Switch off Anti-Aliasing feature

[pyxelles]

Dear Affinity Designer developers, 

As much as I like Affinity Designer, can you please add this quite important feature as many people have requested for this since 2014?! I have seen this topic on the forums since 2014 and it is quite frustrating that I am not able to use Affinity Designer for print on demand- the major reasons I purchase AD in the first place. I have enjoyed learning how to use AD for over a year from scratch and I'm not an experienced graphic designer as I'm still learning everyday and still enjoy discovering new features but as seen in the forums, time and time again even with examples of blurry images with jagged edges, it's evident I'm not the only one experiencing this. It's not possible that it's because all of these people complaining don't know what they are doing- even experienced graphic designers have complained about this. 

Below is an example of a 6000 x 6000 px file exported as a PNG at 300 dpi and imported into RedBubble and the 1st image shows the original scale at 57& as shown on the POD platform, however as the subsequent images show, when scaled down to 35% and 25% respectively, the image becomes fuzzy, with any outlines/strokes appearing pixelated/ jagged and with typographic designs, the fonts become less legible and distorted. It's odd because the more you scale down, the worse it gets. Yet other images on the platform appear crisp and sharp and I bet they used Illustrator. 

 What I have learned is that it has something to do with switching anti-aliasing off when exporting the file. A feature other software like Adobe illustrator have but Affinity Designer doesn't. Apparently switching anti-aliasing off prior to exporting the image makes all the difference, producing that sharp crisp image everyone is after and that's why in the forums people keep asking "how to switch anti-aliasing off" in Affinity Designer (since 2014) and it's still not been resolved. What's the point of designing in a vector graphic software if you can't have crisp sharp exported images? 

If all of us are wrong can please put out a tutorial showing you export a large high resolution PNG image (image and typography) into a dummy RedBubble account as an example? or show us what we are doing wrong! Thank you. 

[Medical Officer Bones]

I tried this with a sharp-edged non-aliased PNG vector design. You seem to zoom with the browser, and I get the exact same fuzzy result when I zoom into the page with the browser zoom. Which makes sense: the preview is only making use of a low-resolution version.

Don't zoom into the view with the browser.

Does the issue arise with the actual physical product or preview images on the site?

[pyxelles]

13 hours ago, Medical Officer Bones said:

I tried this with a sharp-edged non-aliased PNG vector design. You seem to zoom with the browser, and I get the exact same fuzzy result when I zoom into the page with the browser zoom. Which makes sense: the preview is only making use of a low-resolution version.

Don't zoom into the view with the browser.

Does the issue arise with the actual physical product or preview images on the site?

It didn't get the fuzzy image because I zoomed in otherwise I wouldn't have complained. The image looks like this regardless of whether it's zoomed or not. I obviously zoomed on the browser to make the distortion of the lines and edges much larger and clearer to see. I don't zoom in when uploading on Redbubble and the huge  I'll explain it like this: Redbubble has over 20 products with different file dimensions hence, they recommend uploading one large high res image (@ 300dpi of course) which will fit the largest items like duvet covers, tapestries etc but will appear to large for smaller items like mugs, cushions. Hence, they have the scale sliders (0%-100%) as shown images above to scale down and make the design smaller to fit the smaller items to look good. The above image is a repeat pattern and they have the tiling options to repeat but for smaller items I have to scale down and the image gets worse as shown above. TBH I don't know how else to  explain it.

I uploaded three images from the uploader on Redbubble to show the scale sliders which allows you to resize the image to accommodate the various  dimensions. I know quite well that this is a raster image and will eventually get blurry if scaled up and up. If you read my post properly  you'd realise that isn't what me and several other AD users on this forum have been complaining about since 2014. All of these people aren't novices.  It's to do with not being able to switch anti-aliasing off prior to exporting your design which is a feature Illustrator has. 

Besides all the people on this forum complaining about their fuzzy images when exported this haven't all "zoomed in their images". You've obviously missed the point entirely. I reached out to a helpful experienced graphic designer YouTuber who uses both Ai and AD for his work and he said he would said he would experiment by exporting and uploading an AD and Ai version of the same design to RedBubble and do a tutorial on that. I can't wait for the outcome!

[Medical Officer Bones]

I actually did upload both an aliased and anti-aliased high resolution version of the same graphic to a test account of Redbubble, and couldn't tell the difference. I am acutely aware of the lack of a "turn all anti-aliasing off" button/function in Designer, though - one of the reasons I often have to switch to other apps.

The question I have therefore is whether the final physical product quality shows any obvious difference (printed on a cup or a tee). The web interface in Redbubble is quite small, and cannot be scaled in a responsive layout manner in the browser. I can't tell much from that small product preview. I would have to see the final print on a product to tell if it makes any difference at all. It depends on various things.

So have you ordered a test print of your pattern? Or is there a high resolution preview available in redbubble that I have missed?

[Medical Officer Bones]

One difference between your screen setup and mine is that yours runs a retina resolution, while mine does not.

But no matter, exporting your vector art for this type of work generally works better if the lines and fills are aliased.

To answer your question, no: that is currently not possible in Designer. You will have to export your work as SVG (for example) and import it in an design application that will support this. I myself use PhotoLine for this: import SVG in a bitmap document with the correct resolution, turn off the anti-aliasing (one click on/off button), and export as PNG. That is what I did in my Redbubble test as well:

1) created a design in Designer

2) export as SVG

3) create a bitmap document in PL at the required resolution and colour space

4) place SVG, and scale it accordingly.

5) turn off anti-aliasing

6) export to PNG. Upload to Redbubble.

Until Designer gets a similar anti-aliasing on/off option, we will have to rely on secondary software to perform this step.