Export to .BMP

[Christian W.]

Hi Mark, need to get back to this once more: 

The question wasn’t whether it’s possible to replace a given image fill colour in Affinity Designer. The relevant comparison is if it works in Affinity PUBLISHER, and here’s what I found:

While it is right that Affinity Publisher handles PNG files much the same as it handles BMP files (as opposed to Indesign), the bad news is it handles neither of them as it’s supposed to. Here is a direct comparison of placed black-on-white BMP and PNG files in both Indesign (left) and Publisher pages (right): While it's plain impossible, in Indesign, to assign a fill colour to a PNG file, assigning fill to the BMP file results in REPLACING all black with the chosen fill colour. (Which is what makes BMP so valuable in certain layout instances.) Whereas in Affinity Publisher, I can assign fill colours to both BMP and PNG files, but in both cases it doesn’t replace black but only ADDS the fill, resulting in dirty black with a bit of colour glow, rendering the fill option basically useless. 

So the failure to implement the BMP format actually isn’t constrained to Photo but extends to Publisher, as I see it.  

[vaporizationator]

Add me to the (very long) list of people requesting this feature. From embedded microcontrollers (too low powered to read anything but a bmp), to legacy software, to app development, there are MANY MANY MANY reasons why users need .bmp files! And the bmp standard isn't even that complicated to implement, I'm so surprised this isn't a feature yet!

[rubs]

On 12/15/2020 at 3:06 PM, vaporizationator said:

I'm so surprised

Don't be, it's just the way Serif is. They had the most promising product once (AD 1.5-1.6), but now they are always busy doing something new. They stopped fixing things and listening to users several years ago. I keep receiving forum notifications, but all I see are old issues like this one never getting addressed and new bugs popping up all the time. I gave up already, my company and myself have switched to Figma for all new designs. No regrets.

[Jeens]

I also want to save to a bitmap file - it can't be so difficult to get this implemented, really. There are so many industry standards that require BMP files. And at the same time the trick with the Preview and saving to BMP has gone - very annoying.

[loukash]

12 hours ago, Jeens said:

the trick with the Preview and saving to BMP has gone

1. open Save As dialog
2. hold Option key
3. click Format popup menu
4. select Microsoft BMP

That's on El Capitan. Is that gone on Big Sur? I don't have a compatible Mac to test that.

[Tim Allan]

Not that it looks like it matters, but add me to the (apparently ignored) list.

Just bought Photo and Designer, and the first project I'm working on needs 32bpp .bmp images. So I go to export the change I made to one of the images and.....?!?!?!?!....where is...ugh...you kidding me?

Funny part is , they can INGEST bmp files. But export? Naw, that's a bridge too far.

Where did I put that damn GIMP installer....

[EmergingFresh]

Please add BMP export support please. It's wild that the OP was 2015. 

Edited March 28, 2021 by EmergingFresh

[loukash]

On 12/5/2020 at 3:24 PM, Christian W. said:

Whereas in Affinity Publisher, I can assign fill colours to both BMP and PNG files, but in both cases it doesn’t replace black but only ADDS the fill, resulting in dirty black with a bit of colour glow, rendering the fill option basically useless.

Welcome to the "magic" of the "K Only" context toolbar button for the "Image" type of resources:

[EmergingFresh]

Sorry just relized that I really also would like to convert in the program into bmp, like all little dots looking kind of images. Not just block pixles.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, EmergingFresh said:

into bmp, like all little dots looking kind of images. Not just block pixles.

Huh???

[Riccardo B.]

I’m looking for this feature too, +1.

[Rawshooter6]

Hello,

it is ammazing to see so many reactions on such a simple request like .BMP.
I still doesn't understand why Serif still ignores this request.

I hope the reason is that they need to do a lot of work on the total export persona. The whole persona needs a complete brush-up and more common format, also for vector output. At that time they may drop some of the lagy formats like .TGA or .HDR.

Who needs these formats ??

Cheers

Henry

stay healthy

[myclay]

8 hours ago, Rawshooter6 said:

At that time they may drop some of the lagy formats like .TGA or .HDR.

Who needs these formats ??

Cheers

Henry

stay healthy

Those files are for example used when creating video games and 3D Artworks.
https://www.cadcrowd.com/blog/why-ikea-uses-3d-renders-vs-photography-for-their-furniture-catalog/
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/videogames-are-a-bigger-industry-than-sports-and-movies-combined-thanks-to-the-pandemic-11608654990

[Ajax]

I was so excited about the Affinity line of programs as finally being able to replace the Adobe line, but I keep finding that even the simplest things like exporting a bitmap is not possible.

