mykee

Interestingly, forcing conversion of image color spaces in context of PDF/X-based export methods also seems to restitute the "K-Only" effect for "K-Only" images that have adjustments applied (and which otherwise result in conversion to four-color state when exported). When examined in Adobe Acrobat, such objects seem to have both grayscale and K-ink version of a CMYK image included in PDF/X-4 and all non-PDF/X based export methods, but the values show as K-values only in PDF/X based versions. PDF/X-1 and X-3 only have the CMYK K-ink included. This is quite confusing (and also feeble, knowing the restrictions involved in PDF/X-based export methods). 

This post covers the main bug fixes that are included in 2.4.2. The fixes are organised by operating system.
(A) Bug fixes which affected all platforms 
Export Preview does not correctly display results when using Rasterise = Nothing AF-2284  .CR2/CR3 images import with desaturated/washed out colours when switching between RAW engines (B) Bug fixes which affected Desktop (Windows and macOS)
Customer .docx file placed within a text frame in a new doc gives "Failed to Save" message. AF-2158 Tables: Update from Selection on Default format enables 'Delete' causing app to crash when deleting format. AF-2142 (C) Bugs fixed which specifically affected Windows
Pixel and Pixel Grid gridlines are thicker in v2.4. AF-2167 Attempt to fix RAW files having Artefacts when opened. AF-2178 Crash when changing between Light and Dark UI with stroke panel and unselected curve on page. Crash - adding pages from files and specifying a section to add. Layers panel: layer drop zones broken. AF-2394 Can't undo live filter or adjustment layer creation. AF-2265 CTRL modifier for boolean Add now makes compounds. AF-2432 Grids fail to instantly update on document when modified. AF-2224 Using a keyboard shortcut for Geometry > Add results in a compound shape as if ctrl \+ add was clicked. AF-2444 Builds on arm devices failing to render documents with OpenCL enabled. AF-2173 (D) Bugs fixed which specifically affected macOS
Crash when dropping Promised files into a document. AF-2264 Threadlock opening documents on some devices. AF-2264 Crash clicking Regular Expressions with the layer name text field active. AF-2139 Mac Apps crash when an image is dragged and dropped from a Zip file. AF-2264 Certain RAW images render in black and white when developed AF-2179 (E) Bugs fixed which specifically affected iPad
"Lessons" tab name changes to "Samples" after opening settings.   Affinity Windows applications include the fixes in lists (A)+(B)+(C)
(A) Bugs fixes affecting All Apps
+ (B) Bug fixes affecting desktop Apps
+ (C) those fixes affecting Windows Affinity macOS applications include the fixes in lists (A)+(B)+(D)
(A) Bugs fixes affecting All Apps
+ (B) Bug fixes affecting desktop Apps
+ (D) Bug fixes affecting macOS Affinity iPad applications include the fixes in list (A)+(E)
(A) Bugs fixes affecting All Apps
+ (E) Bug fixes affecting iPads. If you have reported a bug and it is not yet fixed, please do not report it again. More fixes will be made in the forthcoming 2.5 beta cycle.

Hi All,

I am thrilled to announce that Affinity is joining the Canva family.
This is a moment of great excitement, anticipation, and profound gratitude for all of you who have been part of our story so far. 
We know that those of you who’ve put your faith in Affinity, some since we launched our very first Mac app, will have questions about what this means for the future of our products. Since the inception of Affinity, our mission has been to empower creatives with tools that unleash their full potential, fostering a community where innovation and artistry flourish. We've worked tirelessly to challenge the status quo, delivering professional-grade creative software that is both accessible and affordable. 
None of that changes today.
In Canva, we’ve found a kindred spirit who can help us take Affinity to new levels. Their extra resources will mean we can deliver much more, much faster. Beyond that, we can forge new horizons for Affinity products, opening up a world of possibilities which previously would never have been achievable. 
Canva’s revolutionary approach to design democratisation and commitment to empowering everyone to create aligns perfectly with our core values and vision. This union is a testament to what can be achieved when two companies that share a common goal of making design accessible and enjoyable for everyone come together. 
I want to express my deepest gratitude to our incredible Affinity team. Your passion, dedication, and relentless pursuit of excellence have been the driving force behind our success so far, and I can’t wait to continue this journey with you all. 
To our loyal users and the creative community, your support and feedback have been invaluable. You’ve inspired us to push boundaries and continuously improve, and we’re excited to embark on this new chapter together. 
The future is bright, and I am incredibly excited to continue our story together and create a world where design is within everyone's reach.
With heartfelt thanks,
Ash
For more information...
We have made four pledges to the Affinity community which you can read here. We have included some FAQs at the bottom of the announcement article here. A video message from me with some more background is on YouTube here. This announcement post is locked, but I have included a duplicate of it in the questions forum here which you can respond to.

