Here is some info I got from the Affinity Photo Forum, I ask them a question about the resizing vs the canvas resizing, and here is what 2 of the moderators said about them. Hope this clears things up on the different types of resizing. It made good sense to me and I understand it better.
Here is what the AP Forum said;
Hello MEB
I am Using Affinity Photo windows pc
I have watch the video on resizing and canvas resize,, I guess I must be dumb.
I do not understand why there is two ways to resize, resize image and resize canvas. All I want to do is resize my photo smaller so the file is not so big. Following the video is really very frustrating. Can you tell me how to do a simple photo resizing??
Using the way it says in the video has a lot of steps to go thru. I do a lot of photo work and resizing is done a lot in my work.
I hope MEB can help on this
Hi wumpabill, if your goal is to reduce the resolution of your image then just use Resize Document and enter a new resolution into the Size box. Resize Canvas is for resizing the "work area" of your document and you needn't worry about it in this case. Hope that helps.
The image/canvas resize video is perhaps a bit too involved and could benefit from scaling back the detail a little, I'll put it on the list!
Hi wumpabill,
Resize image (menu Document ▸ Resize Document... )will resize the whole document (the canvas area + all layers will be resized).
Resize Canvas as the name implies (menu Document ▸ Resize Canvas...) , only resizes the canvas area, that is, the white (or transparent if you set it to transparent) area where the layers sit above when you start a new document. Although the canvas area is not "visible" when you open an image, it is still there below it. You can check this if you change to the Move Tool select the image in the layers panel (make sure it's not locked) and drag one of the corners - you will see the canvas area (transparent - represented by a checkerboard) behind it. You may want to use this to add more space around an image to add more elements/images to create a composition for example.
If you want to resize the whole image to make it smaller (or bigger) use the File ▸ Resize Document command. Just insert the dimensions you want and press the Resize button.
