Saving file as bitmap (again)

[Norfolk Paul]

I know this has been asked in the passed, but just wondering if there is a way to save an image as a bitmap yet? I need to send a file to the printers that prints in a single colour and I don't want screened as would happen if it was saved as a greyscale image.

[Komatös]

Hi @Norfolk Paul and welcome to the forum.

Bitmap (.bmp) is a raster format! And an obsolete one at that. And both 1 bit color depth and .bmp format are not supported by Affinity programs.

[Twolane]

It's great that you can find software to do what you want.

[Norfolk Paul]

Many thanks for your informed reply @RedSands, 

10 hours ago, Komatös said:

Hi @Norfolk Paul and welcome to the forum.

Bitmap (.bmp) is a raster format! And an obsolete one at that. And both 1 bit color depth and .bmp format are not supported by Affinity programs.

Sorry but I must beg to differ. If it’s outdated, what has it been replaced by? How would you save a 1-bit file?

 

10 hours ago, Komatös said:

Hi @Norfolk Paul and welcome to the forum.

Bitmap (.bmp) is a raster format! And an obsolete one at that. And both 1 bit color depth and .bmp format are not supported by Affinity programs.

[Norfolk Paul]

8 hours ago, Red Sands said:

It is not relevant that the format is technically outdated if it is still in use and if one needs to use the format in a professional workflow. The person even specifies requirements and context, which makes this response particularly unhelpful. It is evasive talk that covers up the fact that Serif does not support this file format or your scenario, Paul.

So, this is more crucial:

Read: Affinity can't help you with that type of files - and your workflow with those printers. And it doesn't seem like it's going to change. Those are the hard facts.

Let's ask a more knowledgeable source, ChatGPT, who can provide more qualified and informed insights about the business needs that customers may have regarding this file format. Did you guys notice the term "business needs" ? You can learn a lot from it. It's the concept that needs to be fulfilled for customers with serious needs and products.

So, sorry @Norfolk Paul, no news regarding your need. I'll stick to Photoshop CC as it meets my business needs (and especially the algorithms that are far ahead), but there are cheaper alternatives. According to ChatGPT, good old PaintShop Pro (trial available) can help:

Many thanks for your well informed reply, it’s much appreciated. I’ve got an old Mac with a pre-rental version of Photoshop so will revert to that. 

[thadeusz]

I'm with you with advantages using 1bit. Would love to see it. But of course you can do most of the things with grey scale images too. They are much bigger in file size, but for printing it will be kind of the same result. If you have your pixel stuff in highres and without any aliasing it's basically a bitmap.

[Norfolk Paul]

2 minutes ago, thadeusz said:

I'm with you with advantages using 1bit. Would love to see it. But of course you can do most of the things with grey scale images too. They are much bigger in file size, but for printing it will be kind of the same result. If you have your pixel stuff in highres and without any aliasing it's basically a bitmap.

If it’s a greyscale image it will get screened during the pre-printing process. And yes as you say a 800-1200dpi image will be a much larger file in greyscale. 

[thadeusz]

2 minutes ago, Norfolk Paul said:

it will get screened during the pre-printing process

Not if it's only black without any aliasing. But, as you wrote, it needs to be somewhere around 800dpi, depending on the graphics and use case.

[Ian R]

I'd like to have the .bmp as a saveable format. not for print. Sketchup Style builder requires its files to be bitmaps

[Pšenda]

7 hours ago, Ian R said:

Sketchup Style builder requires its files to be bitmaps

Perhaps it would be a good idea to require the builder of this application to include other standard and perspective formats as well.

[Ian R]

On 4/5/2024 at 7:45 AM, Pšenda said:

Perhaps it would be a good idea to require the builder of this application to include other standard and perspective formats as well.

Perhaps you could ask them yourself rather than seemingly posting a comment on an issue you clearly don't have a problem with?

Whilst I agree Trimble could include other file types, it is a very basic program and perhaps bitmap format is the only one that is simple enough... I don't understand your comment about 'Perspective formats' - it doesn't make sense for Sketchup Style Builder.

Affinity Photo is a raster based image editing software, so I'm very surprised it doesn't cater for such an old classic format

[Pšenda]

17 minutes ago, Ian R said:

Whilst I agree Trimble could include other file types, it is a very basic program and perhaps bitmap format is the only one that is simple enough...