Updated for Publisher 2.4 (February 2024)
This free in-depth manual is filled with steps, tips, and recommendations for:
Documents, Pages, Master Pages, Sections, and Baseline Grid Character and Paragraph Formatting Text Styles (paragraph and character) Text Frames, Text Flow, and Stories Images and Picture Frames Books and Chapters Cross-References, Table of Contents, and Index Notes - including Footnotes, Sidenotes, and Endnotes Fields - including Page Numbering, Running Headers, and Custom Variables Anchors and Hyperlinks Printing and Exporting Settings This manual does not cover objects, drawing, photo editing, or the other artistic features.
Download:
Publisher Manual Feb 26 2024.pdf
Q&A
Is this really free? Yes, I'm making it available free of charge. It's copyrighted to prevent others from publishing it as their own. Is there a longer manual I can purchase? No, this is it. Is there an iPad version? No, the steps and screenshots are for the macOS and Windows versions. Is there a version for Designer or Photo? No, but many of the features are the same so you should still find it useful. Why does it use a print layout if it's a PDF? It's a demonstration of how to use the features it describes to create a print book. Previous version for 2.3:
Publisher Manual Nov 29 2023.pdf

Just note, a PDF file may contain multiple colour spaces/profiles, even PDF/X * regardless of its output intent.
(advantage: required colour conversion happens in a late/last state of a print process to avoid multiple conversions)
[* only PDF/X-1 must not and exports as CMYK (+ spot colours) exclusively]

In addition to @lacerto's hints: Compare the attached PDF files exported from a CMYK .afpub + a placed RGB image in 4 variations.
• Both PDF are exported as PDF/X-4 but only 1 got "Convert image colour spaces" activated. The one which does not did export the RGB images as RGB and thus causes their K-only settings to result in CMY + K.
• If you open the PDFs in APub the Resource Manager lists one image as Grayscale and three as colour images. The grayscale is the one with K-Only and no fill colour.

k-only & colour _cmyk X-4.pdf
k-only & colour _cmyk X-4 convert.pdf

k only & colour.m4v

Great trick, I will check it soon, thank you! This would solve my image editing problems. I'll solve the PDF back-testing with the Channels panel (like you did in Acrobat), and then I can actually use normal effects on the embedded images later.
Does Total Area Coverage, which is in Acrobat, also exist in Affinity? Or should I add up the percentages in my head?

You're welcome. You could also colorize K-only images, e.g., making them K100 using the Color panel (instead of being void of fill), and then applying swatch opacity, would equally retain the K-Only images as K-Only.

But doesn't it behave that way? Layer opacity does not cause a K-only image to become converted to CMYK. Layer adjustments (and most of the F/X blend modes) do:

K_opacity_and_adjustments.mp4  

As stated above, if you have Photo, you can use Channels panel and/or histogram. But you can cope with mere Publisher, as well, as you can use the Color panel to check color values of text objects (and vector objects), and adjustments like Channel Mixer to reveal color in parts that look black (K-only) but involve multiple channels.
 

poorishmanspreflight.mp4 As for causes Publisher will convert K-only to CMYK (multi-channel), there are various, three of which are mentioned in the video clip.
One further, very common reason, is applying any adjustment or blend mode on text or native K-only objects, causing rasterization to CMYK. Applying F/X effects will often also do that, even if outer effects and Gaussian Blur might survive non-rasterized. Using opacity percentage, too, would cause rasterization to CMYK in case  PDF output does not allow live transparency.
Last but not least, Affinity apps by default embed document ICC in a PDF export, which will cause incorrect readings in tools like Adobe Acrobat Pro in case "wrong" simulation profile is active, or when using Ghostscript for separation.

