Affinity Publisher: Adjustment layers don't appear in export

[shhoboy]

I have imported a multi-page PDF file into Publisher with the objective of increasing the contrast on each page.  Opened each page from the Pages panel and applied a Levels adjustment layer to each one, everything looks good on screen.  But then when I either print the document or Export it to a new PDF, the image is still low contrast, the adjustment layer has had no effect.  Am I missing a step?  Thanks for any help!

[Dan C]

Hi @shhoboy,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums 

Sorry to hear you're having trouble here! Can you please provide a screenshot of the Affinity app, clearing showing the Layers Studio for me, then navigate to File > Export and provide a screenshot of your PDF export settings, including the 'More...' options dialog.

Many thanks in advance!

[shhoboy]

Thanks, Dan!  Here are the screenshots.  As you can see, the Pages panel and the main window show a good level of contrast, but this does not appear in the Export or printed version.
 

[Dan C]

Many thanks for your screenshots!

I've tried replicating this here on both Mac and Windows and the PDF document is exporting correctly for me - so I'd like to request a copy of your .afpub file and the exported PDF, for further investigation.

Can you please upload these to the below link for me, then once uploaded reply here to let me know

https://www.dropbox.com/request/pJGOPM2EWlTmKGpDrfhg

Many thanks!

[shhoboy]

Thanks for investigating!  The files are uploaded.  As you can see the PDF is considerably lower contrast than what displays in the .afpub

Steve

[Dan C]

Many thanks for your file! I can confirm that the app is technically doing the correct thing here when exporting - however I certainly understand this isn't the result you're looking for and it does appear as though the display within Publisher is incorrect.

Affinity apps use MIP Maps to display your canvas when zoomed at various levels, which can cause the document to appear slightly differently to how it may appear when exported. For this reason, we always recommend viewing the document at the 'Pixel Size' zoom level (CTRL + 9) before exporting - as this will correctly display the document as it will be exported.

However, this document is still displayed incorrectly in Publisher at this zoom level, with the same document opened in Affinity Photo, you can see Photo displays the document as it is exported -

I have passed this file through to our QA/development teams for further investigation and I will be sure to respond here ASAP with any suggestions we may have

[shhoboy]

Thanks for your reply.  What I am trying to do is achieve a total black on the notes and staves, and am finding that when viewing a page as "pixel size" adjustment layers don't make a difference -- the sliders alter the pixels, but then somehow get automatically "corrected" to the original greyed out image.  It would certainly be possible to load each page as a separate image into Photo or whatever, but it would be great to be able to load a PDF, make changes, and safe as a PDF.  Can you think of a way to do this?

thanks,

Steve

 

[Old Bruce]

2 hours ago, shhoboy said:

Thanks for your reply.  What I am trying to do is achieve a total black on the notes and staves, and am finding that when viewing a page as "pixel size" adjustment layers don't make a difference -- the sliders alter the pixels, but then somehow get automatically "corrected" to the original greyed out image.  It would certainly be possible to load each page as a separate image into Photo or whatever, but it would be great to be able to load a PDF, make changes, and safe as a PDF.  Can you think of a way to do this?

The image that @Dan C had a screenshot of is what I used, it looks like an old xerox copy. There is a lot of black and white within the notes that you would want to be pure black. I used an old trick from my misspent youth. Give a bit of a blur (one pixel in this case and then play with the levels amount of Black and White to sharpen stuff up.

[Dan C]

11 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

I used an old trick from my misspent youth. Give a bit of a blur (one pixel in this case and then play with the levels amount of Black and White to sharpen stuff up.

This is what I was missing when trying to adjust this image for the customer, thank you for the great tip Bruce

13 hours ago, shhoboy said:

but it would be great to be able to load a PDF, make changes, and safe as a PDF.  Can you think of a way to do this?

The above step should allow you to adjust the contrast as desired, you can use File > Place in Publisher to introduce a PDF document to a pre-existing document, or you can use File > Open to create a new document whilst importing the PDF, then File > Export when you're finished editing, to export the document out as PDF.  

[shhoboy]

This is great, thanks Bruce!  Exactly right, it's from a 40-year-old photocopy, which had apparently scanned into black and white pixels instead of grayscale.  Your solution worked beautifully.

and thanks, Dan, for your help!