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Designer displays only grayscales after opening PNG


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In Designer (1.7.3 on Mac) I've opened a grayscale PNG. The vector shapes that I've drawn over it display only in grayscale, even though the color palette shows them to have RGB colours.

Would be grateful if someone could tell me how to get my vector shapes to display in color.

(Apologies if this has been asked elsewhere – I've searched but cannot find anything.)

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Welcome to the forums.
I’m glad that you found an answer.
I think it might be useful if Designer gave you an option to choose a colour model if the image doesn’t have an embedded one – I think the Assistant gives it a default colour model at the moment – but I don’t think it would be a good idea to have to select one (or accept the current one) every time you opened an image. That could become a bit annoying after a while.

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1 hour ago, David Entwistle said:

In Designer (1.7.3 on Mac) I've opened a grayscale PNG. The vector shapes that I've drawn over it display only in grayscale, even though the color palette shows them to have RGB colours.

If I open a grayscale PNG, the Color panel clearly shows grayscale by the colors that are displayed:

image.png.f1416e49fe5e8edb8994168fd5d9a2a6.png

Is that not what you saw?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Hello Garry – thank you for your reply. I agree – on reflection it would be irritating to have to specify a colour model for each opened bitmap.

Hello Walt – thank you, too. Yes, that's what I saw: RGB colour sliders, but displaying in greyscale instead of (as I expected) in RGB.

I think my confusion arose because, as a new Designer user, I was hoping that most things would work as they do in Illustrator. (I guess if you use that program for over 30 years, you get rather set in your ways!)

Thank you both again for your comments.

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You’re welcome.
There are lots of people here – I’m not one of them – who have used Illustrator (and other similar software) for a very long time so you shouldn’t be stuck for answers if you have any further problems moving across to the Affinity applications.

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On 12/23/2019 at 2:35 PM, David Entwistle said:

I think my confusion arose because, as a new Designer user, I was hoping that most things would work as they do in Illustrator.

I never use an Illustrator, so just for the sake of interest - does the Illustrator always ask when a picture is opened, what color model do you want to assign to it?

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Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
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Hello Pšenda: thank you for your question. No, Illustrator doesn't ask which color model to use when you open. But if you open a greyscale bitmap (for example) in Illustrator, and then specify an RGB color to work with, the color displays in RGB, as does the color palette. This doesn't happen in Affinity Designer, which was what I found puzzling (until I realised you had to specify a diffeent color model explicitly).

Illustrator is a very capable vector drawing program, and it still has many really useful features not present in Affinity Designer. But I think AD may be the future of vector drawing. It has already overtaken Illustrator in some important basics (most notably node control), and I look forward to seeing it catch up with Illustrator in other areas.

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I think this could be handled by adding a new option to the Assistant.
Situation:
Use opens an image that has a greyscale colour model.
Remedy Options:
(A - default) Convert to an equivalent colour model;
(B) Do nothing.

Users would, by default, get their image converted to colour automatically, while people who like to work with the image’s original colour model could simply change to “Do nothing” and work uninhibited from that point on.

I think that would cover most situations.

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53 minutes ago, GarryP said:

get their image converted to colour automatically

This option is already there - Preferences, Color, Convert opened files to working space.

Edit: Although not working as I would expect :-)

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

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10 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Job done?

:-( Unfortunately, it doesn't do what I would expect. Obviously it translates only color space/profile, not color format.

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

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29 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

:-( Unfortunately, it doesn't do what I would expect. Obviously it translates only color space/profile, not color format.

It does just what I expect. It converts to the working space's color profile. You have a choice of a different working space color profile for RGB, for RGB/32, for CMYK, for LAB, and for Grayscale. If the document you're opening has color space "X", and it's profile does not match your specified working profile for "X", it converts it.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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35 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It does just what I expect.

It really didn't surprise me at all, you know everything.

Just a pity, that it is not described more detailed in the help, because there is nothing written about individual formats at all - "Choose whether to convert an opened file colour space to the working space and also choose whether to warn that this has occurred."

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

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Yes, that Help could be clearer.

In fact, isn't it wrong? To me, color space is RGB vs CMYK vs Grayscale vs Lab, and Photo will never do that conversion upon opening a file.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • 3 years later...
27 minutes ago, Affuser1 said:

I had this issue also, not sure why it defaults to grey. I cant see a reason anyone would want to limit their color choices while editing images or photos. 

If you have a monochrome back and white image, shouldn't it stay that way unless you tell the application to convert it to color?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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