As a quick visual check, you can switch to the Photo persona, then in the Channels panel, switch off visibility for the K channel.  Then scroll through all the pages.  If you have any rich black text/images, they will still be visible.  Everything that is pure K will disappear.  Remember to switch the K channel visibility on again before switching back to Publisher persona - I always forget that.
That won't overcome the export conversion issues highlighted above and elsewhere, but it will at least give you a visual check that you are starting the conversion process with pure K in the right places.
 

Try Ghostscript for a poor man's report on ink coverage per page
Document CMYK US Web coated SWOP V2 saved as Konly.pdf
Contains same image on each of 3 pages with settings noted below
This is the report using gswin64 -dSAFER -sDEVICE=ink_cov -o Konly.txt Konly.pdf
Image1 set to K only
 0.00000  0.00000  0.00000 61.27310 CMYK OK
 
Image2 with B&W adjustment
42.69350 37.05737 35.53457 14.81541 CMYK OK
Image3 with desaturation adjustment
48.45574 49.59304 49.69440 32.78706 CMYK OK

Note that you could export PDF/X-3 or PDF/X-4 based Grayscale PDF also from Affinity apps, but you need to have a true grayscale print profile installed on the system (I am not sure but on macOS you might have Generic Gray inherently available [UPDATE: Checked, and Generic Gray Profile is inherent on macOS, but is not available whenever using PDF/X-based method]; on Windows [UPDATE: and on macOS, too] you would need to fetch one from the Internet, or have one that comes with QuarkXP or Adobe available), since the only grayscale profile that comes with Affinity apps (Greyscale D50) is basically a display (Gamma) color profile and not selectable when you have a CMYK or Gray/8 document color mode and convert to Grayscale, and use PDF/X-based export method:
 
If you leave the profile empty (or do not have anything available), all the blacks defined above would be converted to four-color black and have Affinity app default U.S. Web Coated v2 marked as the output intent profile. If you do define a true grayscale color profile as output intent, RGB 0,0,0 and B:0 (Grayscale 0) will be output in ICC-dependent 100% Gray (CalGray/ICCBasedGray), but K100 will have something like a 92% value.
See below a PDF/X-3 with no explicit press-specific grayscale output intent (U.S. Web Coated v2 auto-assigned):
pdfx3_gray_from_cmyk_noexplicit_output_intent.pdf
...and a version where a true grayscale output intent is defined:
pdfx3_gray_from_cmyk_quark_genericgray_output_intent.pdf
UPDATE: The same applies to PDF/X-4 production (and in PDF/X-1a only CMYK color mode is available).
If you do not have to use PDF/X-based export method, but force the Grey color space, the default Greyscale D50 would be available, but then, too, K100 values would have non-100% gray values. So whenever forcing grayscale output, you need to have native color values (text and shapes) defined either in RGB or Grayscale, not CMYK.
There might be point in checking whether the printer truly needs PDF/X-based output in grayscale, or whether they just meant K-only output (but accept any regular non-PDF/X based CMYK-based output, as long as CMY plates are empty).
UPDATE: And if they just meant K-only, then the correct method to produce such PDFs is to choose CMYK document color mode and export to CMYK, and make sure that all native objects have K-only color definitions. There are plenty of other considerations that need to be checked when producing press PDFs from within Affinity apps, so the issues related to grayscale are only one of the concerns (but one of the most frequently experienced, and confusing, probably much because the very different K/Grayscale approach/policy used in Adobe apps within CMYK/press-related production).
In this context, paying Adobe for Acrobat Pro -- still also available as a 32-bit app on a perpetual license, though I am not sure how it is made to be operable on modern macs -- is not money wasted. pdfToolbox by callas software would be an alternative (still more expensive than Acrobat Pro). Free Packzview is not a prepress tool but is useful for decent preflight (it appears to be generally available only for professional use, though).

