Design won't export to PNG with drop shadow :(

[Hellmans]

Hello all, 

I am struggling to export a design (in Affinity Designer) with drop shadow. 

I have text with the effect 'outer shadow' which looks great however, when I export this as a PNG, it is no longer there!?

The file dimensions (if you need to know) are 7632 px by 6480 px in 300 dpi. 

I simply select 'export' and click PNG but don't have many options. I'm just leaving it as PNG. Not sure what PNG-8 (dithered) is or if that will make a difference? 

I'm using version 1.8.3.641

Please help! I can't see what I'm doing wrong? 

Thank you all in advance

Helen x

[telemax]

Hi

It works for me. Designer 1.8.3.641

Does this happen with one file or all of them? Try create similar effect in a new file on other object.

[lacerto]

(...)

[jmwellborn]

Welcome @Hellmans!   I am a MAC user, but the process should be the same. Although I note that you seem to be using a Beta build (Designer 1.8.3.641)?  I may be mistaken, but have you tried upgrading to Designer 1.8.3 Windows release build?   Anyway,  I have tried several ways to export a PNG of text with a shadow, and have had no problem with the shadow at all.  The only difference in the result is what I choose in the "Area" box for the export settings.   I have attached a very rudimentary demonstration of what I did.  I couldn't put a green rectangle under version 1. because the Forum software wouldn't allow that large a file.  Needless to say, the words "drop shadow" and their shadows were surrounded by a white rectangle on top of my green one.  

Could you try placing your text and shadow on a transparent background and see if that helps?

 

[Hellmans]

On 5/12/2020 at 9:36 PM, telemax said:

Hi

It works for me. Designer 1.8.3.641

Does this happen with one file or all of them? Try create similar effect in a new file on other object.

Thanks Telemax! 

I'll try it with a new design and see if I get the same issues. 

Thanks again, 

Helen 

[Hellmans]

On 5/13/2020 at 7:42 PM, jmwellborn said:

Welcome @Hellmans!   I am a MAC user, but the process should be the same. Although I note that you seem to be using a Beta build (Designer 1.8.3.641)?  I may be mistaken, but have you tried upgrading to Designer 1.8.3 Windows release build?   Anyway,  I have tried several ways to export a PNG of text with a shadow, and have had no problem with the shadow at all.  The only difference in the result is what I choose in the "Area" box for the export settings.   I have attached a very rudimentary demonstration of what I did.  I couldn't put a green rectangle under version 1. because the Forum software wouldn't allow that large a file.  Needless to say, the words "drop shadow" and their shadows were surrounded by a white rectangle on top of my green one.  

Could you try placing your text and shadow on a transparent background and see if that helps?

 

Hi jmwellborn! 

Thank you sooo much for going over this all with me. 

However, I don't feel as advanced as you lol. I don't know which version of Affinity I'm using, I just downloaded the one for Windows from their site. 

Also, I only have the option to export a PNG as a 'whole document' and nothing else

I think I'll just copy and paste the text and move the duplicate behind the 'main' text and then reduce the opacity by 50% and see if this works instead

Thank you so much again, 

Helen x

[jmwellborn]

@Hellmans You should be able to spot your version of Designer when you first open the app —when the splash screen first appears on your canvas.   I don’t know anything about the Windows versions or their app store because I use a MAC, but you should be able to update your version to the latest retail version (if yours is not already).   Regarding the shadows, I am not very advanced at all 🤔! and for some time had a horrid time trying to export PNGs without a background.  Eventually the light bulb went on in my head and I discovered that in order to get the Area section to give me the option to use “Selection without Background” I first had to go to the Layers Panel and highlight what I wanted to export.  In this case, you would want to be sure that your layer with the text and the little “fx” mark beside it are highlighted in blue. Since I put the text and shadow on a green rectangle, I had to highlight both the green rectangle layer and the text layer before I clicked on EXPORT>PNG> and clicked on the Area box, where I had three options, including Selection without Background.

Perhaps this will help?

Jennifer

[Hellmans]

Thanks Jennifer.

Ok brill, I will try your way and see if I can get it to work, thank you!

As far as I'm aware, I should have the latest retail version. There doesn't seem to be any updates available so fingers crossed! 

Just going to have a go at this shadow thing now! 

Thanks again,

Helen xx

[Hellmans]

Hi Jennifer! 

It's fixed, yay! 

So I got in touch with Affinity and they explained as so;

"As you have some transparency applied to the drop shadow and as PNG files support transparency, it's keeping that when exported to PNG.  I expect i get is exactly what i see in Designer.   JPG files don't support transparency, so it just uses a solid fill which give the drop shadow more of an effect when exported.  If you edit the Drop shadow and increase the Opacity to closer to 100% you'll start getting a darker drop shadow and that will be kept on export" 

Yep! That simple haha. 

Thanks everyone who responded, I really appreciated all the tips

Stay safe,

Helen xx