in lots of ways in Affinity Designer. Here are the typical methods for its use. As solid Opacity, applied to strokes, fills and brush strokes. As a transparency gradient, again applied to either stroke or fill. Affinity Photo has become the first choice for photography and creative professionals around the world, who love its speed, power and precision. Born to work hand-in-hand with the latest powerful computer technology, it’s the only fully-loaded photo editor integrated across macOS, Windows and iOS. Moving and transforming a selection. Moving and transforming pixel selections. Once a selection has been made, it can be moved and transformed in a variety of ways. In this respect, Overlays in Develop Persona act in a similar way to masks in Photo Persona. Areas of an overlay which are transparent ignore the overlay's adjustments, while opaque areas display the applied adjustments. Areas of semi-transparency (such as those created with the Overlay Gradient Tool) will display the adjustments by a varying.
I've been using Affinity Photo a lot recently to create images for the web.
Coming from a Photoshop background, I am accustomed to images automatically having a transparent background when I export them in the .png format. Unfortunately this doesn’t appear to 'currently' be the case in Affinity Photo.
When you export a .png image in affinity photo, like the image below where the full scope isn't colored, the default behaviour seems to be for the background to be coloured white when you export the image.
We need a way to tell Affinity Photo that the background shouldn't be filled in when exporting. It should just be left transparent if the image format (.png) supports transparancy.
Exporting Current / Open Images
If you want to export an image you already have open with a transparent background, follow these steps. Otherwise skip to the section below titled 'Preparing New Image' to prepare a new image for a transparent background.
Click on Document > Transparent Background. And that's it!
Your image will now have a transparent background if you export it into a .png format.
Preparing New Image
If you're looking to a create a new image that has a transparent background and wait to avoid the previous steps. Specify that the image should have a transparent background when you create it by selecting: File > New. Now at the New Document screen you'll see the option to enable Transparent Background.
Tick the option to enable transparent background. The setting will be saved in your document's .afphoto file, so if you open it again then it will still export with the background transparent.
Exporting in Affinity Photo
Remember that you can't save a .png file in Affinity by selecting File > Save because that's how we save our project. You need to select the option for File > Export and then you will see something like the screen below.
About overlays
Overlays are elements within Develop Persona which are placed on top of an image. Any adjustment applied to an overlay affects the image below.
However, overlays can have a varying level of visibility, which varies the impact its adjustments have on the underlying image. In this respect, Overlays in Develop Persona act in a similar way to masks in Photo Persona.
Areas of an overlay which are transparent ignore the overlay's adjustments, while opaque areas display the applied adjustments. Areas of semi-transparency (such as those created with the Overlay Gradient Tool) will display the adjustments by a varying degree.
The adjustments applied to an overlay are determined using the Overlays Panel.
Types of overlay
Affinity Photo Transparency Tool
There are two types of overlay: Brush and Gradient.
Brush overlays can only be edited using the Overlay Paint and Overlay Erase tools. Areas are added to an overlay using the Overlay Paint Tool. Areas are removed using the Overlay Erase Tool.
Affinity Photo Transparent Color
The Overlay Gradient Tool applies a gradient from transparent to opaque across Gradient overlays only.