Add/hide Affinity files in PDF & TIFF formats to improve efficiency (like Illustrator and Photoshop)

[loukash]

  

4 hours ago, uneMule said:

1 bit tiff!?

45 minutes ago, loukash said:

Place in APu/ADe/APh, colorize with K Only active

A quick example for illustration:

Also keep an eye on the resolution and on the XY positions of both the picture frame and the placed image. Make sure they are integer pixel values to avoid antialiasing on PDF export. But that's another (sad) story…

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, Fixx said:

Seems AP can read Photoshop tif layers but PS (CS6) cannot read Affinity layers.

Correct. The Photoshop TIFF layers are probably a form of PSD, which is at least partly documented. The Affinity format is not documented.

[uneMule]

@loukash

merci pour le retour.
Juste un commentaire à chaud et après une lecture "en diagonale".
Gérer des fichier 1 bit (pour le print) c'est aussi mettre la résolution en adéquation avec la nature du fichier.
Je regarde et je teste.

*****

thanks for the feedback.
Just a quick comment after a "diagonal" reading.
Managing 1 bit files (for print) is also about setting the resolution to match the nature of the file.
I'm looking at it and testing it.

[loukash]

14 minutes ago, uneMule said:

Managing 1 bit files (for print) is also about setting the resolution to match the nature of the file.

Of course. Usually you would want to go with 1200 ppi. Hence the downsampling problem on PDF export: you may need to downsample all regular composite images to ±300 ppi in advance before placing them in your layout, or rasterize them in place to match the document's 300 ppi setting as the last step before exporting.

Also, we can't work around the default "JPEG compression" on PDF export. It must be disabled, else trouble.

These are all workarounds.
If you have many 1-bit images in many documents to handle, it will be a p.i.t.a. (pain in the arm).

But if you just need to use the 1-bit workflow occasionally, it's manageable.

Also, sometimes it's worth to convert a 1-bit image to vector straight away; all problems solved.
You can't automate that in Affinity yet – only by redrawing it manually – but there's a plenty of affordable 3rd party solutions to vectorize bitmap.

[uneMule]

5 minutes ago, loukash said:

Also, sometimes it's worth to convert a 1-bit image to vector straight away; all problems solved.

Une proposition qui ouvre la question de "la vectorisation automatique" dans Designer 😉

A proposal that opens the question of "automatic vectorization" in Designer 😉

[loukash]

Just now, uneMule said:

"automatic vectorization" in Designer

We're all eagerly waiting for this feature to be added! The hopes are on the "mythical" but eventually-to-happen Affinity v2.0, but you better don't hold your breath.

Meanwhile, I'm still using Illustrator CS5 for such tasks, then copying the vector paths to Designer/Publisher for further editing. As long as AI runs on my Mac, no problem with that workflow.

[Pšenda]

On 5/16/2021 at 11:01 PM, ashf said:

Non-native formats in Save command may cause the confusion.

I agree with you (in my applications I divided into Save/SaveAs and Export many years ago), but I will add for completeness.

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/GetStarted/save.html

[Wosven]

4 hours ago, uneMule said:

Non mais le tiff 1 bit !?
Et toutes les bricoles qu'on insère dans les compositions, les signatures, les petits logos... à mettre en couleur.
Il me semble que ma grand mère utilisait déjà ça à son époque...

*****

No but the 1 bit tiff!?
And all the odds and ends that are inserted in the compositions, the signatures, the little logos... to be coloured.
It seems to me that my grandmother already used this in her time... 😁

Héhé, yes, it's an old technique.

We used this a lot when doing 2 Pantones document. The trick was to use complementary Pantone, or 2 ones that can produce black or nice grey when mixing the colors. It means that in the end, the document looked like 3 colors instead of 2. And it was possible to obtain really interesting results with pictures. From near reality to infrared, lol

It was also an interesting way, since QXD could select specific alpha channels stored in a file, to duplicate the same image on the same position, use different mask and color to produce good effect.

Each year, we only had to modify the main colors of the documents, and voilà! (at the time, our printer just needed 2 plates, and we told him which plate matched which Pantone, and that was all). We could create swatches made of the mix of the 2 Pantones this way, etc.

Today, it keep on be used in magazines that need to change monthly main colors in different parts and some drawings, logo, etc. Especially in magazines for children.

 

Some examples, completely differents from the usual cyan & black or other less fun 2 colors used at the time:

[loukash]

5 minutes ago, Wosven said:

in the end, the document looked like 3 colors instead of 2

Good ole oldschool duotone workflow!

More on that here:

… where I have rebuilt one of my "antique" QXP duotone layouts in Affinity as an "exercise".

6 minutes ago, Wosven said:

Some examples, completely differents from the usual cyan & black or other less fun 2 colors used at the time

Nice. Looks familiar to me for sure. I should finally scan my covers for an underground magazine I did in the early 1990s.

