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Frequently prints wrong colours, sometimes even adds random shapes from affinity designer


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Quite often I will finish a design I am happy with, go to print it only to have something else print that isn't what was shown on the preview. If I print it from another programme or in the case with this example export as different file type and then print from affinity designer it prints correct colours. In the past I have even had random big shapes added when printing from designer that won't appear if printing from a different file format. Anyone else had this or know what is going on?

png print version.jpg

affinity print version.jpg

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Hi @ronanski,

When printing, you need to take into account multiple colour profiles, such as:

The document profile,
The printer profile
The current display profile

If one of these profiles is set incorrectly then colours may appear differently when printing. What profiles do you have in use for your Affinity document & printer please?

More information regarding this can be found in the below articles -

https://affinityspotlight.com/article/designing-for-professional-printing/

https://affinityspotlight.com/article/display-colour-management-in-the-affinity-apps/

14 hours ago, ronanski said:

In the past I have even had random big shapes added when printing from designer that won't appear if printing from a different file format

I've certainly not heard of this being reported before - are you able to provide a copy of the .afdesign that shows this when printing please?

Many thanks in advance :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey heres the file. So colour format says CMYK/8 & colour profile says U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2... all I really understand is cmyk and rgb. But this cannot really be the issue here as some of the colours that are the same in the document are printing differently than each other, but they will print the same as each other from any other programme.

stripes & bow hb.afdesign

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Thanks for confirming that for me and for providing a copy of your file!

When printing, your printer will use a profile - usually a custom profile - to interpret and print the colours. What profile is your printer using please?

As above, your monitor colour profile may also have an effect here. Are you using Windows or macOS with Affinity please? I can provide instructions for how to check your monitor profile once I know which OS you are running :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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Thanks for confirming once again!

When printing you will be converting from CMYK to sRGB if this is your printer profile - and that will cause a difference in the colours of the output.

Is there a reason you are not creating your document in the sRGB colour space if this is the profile your printer is using?

In order to find your monitor profile, please open Windows Run (Windows Key + R) then paste the following string and press OK:

colorcpl

In the window that opens, please select the main monitor in use from the dropdown (if multiple are connected), then upload a screenshot of your settings here.

For example, please see mine below -

image.png

Many thanks once again :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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I haven't chosen either of these profiles, it was just on that. But surely I should be using CMYK if I am intending to print and RGB for digital? I should mention it appears there are about 20 other options I can choose for the printer profile, but don't understand what any of these mean and cannot see a cmyk related one.

But as I said before this cannot be related to my issue as whatever the difference in colour between the screen and printer, there is also a difference in colour between the same exact colours in the screen version in the print version.

I tried as you requested above with the screenshot below but there don't appear to be anything listed in mine...

monitor profile settings.png

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16 hours ago, ronanski said:

But surely I should be using CMYK if I am intending to print and RGB for digital?

If your printer is using an RGB profile to print and Affinity is using a CMYK profile for the document then this will be converted upon printing and would certainly change the perceived colours - you only need to use a CMYK document if the printer is using a CMYK profile.

I'd recommend converting your document within Affinity to RGB - does this now more closely match the printed result?

17 hours ago, ronanski said:

I tried as you requested above with the screenshot below but there don't appear to be anything listed in mine...

monitor profile settings.png

If you tick the box 'use my settings for this device', does a profile now appear? If not, please select 'Add' and then select the same profile that is in use for my monitor and restart Affinity.

Please do let me know how you get on here :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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Ah! So when I changed the document colour format to RGB it actually instantly changed the colours on the screen, is this normal? And printing from that it did indeed seem to print more or less correct colours in reference to what was on the screen. When I change this setting will it change globally? or will I have to change it on all of my documents individually?

So I have attached another document that was having a slightly different problem. As you can see on the jpg it is printing incorrectly with random blue bits cutting into the birds head which are not in the design and do not print when I print from other file types such as png. I tried changing the colour format for this but it did not resolve it. Any ideas what is going on here?

So I ticked that box and nothing came up. I tried 'add' and the other screenshot here is what I saw. I didn't select any of them as not sure what is the 'same profile that is in use for my monitor' and what that would do. Don't know if this list tells you anything or not?

 

affinity print missing shapes_LI.jpg

colour profiles.png

newbaby.afdesign

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On 2/18/2022 at 10:22 PM, ronanski said:

So when I changed the document colour format to RGB it actually instantly changed the colours on the screen, is this normal?