I am glad that we agree that the right way is to expand the import of other non-obsolete formats.
As you can see here, Trimble/SketchUp has no problem with them.

https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/importing-and-exporting-image-files

[Ian R]

On 4/24/2024 at 5:57 PM, Pšenda said:

As you can see here, Trimble/SketchUp has no problem with them.

I am very much aware of Sketchup's file support, I have been using Sketchup since 2006, so no, you misunderstand the reason for my request, I am not here in this thread to discuss other applications' file support.

I am interested in Affinity file support in this thread, not Trimble or Sketchup or suggesting using other programs... Indeed with that logic I could use Adobe Photoshop or Gimp or a whole range of other applications.

Sketchup's Style Builder requires .bmp files for constructing custom strokes for creating custom styles.

[Pšenda]

19 hours ago, Ian R said:

I am not here in this thread to discuss other applications' file support.

It is interesting, however, that you justify your request about the need for a bitmap by saying that "another application" cannot use another format. Therefore, if you have this problem - that another application does not support another format, then I would see it as logical to request modification after this other application.

 

19 hours ago, Ian R said:

you misunderstand the reason for my request

I understood your request correctly, rather you misunderstood my recommendation. Since one of the first requirements to support the BMP format has been here since July 8, 2015, it can be concluded that adding functionality to your application could be a more convenient and easier way. And that's also because the addition of other formats to an application that "requires" an outdated format would be quite logical and very beneficial for the given application.
But it's up to you which path you choose. Best regards.

[Moi54au]

Been reading these posts. New to Affiniity Designer 2.5. I want to create a bitmap to use as a fill with AD.

[Alfred]

11 hours ago, Moi54au said:

Been reading these posts. New to Affiniity Designer 2.5. I want to create a bitmap to use as a fill with AD.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @Moi54au.

To use a bitmap (i.e. raster) fill in AD, simply avoid *.bmp and instead choose one of the many bitmap file formats that the app actually supports.

[Aaron L]

On 6/7/2023 at 2:34 PM, Komatös said:

Hi @Norfolk Paul and welcome to the forum.

Bitmap (.bmp) is a raster format! And an obsolete one at that. And both 1 bit color depth and .bmp format are not supported by Affinity programs.

Hi, I'm from the future because the current controversy with Adobe is making me reevaluate Affinity. Bitmap is not a dead feature, even though it seems like it would be. Poster artists still use bit mapping (indexed color, LPI, halftones, and dithering) for our color steps and screen printing posters after we're through creating our work. Also, companies that do screen printing rely on bitmapping when using simulated process printing. When poster artists use the term bitmap, we refer to the feature, not the .bmp file format.

This is to say that Affinity needs to add this. Affinity is great for the creative side, but it's severely lacking for creatives who also work in a production environment.

[maxoakland]

Can you use some kind of online or web site to convert to that format? There are many file formats out there

[maxoakland]

9 hours ago, Aaron L said:

Hi, I'm from the future because the current controversy with Adobe is making me reevaluate Affinity. Bitmap is not a dead feature, even though it seems like it would be. Poster artists still use bit mapping (indexed color, LPI, halftones, and dithering) for our color steps and screen printing posters after we're through creating our work. Also, companies that do screen printing rely on bitmapping when using simulated process printing. When poster artists use the term bitmap, we refer to the feature, not the .bmp file format.

This is to say that Affinity needs to add this. Affinity is great for the creative side, but it's severely lacking for creatives who also work in a production environment.

Can indexed PNG be used for this?

[DSG2]

Very disappointed the bitmap support is not available in Affinity 2. I can't get Toshiba to change their 4690 POS receipt logo printing format. I'm disappointed that I have to resort to my ancient version of Adobe Photoshop to generate a monochrome bmp file after buying Affinity 2 and Affinity Designer. I agree it's a legacy format, but that doesn't mean it's not still in use in thousands of applications. 

[spacef2025]

Hi,

I bought affinitya few weeks ago, just to realize today it does not support *.bmp that I use all the time for UI of certain platforms. 

Photopea does it for free.

So basically, one has to save *.psd from affinity, and then load them in Photopea free version to finish the work.

I personnally can't do this for all the bmp animations that I must do...

There is probably a good reason(s) for affinity to not support *.bmp files, but I don't understand ; it is a total showstopper for many users...

I mean, common, the free Photopea does it better 😕 

It makes me angry, I will have to tell some people that I was wrong in thinking it was a good deal / alternative to PS 😕

very disappointed

Edited January 4 by spacef2025