Why is saving a document/pic to Affinity Photo not always great resolution quality?

[cutout3]

Sometimes saving a document/pic/photo to Affintiy Photo works fine, often it doesn't and the quality is not good, very blurry. I must be doing something simple that is wrong, I hope. Help/suggestions please??

I want to save some really important ones to Affinity Photo as it is secure in the cloud, before I have time to back up my others.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, cutout3 said:

Sometimes saving a document/pic/photo to Affintiy Photo works fine, often it doesn't and the quality is not good, very blurry.

Not sure what you mean with "saving to Affinity Photo ..." as an overall workflow here, but check the document settings then, aka the doc size and color space settings of the Affinity document & if these meet those for/of the included image then.

1 hour ago, cutout3 said:

I want to save some really important ones to Affinity Photo as it is secure in the cloud, before I have time to back up my others.

Secure in the cloud?  Well working directly out from Affinity on/with a mounted cloud drive isn't really secure here. It's better and safer to perform tasks first on your local internal filesystem and then move/copy things stored there over as a backup to the cloud drive.

Further saving things like images/photos as backups in an Affinity file format is not your best option for image backups, since *.afphoto files can only be read/opened with APhoto and in case of a possible .afphoto file corrumption you've lost your image here. It's better to backup photos in a more suitable image format, so as the initial RAW or JPG/PNG file etc., so you have chances to open these also still with other common imaging related software.

[walt.farrell]

There is a known problem, I think, with Placed files showing up as blurry when a .afphoto file is re-opened. Is that what you mean, perhaps, @cutout3?

Or, if it is a Placed file that is Linked, it might just not be available any more at the original location.

We would need much more information about your files and what you're doing, I think, to provide any definite answer.

[cutout3]

8 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

There is a known problem, I think, with Placed files showing up as blurry when a .afphoto file is re-opened. Is that what you mean, perhaps, @cutout3?

Or, if it is a Placed file that is Linked, it might just not be available any more at the original location.

We would need much more information about your files and what you're doing, I think, to provide any definite answer.

 

What appears to be happening is that when I save an image from JEPG, that (maybe) doesn't have any "editing" I can indeed save it in afphoto ("save as" name it, etc.), and it appears blurry when I re-open. So this is frustrating. It appears like it has messed up your image.

But if I then take that "blurred" image from afphoto and save it as an "export" to a JEPG (set at full quality), it is magically 'restored' and looks fine. Interesting. It requires me to keep the same name but now opens it as a JPEG. At this point the image seems good to go and I can continue working on it, save it elsewhere, etc.

So you are saying this is a known problem? Is it even a problem? If you are aware of it? It seems like the image is saved, maybe just compressed or something? I guess Affinity knows what it's doing.

It just seems weird when you open a saved image in afphoto and it appears very blurry. You freak out. 

 

[cutout3]

9 hours ago, v_kyr said:

...

Secure in the cloud?  Well working directly out from Affinity on/with a mounted cloud drive isn't really secure here. It's better and safer to perform tasks first on your local internal filesystem and then move/copy things stored there over as a backup to the cloud drive.

Further saving things like images/photos as backups in an Affinity file format is not your best option for image backups, since *.afphoto files can only be read/opened with APhoto and in case of a possible .afphoto file corrumption you've lost your image here. It's better to backup photos in a more suitable image format, so as the initial RAW or JPG/PNG file etc., so you have chances to open these also still with other common imaging related software.

Good to know. Thank you!

[walt.farrell]

9 minutes ago, cutout3 said:

So you are saying this is a known problem?

What I described is (I think) a known problem, but it does not sound like it is what you are describing. Again, we need to know more about your document (its structure and content) and exactly what you're doing that causes a problem.

"Sometimes something happens and it's blurry" is not a sufficient description for problem diagnosis.

We need sample documents, or screenshots, or screen recordings, or the exact sequence of steps you've taken, to see what is happening. Also information about the OS you're using, and possibly some info about your machine. Otherwise it's all a guess.

[cutout3]

25 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

What I described is (I think) a known problem, but it does not sound like it is what you are describing. Again, we need to know more about your document (its structure and content) and exactly what you're doing that causes a problem.

"Sometimes something happens and it's blurry" is not a sufficient description for problem diagnosis.

We need sample documents, or screenshots, or screen recordings, or the exact sequence of steps you've taken, to see what is happening. Also information about the OS you're using, and possibly some info about your machine. Otherwise it's all a guess.

OK, thanks. My OS is Windows10. I'm using a 6/y/o HP laptop. I've got the latest AF download I think. I will try to talk you thru what I'm doing.

