Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Export to PNG, JPG very bad


Recommended Posts

This has only been noticed since the latest upgrade.
 

Ok been using Affinity Designer since the beta and never had issue with export from a vector with pixel layer to a PNG, JPG or TIFF. 

Now when I go to export from Affinity Designer it pixelates the image so bad it is not useable for printing my labels. :) This issue has never been a problem ... I take a AD file 3000x4000 pixels 300 dpi and when I export it out to say 800x the result is terrible so I think there is bug and we need this fixed. :) Otherwise it is back to Adobe illustrator or Xara cause I need this to be able to export correctly.:)

It is most notiecable when there is an outline on any vector shape where the outline is "broken" and looks dashed and just basically bad.

In the example attached it is most noticeable around the blue vectot.

badexport.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, lagiuk said:

and when I export it out to say 800x

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

What do you mean by "800x"? Did you mean 800px? It looks like your sample image is square, so are you going from 3000x4000 to 800x800 or something else? 

Are you resizing, then exporting? Or are you having the Export process resize it for you? Please provide full details of what you're doing, and of your Export options.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Sorry I havent been back - I got round it all by using XARA and a bit of illustrator. 

The size issue has nothing to do with it. Ive been using Affinity since beta on a MAC and PC so I think I know what works and what doesn't. All I'm saying is what did work perfectly for years - in fact the most important part - exporting your work doesn't work period. Searching for tis post , I notice a lot of others are saying the same many about PDF export. It is all well and good adding nobs , nknochers and bells and whistles but breaking an important feature and not fixing it doesn't bode well. ' The hours I and my  colleague have wasted with "workarounds"  exporting as eps to illustrator with lots of problems is enormous. I think the fact that affinity has not charged a penny in all these years is to my mind a mistake. Charging all of use just a basic £10 a year would allow a few more coders to wo0rk on bug fixes that the community can vote on.

I'm sure I and the many others who post bugs here would spend 10 or 20 pounds to save hours of hair pulling and making the air blue.

As you can tell from my tone - Im not a happy bunny, and posting about this anymore is a waste of my time - the Gods at affinity will do it when they feel they need to. 

I shall come back in a month to be let down again - if I don't get banned - but who care post one time when it really matters and nearly 2 months later no update for a VERY SERIOUS BUG has shown up.

 

Regards Lagi (A now Not very happy Affinity Designer USER) 

p.s. Nothing against you Walt - just hope the TPTB act real soon. I bought Publisher and Photoshop as well even though I have no need of them because I believed it was helping the company - obviously I needn't have bothered.

Edited by lagiuk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

What I have done is taken a screenshot of the design within affinity  and then a screenshot of the exported png (its the same for jpg) . As you can see within affinity the white outlines on the mandala (flower of life)  and the blue stylized human  are perfect. When they get exported it is the second image - the outline is not just jagged but "dotted" or more like "marching ants". Now you could say don't use an outline.

Lagi

 

insideaffinity.jpg

png exported screen crop.jpg

Edited by lagiuk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are several factors leading to this result:

  1. Always use zoom level of exactly 100% to judge fine details, and when taking screenshots where fine details matter.
  2. The export resolution of 800px is far lower than the resolution used to display that file in Designer (before export), amplified by a zoom factor. To get a smoother result, you would need to increase the resolution e.g. 4K multiplied with the zoom factor used (for the screenshot). 
  3. When exporting, you have several choices of resample method. Try something different than bilinear, e.g. bicubic or lazaros. 
  4. Before judging the export to the rendering in Designer, switch to “pixel mode” view. The vector view mode shows how the file looked when exported in vector formats like SVG. The pixel view mode shows how the exported file will look in bitmap formats like PNG.
  5. Use the “preview” function of the export UI. Zoom to 100% to inspect fine details.
  6. Anti-Alias setting (on/off, blend gamma, coverage map) are another factor influencing the edge pixels from layers. 
  7. Jpeg uses lossy compression, even if you choose the highest quality. Use PNG instead for best quality exports.

Oversampling: A manual way to achieve better quality is to export first in a higher resolution, and the open that file and export again in the traget (lower) resolution, carefully choosing resample method based on test exports.

there is no “magic bullet”, you need to chose all the listed parameters wisely (layer blend gamma, anti-aliasing, resample method) depending on the type/content of your document.

Other considerations (not impacting export):

Additive Color blending in color formats using a gamma curve produces “wrong” colors, by blending in the gamma-corrected domain instead of the linear domain. This is kind of common practice used by almost all apps, mandated by the common file formats for vector based documents (svg, pdf, …). So the blending in apps does not perfectly model the physics of light in real world. E.g. if you use 2 layers (RGB), one red, one blue, both at 50% transparency, you wont get a mix of both colors. Instead, the upper layer gets more contribution.

 

Mac mini M1 A2348 | Windows 10 - AMD Ryzen 9 5900x - 32 GB RAM - Nvidia GTX 1080

LG34WK950U-W, calibrated to DCI-P3 with LG Calibration Studio / Spider 5

iPad Air Gen 5 (2022) A2589

Special interest into procedural texture filter, edit alpha channel, RGB/16 and RGB/32 color formats, stacking, finding root causes for misbehaving files, finding creative solutions for unsolvable tasks, finding bugs in Apps.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff
On 5/6/2022 at 11:51 PM, lagiuk said:

The size issue has nothing to do with it.

Reducing your document by a factor of 5x when exporting can certainly cause a visual difference in raster elements, which likely explains the issue you're seeing.

I'd recommend following the steps above from NotMyFault and exporting your document again, as there are multiple ways to improve/understand the rendering of the exported image.

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 :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Thanks for your answers but "Size has nothing to do with it" really meant this has never been an issue before. Exports always looked good without "faffing about" - maybe i might have used layers in a different way to before so I'll play with it a bit  and get back to you.

 

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Kindest Regards Lagi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.