Currently the option “merge group” results in a new paint layer, even when all it’s children are vector layers. This behavior is different from “merge with layer below” which creates a new vector layer if the layers merged are all vector layers (and a paint layer if one of them is a paint layer).
I just recently had the case where I had to merge all the vector layers one at a time because merging the entire group would make it a paint layer (but I needed to keep it vector). This was very tedious.
I think it would not only save time to have “merge group” keep it vector when everything in that group is a vector but also would make it consistent with “merge with layer below”, that creates a vector when all involved layers are vector layers.
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I will add that even without the group, the merging of “Selected” two or more vector layers is also reset to raster. Indeed, at the moment, only merging through one selected layer with its underlying one preserves the vector. It would be logical for unmixed vector layers to translate to raster only by the flatten layers command
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Or maybe merge all vector layers and merge all paint layers and keep them separate as in 1merged vector layer with all vector information and 1merged pixel layer with all pixel information. Then the user could convert one or the other if desired.
I think like that would be cooler than just having a hidden exception.
Vector layers have rights too.
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Maybe an additional dialog as an alternative to the current behavior since merging down vector layers can have other side effects too. When you have different vector layers with blending modes other than normal, merge two vector layers with the layer below the blending mode is of course lost. In cases like that people maybe actually want to make it a paint layer instead.
With regards to blending mode, one should consider erase and destination in as well. Those would modify the below layer shape.
This must be a bug because in this tutorial from 2021 which teaches you how to create and then save vectors in Krita, the woman merges a vector group, and then saves the merged group Layer as SVG, meaning the group retained the vector property. So I was VERY confused when following the tutorial and I wasn’t able to save the merged group as SVG like the woman in the video. Seems like the behavior changed between 2021 and now. Must be a bug.
I reported the issue on the KDE Krita Bug Tracker. Feel free to comment there:
Hi, all!
Could you please check this MR and that packages build in it?
MR: Fix shape layers to be kept as shape layers when merged together (!2604) · Merge requests · Graphics / Krita · GitLab
Packages: Pipeline #1139103 · Graphics / Krita · GitLab
I have made sure that merging multiple vector layers through multiselection now results in a vector layer. I’m not sure it is a good idea to rasterize a group into a shape though. It looks a bit overcomplicated…
Could you please test and say if it looks enough to just support merging through multiselection?