Let's say I want to save this JEPG image to afphoto, 1st pic. In AF Photo I select File, Save As, then name the file how I want. AF then saves it in "Affinity Files".

If I then close out (because that's usually what I want to do) and re-open the file on Affinity Photo, it visually appears blurred. I silently cuss. I think my image has been saved at only about 60% quality. I now know it is saved at full quality but only appears blurred.

For me to feel better about the image, or to continue working on the 'rough' form, here's what I found I have to do now. Take that visually blurred afphoto file image, hit File, Export (full-best quality), don't change the name any (it doesn't allow you), hit Save. It then saves a second file, exact same name as the Affinity Files one, only now saved under JPEG. You can then open this second "JEPG" file on AF Photo and it looks just fine, clear and ready to be worked on further or saved somewhere else.

Does that make sense? I wish it would just open the Affinity File stored image, have it look perfect like it often does, and it to allow me to continue working. Instead I have this extra step, so it works but meh/a bit scary. It is very troubling when you initially open an occassional afphoto file and look at, and say to yourself, "Why is it all blurry? I didn't leave it that way".

Hope that helps. Thank you for trying to help me.

[Lem3]

@cutout3 How do you get the original JPG into APhoto?

[cutout3]

53 minutes ago, Lem3 said:

@cutout3 How do you get the original JPG into APhoto?

Hi Lem3. Well I figure since they are simple pics/images, I do it all on the Photo Persona for starters. I haven't learned too much about the other personas yet.

I open the image in afphoto. From there I usually save it in either JEPG or PNG (depending), and then if I want it save to afpho, "Save As" to afphoto.

Does that answer your question?

[markw]

I’ve seen this happen occasionally too at times. Never with photos, that I can recall, but sometimes with small graphics images.
This is some kind of rendering issue within AP, the actual image inside AP, as it were, is fine and will export correctly.
On the left of this screenshot the original test image. And on the right the same image after being saved in AP.

Steps for the below Left Image:
Launch AP > File Open… or Drag and Drop image onto AP Dock icon or Right Click on file and choose Open With… etc…

Steps for the below Right Image:
Open image in AP as above.
Save using Save As… and close.
Open the new AP file containing the image and it displays as shown on the right.

A work around to correct this is after opening the image use File > Place… and place the original image again in the document. Now delete the first instance of the image from the Layers panel and Save.
This also works if opening the document at a later date. Just find the original image and use Place… as above.
If you do not have the original image to place anymore then you can first export the image from the effected document and then use it with the  Place… command as above.

[cutout3]

11 hours ago, markw said:

I’ve seen this happen occasionally too at times. Never with photos, that I can recall, but sometimes with small graphics images.
This is some kind of rendering issue within AP, the actual image inside AP, as it were, is fine and will export correctly.
On the left of this screenshot the original test image. And on the right the same image after being saved in AP.

Steps for the below Left Image:
Launch AP > File Open… or Drag and Drop image onto AP Dock icon or Right Click on file and choose Open With… etc…

Steps for the below Right Image:
Open image in AP as above.
Save using Save As… and close.
Open the new AP file containing the image and it displays as shown on the right.

A work around to correct this is after opening the image use File > Place… and place the original image again in the document. Now delete the first instance of the image from the Layers panel and Save.
This also works if opening the document at a later date. Just find the original image and use Place… as above.
If you do not have the original image to place anymore then you can first export the image from the effected document and then use it with the  Place… command as above.

Thanks. That all sounded good and it worked the first time or two I practiced with your above suggested way. Then I tried to do it again a couple more times to get the sequence down, and it wouldn't work, stayed blurry. Oh well. It was about as many extra steps as my work-around in one of my posts above (I wish these posts were numbered). I tried my way again and that does work.

And you're right, it is some type of rendering issue, but thankfully does export correctly. Thanks for your help.

[Lem3]

On 2/24/2022 at 6:11 PM, cutout3 said:

I open the image in afphoto. From there I usually save it in either JEPG or PNG (depending), and then if I want it save to afpho, "Save As" to afphoto.

 

So you

1. Open using the menu File -> Open...  Not "Open With" from Explorer or by dragging into the AP window.
2. You create a JPG or PNG file using File -> Export...
3. Then save the afpho file with File -> Save As...

[cutout3]

2 hours ago, Lem3 said:

So you

1. Open using the menu File -> Open...  Not "Open With" from Explorer or by dragging into the AP window.
2. You create a JPG or PNG file using File -> Export...
3. Then save the afpho file with File -> Save As...

Correct.