Incorrect color displayed in Designer

[Lace]

Hi everyone,

Been using Affinity Designer for a little year now, and since a few days now something seems to have changed in my software.

All the colors from all documents appear in the software way darker than they are or should be.
However, if I export the document (e.g., as a png or eps), the colors are the correct/expected ones. If I create the image on another software, open it in affinity designer, then export it back into another png, then the colors will match the ones of the original image. If I send the image to other computers, the colors will be the one expected, and not the ones displayed by Affinity Designer. So the problem seems to be only in the way Affinity Designer displays the document

I have attached a screenshot to illustrate the issue. I opened a document in Designer, exported an image and opened it on Photo, and put the exported image next to the image opened in Designer (both on the same monitor)

I tried all the different profiles in both the Documents Setup or in the Preferences, but it doesn't seem to have any effect, the colors remain the same.
I also tried re-installing Designer after removing all the files in %AppData%, but the problem is still the same.

I may be missing something obvious, but is there an option I should modify in the software to get back to the initial colors? Again, it was working perfectly, but since a few days it has completely changed.

Thank you in advance for the help,
Best

[Hangman]

Hi @Lace and welcome to the forums,

Would you be able to upload the Affinity Designer file shown in your screengrab so we can take a look at possible causes...

[Lace]

Hi @Hangman

Thanks for the warm welcome and the swift reply

I attached both the source file (.afdesign) and the exported image

test.afdesign

[Hangman]

Hi @Lace,

Thank you for the file...

The colour difference is because your document is set to RGB/32 (HDR). If you change your document colour format to RGB/8, the colours in your document and exported files should match... 🙂

[thomaso]

On 7/27/2023 at 11:44 AM, Lace said:

I have attached a screenshot to illustrate the issue. I opened a document in Designer, exported an image and opened it on Photo, and put the exported image next to the image opened in Designer (both on the same monitor)

• How did you technically get the "Inside Designer" picture that you then used for the uploaded comparison PNG?
• What colour definition does the Affinity Colour Picker Tool show you for the mid or the dark gray that look nearly black in your "Inside Indesign"?

Even if I switch your document from its RGB/32 to RGB/8 I don't see any difference for grays, greens, blue – but only for the yellowish green bar which is set in HSL and with reduced colour opacity (41%). I wonder if changing the colour space will be indeed sufficient to solve your issue as @Hangman recommended. The ""Inside Designer" picture seems to have a change in contrast / gamma, note the two grays appear black.

This leads me to on odd result when using the Colour Picker Tool in V1: It seems to handle HSL / colour transparency not correctly and thus darkens this object (on its darker background) if it applies the detected colour to this same object, and additionally change its definition from HSL to RGB. – Is this a limitation of the Picker Tool "by design" and does it occur in V2, too?

EDIT: This Picker Tool issue happens only if the option "Apply to Selection" in the Context Toolbar is activated AND the object has a reduced colour or layer opacity. Then the object's transparency seems to be calculated as colour value (not as transparency), resulting in a different colour and every further click with the Picker Tool causes a new colour this way while the opacity value doesn't change.

Edited October 9 by thomaso

[Lace]

Hi both,

Thank you for the replies and help. I will answer both messages separately

@Hangman

Changing the document settings was something I did try before. Following your suggestion, I changed it back to RGB/8 but the problem remains (see screenshot attached, with a newly exported file opened in Photos for comparison).

Also just clarifying: the colors in the exported file are the correct ones, I am happy with them. The colors being displayed in Designer, way darker, (cf. the screenshot), are the wrong ones.

 

@thomaso

Thanks for your answer.

First of all, the colours displayed by Affinity Designer in your screenshot (on the left side) should be the correct ones, close to the "After export" colours from my own screenshot. So your Affinity Designer is apparently opening the file correctly with the correct expected colours.

I will reply to the different questions below

• How did you technically get the "Inside Designer" picture that you then used for the uploaded comparison PNG?

I did the following: (1) opened Affinity Designer, (2) opened the document (Open...) (3) exported the document as a PNG file (Export...) (4) opened the PNG file in Photos (5) moved the Photos window with the image on top of the Affinity Designer window already opened (6) used the Snipping tool to take a screenshot containing both the images in Affinity Designer and in Photos.

• What colour definition does the Affinity Colour Picker Tool show you for the mid or the dark gray that look nearly black in your "Inside Indesign"?

