gunbunny

Affinity Photo 1.10.5 macOS 10.15.7 After using any of the marquee tools (rectangle, ellipse, row, column, or freehand) the selection jumps up and left and has to be re-positioned. I've tried toggling the snapping and force alignment/move by whole pixels options, but the behavior remains. Does not happen on 1.10.4 on my other machine.

It’s as simple as this: 1-bit images get processed as linework (along with everything vector.) 8-bit images get processed as continuous tone. A RIP will render the linework data at the max resolution of the device, and the continuous tone data gets downsampled to 300dpi and halftone screened. Then everything is trapped and output. So to answer your question: the plates would be wrong. The 1200dpi 8-bit data would get downsampled to 300dpi and added to the CT data, and the trapping would be bad based on that data. And ”K only” doesn’t address the issue of having a 2-color job, with a scanned signature supposed to output in 1 PMS color and the body copy supposed to output in another PMS color. Right now I’m lucky that I only have 1-color jobs and can use the PNG workaround. For a true production-worthy product, this is unacceptable.

Publisher's PDF export is retaining the resolution of high-DPI bitmap PNGs. I have taken 1200dpi grayscales into HyperDither, then pulled the resultant file (which is only ever RGB coming out of HyperDither) into Photo and then made them grayscale again, then exported 1-bit PNGs. The placed file in Publisher will then export at full resolution, so long as "Downsample Images" is unchecked, and "Use DPI" is selected and set to 1200 (or whatever resolution you want.) I've successfully used this several times recently, and it works well. The problem is, there is zero ability to set the PNG to a solid color in Publisher. I'm only dealing with art that is produced in black, so I have no issue. However, anything that's going to require line art that is set to solid colors unfortunately cannot be made in the Affinity suite at this time.

Agreed. Right now my workflow looks something like this: Open scan of old line art in Affinity Photo Convert to Greyscale If resolution is < 800 then upres to 800ppi (and make any adjustments as necessary to clean up the image) Use levels to drop the background to white Save as JPEG Open JPEG in HyperDither Apply best possible dither, then save as JPEG (saves as RGB, no option for other color modes) Open JPEG in Affinity Photo Convert to Greyscale Switch to export persona Export as B&W PNG with 2 levels Place PNG in Affinity Publisher When exporting as press-ready PDF, ensure "downsample" is turned off This has been working fine, so long as the placed PNG only needs to be black. Fortunately, the current stuff I'm producing is black & white. But things get nasty when you have placed 1-bit images that you want different spot colors (as @DaKo showed in his example, above), or with transparency. Sure, you can set the layer mode to multiply if you want a background color to show through and make a fake duotone, but if you want to knock out the background color, you have to jump through more hoops. The ideal workflow would be: Open scan of old line art in Affinity Photo Convert to Greyscale If resolution is < 800 then upres to 800ppi (and make any adjustments as necessary to clean up the image) Use levels to drop the background to white Convert mode to 1-bit and select dithering algorithm Export 1-bit TIFF or PNG Place in Affinity Publisher, color as desired Export press-ready PDF

Ye gads I remember that. And the 8,000,000 nodes it would create. Would cause our Scitex rips to choke, sometimes taking 45 minutes or more to process one image. There were basically 2 Streamline options: 1) Preserve detail and have an overly-complex vector file, or 2) lose all the fine detail but have a more manageable number of points. Ultimately, there's a good reason why it's no longer being developed. Attaching a file that needs 1-bit TIFF at 1200+ dpi, that is unable to be easily vectorized. This is a type of image I deal with all day, every day. Obviously there needs to be some sort of algorithm(s) employed for dithering, stochastic, or halftone screening. Tinrocket makes HyperDither that has a few different methods, but as of right now they output RGB files. When sent to PDF, these are downsampled to 300dpi, and all the crispness of the linework is lost. If a 1-bit TIFF, when sent to PDF they retain 1200+ dpi and are outputted at the max resolution of the output device. As previously noted, they can also have a solid color (i.e. spot color) applied.

I'm going to go ahead and +1 this topic. I started in prepress-land in the mid-90's. And I can tell you unequivocally that 1-bit TIFF support is crucial for production purposes. First, there is the need for "copy-dot" operations where you have a halftone that you don't want to rescreen. You'd scan this at 100% at a resolution of at least 1200dpi, but preferably 2400-4800dpi. When saved as a bitmap 1-bit TIFF, it outputs at the max resolution of the output device and is not rescreened, and hence, no moire pattern. Second, and similar to the First, is doing a "copy-dot" on engravings and lithographs. Again, you want those fine detail lines output at crazy-high resolution and not screened. Third, there is the need for "line art" illustrations. Again, once scanned at a high dpi and placed in the page layout or illustration program as a 1-bit TIFF, it outputs at the max resolution of the device. This yields nice, razor-crisp illustrations for things like instruction manuals, B&W catalogs, and cartoons. Fourth... this is a curve ball... there was a program waaaaaay back in the MacOS 8 days that I've never seen replicated. (And the name of which I can't remember.) You'd import your 1-bit TIFF, then you could colorize it: either paint the black or else "color inside the lines" in solid colors. It would then be saved as an EPS that would output at... you guessed it... the max resolution of the output device. It was phenomenal for super-crisp catalog work where you are given a hand-drawn lineart that needs colorized, not vectorized. (An example) Regardless, 1-bit TIFFs, when exporting as a PDF, the data becomes part of the vector data, as opposed to raster data, even though it's technically raster data. The RIP then processes it as part of the line file and it isn't halftoned (unless, of course, it's set to a tint of a spot color, or a CMYK color.) Either way, it's still output at ultra-high resolution. Which is the point. Bottom line, this is a crucial missing feature in Affinity Photo, and I sure do hope that it's addressed sooner rather than later.