Erasing

Affinity Photo 2 lets you erase areas of a layer using a combination of the Erase Brush Tool, the Brushes panel and the tool's context toolbar. Alternatively, you can use the Background Erase Brush Tool or the Flood Erase Tool to remove pixels from a layer.

Erase Brush example Background Erase example Flood Erase example

Use of Erase Brush Tool, Background Erase and Flood Erase Tools.

Erasing on a layer

You can use the Erase Brush Tool to erase unwanted pixels directly on the layer using the same principles as using the Paint Brush Tool.

The Background Erase Brush Tool takes a sample of the colour under the cursor when you begin to erase, and will remove all closely matching colours along the stroke.

The Flood Erase Tool removes areas of the layer based on the colour selected using a powerful tolerance setting.

Erasing on a vector layer

As pixels don't exist on a vector layer, a pixel mask is created and applied over the vector layer instead; the erasing process prevents the shape, line or text from being modifiable from that point forward. However, the pixel mask can be modified at any point using pixel brushes. See Layer masks for more details.

Erase Brush Tool To erase on a pixel layer:
  1. From the Layers panel, select a pixel layer.
  2. From the Tools panel, select the Erase Brush Tool.
  3. From the Brushes panel, select a brush of your choice.
  4. Adjust the context toolbar settings.
  5. Drag on the page in the direction that you want the erase brush stroke to follow.
Background Erase Brush Tool To use the Background Erase Brush Tool:
  1. From the Layers panel, select a layer. (If you select a vector layer, it will be automatically rasterised when the tool is used.)
  2. From the Tools panel, select the Background Erase Brush Tool.
  3. From the Brushes panel, select a brush of your choice.
  4. Adjust the context toolbar settings.
  5. Place the cursor over the colour you want to erase in the image and drag within the image to erase the targeted colour beneath the brush cursor.
Flood Erase Tool To use the Flood Erase Tool:
  1. From the Layers panel, select a pixel layer.
  2. From the Tools panel, select Flood Erase Tool.
  3. Adjust the context toolbar's Tolerance setting to control the extent of flood erasing across pixels. Experimenting will produce labour saving results.
  4. Click on the image to select the target pixel.
erasebrushtool To erase on a vector layer:
  1. From the Layers panel, select the vector layer.
  2. From the Tools panel, select the Erase Brush Tool.
  3. Paint on the vector layer to erase.

You'll notice a mask thumbnail appear next to the layer. While this remains selected you can continue erasing.

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