Why does my logo from Illustrator look different in Designer

[IceHound]

When I try to open my .AI logo that was created in Illustrator using Designer, the colours don't match. Plus, there are some areas showing colours that you shouldn't be able to see. How can I fix this so I can edit my logo using Affinity?

[Komatös]

Hi @IceHound and welcome!

It's possible that you're using layer effects and other optimization settings that Adobe applications store in a proprietary file area that third-party applications can't read. 

When saving in .ai format, choose PDF compatibility, this should give you the desired result in Affinity Designer.

[IceHound]

On 4/7/2023 at 3:33 AM, Komatös said:

Hi @IceHound and welcome!

It's possible that you're using layer effects and other optimization settings that Adobe applications store in a proprietary file area that third-party applications can't read. 

When saving in .ai format, choose PDF compatibility, this should give you the desired result in Affinity Designer.

Hey, I tried that, but it didn't work.

[firstdefence]

Any chance you can upload the Ai file?

[v_kyr]

Looks like either some AI specific transparent gradient masks and the like have been applied, which ADe when parsing in doesn't know to deal with, or as ADe misinterpreted the gradient color step value flows here.

[IceHound]

On 4/13/2023 at 3:56 PM, firstdefence said:

Any chance you can upload the Ai file?

 

IceHound Marketing 2021.ai

[IceHound]

On 4/13/2023 at 6:03 PM, v_kyr said:

Looks like either some AI specific transparent gradient masks and the like have been applied, which ADe when parsing in doesn't know to deal with, or as ADe misinterpreted the gradient color step value flows here.

Is there a way to fix it somehow?

[v_kyr]

38 minutes ago, IceHound said:

Is there a way to fix it somehow?

Personally I don't have Illustrator to take a deeper look at your AI file's contents, but @firstdefence might have and may tell you then.

[firstdefence]

Note: The document colour mode in Illustrator is RGB but Pantone and CMYK colours are being used and out of gamut warnings are evident.

From what I can work out you have a combination of pantone colour and CMYK colour and I think Affinity is separating them so you end up with two versions of the gradient with the colour, so in the case of the pantone at one end and...

An out of Gamut CMYK colour at the other end; indicated by the exclamation mark at the small colour swatches side, I think it's throwing Affinity into a tailspin.

So, this how Affinity appears to be handling it. Affinity creates two identical curves with distinct gradients as can be seen in the screenshot below.

The duplicate curve doesn't exist in Illustrator.

 

[firstdefence]

Is there a reason for spot colours?

Decided to change the spot colours to CMYK and bring the out of gamut colours into gamut and this is how Affinity now interprets the file.

This file has no spot colours and the out of gamut colours have been pulled into gamut.

IceHound Marketing 2021 copy.ai

Basically you need to be consistent in colour usage and document colour modes.

 

[firstdefence]

A bit of visual info on the out of gamut colours and how bringing it in to gamut changes it.

So this is the chosen colour RGB

This is the colour brought into the gamut space

[IceHound]

16 hours ago, firstdefence said:

A bit of visual info on the out of gamut colours and how bringing it in to gamut changes it.

So this is the chosen colour RGB

This is the colour brought into the gamut space

Wow thanks for all of that! I didn't design it, so I'm not exactly sure why the designers did it like that. The purple colour was supposed to be #854DF3 ... Is there a way to make that same colour of purple work?

[firstdefence]

The warning exists because the Ai file is using an RGB colour space, if it was a CMYK colour space that warning wouldn't exist. I changed it out of curiosity to see what would happen.The warning can be ignored and the colour left as is: #854DF3, I think the issue would be solved by changing just the Pantone Blue to an approximate RGB Blue, if that is acceptable?

I'm not sure this is the designers fault in using this choice of Pantone 2995 U and RGB Hex colours would like to know why this was used, maybe somebody on the forum understands this more. It's weird the way Affinity interprets it by separating the Pantone and RGB colour gradients into identical shapes with colour unique gradients. I'm not sure this is by design, maybe a MOD could enlighten us on this, or someone with better knowledge than me.

By the, I way I Love the logo design.  

The Purple colour should be 854DF3 and the Pantone should be an RGB value, Affinity appears to open it up correctly now.

IceHound Marketing 2021 Pan2995u to 62BFEC.ai

 

[IceHound]

10 hours ago, firstdefence said:

The warning exists because the Ai file is using an RGB colour space, if it was a CMYK colour space that warning wouldn't exist. I changed it out of curiosity to see what would happen.The warning can be ignored and the colour left as is: #854DF3, I think the issue would be solved by changing just the Pantone Blue to an approximate RGB Blue, if that is acceptable?

