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Creating pixel art is a lot of fun and can be a great addition to logos, apparel designs, and more. However, if you are used to working in Affinity Designer, you may be at a loss at as to how this is actually done.
Affinity Designer’s Pixel Persona allows users to create pixel art using a specialized pixel tool. As for pixelating an image, Affinity programs are meant to be used hand in hand, so users can easily switch to Affinity Photo from within the program for any photo editing tools.
Oftentimes, it’s not easy to get the results we want from one program. Keep reading for a quick guide on how to pixelate images in Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo.
Creating Pixelated Images in Affinity Designer
Creating pixelated images is a great way to spice up a design or create a fun, retro logo. These can easily be added into mockups on sites like Placeit, without the worry of the image lacking quality. However, this type of art isn’t always easy to create, especially in a vector editing program.
Luckily, Affinity Designer is designed for raster and vector images to work side by side. This is possible with the program’s Pixel Persona.
Using the Pixel Persona
Affinity programs and broken up into different sections, with each sporting its own unique interface and methods of use:
- Designer Persona
- Pixel Persona
- Export Persona
By default, users are brought to the Designer Persona when loading into the program. This is where you will find all of your vector tools. However, if you’d like to work with raster textures and pixel brushes, you will need to switch to the Pixel Persona.
To do this, navigate to the toolbar at the top of the screen and select the Pixel Persona button. This is the icon that looks like a collection of purple, red, and orange squares. You can also access the different Personas from the File menu.
Using The Pixel Tool
Once in the Pixel Persona, you will have access to the Pixel Tool. This allows you to draw pixel-aligned lines without antialiasing. This is the best option for creating pixel art in Affinity Designer. As you paint pixel strokes, your brush will apply one pixel at a time, giving you that boxy, pixelated look.
The pixel tool also has a variety of settings that can be adjusted for different effects:
- Width
- Stabilizer
- Hardness
- Opacity
- Blend Mode
You can also set Alternate behaviors such as Erase or Undo From Snapshot that are activated when the Ctrl/Command key is pressed.
» MORE: What Does Develop Persona Mean in Affinity Photo?
Edit with Affinity Photo from Affinity Designer
When working in Affinity Designer, you aren’t just limited to the tools of the program. Affinity software is designed to work in conjunction with each other, allowing users to move freely from one application to another when the one you’re currently working in doesn’t have the tool or editing ability your project requires.
For example, let’s say you would like to pixelate a photo for a logo design that you are working on. You may be working in Affinity Designer because this is the best application in terms of logo design.
However, pixelization is not Designer’s area of expertise. When working with raster images and photo editing, Affinity Photo is the best option.
To open up the photo in a different application, select the content you would like to edit and navigate to the File menu. From here, select Edit in Photo. This will open the image in Affinity Photo, so you can freely edit it as a raster file.
Using the Pixelate Filter
The easiest way to pixelate an image in Affinity Photo is to use the Pixelate Filter. This is a type of distortion filter that creates uniform blocks of color from the image selected.
To use this filter, open up the photo in Affinity Photo and make sure the layer is selected. In the Filters menu at the top of the screen, navigate to the Distort sub-menu and click Pixelate.
A menu should pop up after Pixelate is selected that allows you to adjust the quantization of the pixelation. This control the size of the pixels generated. The larger the number, the larger the blocks. Once done, hit apply.
You can now move back over to Affinity Designer and the image should automatically update since the content is linked.
Final Thoughts
Creating pixelated images isn’t always easy, especially when working in a vector editing program like Affinity Designer. Hopefully, this guide gave you the tools you need to get the job done!
