How to Duplicate in Affinity Designer

When working on a design there may be times you needto create multiple duplicates. We would use the duplicate toolin Affinity Designer to do this. But what if you want to transform an object and apply that same transformation to further duplicates? Power duplicate lets youdo just that.In Affinity Designer, Power Duplicate is similar to Cmd D function found in Adobe Illustrator.

There are a few ways to duplicate objects in Affinity Designer so let's go over them.

Copy and Paste

The first way you can duplicate objects is by the age old favorite ofcopying and pasting.To get started, I have created a star. We have a great guide on using the shape tools in Affinity Designer if needed.

The Copy and Paste selections can be found under the Edit menu. You can also utilize keyboard shortcuts Ctrl C (Cmd C on Mac) for Copy and Ctrl V (Cmd V on Mac) for Paste.

Unlike some programs, when you paste an object in Affinity Designer, it pastes directly on top of the original object. You can then select it and drag it into position.

Power Duplicate

When transforming a duplicate, such as scaling and rotating, the same transformation can beapplied to further duplicates. You do this with Power Duplicate.

Step 1 - Duplicate the shape

Starting with the same star shape, click on Edit and then Duplicate. Alternatively right click on the layer under the Layers Panel and select Duplicate. The star will duplicate directly on top of the original.

Step 2 - Transform the shape

Use the handles and the move tool to transform and move the shape. Take care to make sure that the shape stays selected after performing the transformation.

Step 3 - Power Duplicating

With the transformed shape still selected, click on Edit and then Duplicate. The keyboard shortcut for this command is Ctrl + J for PC andCmd + J forMac.

Use the same command for as many copies of the shape as you need. Each one will be duplicated with the same transformation.

Affinity Designer has many excellent tools for creating your designs.If you liked this tutorial, make sure you don't miss our other guides on how to make an SVG in Affinity Designer, how to outline text, and how to use the pen tool in Affinity Designer.