AD2.1.1 Vector path is unnecessarily rasterized on SVG export

[purplie]

Summary: A simple vector object (not an image) gets rasterized by SVG export, if its opacity is not 100%, even though SVG supports setting opacity.  Affinity Designer 1 didn't have this problem.

Application:  Affinity Designer 2.1.1

OS: MacOS 13.5

Reproducible: Yes.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a new document, with default options for "Press Ready / Letter".

2. Use the Pen tool to draw a simple shape such as a triangle.

3. Set the shape's fill color to any color.  In the Layers panel, set the object's opacity to 50%.

4. Try to Export to SVG, using any of the default preset options.  Observe that the shape gets rasterized.

Notes:

1. If I don't set the object's opacity, it works fine.

1. If in the Export dialog I change the option "Rasterize: unsupported features" to "Rasterize: nothing", then it works as expected: the shape is exported as a non-rasterized vector shape.  But what can be happening here?  How can setting the opacity be an "unsupported feature"?

2. If I try to open the attached example file in Affinity Designer 1, I get the message "Failed to open document ... The file includes features from a later version of Affinity" --- even though all the features I used did exist in Affinity Designer 1.

bug-8.afdesign

[Dan C]

Hi @purplie,

Thanks for your report!

I have been doing some further testing here and I can confirm I've found the following:

• Applying Layer Opacity directly to the object when a Fill and Stroke are present causes the object to be rasterised when exporting.
• Applying Fill / Stroke Opacity to the object, instead of Layer opacity stops the rasterisation from occurring.
• Stacking both Fill & Layer opacity to an object will rasterise when a stroke is present, and is retained in vector when no stroke is applied.

As far as I understand, the app shouldn't be rasterising these specific objects when exporting to SVG, as I would expect the 'Rasterise Nothing' file result when using the SVG (for export) preset. Therefore I am logging this as a bug with our development team now.

You can find a copy of my example file attached -

SVG layer opacity.afdesign

11 hours ago, purplie said:

If I try to open the attached example file in Affinity Designer 1, I get the message "Failed to open document ... The file includes features from a later version of Affinity" --- even though all the features I used did exist in Affinity Designer 1.

This is expected behaviour - file serialisation occurs when saving/creating a document in a newer version of the app, regardless of the specific tools/functions used. A document saved/created in a newer version of the app can never be opened in an older version, even if no changes were made.

I hope this helps!