lacerto

Here's additionally a clip of a real-life palette-conversion job (from a Corel .XML spot color palette to an Adobe .ASE spot color palette). ase_spotslost.mp4

Here's an .ASE spot color palette created in VectorStyler, spot.ase imports as a spot color swatch on macOS, and process color swatch on Windows. spot.ase

Sorry, I seem to be confusing -- or perhaps there was a thread once where both spot colors and overprinting [in context of gradients] were discussed, and really weird workarounds were invented!

No, we can't. Nor can we have child tints as swatches that retain their dependency on a parent swatch.

Yes, the workaround you have demonstrated works but is very convoluted...

You can have global swatches as stop colors in gradients, and when editing color definitions of those swatches, gradients change accordingly -- this works at least on Windows (and 2.x versions).

In a way it is useful to have it both ways (and have a universal license), to be able to force process colors. But I suppose the code is meant to behave identically on both platforms.

I am not sure if I understand what you are trying to achieve, but true duo/tri/quadtones with special inks by applying different inks as defined e.g. by a tone curve cannot be done within Affinity apps. You could simulate something like that by e.g. applying one ink for a grayscale image and then using shapes with e.g. Multiply Blend mode on top, using different inks, and getting their intensity values from the underlying image. I have no idea why non-PANTONE-based special inks are required but technically you could specify and use inks from different spot color systems.

I do not know which of alternative spot color palettes are really in public domain and/or freely distributable, but technically it is possible to "borrow" complete spot color libraries from e.g. Adobe and CorelDRAW, the latter of which coming with mostly Lab based representation color definitions in 53 spot color palettes for e.g. the following spot color systems: DIC, Dupont (Spectra Master), Focoltone, Toyo, HKS, Onyx, PANTONE (legacy and current 11 different) and Roland. Munsell and Natural Color System should be available if not free, then at a nominal fee. It is possible to manually create any spot color palette within Affinity apps and pick official color names and their (typically sRGB based) representation colors directly from manufacturers, and digitized palettes are available for some color systems, e.g. in .ASE format. For some reason it appears that at the moment only macOS versions of Affinity apps can import .ASE palettes containing spot color definitions. On Windows, spot .ASE palettes are imported as process color swatches. If spot color palettes are needed on Windows, they can be ported from macOS by exporting them as .afpalettes and then importing to Windows. VectorStyler can open multiple palette file formats, including Corel .XML, Adobe .ACO, .ASE and .ACB, and export them to .ASE (which can be opened in Affinity apps). Anyone doing palette-based color definitions a lot, or depending on spot color production, would do well getting VectorStyler.

Perhaps there is one, but without an attribute. The cutting line might have been created by using a defining line with an outside aligning stroke, as the kind of shape that got clipped out (the white rounded rectangle), when using certain rounded corner angle, creates pretty closely a shape where the outer edge defines the cutting line. currtingline.mp4 What actually happened, is not clear, but knowing that Affinity apps will auto-expand non-center-aligned strokes could easily result in multiple cutting lines, once merged shapes get separated. Perhaps something like this happened during processing, even if visual appearance of the design seemed to be ok.

Might be, though it is odd that the printer did not mention about a broken cut line. The following clip demonstrates a situation where a non-PDF/X-based PDF placed to be passed through will be rasterized when exporting using a PDF/X-based export method, and creates a transparency. This, combined with e.g. outside or inside aligned stroke (causing an expanded fill, instead of a stroke), could explain miscellaneous cutting job errors, including unexpected knockouts when ripping the job. vectors_rasterized_transparency_introduced.mp4 The "layer" thing might be related to something like opening the resulting PDF in e.g. Illustrator, and seeing object groups, instead of having everything flattened to the root layer..

Thanks. The UI is pretty complex. The Corel version is likely to ignore (at least) part of the element IDs so it probably could not toggle visibility state of object groups even if it were able to display the initial view of the design. If I manually change the opacity of svgcontainer, I can see the drawing rendered for a moment but then it is hidden again. There might be point in trying to use the Corel-created version as a starting point (since it at least opens in version 2). As far as I know Affinity apps do not support applying object IDs via UI so if you create this from the scratch, you would need to add these kinds of things directly in the code. EDIT: Not true, at least 2. versions will export the object ("layer") names as ids. But they do not add class names, which makes attribute management more cumbersome.

Please check two things in your design: 1) If the logo(s) is (are) PDFs and placed to be passed through (the default), they, too, must have been created using PDF/X method, since if you export using a PDF/X method (no matter which version number), the placed PDFs will [though not always] be rasterized (using your document DPI) in Affinity apps, if they have been produced using a non-PDF/X method. If the logo is an RGB PDF and placed to be passed through, it will be retained in RGB color format when exported, which basically should be ok when exporting to PDF/X-3 or PDF/X-4 (which both allow mixed color modes), but might cause these kinds of issues when processed. If the logo is a PDF file and you let Affinity interpret it instead of passing it through, please make sure that either the placed PDF has an embedded profile that is ISO Coated v2 300%, or that the CMYK profile under Preferences > Color is ISO Coated v2 300%, since a CMYK file without a profile will get the profile specified in the Preferences as its assigned color profile at the time it is placed in the document (and not the CMYK profile of the document). [But with just pure white objects, this is not likely an issue.] If the logo is originally a CMYK bitmap, please check that it does not have an embedded color profile, or if it does, it matches your document CMYK profile (which is ISO Coated v2 300%) (if it does not have an embedded CMYK profile, it will be assigned with the document CMYK profile so its original color values will be retained); otherwise its color values will be converted at export time, which might potentially cause problems. [But again, with just pure white objects, this is not likely to happen.] 2) As the cutting line seems to be broken (and because your unwanted rectangle has rounded edges, implying that the cutting line could have been used to determine the shape of the knockout object), please ensure that it has been created as specified: using M100 that is made a spot color and given overprint attribute, and named as required, and the line itself is a center-aligned stroke (and has the recommended width).

Most probably so. Affinity apps especially have limited capability to interpret SVG, and as demonstrated above, there are limitations in older software (like Illustrator CS6) as for complexity of object hierarchy that is supported. Btw: did the Corel-created file fail to render at all, or was there mainly just a viewbox / dimension related error: I placed the file in a portrait A4 page and exported the whole page, while the original SVG had pixel dimensions and basically enclosed in a bounding box.

If I try to open or place the SVG file you provided in Illustrator CS6, I get an error message related to too deeply nested groups, and the file displays incorrectly but is opened nevertheless, without anything rendered (but objects being there, so viewable and editable in outline mode). I can open the file, as you mentioned, in Publisher v1, and also in CorelDRAW (2023 tested). If I save it from CorelDRAW, using SVG version 1.1, Publisher 2 can open it, too (but I had only a cursory look on the file so cannot tell if there are errors in rendering). Illustrator CS6 cannot render correctly the Corel-created file, either (but allows viewing and editing in outline mode). Here is the Corel-created file for examination: M10788F_from_corel.svg UPDATE: I subsequently opened your original SVG also in Xara Designer and Inkscape, where they appeared to open correctly (though the former reported of a couple of missing links), but saving as SVG from these two apps did not produce files that could have been opened in Publisher (at all, or rendering all over the place), or Illustrator CS6 (resulting in same error message about Tiny SVG). CorelDRAW 2023 however appeared to open correctly both the Xara and Inkscape created files.