Grayscale in Illustrator and grayscale in AD

[Nils Austa]

I am creating an illustration in Adobe Illustrator CS5. Color mode is CMYK and an object is 100% grayscale. Then I export it to PDF and open in AD. AD shows grayscale value 14.

I can see that in AD grayscale zero is opposite and means black. Value 100 is white. But Why it shows me value 14?

 

[loukash]

Affinity gray is actually based on RGB. Hence Gray 0 = "rich black" = RGB 0/0/0. Visually on screen (soft proof), K100 is obviously represented by Gray 14.
If you want K grayscale, you need to work in CMYK mode, using the K slider.

Frankly, it's all quite counterintuitive and confusing at first. Even though "internally" there is logic in what it does. But one needs to know about it to avoid mistakes.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, loukash said:

If you want K grayscale, you need to work in CMYK mode, using the K slider.

Unfortunately it is even more complex in Affinity. Not only the working space for Grayscale is based on RGB but also correct grayscale PDF export can be difficult and different to what is expected or implied by the Affinity interface, as @Lacerto documented various times, for instance here:

[loukash]

4 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Unfortunately it is even more complex in Affinity.

Definitely…

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[thomaso]

3 minutes ago, lacerto said:

and then make sure that you export using Grayscale color mode, and force conversion of image color spaces.

… and consider to unselect the export option "Embed profiles", though it is always activated in various default PDF export presets by Serif.