I have been asked for a tutorial/demo on using templates in Affinity. The method I am showing you here is the same in all 3 programs (Photo, Designer and Publisher). I am going to be using Affinity Publisher in this example. This tutorial shows how to clip to a template that is in psd format. It cannot be used for png format templates. Click here for a tutorial on using png templates. Most templates in psd format can be imported into Affinity, although there maybe issues with templates that have layers made with Photoshop Styles and text on a curve. You can use a psd template in the same way as a png template. Using the method shown in this tutorial though, gives you more flexibility with the scrapbooking process. For this tutorial I am using Siggy 6 from the Siggy Templates Set 2 by Scrapping with Liz Drag drop the template from your file manager (I'm using ACDSee) onto the empty workspace in Affinity. You might get error messages. The most common message I get is one saying that the font is missing, due to the font the designer used not being installed on my computer. I close the message and just set a different font later. Another common error message is this one: Gradient fill styles don't import. This doesn't stop you using the template. (See end of tutorial for notes on other import error issues) Clicking on the title text (name on this template) will select it. Double Clicking will enable you to replace the text. I have typed my name and set the font to The Toffee Chip font by Heather Joyce. I repeated the process with the other text items. Next I'm going to crop papers to the tag shapes. I am using the BYOC June kit Beautiful Life Designed by Soco. Click on the blue tag Drag drop a paper onto the page. Select the paper in the Layers tab and drag the paper icon to the right of the blue tag icon. This will crop the paper to the tag shape. Click on the expand arrow next to the cropped paper on the layer tool bar. This will enable you to select the paper layer inside the tag separately from the tag shape. You can move the paper about and resize it as needed until you get the look you want. Photos can be added and cropped to the photo spots in exactly the same way as the papers. I could change the colour of my name, but I think I want to crop it to a paper instead. Crop the paper to the title text in the same way as cropping the paper to the tag shape. Now for the elements. I'm replacing the big flower shape with a flower element from the kit. Click on the large flower shape to select it. Add the element from the kit by drag and drop from your file manager. Because the large flower shape was selected the element has been inserted into the page in a new layer above the flower shape. I want to use the shadow used in the template. This method works in any version of Affinity Click on the large flower shape to select it and then either choose copy from the edit menu or use your copy short-cut key (ctrl c on my computer) Click on the element to select it. Go to the edit menu and select "Paste Fx" New feature added to Affinity 2.1 The new feature allows for a quicker way to copy fx (e.g. shadows) from one layer to another using the layers tab. Grab the FX symbol next to the large flower shape, and drag it to the FX position on the element. Move and resize the element as needed. You can delete or hide the no longer needed large flower shape. I prefer to delete due to file sizing. After adding more elements: If you want to recolour the paint layer there is a tutorial on how to do that here. Import Errors. Note that Photoshop styles cannot be imported into Affinity, so layers made with them will not import as intended. Sometimes the layer concerned doesn't import at all. I normally download templates in both the psd and png formats. Then I can add the png layer for any layers that don't import. Follow the clipping method for using png templates on those png layers. Advanced text doesn't import either. For example text on a path. There is a tutorial on how to do text on a curve/path here.
hello @AnneofAlamo and @gonewiththewind , please add this tutorial to the tutorials listing thank you.
