How to export non blurry images?

[Nazario]

How do I export an image without it being blurred? Im trying to export a very simple graphic with only straight edges and no matter what settings or formats I use every single one is blurry. As i cant use Affinity for my professional print work (see my other posts) I thought I'd have a crack at designing a new website and the graphics for it and literally the first thing I do, as is usually the case with Affinity, I hit a massive stumbling block that puts a complete halt to my attempts to adopt this software, 6 years on!

I see numerous posts about blurry exports but nothing conclusive to fix it. I want to export what I see on screen, pixel for pixel, why cant I do that? When I try to open the exported file again in Photo to see how bad it is the image appears upside down too?! What is going on?!

 

[BofG]

Which app are you exporting from?

[Nazario]

Designer at first but then Photo. Same result. Ive used the export persona and exported from standard persona's. Ie tried every setting bicubic etc and while there are slight differences NOTHING will export without being blurred.

[BofG]

In Designer, you need to set it to force pixel alignment and move by whole pixels.

If you set your units to pixels and look in the transform panel for those elements you'll see their x,y values are not whole numbers, probably the w/h too. When this is the case you will get anti-aliasing and hence some degree of blur.

[Nazario]

Yup done all that. Im a professional designer. Everything is pixel perfect in the app. Forced on, everything is created using exact pixels in the transform window, no hand drawn boxes etc. Everything perfectly aligned.

[MEB]

Hi Nazario,
 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) in the application, otherwise you may still have non-integer values (like 23,005 for example) which may currently appear as integer values in the Transform panel.

Enabling Force Pixel Alignment only forces the alignment of new objects you create after setting it ON, so you may still have to fix a few objects coordinates if you haven't enabled it from beginning. Move by whole pixels should be turned OFF to ensure any objects you move/adjust don't keep up the decimal parts in case they were originally on non-integer values.

If you still have issues please attach the file in question so we can take a look.

[Nazario]

Thank you MEB. Never really clicked what that preference panel did but now you mention it in context thats a very powerful feature for high precision work. Pretty cool. 

A question however is why should 'move by whole pixels' be switched OFF? Sounds counter intuitive? Or is that just to counter the minute fixes after changing the decimal places?

Oh and why does the exported image appear upside down in Affinity Photo after exporting?!

[Pšenda]

32 minutes ago, Nazario said:

A question however is why should 'move by whole pixels' be switched OFF? Sounds counter intuitive?

This option ensures that the starting position Y.xxx remains Z.xxx again after the move. Therefore, it is correct to use only "Force Pixel Alignment" because it will secure the position at Z.000

Edit: Unfortunately, it is not at all clear which option has priority. But the current behavior is logical, because otherwise both choices at the same time would be meaningless.

For interest:

https://www.google.com/search?q=move+by+whole+pixels+site%3Aforum.affinity.serif.com

Edited October 27, 2020 by Pšenda

[MEB]

Hi Nazario,
The exported image should never appear upside down. Have you rotated the document's view? Enable the rulers (menu View > Show Rulers) and check if the negative values appear on the right of the zero on the top horizontal ruler. If that's the case the document view is upside down. To fix it go to menu View > Reset Rotation. Now the objects on canvas should be upside down - rotate/fix them so they are correctly positioned then export the file again. Did it fix the issue? If not, can you please attach the file to check what's going on? I can provide an upload link if you wish to keep the file private. 

[Nazario]

Can you provide the link please. The Designer view is the right way up I've now checked. I didn't even know you could rotate the view like that to begin with! When I open the exported file(s) into Photo they appear upside down. Rotate view indeed fixes the issue but why is it appearing upside down in the first place?

If you can provide the link I'll send you the designer working doc and two exported pngs from it that both appear upside down in Photo.

Also even with 6 decimal places and no 'half pixels' in the pixel transform window im still getting blurry exports. Take close look at the pngs when you get them.Maybe have a look at the designer file to see if i'm missing something with regards alignment? Ive spent all morning trying to export the same logo at two different sizes.

[MEB]

Here's the upload link. Thank you.

Are you working with artbords? If so, are they pixel aligned too? Click on their layer's labels in the Layers panel and check the X,Y coordinates and width and height in the Transform panel - are they integer values?

[Nazario]

Nope. Literally this morning I created the doc I sent you and thats all ive been working on trying to get an export from them that doesn't blur. 

[Nazario]

I've recreated the designer document. Set up a 1px grid to make damn sure everything is aligned to 1px, recreated the logo from scratch and this time Im getting better results. There are only 32 nodes to check and every one is perfectly placed like the last file but this one is working AND its not appearing upside down in Photo afterwards! No idea what the issue was but its taken me since 8.30am until 415pm to export one logo to an acceptable standard.

[MEB]

I have tried your files already but haven't been able to reproduce the issues you are describing. The logo (all sizes) are perfectly pixel aligned and export and open fine for me in Affinity Photo (not upside down). Still want to take a deeper look at this.