Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Recommended Posts

I have created a test file for spot color output. I cannot get the spot colors to output to spot only cmyk or rgb. I have tried PDFx4, PDFx3 and PDF1.7 in Affinity photo 1.7.3 and 1.8. Any guidance on this is appreciated. I am trying to use Affinity as an alternative to Adobe. See attached for file screenshot. Attached working file also.

aptest.jpg

exportsettings.jpg

moontest.afphoto

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

That's where it probably went wrong. You don't need to add them as a global colour. With Pantone colours you just need to select one from the list. If you actually need to add it as a global colour, make sure the global colour is a spot global colour, as once you create one, you cannot turn it into a spot colour. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

I've got the same problem. But it adds the color to global colors once I've select them in the Color Swatch Panel.

Should work as simple as that, but doesn't

  • Create new CMYK document. 
  • Create fill layer
  • Select Pantone Spot Color Swatch
  • Export as PDF-X
  • Have a PDF with Spot-Color Channel

I use AF photo 1.8.31827474683_Bildschirmfoto2020-04-04um11_35_27.png.91dfd4da76f5f527db49365012373ae6.png

 

Bildschirmfoto 2020-04-04 um 11.36.45.png

Spot-Color.afphoto Spot-Color-2.afphoto Spot-Color-2.pdf Spot-Color.pdf

___♥___
| | |    | | |

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, and can you tell me how I would create/simulate a two channel spot-color-duo-print?

My approach would have been the following since there are no real spot color channels in AF photo.

  • Create new CMYK document. 
  • Create fill layers for each spot color channel
  • Select Pantone Spot Color Swatch for each layer
  • Create layer Masks from Grey Images
  • Set the top layer to Multiply method

But How would you do that?

ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920.afphoto

___♥___
| | |    | | |

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey,

it seems to affect also Pixel Layers. 

For my understanding it should work also like this, but doesn't

  • Create new CMYK document. 
  • Create two Pixel layers
  • Select top Pixel layer
  • Load selection for first spot color from spare channel
  • Select first spot/global color from document pallette
  • Choose »Fill with Primary Color« from »Edit« menu
  • Repeat for second Pixel layer for spot color two
  • Export as PDF-X
  • Have a PDF with Spot-Color Channel

Video of workflow and file shared

ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_new.pdf ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_new.afphoto

___♥___
| | |    | | |

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I managed to get a result with AF Publisher with the lag of preview. But it's far from beeing an ideal and intuitive solution

  • Created an new Publisher CMYK Document
  • Placed both channels as Grey Images
  • Filled the grey images with spot colors from the swatch panel
  • Set »Overprint« for the spot colors
  • Export as PDF-X

the funny thing is that I don't see a whole lot of difference to the previous AF Photo document when I open the Publisher File in photo except of missing Alpha transparency in the layers. I know that alpha transparency and spot colors has allways been an issue with Adobe CC as well.

ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_overprint.pdf ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_overprint.afpub

___♥___
| | |    | | |

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I have been busy testing spot colors in Affinity and have succeeded it getting spot colors to output. I had to modify the way I built objects and could only do it in publisher not photo but it works. I don't think I can move from Adobe at this time (professional work) but hopefully in the future. I will post the file and resulting pdf for reference.

moontestPub.pdf moontest.afpub

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks promising. Quite the same approach I had. Just take a Greyscale image and apply the spot color to it in Publisher. Interesting interference between Overprint and Multiply layer effect on the blue gradient.

Sad though that it doesn't work in AF Photo the intuitive way. So for me the move to Affinity Suite for production is postponed again. Hopefully, we can do the switch with Version 2.0 at least.

b

 

 

___♥___
| | |    | | |

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/5/2020 at 11:03 PM, photoretouchpro said:

I have been busy testing spot colors in Affinity and have succeeded it getting spot colors to output. I had to modify the way I built objects and could only do it in publisher not photo but it works. I don't think I can move from Adobe at this time (professional work) but hopefully in the future. I will post the file and resulting pdf for reference.

moontestPub.pdf 3.04 MB · 1 download moontest.afpub 4.12 MB · 1 download

In your document you have custom named the global swatches differently but use identical spot color names (Mag / Gold) for 2 different versions of their swatches (overprinting vs. non-overprinting). So your PDf contains only 1 spot color "Mag" and "Gold".