Yes, that's to be expected as you're changing the way the Affinity app 'interprets' the colours in your document.

On 2/18/2022 at 10:22 PM, ronanski said:

When I change this setting will it change globally? or will I have to change it on all of my documents individually?

This is an option you have when creating the document, so you will need to make sure the document you are creating is set to the correct colour space - 

image.png

On 2/18/2022 at 10:22 PM, ronanski said:

So I have attached another document that was having a slightly different problem. As you can see on the jpg it is printing incorrectly with random blue bits cutting into the birds head which are not in the design and do not print when I print from other file types such as png. I tried changing the colour format for this but it did not resolve it. Any ideas what is going on here?

Just to confirm with this document, are you using File > Print from within Affinity Designer, or are you using File > Export (selecting JPEG) and then printing this JPEG externally?

On 2/18/2022 at 10:22 PM, ronanski said:

So I ticked that box and nothing came up. I tried 'add' and the other screenshot here is what I saw. I didn't select any of them as not sure what is the 'same profile that is in use for my monitor' and what that would do. Don't know if this list tells you anything or not?

Apologies as I certainly could have been clearer! In this dialog that opens (the one in your screenshot) select 'sRGB IEC61966-2.1' and click OK, this should then be assigned to your monitor correctly through Windows :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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Thanks.

So when I print normally from affinity designer, that is when the weird shapes appear. If I export as anything else and print that from another programme or within affinity it prints normally.

 

Oh I see what you mean, I have added that colour profile now.

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Thanks for confirming that for me!

I can see that when printing this document the Curve(s) layers are being 'Expanded' - and some of your Curve objects have 'Pressure' applied to them.

There's a current known bug in Affinity when 'expanding' these curves with pressure applied, and this is causing the issues you're seeing when printing.

I have removed the pressure applied to these curves and expanded the strokes, then saved the document and attached this below - you should find when printing this there are no missing parts of this object in the print.

I hope this helps :)

newbaby_f.afdesign

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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  • 3 months later...

Similar problem again. Now seems to be printing random lines that are not part of design. Delved down into all the layers and cannot see any reason for these appearing as they are not part of the design.

Firstly there are the black lines around some of the butterflies.

Secondly there are the white lines (or gaps) going through the black circles even though these are perfectly flush with no space inbetween. These do atleast appear on the programme even though they are not there. I am aware this is a long term bug where it looks like there are lines there when there aren't and you can check by zooming in and they get thinner and thinner or dissapear so you know they're not actually there, and they shouldn't print out. But occasionally they seem to show up even on the printed version like this time. Though they never will if i export to another programme or file type, so again it seems to be another bug with affinity. I have checked and the print profile and colour profile of document match so not sure how to rectify this issue.

I have attached both the design file and a scan of what printed. Please help.

IMG_20220612_0001.jpg

butterfies on polka.afdesign

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18 minutes ago, ronanski said:

Secondly there are the white lines (or gaps) going through the black circles even though these are perfectly flush with no space inbetween. 

This is most likely due to the fact that the Pixel size of the symbols is 136.3 pixels square. It is the dreaded fractional pixel problem. I would make the background with dots made using a step and repeat duplication. Make a dot select it duplicate it (Command/Control + J) it and move the copy 140 +/- pixels over and then duplicate that and the copy will be the same distance over again. Repeat until you have your first row then select all and move a copy down however much etc etc. The use of symbols that are not Integer pixel sized squares gives this problem quite frequently.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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So why has it become a fraction of a pixel? How do I find out how big things are in pixels? And how do I prevent this from happening? The initial asset I created is just 40 x 40mm (and I assume an exact number of pixels). I just shrunk it down by dragging to a sensible size for the design, but surely this should snap to only exact numbers of pixels?

I suppose with this particular design I could recreate it without symbols but alot of the time I need the symbol function especially if constantly adjusting colours etc. so how would I get around this issue?

And any idea what is going on with the black lines, can you see if it prints like that for you?

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15 hours ago, ronanski said:

How do I find out how big things are in pixels?

You can use File > Document Setup and change the Units to Pixels to view this.

15 hours ago, ronanski said:

how do I prevent this from happening?