If I use the Colour Picker Tool to pick the colours, I get the following

- Mid gray: RGB values shows up as (19,19,19) - expected: (77,77,77)
- Dark gray: RGB shows up as (5,5,5) - expected: (38,38,38)

•  I wonder if changing the colour space will be indeed sufficient to solve your issue as Hangman recommended. 

As detailed in the answer above, no it didn't have any effect.

• The "Inside Designer" picture seems to have a change in contrast / gamma, note the two grays appear black.

That's indeed the issue I am having. Designer really changed a few days ago on my computer and all images displayed by the software are showing up with this change in contrast/gamma

 

Thank you again both for your time and help

[Hangman]

2 hours ago, Lace said:

All the colors from all documents appear in the software way darker than they are or should be.

Hi @Lace,

If you take a look at the 32-bit Preview panel in Designer you'll likely see that the Display Transform is set to Unmanaged which is why your files appear darker in Designer. If you change this to ICC Display Transform your files should appear correctly in Designer and better Match those of the exported files...

I would however still change the Designer settings to RGB/8 (unless you have a particular need to use RGB/32) and then adjust the colours in your file so they appear correctly when using 8-bit colour, that way you shouldn't experience any issues between how the colours appear in Designer and when exported.

 

[thomaso]

14 minutes ago, Lace said:

If I use the Colour Picker Tool to pick the colours, I get the following

- Mid gray: RGB values shows up as (19,19,19) - expected: (77,77,77)
- Dark gray: RGB shows up as (5,5,5) - expected: (38,38,38)

Your "expected" seem to be a misunderstanding while the displayed values depend on the document colour depths (8 / 32). Also note the different appearance in the field of all colours (below the value sliders) in 8 vs 32 bit:

[thomaso]

12 minutes ago, Hangman said:

If you take a look at the 32-bit Preview panel in Designer you'll likely see that the Display Transform is set to Unmanaged which is why your files appear darker in Designer. If you change this to ICC Display Transform your files should appear correctly in Designer and better Match those of the exported files...

I can reproduce the darker colours in this document if I switch from "ICC Display Transform" to "Unmanaged". – But then I also do get a different look when I switch from RGB/32 to RGB/8 – whereas @Lace mentioned & illustrated that changing the colour depths doesn't cause this difference / issue on their screen.

Might it be a system setting in Windows?

[Hangman]

24 minutes ago, thomaso said:

But then I also do get a different look when I switch from RGB/32 to RGB/8 – whereas @Lace mentioned & illustrated that changing the colour depths doesn't cause this difference / issue on their screen.

I likewise see a different look switching between RGB/32 and RGB/8 which is what I would expect... I'm not entirely sure why @Lace isn't seeing a change on their screen. I guess we would need to know the Display profile used for the screen...

26 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Might it be a system setting in Windows?

Possibly, though I'd be surprised if that is the issue but I could be wrong...

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, Hangman said:

I likewise see a different look switching between RGB/32 and RGB/8 which is what I would expect... I'm not entirely sure why @Lace isn't seeing a change on their screen.

Of course ...

RGB/8:

RGB/32:

 

Under macOS things would look in Designer and when exported to the OS system, nearly the same. - So it's probably more a matter of the Win OS and it's applied display profiling & settings (...or some Designer Win based export bug).

[Lace]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the replies.

@Hangman: I did check the 32-bit Preview panel, but selecting either Unmanaged or ICC Display Transform do not have any impact on the display.

I did try to open the file on another computer here (note: another Window), and the file does open correctly there (i.e., the colours I see in Designer are the correct ones). Affinity Designer is the same version on both computers.

[Hangman]

Hi @Lace,

On the PC that isn't showing the colours correctly which Monitor Profile do you have set in the Windows OS Device Settings and is it different to the machine where the colours do display correctly?

[Aeon Soul]

On 7/28/2023 at 2:42 AM, Lace said:

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the replies.

@Hangman: I did check the 32-bit Preview panel, but selecting either Unmanaged or ICC Display Transform do not have any impact on the display.

I did try to open the file on another computer here (note: another Window), and the file does open correctly there (i.e., the colours I see in Designer are the correct ones). Affinity Designer is the same version on both computers.

Hey there,
I am having the same exact issue and was wondering if you ever figured out what the problem was?
The difference with me is, Affinity Photo also displays the "wrong" (darker / desaturated) colors, but everything looks proper with exported files.

However both Photoshop and any web browser show the correct colors.
I know they are the correct ones, because I have the same graphics on hand, printed professionally both on paper and fabric.