You cannot produce grayscale (8-bit) PDF/X-based PDFs using Affinity apps. All forms of color definitions (RGB, Grayscale, CMYK) will be converted to CMYK disregarding the target color mode selected at export time, whenever PDF/X-based export method is used. 
Technically PDF/X-3 and PDF/X-4 would allow ICC-based gray to be exported, and this is what happens if you do this from e.g. InDesign. But when done in Affinity apps, your definitions of gray and black will always be converted to rich black (four-color black).
You can produce grayscale PDFs based on Gray/8 document, but then you need to use non-PDF/X-based export method and explicitly export to Grayscale (and define your black/gray either using Grayscale or RGB color model; K100 will basically be converted to RGB and then presented as a converted CMYK value).
If your printer requires a PDF/X-based print PDF, you need to switch the document color mode to CMYK and then specify your blacks and grays using CMYK color model, and K-only values. The PDF output will be basically CMYK, with CMY 0 and with K-only values. Grayscale images that you place, will by default have "K-Only" button (available in context toolbar) applied, and will be exported as grayscale images. 

With certain settings you can export a PDF that contains the K ink channel only. This post has a K only profile attached, note @lacerto's hints above and below this post:

Thanks for the update. This was an instructive thread, because the job at hand appeared to be very simple, and what was confusing, was basically the very different way Adobe InDesign and Affinity apps handle "grayscale" (or basically, press-oriented black). InDesign does not basically offer "grayscale" color model at all, but uses instead Lab for specifically light intensity oriented color definitions, and for print intent documents always handles "gray" as K ink. So it is very straight forward. Whatever is defined in print intent document and using the factory default {Black] swatch (including tints) will end up on K plate when exporting to press, and stay "grayscale" in that sense. Similarly, imported grayscale images will aways stay on K plate, there is no need to explicitly tell that gray is not a composite RGB but needs to be treated as black ink.
What however was particularly confusing was bringing in PDF/X-1a and combining it with concept of grayscale, and specifically in context of InDesign, since when using this standard, conversion to grayscale proper is not available at all in InDesign (at least up to CS6), so to be able to produce specifically grayscale PDFs, anything else than PDF/X-1a needs to be chosen! PDF/X-1a is often asked for the purpose of guaranteeing that the job will be in CMYK-only color space and will not contain live transparencies, and is therefore a kind of fool-proof export method. 
So, to wrap up, what seemed to have happened was that as you had a pure b/w press-oriented job, you initially chose the Gray/8 document color mode and assumed that text and native art is safest to specify in  CMYK, using K ink only (as you would do in InDesign or Quark, where gray is not even available). Which in Affinity apps is wrong, since K would be handled as an RGB value in a grayscale document and would end up being either a four-color black or a diluted black (dark gray) depending on whether exporting to Grayscale or CMYK. So: in a Gray/8 color mode document, you need to define blacks (text and native art) that are intended to end up on K plate, as Grayscale or RGB color values, and make sure that you also export using Grayscale color mode (using CMYK at export time would convert grays to four-color black).  Placed grayscale images would also be converted to rich black. Using PDF/X-1a in context of a grayscale document, would work if you had press-oriented grayscale profile available (which Generic Gray Profile or D50 are not), so in this sense the color preflight warning that you would get trying to export using PDF/X-1a in context of a grayscale document, is correct. You will end up having four-color blacks if you use PDF/X-1-a:2003.
The next step you tried was probably switching the document color mode to CMYK/8. You already had your text and possible native art defined in K100 so it would seem obvious that you will have correct output having K-only color definitions and placed 8-bit TIFF grayscales. But no, your placed TIFFs would now be exported using four-color-black, as they would be treated as RGB images within Affinity apps whenever placed in Gray/8 or RGB color mode document, but handled in CMYK context, and would be exported as rich black when exporting to CMYK. Using PDF/X-1a would not change anything here.
At this stage, at latest, you might have heard an instruction from the printer to produce in true "grayscale", in the meaning: everything on one/black plate. The trick, in Affinity apps, is to apply the "K-Only" button on all placed grayscale images. This would not be done when placing these images in other than CMYK document color mode, and it won't be done automatically if switching the document color mode to CMYK. The button is also visible on the context toolbar only when using CMYK document color mode, and unfortunately you cannot apply "K-Only" for all document images at once, but need to go through images one by one and make the change. Note that when you have a document color mode in CMYK, placed grayscale images do have K-Only button automatically applied (and the mode will be retained also if you subsequently switch document color mode even if the button itself is hidden, which would also change the way these images are treated in these alternative document color modes when exporting to different color spaces).
After this, you would finally get what you need: "a simple grayscale" job where what you have defined in K-ink only and with imported TIFF grayscales, will be delivered as expected on one (K-plate) only (whether exported using PDF/X-1a or not). You should additionally be careful not to change color profile at export time, since that would, again, convert K-only colors to four-color values. [ALSO: It is good to remember that letting Affinity apps embed ICC profile in the document (= default), will produce an ICC-dependent PDF where using wrong simulation profile will show incorrect CMYK values in Adobe Acrobat Pro so there is still this additional confusion related to complexity of defining black ink values within Affinity apps.]
Part of this is related to clash of different technologies and underlying color engines, and terminology (some say "cultures", but I personally disagree), and the fact that you are not likely to get proper instructions from printers / print shops. The Affinity apps are also under development, and there seem to be recent changes e.g. in the way placed CMYK images are treated when they contain embedded profiles (nowadays they are discarded similarly as by default in InDesign). How could anyone expect to get step-by-step instructions from a third-party when they are not provided even by the first-party, practically ever? 

