Exported Objects Have Added Blank Space

[ACPhillips]

I have created some very simple vector objects. Some are on Artboards and some are not. Recently, when I select the object to export, the output saved (as PNG or JPG doesn't matter) often includes a random are of blank white space behind it, that was never selected. I have used Designer for several years and never had this problem until recently. Ultimately I have to crop what should be a clean image, down to the correct dimensions. The problem starts in the selecting process. Does not matter if I'm in Designer or Pixel Personas mode.  EX: If my selected object of choice is square, I will see the size box improperly showing as some rectangular dimension. Not even close to square. When saved, the resulting file show a huge rectangular area of empty space with the desired object in the lower right corner.  I understand not to select the entire workspace or artboard - I am only selecting the desired object.  This also happens with or without the background included.  It's clearly not right but I can find no help to fix it.  Please advise ASAP.  I am wasting a lot of time doing added work that I never had to before.

[Dan C]

Hi @ACPhillips,

Sorry to see you're having trouble!

I'm going to require a copy of your .afdesign file to investigate this further. Can you please upload this to the below link for me?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/OWn8whOecRiu07SMsOcT

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know. Many thanks

[EddieBT]

I would like to resurrect this thread as I have the same issue, in that exporting a selected object from Designer brings with it extra spacing.

Images below show:

1. Selected for export
2. Opened export file in Photo
3. Example of previous export (without spaces) in earlier Designer version, compared to the present.

Specs: Win 10
Designer Version:  1.10.1.1142

Edited September 20, 2021 by EddieBT

[Dan C]

Hi @EddieBT,

Welcome to the forums

Sorry to hear you're having trouble here. Can you please attach a copy of your .afdesign file to your reply, alongside a screenshot of your Export settings, including the 'More...' dialog for me?

Many thanks in advance!

[EddieBT]

As requested, Dan.

svg_export.afdesign

[Dan C]

Many thanks for providing this for me!

If you tick Flatten Transforms in this export dialog, you should find the exported SVG is the same size as your AD document

svg_export.svg

[EddieBT]

Thanks Dan.

Hmmm. I did as you explained and ticked the Flatten Transforms, but it made no difference. The file is still saving as though I had chosen whole document.

[Dan C]

My sincerest apologies, I had not realised that Affinity had re-defaulted to Area: Whole Document when I exported this file again with Flatten Transforms enabled - you're correct in the above observation that this has not changed the export. 

I can confirm this is happening due to the Mitre value set to 10 for the Curve object, which is pushing the export size to be much larger that expected.

The Mitre value can be set to 2, without affecting the appearance of the Curve - once this is set you should be able to use the SVG (for export) preset with Area: Selection Only to export the SVG without this additional space.

This is logged with our developers as a bug, so I will be sure to 'bump' this report for you now. I hope this helps

[EddieBT]

Thanks, Dan.

I was able to get this to work as per your instruction. It did seem to ignore settings on occasion, but I can work with it pending the bug fix.

Cheers

Eddie

[csleightholme]

Hello,

Did this ever get resolved ?

I am using Affinity Photo and almost every time I have been doing some cropping and export the result, spurious blank areas appear in the exported jpg file.

Also, today I open a jpg file, did a simple resize, and exported the result and again the blank space appeared in the output.

[Dan C]

Hi @csleightholme,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

If your issue is not relating to SVG export or Mitre limits, I'm going to need a copy of your Affinity document, in order to investigate this further.

Can you please provide a copy of your .afphoto file, the exported JPEG file, and a screenshot of your JPEG Export settings, including the 'More...' options?

Many thanks in advance!

[Vik Martin]

Hi - I've got this problem too. My svg has space top and bottom after exporting it.

I couldn't see an option to set mitre value but if I open the file in a text editor I can see it says stroke-miterlimit:2;

You can see in this screenshot that the layer is square even though the document isn't so I'm wondering if that's got something to do with it

I've also attached the exported SVG file. Hope you can help

curved-divider6.svg

[Dan C]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble @Vik Martin!

33 minutes ago, Vik Martin said:

I couldn't see an option to set mitre value

This is set in the Stroke Studio, or the Stroke options on the Context Toolbar with your Curve object selected.

Are you able to provide a copy of your Affinity document here for me, so I can investigate further?

[Vik Martin]

Ah yes here it is... Also found the mitre setting and it's set to 1.5

curve path.afphoto

Edited July 26 by Vik Martin

[Dan C]

Thanks for providing this for me!

I can confirm your SVG file itself does not have additional 'space' above/below the object, as if you reimport the file into Affinity, you will see no additional space is shown, however this may be displayed with this space above/below when viewing the SVG in a web browser etc.

The cause of this is not the Mitre value, but the 'Set Viewbox' option when exporting to SVG - please untick this option and you should find that the space is no longer shown above/below the SVG when viewing.

I hope this helps  

[Vik Martin]

Thanks Dan. That got rid of the spaces but now only the left half of the curve is showing

[Dan C]

I'm unsure what you're viewing the exported file in, but it may simply be out of view. Try zooming out and hopefully the full curve should be shown:

 If not, can you verify how you are viewing the exported SVG file?

[Vik Martin]

I'm viewing it in chrome, and I can see now that it's just that its very wide. But when I upload it to the website it isn't scaleable, so I think it does need viewbox to be ticked. I'm very very confused about all of this. Is there a way of setting the viewbox to be only the exact size of the path?

[Dan C]

48 minutes ago, Vik Martin said:

But when I upload it to the website it isn't scaleable, so I think it does need viewbox to be ticked. I'm very very confused about all of this.

This will likely depend on the way the website interprets the SVG, I don't have personal experience using these files with a website builder - so I'd be unable to comment on that directly, my apologies.
Many website builders will have specific requirements for vector files, meaning you might need to experiment with export settings from Affinity or confirm the exact requirements before exporting the file.

Equally, according to the following link, 'padding' can be displayed for certain SVG files in order to retain the correct aspect ratio:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/68906380

50 minutes ago, Vik Martin said:

Is there a way of setting the viewbox to be only the exact size of the path?

The viewbox is an SVG standard attribute, which is further explained below:

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/svg-viewbox-attribute/

When exporting your SVG from Affinity with the viewbox enabled, the following is used in the SVG code:

"viewBox="0 0 3308 474"

Which shows that the X & Y positions for the curve are set to 0,0 - as expected. This can also be confirmed by reopening the exported SVG in Affinity, where the object appears with no additional space surrounding it. Therefore I don't believe this is an issue with the SVG exporter in Affinity at this time