How can you not export bitmaps?

Use case: I'm creating graphics for an embedded device. The software ONLY supports Bitmap. For workflow reasons it would make absolutely no sense to open yet another program to do something as simple as convert the image to the appropriate format.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Ajax
Additional information

[pming]

Hiya!

Was sent the direct link by a helpful mod (thanks dominik!) because I posted about this (user error for searching for the wrong thing or mistyped or something stupid on my part).

Put me down for ".bmp export please".

Paul L. Ming

[dominik]

15 hours ago, pming said:

Was sent the direct link by a helpful mod (thanks dominik!)

Hi @pming,

just to make this clear, I'm just a regular forum user just as you are. Maybe for a little longer time than you are 😉

Glad to see you found the right place for your contribution.

d.

[DenalB]

Please add me to the list of users who needs to export to BMP. I'm creating installers with Inno Setup and this app is only supporting BMP-files.

[Fizmarble]

I'm not a developer. Can anyone shed light on why .BMP support would be missing? In the industrial automation space, .BMP seems to be favored. Is it difficult to add support for outputting to .BMP? I know it takes some time. I just don't understand why it wouldn't be added if it's such a common format. Thanks for any insight.

[rubs]

Hello @Fizmarble,

On the contrary, BMP is one of the easiest image formats to deal with because it is quite simple and not compressed (at least by default). It is just a pixel map with a simple header and that's it. The first time I implemented BMP I did it in straight C, which is now considered a very low-level language, using the already excellent documentation available from Microsoft. Today things are much easier because there are plenty of third-party libraries (several of them free and/or open source) that will take care of the task for you.

The reason Serif won't implement it is not technical at all, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Best regards,

Rubem

[Fizmarble]

Thanks, @rubs. I had figured it wasn't a challenge. Still curious that it's not implemented.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, rubs said:

On the contrary, BMP is one of the easiest image formats to deal with because it is quite simple and not compressed (at least by default). It is just a pixel map with a simple header and that's it. The first time I implemented BMP I did it in straight C, which is now considered a very low-level language, using the already excellent documentation available from Microsoft. Today things are much easier because there are plenty of third-party libraries (several of them free and/or open source) that will take care of the task for you.

As I see it, the main difficulty is not in understanding the format and processing the data, but in the required User Interface changes to the Export dialog and to the Export Persona. In those areas the addition of an additional output format requires some significant interface redesign and testing. Additionally, the Export dialog is getting quite large with all the formats it supports now, and each one that is added pushes us closer to the time, I think, that the dialog will need a complete overhaul.

 

[Wosven]

19 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

but in the required User Interface changes to the Export dialog and to the Export Persona. In those areas the addition of an additional output format requires some significant interface redesign and testing. Additionally, the Export dialog is getting quite large with all the formats it supports now, and each one that is added pushes us closer to the time, I think, that the dialog will need a complete overhaul.

Unless designing interfaces went more difficult today than in the past — but I doubt it —, it's just adding/dupplicating a tab, adding the rights lists and options with the right commands triggered...

For now, the panel is a third of my screen... perhaps a bit more on the small screen of the tablet-PC, but they can add tabs or redraw it with a main list like in other apps, displaying the options and icon depending of selection.

 

[walt.farrell]

16 minutes ago, Wosven said:

 or redraw it with a main list like in other apps, displaying the options and icon depending of selection.

 

That's a redesign

[Wosven]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

That's a redesign

Yes, not really complicated since the tabs already exists, but it can be tricky to order. That's why the 1st option mentionned is just adding a new tab

(And looking at the panel, there's enough tabs that they could be ordered alphabetically, it would be more logical than by categories (?) — web, layout, vector, video (?).)

[rubs]

Hi,

We can discuss as we like, but I believe there is no interest from Serif to pursue this and other issues. We would know, if they bothered to talk with us. I recall a time when they were actively responding to customers via this forum, which was very nice. But this was several years ago: they stopped doing it all of a sudden. And it's hurting their business, no doubt. My company has switched to Figma already and we're not looking back (here's my comment from last year). Figma does not completely replace Designer and they are already semi-deaf like Serif, but their software performs much better for large designs and is not ridden with bugs.

Have luck,

Rubem