A layer's blend mode determines how the layer or object's pixels blend with the pixels on the layer beneath.
Blend mode types
Affinity Designer supports an impressive selection of different blend modes. The most commonly used blend modes are as follows:
Normal—The default blend mode. The top pixels display over underlying pixels according to the level of top layer opacity.
Multiply—The blending result is a combination of the top and bottom colour at each pixel position, always producing a darker value.
Screen—The opposite of Multiply, where the blending result is a combination of the inverse of the top and bottom colour at each pixel position, always producing a lighter value.
Overlay—Applies either Multiply or Screen blend mode, depending on the bottom colour at each pixel position. If the bottom layer pixels are <50% grey, it multiplies; if >50% it screens.
Colour Burn—Darkens the bottom colour pixels relative to the values of the top colour pixels.
Other available blend modes include Darken, Darker Colour, Lighten, Lighter Colour, Colour Dodge, Add, Soft Light, Hard Light, Vivid Light, Pin Light, Linear Light, Hard Mix, Difference, Exclusion, Subtract, Hue, Saturation, Luminosity, Colour, Average, Negation, Reflect, Glow, Contrast Negate, Erase and Passthrough.
To change the blend mode of a layer (or object):
In the Layers panel, select a layer (or object).
Choose a blend mode from the pop-up menu on the panel.