BofG

If the following is all true, then there's nothing you can do: 1) The text looks clear at 100% in Photo in the png that you will upload 2) The 'save as..' from the displayed image on linkedin results in a blurry png when viewed in Photo at 100% For those to be true, it means linkedin is processing the file. It's giving you back a different file to what you uploaded - it appears that you have no control over that processing. As a side note, DPI is irrelevant here, what matters is the pixel dimensions and the size it's being displayed at (either it's 1:1 with the pixels of the file, or enlarged (e.g. if a higher than 72dpi screen) or shrunk (e.g. if the html/css is not setting it to display at less than native size).

1) Was it still a png? 2) Were the dimensions identical to what you uploaded? 3) Did the file size exactly match? The thing is that it's entirely possible linkedin is processing the image between when you upload it and when it displays it. If so there's nothing you can do about it, maybe try a gif and see.

Right click on your image on LinkedIn, do "save as". Now open that file in Photo and view it at 100% zoom. If it's blurry there, then LinkedIn is doing some processing to your image. If it's sharp then you have the wrong pixel dimensions. You can use the developer tools on any browser to see what size it's being displayed at. Keep in mind that a high dpi screen might lead to blurriness if the site isn't serving a higher resolution version.

Simple trick - with the shape selected, hit the Boolean add button et voila!

What size, resolution and bit depth are the images? Are the images at their native size, or are they placed and then made smaller? Are all the images in the same colour space? Is that the same or different to the document?

Original size: 1275 x 780px Placed size: 1442.1 x 882.2px You've enlarged it, hence the DPI (which should be PPI but that's by the by) has reduced.

There's a Gaussian blur in the layer effects (little icon at the bottom of the layer panel brings up the effects window, I think it's the first effect listed). Select that Layer first, then add the effect.

If only there was some kind of pixel persona where all the things that cause rasterisation could be accessed from...

I had a look on Ingram, that was a painful experience. Every link opens in a new tab, and the specs are buried on the site. The specs don't make a lot of sense, they say not to use a profile (which means only device CMYK), yet they also allow x3 pdf, which can contain rgb elements. Given that they don't provide any profile for their output (at least not that I could see) there's not much you can do. Without any colour management it will be a case of "you get what you get". Maybe use SWOP coated as your document profile, and x1a output. I didn't look at Amazon, but I've seen other threads on here mention they too ignore profiles, although maybe sRGB is close and works. In general, you may have to just accept that the colours won't be under your control.

Hi, so the short answer is that you are converting that image from a large gamut colour gamut to a smaller one which loses the subtle tones. Whether that is what you need to do is a different question, what are the document specifications for those publishers? As a side note, there is no such things as "the CMYK color space", CMYK is a colour model, something like "ISO Coated v2 (ECI)" is a colour space. Edit to add: when you are viewing the linked image in Publisher, you are seeing it as though it's converted to the same colour space as the document. It's possible to output to PDF without doing that conversion, I don't know if there's any way to view a mixed colour space setup (this is assuming Publisher is the same as Designer, as that's the only app that I have).

Color management & quality output by Tom P Ashe is a pretty good book, tailored towards photographers. It references Adobe apps, but Affinity is essentially the same so it all makes sense.

I did notice lots of subtle gradients, also the sheer number of tiny additional shapes, seemingly too small to notice but as you hide them the overall effect they bring becomes apparent. Must take a lot of patience to achieve. Do you ever need to output these as a pure vector format? I tried an SVG but sadly Designer just rasterises everything due to the blur effect, even though SVG can natively support it.

That is mind bendingly good. Thanks for sharing the source document, it was interesting to see behind the curtain and how essential the Gaussian blur is.

In case anyone wants a "I know it's not the correct way but it works" solution - create your 100%K swatch as a spot colour. It will then survive going though changing profiles etc.

Can you show the histogram for the image? I don't have Photo to see myself, but I'm wondering if it might just be the red channel is too high. If it's the same as Photoshop you might find that adjusting the red on the histogram will get you most of the way to a correct image.

You just need to expand the strokes immediately prior to the subtract step, not at the start. By precision, do you mean alignment of the ends of the cut? You can just use the node tool to fine tune the ends just after expanding the stroke, right before you subtract it. It won't matter if the overall curve shape is affected, as it only needs to be larger than what it is cutting. As a side note, I'm wondering if breaking that ellipse curve prior to subtracting would prevent it from re-closing and save you having to expand it. I'm sure I've done similar to this before and not had that issue.

Hmm, that in theory should work, but it seems like it's trying to maintain that as a closed curve. Try expanding the stroke on the green curve prior to subtracting, also make the stroke a bit thicker on the red curve before you expand that one.

Your blue ellipse is a "shape". Before you can subtract from it, you need it to be a curve. Ctrl+enter will do that (or "convert to curves" in the menu). The green curve has no width to it - the stroke is an effect. If you expand the stroke (layer > expand stroke) the stroke is then made into a full path - and it will then fully cover the blue curve rather than sitting precisely on it. Subtracting it should then work as there's no ambiguity about whether the edges are inside or outside like there was when both curves were essentially identical. This is easier to see if you choose the outline view. There have been more elegant approaches suggested, but I think it's useful when getting to grips to know why your approach isn't working.

^ this. Your paths are still perfect overlaps, the stroke is a separate effect.

As above, you need first to convert the ellipse whether you then break the curve or subtract from it. As a general case, if you are subtracting something like that it's best to oversize the part so that it doesn't share any edges with what it is being subtracted from. The Boolean operations are flaky at the best of times. Having two perfectly overlapping curves is generally asking for trouble - I'd expand the stroke on the green part first.

To remove that step change, you need the left most colour to match the right most colour in the gradient dialouge.

Yeah, everything (paths, shapes, images) is considered a "layer" in Designer. If you manually add a layer, that is then known as a "Layer" (uppercase L), you can then put layers in that Layer, even other Layers if you wish. I'm pretty sure the naming scheme made sense to whoever came up with the idea

The quick fix is to just set the stroke colour to match the background colour again. A better approach might be to expand the strokes and then subtract them from the letters.

SVG can be pixels, em, percent, mm or inch (or even unit-less). Designer isn't really CAD software, it's more for digital art. As an example, create two files set to different dpi, both in mm. Create a 100mm x 100mm rectangle in one, then copy-paste to the other file and note how it changes size. It's a bit of a fudge to get correctly sized SVG from it for using with CAM software. If your supplier can use a pdf instead that can be easier to produce.

Given the speed Serif fixes bugs, I'm guessing it was the millennium bug kicking in The answer in that thread just confused me more. I'm going to rename it from "Memory efficiency" to "happiness level" and be done with it.