.eps background not transparent

[BrandOutfitters]

After building a vector shape with combined paths, I get a white box instead of a transparent background when exporting as an .eps file for print. Here's are screenshots showing the issue (http://prntscr.com/7z7xrq) and in Illustrator, where the .eps file was imported (http://prntscr.com/7z7xrq). Background is transparent for .png file. Issue seems to only be for .eps file. Anyone else run into this or know of a fix?

[TonyB]

Can you post your eps file here so we can have a look. We usually find the eps files are transparent and it's just how you validate them. What app are you loading the eps file into to confirm it isn't transparent?

[smokie1019]

Affinity Photo on my part. The background is as white as white can be.

 

What a shame. I can't use this work- it was to be printed on shirts with a transparent background. The group was looking forward to wearing this design.

 

I guess I can scribble on t-shirts with an El Marko?

[JimmyJack]

Well, the png you posted does have a transparent background.... why doesn't the eps?

 

 

I don't think the print house is going to have a problem in terms of background. Did they reject it???

I think the gradients are actually harder. 

[smokie1019]

it's a png to save space on the server. They asked for a eps, and had no question about the gradients.

The eps simply does not have a transparent background, no matter what specifics I used to export it. 

There's a white square around it. It was to be printed on dark shirts.

 

Now, while trying for an svg , I get naught but blank. 

I've been, not drawing, not correcting, but trying to export this design for the last six hours. Just exporting. Six hours.

I wish the description on the App Store page explained that AFD was for sh!ts and giggles, only, no real work.

 

the .afdesign does not open in another program, or else I would have done that and had been done with AFDesign forever.

What's the use of an app that can't be put into practical print application?

 

Am I to draw this design completely over again in another vector app?

[JimmyJack]

Can I ask that the .afdesign file be posted?

 

(I will say this.... this is my first time saving as eps using the latest releases.... (which I downloaded today in fact))

When I re-open a saved test eps with no background I do have to re-specify "transparent background" in doc setup, which is a little weird.

 

Regardless, is the saved eps (with the white background included) in vector form?

Can they copy paste all the elements into a new backgroundless doc on their end?

Or is everything being rasterized/flattened too?

[smokie1019]

When I open the eps in AFD, it's all one layer, of which the background is part of. I thought myself, "It's vector, I'll just delete the white square. 

No.

I opened it in AFPhoto, thinking that it was part vector so maybe maybe maybe.

No. And it was raster.

 

It's a very big file, How would I load that?

I have to Force Quit a lot. there is a point where you know that beachball is not going anywhere. 

I tried all means of export, (For print, for web, etc..) I'm still getting the same thing.

 

I'm still trying to figure it out, even though the creeping feeling is that I'm wasting my time, and I'd better get cracking on re-doing this work in Autodesk Graphic. It won't look at nice, but it will be able to go beyond Affinity Design on my desktop.

[JimmyJack]

Hmmm....

 

How big is "very" big?

You could upload to dropbox and supply a link.

 

I'd be happy to take a look. Must say, though, that it's getting very late where I am. Gotta turn in real soon.

Others, I'm sure will step in. Otherwise I'll check it out in the morning.

 

(p.s. I'm thinking that the most important thing to the printer is the vector aspect and not necessarily the transparent background. If the eps isn't panning out, you might want to ask the printer if they will accept a pdf instead)

 

Edit: On that note Designer just crashed. That's my cue to hit the sack.

[smokie1019]

Thank you for your offer to help. I finally got a PDF to be transparent, and I'm afraid if that doesn't do it, then it's toast.

(What's worse is that I've got 20 pages of a comic on AD, and now I'm biting nails at it's possible unpublishablity.) 

I'll set up a link, and perhaps you are right, others can see where I'm screwing this pooch.

 

You have a good night. The app crashing, I know, is the signal that it's been a long enough night.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yskjh8x5oxc2s7a/mardipaws2017logo2a.afdesign?dl=0

[mac_heibu]

Your file contains lots of transparency (shadows, images with transparent areas). Since EPS doesn’t support transparency, an output into EPS has to end up in rasterization.

In addition, Affinity isn’t quite good in preserving vector data, when combined with pixel elements. Illustrator in this case does a much better job, but that is a different question.

If you export your document as PDF, transparency at least is preserved. Vector data unfortunately not always.

Most (not everything) of your issue is provoked by using an inappropriate export file format. EPS is an outdated format of the last millenium, which even isn’t supported by its inventor Adobe any more due to its heavy restrictions (no transparency, no color management, …). The successor of EPS is PDF. There is absolutely no reason to use EPS any more. If you do it anyhow, you will have to face problems.

And if a printing provider wants EPS, it is high time looking for a different one!

[JimmyJack]

Yes I too would push for pdf. 

 

But something weird is still going on.  Something in your file is triggering a global rasterization. The whole thing is being flattened to one or two raster images ..... white background included. (I'm not telling you anything you don't know.)

Theoretically (and in practical tests) unsupported elements should be rastered and you should get a usable result at least. So what is it?

 

The file is so complex I don't think you'll ever find it. 

I did do a couple of experiments with just a handful of objects and tried to push the limits for compatibility within the different elements.

I had vectors as nests and masks with vectors, pixel and pixel, and mixed, using FXs (including drop shadows) and different blends at different opacities. Gradients, line pressures etc etc. I even put your confetti pixel layer on top of everything. I still got a usable eps. 

 

Don't know if it's one thing in particular, or an aggregate of the shear number of things you've got going on. I will say though that because of all the effects and such, many many things are being rasterized. At this point you might as well calculate your final size/rez and save out as full raster. At least that's an option....

[smokie1019]

Thank you all so much for the time and effort of looking at it.

It is complex, that's what I meant by huge file.

I know to many, it's too complex. Not all my works are like this.

 

Shoving things around in AD must've been a bear for you- like a clutterred office- only the owner of the office knows where everything is.

 

The knowledge about Eps is worth a mint, Thank you.

It's like being told I'm not crazy.

Went back and forth tween AD and AP alot- that could not have helped.

I sent the file to the show chief of Krewe of Barcchus in pdf, and Svg (finally got it to work) & told them any resizing will be on me.

 

Thank you all so much, from me, and a passle of Scottish Terrier owners.

[smokie1019]

Must add:

 

JimmyJohn, this sentence altered everything.

'I had vectors as nests and masks with vectors, pixel and pixel, and mixed, using FXs (including drop shadows) and different blends at different opacities. Gradients, line pressures etc etc. I even put your confetti pixel layer on top of everything. I still got a usable eps.'

 

This opened up my mind to the use of nests and masks. Using a more defined order to things really changed my art for the better.

Special Thank You.