Copy/export what I see

[AndreKR]

I have attached an Affinity Photo file.

I am trying to copy or export exactly what I see there, so basically this:

just not zoomed.

But whenever I do "Copy Flattened" or "Export..." I get this:

which is different. (Note the additional black around the ear for example.)

When I set zoom to 100% and take a screenshot, I get this

where the rightmost pixels are missing/replaced with the gray surrounding.

I don't know what else to try.

problem.afphoto

[Old Bruce]

9 minutes ago, AndreKR said:

I am trying to copy or export exactly what I see

You might be better served using a Threshold layer instead of the Levels, regardless the way to get what you want is to use Edit > Copy Merged once you have the image the way you like it.

[kirkt]

I took a look at your file - the cat artwork is grayscale and you are essentially processing it to look like a bitmapped pixel line art drawing.  In your file, you use a Levels adjustment layer to try to squeeze the white and black points together to get the antialiased (shades of gray) edges to go to black or white.  Try using a Threshold adjustment layer instead.  Also, flatten the artwork onto the white background before applying the Threshold adjustment.  I was able to export a JPEG that looked identical to the preview in AP.  

I think the problem lies in using the Levels adjustment to force the gray around the edges of the line art to black or white.  When it comes time to export, there are probably edge pixels that are not completely black or completely white, and the export file type makes decisions about what should be black or white that do not agree with your intentions.  Threshold should cure the problem because it explicitly makes things either black or white.

In PS, you could convert the artwork to "bitmapped", but that option does not exist in AP, so you have to use the Threshold tool to effectively do the same thing.  I used a value of 72% in the threshold tool for my test.

Kirk

 

EDIT - I see @Old Bruce and I are on the same page.

[Old Bruce]

5 minutes ago, kirkt said:

EDIT - I see @Old Bruce and I are on the same page.

Literally as well as figuratively.

[David in Яuislip]

That's an innovative image. The RG & B channels are black, the shape is defined in the alpha channel

[lepr]

5 hours ago, AndreKR said:

I have attached an Affinity Photo file.

I am trying to copy or export exactly what I see there, so basically this:

just not zoomed.

But whenever I do "Copy Flattened" or "Export..." I get this:

which is different. (Note the additional black around the ear for example.)

When I set zoom to 100% and take a screenshot, I get this

where the rightmost pixels are missing/replaced with the gray surrounding.

I don't know what else to try.

problem.afphoto 26.44 kB · 3 downloads

 

 

Your layered document opened on my Mac looks exactly like the second of your three images - the flattened result, so I suspect the layered document is being displayed wrongly on your computer.

 

 

[AndreKR]

I'm getting the exact same problem with the Threshold Adjustment (thanks for that, didn't know it). It seems to be a flattening problem, not a problem of the Levels/Threshold:

 

[lepr]

1 hour ago, AndreKR said:

I'm getting the exact same problem with the Threshold Adjustment (thanks for that, didn't know it). It seems to be a flattening problem, not a problem of the Levels/Threshold:

 

 

The flattening appears to be correct, in my opinion, and the layered version is being displayed incorrectly on your computer.

 

[MEB]

Hi AndreKR,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
The height of the background layer (cat) is not an integer value (look at the Transform panel). That's what's causing your issues. Go to Affinity Preferences, User Interface tab, Decimal Places for Unit Types section and change the Pixels value to 3 or more so you can see more decimal places in the Transform panel (and elsewhere), then delete the decimal part in the height field in the Transform panel. Adjust the Levels adjustments if needed and export the file again. It should look exactly the same as what's displayed on canvas.

[AndreKR]

Unfortunately that didn't fix the issue. Here's the new file. You can see the layer is now exactly 22px high but it still shows the same anomaly when flattening.

problem.afphoto

[MEB]

Hi AndreKR,
Can you show me/record a small clip of what you are doing please after opening the file you posted above? After pasting the flattened copy make sure you have Force Pixel Alignment enabled in the main toolbar and move the pasted image a bit to force it to align to the pixel grid otherwise it may end up misaligned too (on non-integer X,Y coordinates - see Transfer panel, make sure there's no decimal parts) and looking different.

[lepr]

23 minutes ago, AndreKR said:

Unfortunately that didn't fix the issue. Here's the new file. You can see the layer is now exactly 22px high but it still shows the same anomaly when flattening.

problem.afphoto 21.55 kB · 3 downloads

Again, the flattening is not the problem. It is the display of the layered document on your computer that is incorrect. Here it is displayed correctly on my screen:

 

[AndreKR]

13 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi AndreKR,
Can you show me/record a small clip of what you are doing please? After pasting the flattened copy make sure you have Force Pixel Alignment enabled in the main toolbar and move the pasted image a bit to force it to align to the pixel grid otherwise it may end up misaligned too (on non-integer X,Y coordinates - see Transfer panel, make sure there's no decimal parts) and looking different.

Sure, here you go.

[lepr]

2 minutes ago, AndreKR said:

Sure, here you go.

 

The layered document is being incorrectly displayed from the very beginning of that recording. If you inspect the alpha of the layer named Background then you'll see that the layered view is wrong.

[MEB]

Hi AndreKR
Thanks for the clip. Go to Affinity Preferences, Performance section and set the View Quality dropdown to Bilinear. It should then display the image correctly from the beginning and you should get matching results.

[AndreKR]

That worked. 👍

[lepr]

Like I said from the beginning, it was the display of the layered document and not the flattening that was wrong.