Affinity publisher corrupts images when exporting PDF as grayscale

[big smile]

I have a Publisher Document that is in colour (i.e. it has an RGB colorspace).  This is how it looks:

(This is taken from a PDF export of the Publisher document)

But I need to create a black and white version.

The Black and white version is created by:

• Exporting as a PDF and selecting grayscale in the PDF options

• Importing the Publisher file in to another publisher file that uses a grayscale colourspace. This other file is then exported as a PDF (by selecting grayscale in the PDF options)

In both cases, this is how the exported PDF looks like:

 

I've got no idea how to fix this? I am a long time Publisher user and this has never happened. 

The original source images are Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer files that are imported into Publisher as links (not embded)

I can't share the original document publically, so would appreciate any suggestions on how to troubleshoot. 

I've searched around the forum but not found anything. 

 

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, big smile said:

The Black and white version is created by:

• Exporting as a PDF and selecting grayscale in the PDF options

Have you tried applying a Black & White adjustment (or another adjustment such as HSL with a Saturation value of zero) directly to the document within Publisher, instead of relying on the PDF export options?

[big smile]

13 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Have you tried applying a Black & White adjustment (or another adjustment such as HSL with a Saturation value of zero) directly to the document within Publisher, instead of relying on the PDF export options?

Thanks for your help! I tried that and it doesn't work. But also, I'd like to have one colour document, that I can export as colour PDF and B&W PDF. If I have to add B&W adjustments, that kind of spoils that, as it means I'd now have to have two documents. 

[Alfred]

1 minute ago, big smile said:

Thanks for your help! I tried that and it doesn't work.

Hmm ... I wonder why not!

1 minute ago, big smile said:

If I have to add B&W adjustments, that kind of spoils that, as it means I'd now have to have two documents.

If it worked (see above) you could do it with a single document. You would simply switch off the adjustment layer when you wanted a colour PDF.

[Wosven]

Hi,

You can try to convert the colour space of your document to grey before exporting — and go back to colour in the history after the export —, but there's a bug in the last beta and some effects like Drop shadow disapear when doing so (it was working fine in the previous beta).

The workaround with the last beta is to use another version of the app, or, if you can't open the file in another version, to rasterise the parts with the effects (hopefully it's only in the illustrations, and you can keep the text above).

 

For example: I originally worked on a colour version of a game, and later it was decided to only do it in B&W. When converting the file to grey, I noticed the effects on the vectors objects disapeared (but reapear when switching back to colours...). So, each time I need to export to PDF after some modifications, I convert the file to colours, rasterised the groups with parts with visible effects.

Switch back the file to grey before exporting to PDF.

[big smile]

@Wosven are your comments referring to the beta version, because I am using Affinity 1.8.4.

 

I also did try converting the document to grey colour space, but the distorted images still occur. 

[Wosven]

@big smile

Did you tried masking some elements, like the linked Designer files to test if it keep on?

Or perhaps there's an adjustment layer causing this?

[big smile]

2 hours ago, Wosven said:

@big smile

Did you tried masking some elements, like the linked Designer files to test if it keep on?

Or perhaps there's an adjustment layer causing this?

My Affinity Photo file (that is included in the Publisher file as a link [e.g. not embedded]) makes use of both a mask (to hide the white background in the photo) and an adjustment layer (to change the colours of the photo).

If I turn off both the mask and the adjustment layer, then it will come out just fine. 
If I keep any one of the mask OR adjustment layer, then problems occur.

However, these problems only occur if I export the document as a black and white PDF. If I export it as colour it is fine. 

I guess this means I will have to rasterize my Affinity Photo? I'd rather not, as I like the flexibility that comes from having a layered version. (I know I can keep a backup copy, but still....)

 

 

[Wosven]

51 minutes ago, big smile said:

My Affinity Photo file (that is included in the Publisher file as a link [e.g. not embedded]) makes use of both a mask (to hide the white background in the photo) and an adjustment layer (to change the colours of the photo).

If I turn off both the mask and the adjustment layer, then it will come out just fine. 
If I keep any one of the mask OR adjustment layer, then problems occur.

Ads I did, you just need to group this, duplicate and rasterise it, hide the original group, and export to grey PDF.

[big smile]

I need to test some more but the way to fix this seems to be as follows:

PDF Export options: 

Color Space: As document

Profile: Generic Gray

√ Convert Image Color spaces

Using this seems to make everything work so far (without having to change the artwork), but I will keep on testing. 

[Wosven]

My problem was coming from the hardware acceleration option. Disabling it solve it.

It's good that you found the solution