712Jefferson Posted August 7, 2020 Share Posted August 7, 2020 (edited) I have been having a back and forth with a very helpful member of the Affinity subreddit, but we are stumped by a particular issue. For more context, here's the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Affinity/comments/i37sps/question_re_mask_layers/ In short, I am beginning to do t-shirt design and working on a lot of "vintage" type artwork that requires the use of texture masks to give the appearance of worn clothing. I have purchased some of these textures from reputable, professional sources and downloaded some for free. All are presenting the same issue: In the DTG printing process where the artwork is actually printed onto the shirts, the printer first lays down a white undercoat and then prints the color of each pixel on top of it. When using a texture mask that essentially cuts out pixels for that "vintage" look, it's important that there is no anti-aliasing or semi-transparent edges because if even the slightest amount of color value in a particular pixel is identified by the printer, it will lay down the underbase and attempt to print the color on top of it. When applying these texture masks using the very convenient "Erase" opacity mode, it looks perfect on screen, but closer inspection reveals what I'm talking about: https://ibb.co/WPfnfZ7 The Reddit helped me identify that it's necessary to use 1-bit textures to avoid this issue and explained how to modify them accordingly using the Threshold adjustment, which works great for that purpose. You can see one such texture modified using that technique here: https://ibb.co/GP7SXjp Notice there are no transparencies present? Once rasterized to mask, however, and applied, look at what happens to that same texture: https://ibb.co/bFs38wr The semi-transparent edges have returned. I can't figure out a way to prevent this from occurring. Does anyone have any insight to share? Your feedback is GREATLY appreciated! Edited August 8, 2020 by 712Jefferson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted August 8, 2020 Share Posted August 8, 2020 (...) 712Jefferson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyJack Posted August 8, 2020 Share Posted August 8, 2020 @712Jefferson your original recipe should work. It's working as shown below.... and no antialiasing is introduced in any export I tried. (PDF, Tiff, PNG even JPG) (I even tried it with the Erase mode redundancy. Still worked.) Care to post a vid of it going wrong? Are you resizing on export? mask test.mp4 712Jefferson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
712Jefferson Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 @JimmyJack Sorry for the late reply and thank you so much for taking the time to record a video. I should have clarified that I also discovered that I can get it to work properly (same as you) in Photo, thankfully. However, every time I try in Designer, I experience the anti-aliasing issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
712Jefferson Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 Well........ I've figured it out. Here's what I discovered: I had previously converted the texture to 1-bit using the Threshold adjustment in Photo and saved it accordingly. I was then using that same file every time and placing it into the Designer document. Once imported, I could clearly see that it was still 1-bite. However, every time that I rasterized it to mask, the anti-aliasing would occur and nothing could solve that. Just now, I decided to import the original file of that texture (before the threshold adjustment was applied), then applied the Threshold directly within Designer itself. It converted to 1-bit, of course, and then I rasterized to mask as before. This time, it worked the way it should without anti-aliasing! I then tested with several other similar texture files to verify and it continues to be the case. For some odd reason, Designer is adding anti-aliasing to any 1-bit textures that are imported and rasterized. However, when the threshold is applied within Designer itself and then rasterized, the anti-aliasing doesn't occur. Couldn't begin to tell you why, but plenty happy that I can move forward with my work, understanding how to solve the problem now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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