MikeTO Posted April 24, 2021 Share Posted April 24, 2021 I'm new to Publisher so I don't know if this is a real issue or just an on-screen preview thing. Most of the photos in my book are colour and look great on screen in Publisher. Some are B&W and look dull on screen. Is this just a preview thing or do I need to fix something? Example: On the left is the photo as viewed in Affinity Photo or any other application. On the right is the same photo imported into Publisher. Grey/8, Grey Gamma 2.2. Thanks for your assistance. Quote Download a free manual for Publisher 2.3 from this forum - expanded 260-page PDF Affinity 2.3.1 for macOS Sonoma 14.3, MacBook Pro 14" (M1 Pro) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bruce Posted April 24, 2021 Share Posted April 24, 2021 The one on the right looks like it is CMYK with the Black only (K only) button used. On the Left you see the four inks contributing to make up a rich black and on the Right there is only the K channel being used. Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.2 Affinity Designer 2.3.1 | Affinity Photo 2.3.1 | Affinity Publisher 2.3.1 | 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...
MikeTO Posted April 24, 2021 Author Share Posted April 24, 2021 4 hours ago, Old Bruce said: The one on the right looks like it is CMYK with the Black only (K only) button used. On the Left you see the four inks contributing to make up a rich black and on the Right there is only the K channel being used. That's exactly what it looks like. Just to eliminate the possibility that it's the photo itself which was saved from macOS Preview, I tried: 1. Opening the photo in AF Photo, converting to CMYK and then back to greyscale 8. Export as TIFF, reimport into AF Publisher. No change. Then I tried converting to RGB and back to greyscale but got the same results. 2. Then I repeated with Photoshop, converting to both CMYK and RGB and back to greyscale. There was a noticeable improvement. It's not perfect but it's better. It's interesting that Photoshop's default TIFF greyscale/8 export is markedly different than AF photo and macOS Preview. But then I tried converting to CMYK and not converting it back to greyscale. Export as TIFF from both Photoshop and AF Photo. Reimport both into AF Publisher and they both look perfect. Now my document's colour profile is currently set to U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2. I just left it on the default since I'm unsure what I'll use yet. I tried playing around with this (in a blank document since AF Publisher really didn't like me changing this with hundreds of photos already in the document. I'll have to deal with that later.) There were differences between profiles but in all of them the greyscale one looked dull and lifeless while the CMYK photo looked great. Surely the solution isn't to avoid greyscale TIFFs? Thanks for your help. Quote Download a free manual for Publisher 2.3 from this forum - expanded 260-page PDF Affinity 2.3.1 for macOS Sonoma 14.3, MacBook Pro 14" (M1 Pro) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bruce Posted April 24, 2021 Share Posted April 24, 2021 Is this button highlighted when you choose the actual image/photo with the move tool? It will give that washed out look. Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.2 Affinity Designer 2.3.1 | Affinity Photo 2.3.1 | Affinity Publisher 2.3.1 | 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...
MikeTO Posted April 25, 2021 Author Share Posted April 25, 2021 13 hours ago, Old Bruce said: Is this button highlighted when you choose the actual image/photo with the move tool? It will give that washed out look. Oh, thank you, yes that's it. I assume I'd want K Only on for printing a true grayscale image in CMYK, right? Should I be doing something differently to prepare these photos before importing? Thanks. Quote Download a free manual for Publisher 2.3 from this forum - expanded 260-page PDF Affinity 2.3.1 for macOS Sonoma 14.3, MacBook Pro 14" (M1 Pro) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bruce Posted April 25, 2021 Share Posted April 25, 2021 I would take the B&W images and make them true Greyscale instead of RGB or CMYK Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.2 Affinity Designer 2.3.1 | Affinity Photo 2.3.1 | Affinity Publisher 2.3.1 | 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...
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