In lack of proper preflight tool, you could open your exported PDF in an Affinity app, and get pretty reliable interpretation of color mode of objects in the PDF (things like overprint status would not be read, at all, but you should be able to detect things like K100 vs. four-color-black).

The option to export as epub directly from Publisher would be practical and necessary. In the meantime, I use the following technique, somewhat tedious but effective:
1. I export the document as PDF.
2. I convert the PDF to .docx in Word. In Word I correct layout errors resulting from the conversion, apply necessary styles and save the document.
3. I open the document in Atlantis Word Processor, an extraordinary word processor for epub export. Its conversion engine is flawless and does not give errors when checking the epub.
For a professional publication, adjustments can be made from Atlantis itself or with Sigil or Calibre, but this is a separate chapter depending on what you want to do.

2.4 Features and Improvements
This post is the list of all new features and improvements included in the 2.4.0 release, and the next post is a list of the main bug fixes.
Features and improvements affecting all platforms
(Designer) DWG and DXF export  Outlines created in Affinity can now be exported for use in various CAD applications and utilities for vinyl cutters, plotters and CNC tools Supports drawing scale Tutorial on DWG/DXF Import & Export 
Set selection box can be explicitly set for your selections. Double-click / tap to switch from Node to Move Tool so you can now toggle between them (Designer & Photo) Filename available as variable in Export Persona offering Document Name Document Filename Ability to lock insertion target for all new objects you can choose to: lock "Behind" lock "Inside" lock "On Top" Spacebar modifier for ‘Lock Children’ 
hold the spacebar to temporarily toggle Lock Children on or off for the opposite of the context toolbar setting Tutorial for Lock Children Layers (in Photo) 
 
Space Horizontal / Vertical now considers key object 
If you specify a key object in your selection, the behaviour changes to mean the furthest left (or right) object and the key object will not change position, and the other items are spaced evenly. Tutorial on Aligning, Distributing and Unifying Layers (in Designer) 
Tutorial on Aligning, Distributing and Unifying Layers (in Photo) 
 