I'm not sure this is the designers fault in using this choice of Pantone 2995 U and RGB Hex colours would like to know why this was used, maybe somebody on the forum understands this more. It's weird the way Affinity interprets it by separating the Pantone and RGB colour gradients into identical shapes with colour unique gradients. I'm not sure this is by design, maybe a MOD could enlighten us on this, or someone with better knowledge than me.

By the, I way I Love the logo design.  

The Purple colour should be 854DF3 and the Pantone should be an RGB value, Affinity appears to open it up correctly now.

IceHound Marketing 2021 Pan2995u to 62BFEC.ai 563.46 kB · 0 downloads

 

Can the pantone blue be changed to #61C1ED or #18aaed? When I open that file in AI it looks correct, but when I open it in Affinity, the purple is this dark muted version. Also, in Designer is there a way to like "find and replace" all of the instances of the wrong colour of blue and change it with a different one? Or do you have to go through each layer and change it one by one?

[firstdefence]

The reason the colours look muted is because Affinity opens the document up as a CMYK/8, changing it to RGB/8 will brighten the colours back up.

You can edit colours en masse but they have to be set up as global colours, which unfortunately these aren't. Illustrator however, can edit colours via the recolour artwork menu choice. See if this afdesign file works better for you...

IceHound Marketing 2021 #61C1ED.afdesign

[IceHound]

34 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

The reason the colours look muted is because Affinity opens the document up as a CMYK/8, changing it to RGB/8 will brighten the colours back up.

You can edit colours en masse but they have to be set up as global colours, which unfortunately these aren't. Illustrator however, can edit colours via the recolour artwork menu choice. See if this afdesign file works better for you...

IceHound Marketing 2021 #61C1ED.afdesign

That is fantastic! I really appreciate all the help. Is it possible for me to go through and set them up as global colours? If so, do you know of any tutorials or guides on how that works? Also, is there any chance you can fix this version for me too? Exactly like you did with the last one with the AI and afdesign versions?

IceHound Marketing C 2021.ai

[v_kyr]

16 minutes ago, IceHound said:

Is it possible for me to go through and set them up as global colours?

See:

• ADe - Global Colors

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[IceHound]

15 minutes ago, lacerto said:

I think that PANTONE Solid Uncoated has been used as a "nice" palette, just to pick colors. There does not seem to be much point in mixing inks and process colors in gradients. In addition to that, RGB color mode has been used in design and spot colors chosen from a palette that is targeted for uncoated print stock, and to further complicate the mix, the PANTONE library used was a legacy palette with CMYK definitions, rather than with Lab definitions. Just for the reference, here is a comparison (the upper row shows the original swatches using CMYK-based PANTONE library, and lower row the current Lab-based swatches, below them a photo that I took from an actual printed color guide:

   

So color accuracy, as regards matching the colors with PANTONE system, has not been the primary interest of the designer, but because the logo has been created in RGB color mode, brightness of e.g. purple is certainly intentional, and that will desaturate in most CMYK color spaces when printed in process colors. Therefore I would keep the logo in RGB color space and just convert all PANTONE spot colors to RGB process (that is easiest to do in Illustrator), and just export to whatever CMYK color space needed. In some circumstances a hint of purple would show on paper, but most of the time it would come pretty desaturated. If PANTONE Purple is really wanted the logo design should be fixed so that gradients are correctly defined in PANTONE Purple (tints towards white) without process color steps.  

Can you give me the steos on how to "convert all PANTONE spot colors to RGB process", please?

[firstdefence]

From Illustrator, There is the option Edit > Edit Colours > Convert to RGB so I'll use that on both files with the tag - to RGB in the file name, from there you should be able to open the Ai files without any further editing other than the tedious task of converting all of the gradient points to global colours if that is the way you wish to go. There is no fast route to this unfortunately and it doesn't appear Affinity can maintain any spot colours or global colour assignments from an Ai file, but, I'm always up for learning if people know otherwise.

IceHound Marketing C 2021 - to RGB.ai

IceHound Marketing 2021 - to RGB.ai

 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[firstdefence]

35 minutes ago, lacerto said:

Yes, it can, both, it just does not automatically create swatches, and you need a swatch assignment to maintain global behavior of a color (but spot colors will export as spot colors):

Thanks for that info, colour management a weak point for me I must focus more on that. 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[lacerto]

Obsolete.