[uneMule]

J'étais sur le point de faire un commentaire du style "pourquoi mettre des couleurs de ton direct si on ne peut pas les séparer ?".
Dans la série des questions : créer des couleurs composées, c'est au menu du jour ?
Pour l'anecdote, je me souviens de l'époque où on changeait les valeur LAB des couches cmjn de Photoshop pour simuler le rendu en Pantone. Mais c'est une autre époque !

*****

I was about to make a comment like "why put direct tone colours if you can't separate them?".
In the series of questions: is creating compound colours on today's menu?
For the anecdote, I remember when we used to change the LAB value of the cmjn layers in Photoshop to simulate the rendering in Pantone. But that's another era!

[loukash]

40 minutes ago, uneMule said:

in Photoshop to simulate the rendering in Pantone

In an Adobe/Quark workflow, you'd go with duo/tri/quadtone EPS images created in PS. That was a no-brainer since the 1990s.
But Affinity cannot understand duotone EPS.

A while ago I made another APu exercise from scratch with tritone:

You can use Multiply blend modes on the overprint layers for preview, then set to Passthrough on PDF export.
PDF/X-3 exports works alright:

It needs quite some tweaking compared to the relatively seamless InDesign/Photoshop EPS duotone workflow, but for small jobs it's manageable if the result is worth it.

[uneMule]

@loukash

En suivant votre lien, je suis tombé sur le sujet "préparer votre fichier pour une impression offset en deux couleurs" .*
Et effectivement le réglage "Honor spot color" est mis en évidence.
Toujours réfléchir avant d'agir !

* le titre ne précise pas s'il s'agit de tons directs 🙄

*****

Following your link, I came across the subject :

and indeed the "Honor spot color setting" is highlighted.
Always think before you act!

[loukash]

1 minute ago, uneMule said:

Honor spot color

Of course, that's a must.
Also, avoid any transparencies, those convert to CMYK.
Overprint works, aside from some bugs with gradient fills.

4 minutes ago, uneMule said:

Always think before you act!

Nah: Always check the Affinity forums for any possible known bugs before sending file to print…

[Wosven]

4 hours ago, loukash said:

Good ole oldschool duotone workflow!

It look like it, but it's not done in duotones (we couldn't find good results with this, it always looks "muddy").

In fact, the images were keep in CMYK, and we used 2 different techniques.

Easy one: using 2 fill layers with masks

• mix of yellow and magenta plates (usually lighter parts), for the lighter and warm color
• mix of cyan and black plates (usually darker parts), for the darker and cold color

Hard method:

• using Channel mixer layers and adjustements to get only magenta & black, where we want them.
• on top of those, another Channel mixer layer with only Magenta and Black (avoiding 4 plates problems)
• last Channel mixer to convert Magenta to Pantone 1,  Black to Pantone 2. (a bit difficult, to add in the right channel).

Notice that we did this to get the "feel" of the final result, and be able to print a nearly correct document to send to the clients. Internet wasn't as effective or wide spread...

For the PDF for print, we had to hide the last Channel mixer layer, or put back magenta and black in the fill layers, before updating the images. Modify ours colors in QXD (or import the colors or another document with same names but using magenta & black only).
Create the PDF, check the plates, and send to print.

Since we were able to script PS, save QXD files with the colors, etc. it wasn't too difficult, and let time to spend choosing nice colors. The clients and the boss were impressed, we were happy . (and it wasn't the rush as today...). 
It was possible in PS & QXD and its "generic CMYK" profile for PDF, but not in ID later.

 portrait.afphoto

[loukash]

9 minutes ago, Wosven said:

we used 2 different techniques

Thanks for the sample file, I'll check that out tomorrow.

[ashf]

6 hours ago, Pšenda said:

I agree with you (in my applications I divided into Save/SaveAs and Export many years ago), but I will add for completeness.

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/GetStarted/save.html

Yes, saving JPG>JPG/PNG>PNG would be ok I think since the user must be aware of that it's a non-native format.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, ashf said:

Yes, saving JPG>JPG/PNG>PNG would be ok I think

That is already possible. If you open a raster image file (JPG, TIFF, PNG) and make changes that do not result in adding layers (that is, the file remains a flat image file) then you can use File > Save (or Ctrl/Cmd+S) and overwrite the original. But you cannot use Save As; that would give you a native format file (.afphoto, etc.).

If you do add layers, and try to Save, you will be prompted to Flatten the file. If you flatten, it will overwrite the original file; otherwise it will create a native format file.

[ashf]

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

That is already possible. If you open a raster image file (JPG, TIFF, PNG) and make changes that do not result in adding layers (that is, the file remains a flat image file) then you can use File > Save (or Ctrl/Cmd+S) and overwrite the original. But you cannot use Save As; that would give you a native format file (.afphoto, etc.).

If you do add layers, and try to Save, you will be prompted to Flatten the file. If you flatten, it will overwrite the original file; otherwise it will create a native format file.

Yes, I'm aware of it including the override option for PSD.