[solved] Affinity Photo: Brush does not paint opaquely despite 100% opacity and hardness

If you use the Serif app called Affinity Photo for photo and image editing or for digital drawing and painting, then you are probably familiar with the brush tool. With this you can conjure up individual lines, shapes and effects in different shapes, sizes and opacities. But what if the brush tool in Affinity Photo no longer paints opaquely, despite 100% opacity and 100% hardness? Which setting was changed or clicked on accidentally? Here you will find the solution to the problem!

Affinity Photo Brush no longer paints opaquely: “Wet edges” are activated

Most likely the problem is with the Wet Edges setting. This creates the drawing look of a wet brush or aqua painter. A spot in the picture is only painted over with the selected color when you pass the brush over it several times. If you use the tool consciously in this way, it can certainly create impressive effects. But the whole thing is frustrating when triggered accidentally. Because you can no longer achieve a single, opaque stroke.

In order to switch from the not completely opaque to the completely opaque brush, you actually just have to remove the check mark next to the field for the wet edges. You can find this above the work area in the so-called context bar. The context bar is called that because, depending on the tool selected (brush, eyedropper, selection frame, fill tool, etc.), it individually displays the appropriate quick selection options. For the brush, these include width, opacity, flow, hardness, stabilizer, etc. - pretty far to the right there are also “wet edges”.

Show the context bar in Affinity Photo: Here's how!

If you cannot find the box described above and the other individual tool settings in the Affinity Photo app window, then the context bar is probably deactivated. But that doesn't matter, because you can display them again at any time. To do this, simply click on the “View” menu item in the menu bar (at the top of the screen on macOS) and on “Show context bar” in its menu. The individually suitable options are now available to you for each selected tool.

Johannes Domke

After graduating from high school, Johannes completed an apprenticeship as a business assistant specializing in foreign languages. But then he decided to research and write, which resulted in his independence. For several years he has been working for Sir Apfelot, among others. His articles include product introductions, news, manuals, video games, consoles, and more. He follows Apple keynotes live via stream.