They allow you to paint, draw, and make pixel-based alterations to your designs. Pixel layers are layers that you would typically work with in the Pixel Persona. The Add New Pixel Layer button is also located towards the bottom-right of the screen: It will be given a default name that you can change by simply double-clicking the label and inputting your desired name for the layer. The Add New Layer button is located towards the bottom-right of the Layers menu:Ĭlicking on this button will create a new blank layer. Now that we’ve gone over the core functionality of working with layers in Affinity Designer, let’s have a look at some of the features available to us in the Affinity Designer Layers panel. Organizing your work in such a way makes for a more efficient workflow. In the example design above, design elements are grouped together by category and labeled accordingly. A good example of this would be the following design: Layer grouping allows you to compartmentalize your work even more. You can ungroup your layers at any time by selecting the group and navigating to:Īlternatively, you can also click and drag the layers to pop them out of the group and into their own layer. Grouped layers will be collapsed into sublayers: To group layers together, select the layers you’d like to group and navigate to: In Affinity Designer, layer grouping is a way of combining multiple layers together, or “merging” them as it’s traditionally called. You can change the name of a layer by simply double-clicking on the label and typing in your own name: Layer NamesĮvery layer that is generated will have a default name automatically applied, as indicated by the name label in the interface. Selecting multiple layers will also highlight them in blue. If you’d like to select multiple layers in Affinity Designer then you can do so by holding Shift on your keyboard while selecting them. Not only will it select the layer, but it will select the contents of your layer on the canvas as well. Selecting Multiple LayersĬlicking on a layer in the Layers menu will select it. If you place the layer directly on top of another layer you will end up making a clipping mask. Make sure to position the layer directly above or beneath the other layers though. To move a layer, simply click and drag it beneath another layer. The Affinity Designer Layers panel gives you an overview of where all of the design elements on your workspace are positioned, and it allows you to reposition them if you’d like. In Affinity Designer, every object you create is placed on its own layer, and each new object is positioned above the previous: Notice how the stacking order of the layers is consistent with the stacking order of the objects on the canvas. This way they can be applied to any new layer with a single click.More specifically, layers allow you to position objects above and beneath each other. If you create a set of layer effects that you want to use again you can save time and effort by saving them as a style to the Styles panel. In the dialog, click on the label of the effect that you want to edit.Click the effects icon on the layer entry in the Layers panel.To edit layer effects using the Layer Effects dialog: If required, repeat for any other effects.On the Effects panel, click the arrow to expand the options for the effect you want to edit.

Select the layer that you want to edit.

If required, select any other effects and adjust the settings.

Adjust the settings as desired-options vary for each effect.

On the Effects panel, select the checkbox of the effect that you want to apply.

Select the layer(s) that you want to apply the effect to.When a layer has one or more effects applied, an icon appears to the right of the layer’s name in the Layers panel.īy working with duplicate layers, blend modes and masks, it's possible to obtain a great degree of control over the effects that you generate. Layer effects can be applied to any layer from either the Effects panel or the Layers panel. Layer effects can be applied to any layer to add more creativity to your design.

Affinity photo effects panel not seen