Strange high contrast glitch on interface

[bethanmae]

Hi there,

I'm currently running a free trial of Publisher 2 to create a quarterly seasonal digest. I've been using the software for several days on my MacBook Pro for multiple hours a day.

I've just started to experience a strange glitch when using the software, which makes the interface (and all images and text on my document) really dark, as if a contrast slider has been boosted. As I move my cursor in and out of the window it goes back to the normal colour/contrast.

Frustratingly, I can't screenshot this glitch as it goes back to normal when I use another (e.g. screenshooting) programme. 

I have closed and relaunched several times. For a few minutes, it works fine, but then switches back.

I'm not sure if I've pressed something to cause this, or if it's an error?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Beth

[thomaso]

Hi @bethanmae,
Welcome to the Affinity Forums!

5 hours ago, bethanmae said:

Frustratingly, I can't screenshot this glitch as it goes back to normal when I use another (e.g. screenshooting) programme. 

If you use the macOS screenshot application you are not forced to leave APub. The easiest is to start it with Cmd-Shift-5, then choose the 'video' icon and demonstrate for some seconds an object selection within APub + a mouse move outside the APub application window. (Just an screenshot image of a darkened screen would hardly hint to a possible culprit)

Edited September 21, 2023 by thomaso
shortcut fixed

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, thomaso said:

The easiest is to start it with Cmd-5

I think you mean CMD-Shift-5, right?

[bethanmae]

Hi both, thanks for the help.

I've tried using screen record and screen capture through Cmd-Shift-5, and setting a time to delay the process but no luck - the screen goes back to normal each time. I've also tried to screenshot using Cmd-Shift-3 but the same happens. (I think it's taunting me!)

Please excuse the rudimentary phone video, but it's the best I can do!

Beth

[thomaso]

13 hours ago, bethanmae said:

no luck - the screen goes back to normal each time.

Do you mean the issue of brightness/contrast change is not captured in a screencast although/while it appears on screen? – There may be various reasons, not necessarily related to APub or a certain application but to the system or hardware. Do you have the macOS preference for auto-adjusting screen brightness or "Night Shift"activated? If yes, disable both to see if this helps.

If you notice the issue in APub only you could check if it is related to performance settings, for instance by disabling "Metal" + "Hardware Acceleration" + activating "Use only integrated GPU" in the APub Preferences -> Performance.

Booting the Mac in "Safe Mode" could also provide information about a possible culprit. Once it has booted up, launch APub to see if the problem occurs there as well. (Note: everything is slower in Safe Mode, booting and APub).

If none of this helps: What macbook model/year and macOS version is used?

[Dan C]

Hi @bethanmae,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums & sorry to see you're having trouble!

Can you please confirm for me, are you using an M2 based macbook?

If you open your document in Affinity Publisher and navigate to File > Document Setup > Colour, what are your settings here currently please? 

Many thanks in advance

[loukash]

On 9/21/2023 at 3:55 PM, bethanmae said:

I've just started to experience a strange glitch when using the software, which makes the interface (and all images and text on my document) really dark, as if a contrast slider has been boosted. As I move my cursor in and out of the window it goes back to the normal colour/contrast.

On 9/22/2023 at 2:19 PM, bethanmae said:

IMG_2213.MOV

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

are you using an M2 based macbook?

I've noticed a similar flickering phenomenon these days on my new MacBook Air M2 when opening certain old TIFF images that I originally edited with Photoshop 7 (i.e. pre CS, possibly even still on Mac OS 9): scans from about 20 years ago with an embedded scanner profile. Also oddly enough, some of the TIFFs contain IPTC metadata that are not readable even by GraphicConverter, although XnView can read them; and also, Finder doesn't display any thumbnail icon previews for them. Preview.app opens them fine though.

Anyway… changing the color profile to sRGB fixed the flickering in Affinity for me. Eventually I may want to inspect all affected images and simply resave them, that should actually fix it with no loss as those are TIFFs.

Edited September 25, 2023 by loukash

[loukash]

This seems to be all about the same issue:
forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&tags=AFP-5662

[Dan C]

Thanks for letting me know - I agree that I believe the issue OP is reporting here is AFP-5662, as thus far we've only seen this occur on M2 devices with a Liquid Retina display, when using the 'Apple Wider Colour Sharing Profile' for the document.

Changing the colour profile in use for this document stops this 'flashing workspace' issue from occurring, as you've mentioned.

This also sounds similar to the issue you are seeing, though it does sound as though the files you're opening are using a different profile, which is the first report we've seen not using the aforementioned Apple Wider Colour Sharing Profile.

If you're willing, could please you provide a sample of one of these TIFFs files here, such that I can update the development log with this?

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Dan C said:

when using the 'Apple Wider Colour Sharing Profile' for the document

I'm definitely not using anything like that…  

3 minutes ago, Dan C said:

could please you provide a sample of one of these TIFFs files here, such that I can update the development log with this?

Sure. But as those are scans of private photos, can you please provide me your Dropbox link? thanks

[Dan C]

Thanks for verifying!

Of course, please use the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/vGEW4wLfsDEK7h51az67

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know

[loukash]

4 hours ago, Dan C said:

please reply here to let me know

There you go, the two that are affected from about a dozen I quickly inspected so far.
(yep, incidentally that's both the "slightly" younger me, the 1987 photo while I was still at the art school )

According to the date stamp of the Epson Perfection 1240 ICC profile visible via ExifTool, I scanned them in March 2001, later in 2003 edited with Photoshop 7, and last modified in 2007 but no idea what I did then, probably I only batch-stripped the files' resource forks (i.e. Photoshop's Finder thumbnails which became redundant on OS X) since all other photos in that folder have the same modification date.

Maybe of note is that the Epson ICC profiles are not installed on this MacBook Air M2 (yet), although I've already tested that "antique" scanner via Image Capture, and it still works with Ventura, albeit relatively slow by today's standards.

[Dan C]

Thanks for providing those for me and the further information, this is certainly appreciated!
(and it's a pleasure to put a face to your name )

I've included one of these images, alongside the info provided to the development log to assist our team in resolving this issue.

I hope this helps!

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

it's a pleasure to put a face to your name 

On my profile page you can also see my relatively recent, well… profile  

[loukash]

For the record, the flickering of my TIFF Epson scans hasn't been fixed in 2.2.1 yet.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "M2 Mac flashing workspace - when using Apple Wide Colour Gamut" (REF: AF-473) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.3.0.2150".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

[Dan C]

Just to note, the above fix only affects images using the 'Apple Wide Colour Gamut' profile at this time.

There is a separate issue logged for the scanned TIFF files using the Epson profile, which will need to be addressed separately by our team.

I hope this clears things up