Force Pixel Alignment in the Snapping options can prevent this from happening (see - https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/39469-what-is-the-difference-between-move-by-whole-pixels-and-force-pixel-alignment/&do=findComment&comment=197091 )

16 hours ago, ronanski said:

The initial asset I created is just 40 x 40mm (and I assume an exact number of pixels)

This unfortunately isn't how pixel sizes will work, they are converted taking the document DPI into account - so an exact millimeter measurement does not equal an exact pixel value.

16 hours ago, ronanski said:

I suppose with this particular design I could recreate it without symbols but alot of the time I need the symbol function especially if constantly adjusting colours etc. so how would I get around this issue?

For this document, as you've mentioned, I'd recommend using a repeating Bitmap fill, rather than vector symbols as this will always interact with anti-aliasing (causing the lines you're seeing). If you wish to continue using vector symbols, you can select all of these layers then under the Blend Options (cog icon at the top of the layers studio) you can set Anti-aliasing to Force Off -

image.png

As above, I have created a PNG from your symbol, then used this as a bitmap fill repeating in a rectangle shape to replace the symbols - you can see this in the document attached below.

butterfies on polka_f.afdesign

16 hours ago, ronanski said:

And any idea what is going on with the black lines, can you see if it prints like that for you?

I can confirm I'm seeing the same lines when printing, however this isn't occurring on all printers here, so I'm not 100% certain of the cause of this currently.

Therefore I'm logging this file with our developers, but in the meantime when printing please select the Rasterization section, and enable Rasterise Entire Page, this should stop the lines from appearing on your print.

image.png

I hope this helps :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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On 6/13/2022 at 1:37 PM, Dan C said:

This would surely create an even bigger problem though wouldn't it? as if they are aligned to exact pixels, then the patterns won't be aligned so I will either have overlaps or real gaps as opposed to ones created by a glitch, so it will definitely print with gaps in then as there will actually be gaps in the design, whereas at the moment I have atleast created a design without gaps but it seems to show gaps and lines because of this glitch.

Can you explain to me what anti-aliasing means? And with the one you created unfortunately I cannot then edit it at all which isn't any good for me. However I did try following the steps you mentioned about turning anti-aliasing to force off on my own one and this seemed to work on screen without loosing editability, but when went to print the gaps still appeared. So how do I go about creating a repeating bitmap fill?

Thankyou for logging that with the developers. Rasterising at print stage did indeed solve the dark lines issue around the butterflies but not the little gap lines unfortunately.

Thanks for your help thus far.

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11 minutes ago, ronanski said:

This would surely create an even bigger problem though wouldn't it? as if they are aligned to exact pixels, then the patterns won't be aligned so I will either have overlaps or real gaps as opposed to ones created by a glitch, so it will definitely print with gaps in then as there will actually be gaps in the design, whereas at the moment I have atleast created a design without gaps but it seems to show gaps and lines because of this glitch.

My apologies, I don't really understand what you mean here. If your design is exactly pixel aligned and created at repeatable dimensions then there would be no physical pixel gaps between each repeat - however this would not entirely remove anti-aliasing. I was simply providing a way to ensure your objects are pixel aligned in future documents.

6 minutes ago, ronanski said:

Can you explain to me what anti-aliasing means?

Albeit an Adobe Help post, the following link describes anti-aliasing succinctly, in regards to raster applications:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/key-concepts/aliasing-anti-aliasing.html

10 minutes ago, ronanski said:

So how do I go about creating a repeating bitmap fill

The steps I took after opening your document were the following:

  • Expand the layers, and select one of the symbol objects
  • Select the master Rectangle layer, with the other objects inside and copy this layer
  • Navigate to New > New From Clipboard
  • A new document should be created, containing only the layers from the symbol
  • Navigate to File > Export and export to PNG
  • Return to the original file
  • Draw a Rectangle over the area you wish to cover with your patten
  • Using the Fill Tool, with the Rectangle selected, set the Fill Type on the Context Toolbar to Bitmap
  • This will open a window, where you can select the PNG file we've just created
  • You can now use the tool handles to adjust the fill, as required.

I've created a screen recording showing these steps below -

I hope this clears things up :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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On 6/15/2022 at 4:41 PM, Dan C said:

My apologies, I don't really understand what you mean here. If your design is exactly pixel aligned and created at repeatable dimensions then there would be no physical pixel gaps between each repeat - however this would not entirely remove anti-aliasing. I was simply providing a way to ensure your objects are pixel aligned in future documents.