Size / Rotate objects to same 
Make all items in your current selection adopt the same width or height or rotation 32-bit HDR PNG support added 
Import and export of 32-bit HDR PNG files, as described in the PNG specification (3rd edition) Tutorial for HDR PNG Import & Export 
(Photo & Publisher) Improved RAW processing and support for 58 new camera models including:  Apple iPhone (14 & 15 [inc Pro/Pro Max/Pro Max Plus]) Canon EOS R8 Nikon Z8 Panasonic DC-GH6 Leica Q3 and M11 Monochrom Fujifilm GFX 100 II DJI Mavic 3 Pro (drone) and many more… In addition to those features on all platforms above, these are the Windows and macOS features and improvements
(Publisher & Designer) Layer States added
Already a feature in Photo, the States Panel is an exciting addition to Designer and Publisher, and adds this new functionality to all applications Capture the current layer visibility across your document Create queries based on various criteria to make a selection or toggle visibility of layers Button to select all layers that fulfil the criteria specified in the query Tutorial on Layer States (using Designer):
 
Localised versions of the changes in 2.4 (and those in earlier releases) can be found here
Affinity Designer Feature List  Affinity Photo Feature List Affinity Publisher Feature List As well as all those improvements above, listed below is a list of the fixed bugs in this release

Thank you @MEB, I have uploaded the file and I hope you can find the problem!

Hi All,
Below is the list of all new feature and improvements which are included in the 2.3 beta (bug fix list is available here).
To learn more about these features please click on the link to go to each feature's dedicated post. To give feedback or report bugs against any of these features please reply to that same post (also check out bug reporting and feedback tips).
• Move Data Entry improvements
• New tags panel for adding Alt Text to images and objects
• Spiral Tool
• Ability to change Asset Panel background colour
• Fields now available in Find and Replace
• Pixel grid added
• "Keep selected" preference now available in Pencil Tool
• Create and place password protected PDFs
I should say in general we are now aiming to do slightly smaller updates more regularly than before so we can test and release in smaller chunks. This will allow us to get improvements and fixes out quicker, as well as having overall benefit to the stability of the apps.
The beta phase will now be shorter (4-6 weeks) for any update, and for that reason we will be avoiding any significant changes to functionality during beta as we focus on fixing bugs and correcting unintentional behaviour. This does mean that more of your improvement suggestions may need to wait until a future update (e.g. like some of the Move Data Entry suggestions you made during 2.2 beta which have now been added to 2.3), but please keep those suggestions coming!
Getting the 2.3 beta
If you have not enrolled into the beta program yet and would like to take part, you can do so here. This will immediately give you access to the latest 2.3 beta builds to try for yourself.
If you are already enrolled in the beta program you have two options:
1. If you still have the 2.2 beta installed, you can now run up those beta versions and you will be prompted to update them to the 2.3 beta.
2. If you have uninstalled the 2.2 beta, you will need to go back to Your Account -> Downloads and product keys and find your previous order for the Affinity Beta Software Program, and you can download the 2.3 beta from there.
Thanks,
Ash

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
 
We have now added a spiral tool which is available from the shape tools flyout. This is something we have had many requests for, but also varying requests as to the type of result wanted. For that reason we have tried to make this as flexible as possible, both offering different types of spiral and variables to adjust.
When you create a spiral you will see from the context toolbar the different options available. Here are some examples of what you can create with the tool:
Spiral Type: Linear

Spiral Type: Decaying

Spiral Type: Semi-Circular
This type replicates the way many people have been creating a spiral in Affinity - effectively by joining decreasing semi circular arcs together.  With this type we also offer a counter Semi-circular option which returns the spiral back on itself:

Spiral Type: Fibonacci

Spiral Type: Plotted

 
 

Here is the screenshot. In the other thread, we talked about having hidden text, and I set it to 1 pt, plus 0 pt line-height. I generated a TOC from it and got this. Hooray. It's getting frustrating in Publisher that it inherits the style when adding a new element.

 
If I press the Revert Defaults button, I get the text fine without formatting, but then it doesn't work as a TOC, but as plain text.

 
Okay, now I've tried it: if I press the button after adding the empty text frame and then generate a TOC, the letter will be correct. Annoying, but I'll try to pay attention to that from now on.

Sorry, but I have no idea what you mean. Screenshots or a sample document?
From your prior info in the topic you'd use that button immediately after creating a Text Frame, before you add any text to it.

The Author and Title need to appear in the same order you want them to show in the TOC with my approach, so for that Old Bruce's approach might be better.
For underlining, my approach would require the same underlining in the text and the TOC.