Copy and paste part of an image

I’ve been using Acorn for a couple of years and never figured out how to do this, though it is extremely simple in dumb image editors: outline a portion of an image, copy it, then paste it so that I can position the copy elsewhere in a new layer. Anyone have simple way to do this?

I’m guessing that your outline / selection is a bit complicated, and the regular selection tools won’t work for you?

If that’s the case, then you can use the quick mask tool (shortcut key ‘q’), to paint out a selection on your layer: Acorn: Quick Mask Basics

The basics are, you enter quick mask and use the brush tool to draw out your selection (white makes a selection, black erases it, gray goes in-between) and then press ‘q’ again to leave quick mask. Now the spots where you’ve drawn white have turned into a selection.

You would then use the Layer ▸ New Layer with Selection menu item to copy it to a new layer.

You can also make selections a number of different ways, including using the shape tools:
https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/docs/making_a_specific_selection_size.html

You can read more about selections here:
https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/docs/selections.html

Let me know if that helps or not (and welcome to the forum!).

-gus

Ok I can do this with paint brush, but is there a way to do it with the rectangle drawing tool? When I try I just end up with white rectangle.

Thanks for your help!

You can make a selection from a shape layer, so you can do it with the rectangle tool if you’d like: Acorn: Making a Specific Selection Size