Well because the symbol was an exact mm and so not exact pixels, if I were to align them all to exact pixels one end the other edge would not be aligned and then there would be a gap before the next symbol. Unless snapping to pixels also stretches the symbol, which I don't really want. As I am designing for a physical thing I need things to be accurate measurements. But are you saying affinity designer doesn't work when designing for print? Is this a long term bug, as I am sure I have noticed this few times before though not everytime I use symbols. Are they in the process of fixing this. If the objects line up exactly wether it be in pixels, mm, points whatever it should line up.

Ah thankyou, that looks like a handy tip. I'll try that next week when I have a chance. But is there a way to have those bitmaps selectable from the programme somewhere, like with assests? or would they have to be just stored in a file on my computer somewhere? And is there a way to have them editable, so I could put that fill in and then say adjust the colour or sizing?

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44 minutes ago, ronanski said:

Well because the symbol was an exact mm and so not exact pixels, if I were to align them all to exact pixels one end the other edge would not be aligned and then there would be a gap before the next symbol.

You would need to remake the symbols so they are an exact pixel dimension.

I honestly do not understand why you are using symbols for the dots. Just use dots.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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57 minutes ago, ronanski said:

is there a way to have those bitmaps selectable from the programme somewhere, like with assests?

Once you've exported to .PNG, you could use File > Place to introduce the image to your document, then drag and drop the layer into the Assets Panel to add it as an Asset here - however this can't be directly used in conjunction with the Bitmap Fill Type for the Fill Tool.

58 minutes ago, ronanski said:

would they have to be just stored in a file on my computer somewhere?

Once you've added the bitmap as a fill to your Designer file, you no longer need to keep a copy of the .PNG on your computer - as the image is embedded into the Affinity document to be used as a fill.

59 minutes ago, ronanski said:

is there a way to have them editable, so I could put that fill in and then say adjust the colour or sizing?

Bitmap fills size & position can be edited at any time, even after saving, closing & reopening the document - simply select the filled object with the Fill Tool and the editing handles will appear.

Should you want to adjust the colour, you could use a Recolour Adjustment, nested to the rectangle.

Equally, as Bruce has mentioned above - there is no technical need to use symbols for this repeating pattern. You could simply create an Ellipse, then use Power Duplicate to replicate the same pattern, as many times as required :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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On 6/17/2022 at 2:58 PM, Old Bruce said:

You would need to remake the symbols so they are an exact pixel dimension.

I honestly do not understand why you are using symbols for the dots. Just use dots.

Well I can't just redesign all my repeating pattern assets to be exact pixels as opposed to exact mm, that would take days! and I shouldn't have to as they are designed for print they need to be designed to exact measurements to make them fit properly.

Because it is alot quicker once I have the stepped dot pattern to just repeat the symbol than realligning the dots in alternation. However like I said this particular pattern is very basic and probably isn't a problem, however some repeating patterns I've created contain lots of different shapes and colours. So if I were to need to adjust colour combos this would take only seconds or minutes adjusting one symbol to change the whole thing, whereas your way would take me literally hours or more likely days, which is obviously impractical.

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Hi Dan C thanks for getting back to me. So if I wanted to keep the bitmap design to use in future fills I would need to keep it as a fiel somewhere, it wouldn't work from assets is that correct?

I tried out your method and I noticed the adjustabel scaling and rotation that is very useful! As for the method for changing colour this would work on a monotone pattern such as this but not if I wanted to edit lots of different colours within a more complex pattern unfortunately. In this case would I still have to use symbols for these more complex patterns? or can you think of another work around?

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18 hours ago, ronanski said:

So if I wanted to keep the bitmap design to use in future fills I would need to keep it as a fiel somewhere, it wouldn't work from assets is that correct?

One option is to draw a Rectangle, then use the Fill Tool to apply your bitmap pattern. You can then save this Rectangle as an Asset for future use, which will retain the editing handles in future documents - however it's not possible to directly save the 'Fill' only currently, my apologies.

18 hours ago, ronanski said:

As for the method for changing colour this would work on a monotone pattern such as this but not if I wanted to edit lots of different colours within a more complex pattern unfortunately. In this case would I still have to use symbols for these more complex patterns? or can you think of another work around?

With this scenario it would likely be best to either use vector symbols aligned to the pixel grid, which can be changed at a later date, or you could retain the file you used to create the original bitmap used for the repeating fill separately, edit the colours of the objects as required and export a new image, to be used as a new bitmap fill :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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