sharpart Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 On a printout from a PDF created in Designer, the art graphics are more clear and have deeper color where a .PNG image with transparency is than other areas beyond the edge of the .PNG image. In the .afphoto file, line art is in a layer below the .PNG image. I have version 1.9.1 on PC desktop running Win 10 and printing with an HP Laser Jet Pro. I've attached a detail image taken of the printout. What's going on? Is this a bug? Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Does the image look correct in Affinity Photo, are the darker areas not present in the .afphoto file? Are you sure those darker areas are completely transparent? Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pšenda Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 4 hours ago, sharpart said: What's going on? The image/portrait shines through circular segments. Set their opacity to 100%. Quote Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301 Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy05 Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Use a Mask for the image rather than relying on PNG's transparencies. Latter very, very often causes trouble—that's not an Affinity problem. PNG was initially meant to be used for digital purposes only, not for print (i. e. one of the problems is that PNGs don't support CMYK). Quote »A designer's job is to improve the general quality of life. In fact, it's the only reason for our existence.«Paul Rand (1914-1996) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpart Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 Thanks Firstdefence, the segmented border is not in afphoto it is in afdesign. So, no, the artifact is not visible on-screen. Thanks Psenda, all layers are at 100%. Thanks Andy05, I have tried what you suggested. I used a mask to create the transparent area, exported a new .png, placed it into afdesign, print has same issue. I tried exporting image as a .tiff vs. .png, same issue. Also imported the afphoto, same issue. What I finally had to do was, remove the segmented border from afdesign, paste it into the afphoto under the portrait, then place that afphoto into the afdesign. The downside is that the segmented border is now a raster image vs. vector graphics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy05 Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 I'm not sure if I understood you correctly. You masked the circle with the image, exported it as PNG and imported it again? That doesn't help, it'll cause the same issues as it's again a PNG with transparent areas. Instead, mask the image and put it—inclusive mask—into your designer file. There's no need to export it as PNG as additional step in between. Quote »A designer's job is to improve the general quality of life. In fact, it's the only reason for our existence.«Paul Rand (1914-1996) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Like Andy05 says... Girl.afdesign Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpart Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 4 hours ago, sharpart said: ...Also imported the afphoto, same issue. Yes, I was importing the PNG before I got smart. However, even after importing the AFPHOTO directly, and then exporting a PDF and printing, it displayed the same artifact. Nice job, Firstdefence. That's what my AFDESIGN and PDF look like. The printout, not so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pšenda Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 1 hour ago, sharpart said: That's what my AFDESIGN and PDF look like. The printout, not so. Don't want to insert a *.afdesign file here? Quote Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301 Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpart Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 For the sake of discussion I will attach modified files. This afdesign file has the segmented border within it. Remember that I have an acceptable PDF printout by placing the segmented border in the afphoto file prior to importing it into the afdesign file. TimHansX2021.pdf TimHansX2021.afdesign Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pšenda Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 I open your afdesign file, and export to png. Except for the poorly erased corner in the photo, it looks good - no transparency on the segments. But from the position of the GOLD text compared to the photo, it is a different image than the one in the first screenshot. Quote Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301 Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 14 hours ago, sharpart said: Yes, I was importing the PNG before I got smart. However, even after importing the AFPHOTO directly, and then exporting a PDF and printing, it displayed the same artifact. Nice job, Firstdefence. That's what my AFDESIGN and PDF look like. The printout, not so. If you print that out it won’t show the marks you see in yours because of the clipping shape Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpart Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 Sorry, I don't follow. 6 hours ago, firstdefence said: If you print that out it won’t show the marks you see in yours... If I print what out? 6 hours ago, firstdefence said: ...because of the clipping shape The clipping shape is circular in mine (and yours it appears). HOWEVER, I do see something I missed in your post with the image of the girl. You created your clipping mask in Designer, right? I created mine in Photo. Is that significant? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bruce Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 17 minutes ago, sharpart said: You created your clipping mask in Designer, right? I created mine in Photo. Is that significant? Yes. Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 Affinity Designer 2.4.1 | Affinity Photo 2.4.1 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.1 | Beta versions as they appear. I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpart Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 12 hours ago, sharpart said: The clipping shape is circular in mine (and yours it appears). HOWEVER, I do see something I missed in your post with the image of the girl. You created your clipping mask in Designer, right? I created mine in Photo. Is that significant? I fail to see any significant difference between a shape/curve being created in Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer and used as a clipping mask. A shape/curve used to clip an image to that shape/curve is no different whether it was created in Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo, it remains a shape/curve and the image parts that are outside the shape/curve bounds are hidden from view. The online help files are pretty much the same regarding clipping. Affinity Photo: https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/LayerOperations/clipping.html Affinity Designer: https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/pages/Layers/layerClip.html Andy05 1 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarahK Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 (edited) I am seeing similar artifacts printing to an HP Color Laser Jet (CM 2320 nf MFP). The problem appears to be with the printer driver built-in PDF to PostScript converter in macOS as best as I can tell. I tried: 1. printing from Affinity Designer (worst coloring, artifacts) 2. exporting PDF - for print and printing from Preview (improved - fewer artifacts and in different areas) 3. exporting PDF - for press and printing from Preview (same as for print but less noticeable) 4. exporting PDF - for press and printing from a Linux machine that doesn't use the driver (problem disappears!) In all cases the files look perfect on screen. (My main computer is a Mac M1, running macOS Big Sur 11.5.2) Update: I have tested this work-around. Convert the PDF to PostScript and send the raw PostScript to the printer via Terminal using: lpr -o raw < filename.ps Unfortunately, you can't use the built-in converter in macOS file>print>save as PostScript (same artifacts). I got help with one on Linux but I'm sure there are others that will work on the Mac. Edited September 10, 2021 by FarahK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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