I would expect the preflight to warn about conflicting spot color names – but instead it complains about profiles.
Since the related images need to be set to K-only to enable the color swatch assignment I would not expect these warnings at all – for what purpose?:

766982280_k-onlyspot-preflightwarnings.jpg.aa811d55936c13ea015ae80dbddaffb2.jpg


In the attached .afpub I have renamed the swatches – but still the images don't export as spot color when they are clipped by a pixel mask:
– cmyk instead spot color
– does not overprint
– blend mode 'darken' is ignored on export
All 3 issues appear buggy to me.

moontest_ot.afpub
moontest_ot_v1.7 & convert.pdf

moontest_ot_v1.7-convert.jpg.13ba75a6f271e9def2362fce1ef24961.jpg

Also, different to your afpub,  my export a.) has lost overprinting for the violet gradient and b.) the Gold gradient results in CMYK. – Are you able to detect what is different in my file according the gradients?

Any idea where the transparency color space noted in Acrobat as "sRGB IEC..." comes from or is set?

Furthermore I experience a buggy UI color appearance in APub: the swatches view within the gradients panel shows the violet color as blue, for both the overprinting and not-overprinting swatches (while the swatches panel itself shows them correctly):

816066630_colorappearanceingradientspanelswatches-violetisblue.jpg.a0489e7938246eb43d6c0b59d6fedf7d.jpg

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...
  • 2 months later...

I'm pretty puzzled to learn this the hard way by a completely ruined printjob. 

Same thing with a spot color in a pixel mask. Even a pixel layer in that very spot color with all the correct settings does not export as spot and overprinting but in regular cmyk (I know the spot color works correct, bc the same spot color is used in another path object without mask and that printed correctly)

I was just about to get serious with using publisher for regular projects. But now I start to get suspicious again. I really like the workflow, especially the personas in Publisher. Only one app open, what a dream. And then this ruined print job :( lucky me it was "only" 200€... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As of Version 1.9.3 this bug is still apperent. The export result from the attached afphoto file should be a pdf with two spot color channels when using the pdf/x-3:2003 preset. Unfortunately it's beeing converted into cmyk

Any news on when it's beeing fixed?

 

 

ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_fill-layer.pdf ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_fill-layer.afphoto

___♥___
| | |    | | |

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a workaround although it's a little fiddly and involves using blend ranges to limit each spot, you then draw a vector rectangle over the top and then drag the blend ranged image to the right of the rectangle to make a mask, so the blend range is still editable on the mask, you can do this for all colours so you can build up your duotone or on the attached example I've done a Tritone for the space bloke - you then have to rasterise each of the layers, then make sure you have the move tool and then right click on each of you're recently rasterised image layers and scroll down to 'Convert to image resource' for each then click on the 'K' for each on the main task bar and select your spot colour for each image layer - see attached for example

moontest Tritone.afpub moontest.pdf

Daz1.png

Mac Pro Cheese-grater (Early 2009) 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC Ram, Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5, Ugee 19" Graphics Tablet Monitor Triple boot via OCLP 1.2.1 - Mac OS Monterey 12.7.1, Sonoma 14.1.1 and Mojave 10.14.6

Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo 1.10.5 - 2.2.1

www.bingercreative.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/22/2021 at 6:52 PM, Dazmondo77 said:

I have a workaround although it's a little fiddly

Good to know, thanks! It's hard to notice what Affinity needs to create a Duo- or Tritone print file. Feels more like first steps on the moon than an DTP app of the 21st century.

