photoretouchpro Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 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. moontest.afphoto BennyD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Gabe Posted March 3, 2020 Staff Share Posted March 3, 2020 Hi @photoretouchpro, How did you create that Pantone? Did you go to Add global colour or did you select a swatch from the list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photoretouchpro Posted March 6, 2020 Author Share Posted March 6, 2020 I added them from the list of pantone colors in the swatches panel. I renamed the first global color to match the pantone name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Gabe Posted March 6, 2020 Staff Share Posted March 6, 2020 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BennyD Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 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 1.8.3 Spot-Color.afphoto Spot-Color-2.afphoto Spot-Color-2.pdf Spot-Color.pdf Quote ___♥___ | | | | | | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Gabe Posted April 6, 2020 Staff Share Posted April 6, 2020 Thanks @BennyD. This only seems to affect fill layers. Issue logged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BennyD Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 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 Quote ___♥___ | | | | | | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BennyD Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 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.mp4 ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_new.pdf ornamental-cherry-4988024_1920_new.afphoto Quote ___♥___ | | | | | | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BennyD Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 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 Quote ___♥___ | | | | | | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Gabe Posted April 7, 2020 Staff Share Posted April 7, 2020 Sorry. It looks like it's more to it than just a fill layer. I will update our issue with your findings. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photoretouchpro Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BennyD Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 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 photoretouchpro 1 Quote ___♥___ | | | | | | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photoretouchpro Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 It would be great to be able preview separations/channels including spot colors in Affinity(all) like Adobe does. It would have saved a bunch of time testing and for preflighting future files. Also helpful, "mixed" or "multi" ink swatches(Nchannels). BennyD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 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?: 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.afpubmoontest_ot_v1.7 & convert.pdf 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): Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BennyD Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Just downloaded and installed Version 1.9.0 of the Affinity Suite and the Bug is still existent. Really sad. Please, please, please work on this for the next update. Quote ___♥___ | | | | | | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Gabe Posted February 4, 2021 Staff Share Posted February 4, 2021 I'm afraid this has not been fixed just yet. Sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigiga Posted April 22, 2021 Share Posted April 22, 2021 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€... BennyD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BennyD Posted April 22, 2021 Share Posted April 22, 2021 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 thomaso 1 Quote ___♥___ | | | | | | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazmondo77 Posted April 22, 2021 Share Posted April 22, 2021 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 Screen Grab 2021-04-22 at 17.47.25.mov moontest Tritone.afpub moontest.pdf thomaso 1 Quote 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 More sharing options...
thomaso Posted April 22, 2021 Share Posted April 22, 2021 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. BennyD 1 Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 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 Multiply the overprint layers for preview; set back to Normal ^ for PDF export: 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 Quote 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 More sharing options...
Gigiga Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 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! loukash and BennyD 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazmondo77 Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 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) loukash and BennyD 1 1 Quote 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 More sharing options...
BennyD Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 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 Quote ___♥___ | | | | | | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 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. 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. Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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