969397375_spotcoloreportworkaround.jpg.6d6d49154b95b6efe1ffedf2b4cfb06e.jpg

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aahh, a challenge! :)

Without inspecting anything else posted here: the original Moontest from Feb 2020 remixed into tritone by yours truly in Publisher & Photo personae:

moontest-tritone-loukash.afpub

apu_moontest.png.e618ff11aa779cb835948118b0e92e8c.png

 

Multiply the overprint layers for preview; set back to Normal ^ for PDF export:

apu_moontest_preview.png.d0dd92fab5f7e556bbd7c1f666d71d21.png

Export as PDF/X-4 if you want to use gradients into transparency. The transparent spot gradient will be kept intact. No CMYK plates whatsoever:
moontest-tritone-loukash-x4.pdf

For  PDF/X-1 or X-3, forget about overprinting a spot gradient. Apparently it works (worked?) for some, but not for me. :/
Put a regular spot color gradient in the background and overprint
the moon instead:
moontest-tritone-loukash-x1.pdf

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is impressive how the workarounds gather here in such short time. But please lets not forget, that this shouldn't be the standard!

I expect a defined behaviour (spot, overprint) to export without any side effects because a pixel mask is involved or I have a pixel layer which is using the spot color. At least give us a warning like "Dear User, your spot color will be rasterized back to cmyk because the software currently can't render this combination into a X Standard PDF" 
Again, I had a whole 200€ printjob partly ruined because of this. Yes I could have check the seperation preview but I didn't. That was caused by my trust in this software, bc it worked before and why shouldn't it work now. Plus the software displays everything correct!

I thought I was crazy because the document (colors, overprinting etc.) in publisher was completely correct from my PoV but the seperation preview of the printfile said "no it is not!" I am pretty experienced (15 years now) but it took me a while to figure this out. This should never have find its way into any release ever, period. 

PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Gigiga said:

But please lets not forget, that this shouldn't be the standard!

Damn right

10 minutes ago, Gigiga said:

Again, I had a whole 200€ printjob partly ruined because of this. Yes I could have check the seperation preview but I didn't.

Looks like lesson learned - I've never trusted any design software to get this right, and have always checked seps and compliance in Acrobat Pro before sending off to the printers - don't think I ever will. We just need a robust alternative to Acrobat - but there is only PDF toolbox which is half a grand and ghostscript (don't have the patience) 

 

Daz1.png

Mac Pro Cheese-grater (Early 2009) 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC Ram, Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5, Ugee 19" Graphics Tablet Monitor Triple boot via OCLP 1.2.1 - Mac OS Monterey 12.7.1, Sonoma 14.1.1 and Mojave 10.14.6

Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo 1.10.5 - 2.2.1

www.bingercreative.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another great way to easily create duo or tritone images would be to use a gradient map as an adjusment layer like in my attached file.
But guess what, this doesn't make to a pdf with spot channels either.
Seems to me the whole architecture how spot colors are handled isn't well designed, at least not with professional printing in mind. But what's the point of having spot colors and overprint then? I just don't get it.

 

 

ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_gradient-map.pdf ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_gradient-map.afphoto

___♥___
| | |    | | |

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, loukash said:

Aahh, a challenge!

23 minutes ago, Gigiga said:

It is impressive how the workarounds gather here in such short time.

… whereas here "challenge" + "impressive" doesn't feel positive to me but rather absurd like an ice bucket challenge or illustrations done with Excel.

excel-art-mona.jpg.17ded35017cc2754ebc7d64f0afee3a2.jpg

On 4/7/2020 at 2:45 PM, Gabe said:

Sorry. It looks like it's more to it than just a fill layer. I will update our issue with your findings. Thanks. 

It's hard to understand that Serif doesn't focus on bug fixing for professional use but rather prefers developing new features like the (temporary) option to save a document history as video, to download brushes/assets alternatively from within Affinity or to refine astrophotography support.

1523976943_affinityspotlightastrophotography.jpg.e6f7550d207e5ed2622e652926a36a1a.jpg

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.