DeviceLink Profiles for PDF Export

[Viktor CR]

I work with the color profile eciCMYK as the working color space for CMYK documents.

On export, I need to convert to PSO or to ISO profiles, for which there are DeviceLink conversion color profiles on my system.

Now, to convert an open format document (Designer, Publisher, Photo) into these output profiles, I am able to do so from the Document Setup dialogue.
I do not want to convert the document, however, in order for it to remain in the same color profile as placed documents and graphics (all eciCMYK, print process neutral). What I need is the document to be converted on Export only.

However, in the export dialogue, the same DeviceLink profiles – that are available in the Document Setup – are missing. here is a screenshot for comparison:

 

I am still on V1 and wondering, if this would be different for V2.

Interestingly, for the JPEG and TIFF export, these color profiles are available, again — just not for PDF exports.

If someone wants to test, the color profiles are available from here:
http://www.eci.org/doku.php?id=en:downloads
(eci_cmyk_v2.zip and ecicmyk_devicelinkprofiles_2017-08-27.zip)

[Dan C]

Hi @Viktor CR,

Thanks for your post!

As I understand it, 'DeviceLink' profiles are designed for conversion between one Colour Profile to another, and as these aren't Printer/Display profiles, they can't be selected as output intent/embedded profiles when exporting to PDF - hence they don't appear in this list.

When installing these profiles on Windows, you can see in the Colour Management that these do not appear the same as the other profiles, which can be selected when exporting to PDF:

2 hours ago, Viktor CR said:

What I need is the document to be converted on Export only

2 hours ago, Viktor CR said:

I am still on V1 and wondering, if this would be different for V2.

I can confirm that the reported issue is expected behaviour in Affinity and is the same between V1 & V2 for the Affinity apps - I believe this workflow will require a specific PDF RIP/tool software, whereby you would export the file from Publisher using the eciCMYK v2 profile, then use the PDF RIP/tool software to convert the file, using the DeviceLink profile.

I've not personally used this type of software, though I believe some dedicated PDF applications can also perform this workflow with your exported PDF file, such as PDFtoolbox.

I hope this clears things up!

[Viktor CR]

Thank you, Dan!

May I ask if the Affinity product team and developers can have a look into supporting DeviceLink color profiles on export?

The conversion itself already works in all three applications when converting a document manually.
It would be a huge benefit to have lossless CMYK to CMYK conversion available via such profiles directly upon export in Affinity apps, in general
and in particular for modern media-neutral and print process agnostic workflows in CMYK, not only RGB,
for which the eciCMYK v2 profile was made.

[Dan C]

No problem at all, I certainly understand and I will be sure to log this as a feature request with our team now, to be considered for a future update  

[Viktor CR]

Hi @Dan C, I'd like to make sure, this has made its way on the list of feature requests, as it's a rather workflow-critical issue, that re-occurs for me all the time. Adobe is able to handle this, but I'd like to keep working with Affinity.

[Dan C]

I can confirm this is logged as an improvement request with our developers and is under further consideration, however there are many features that users are awaiting support for in Affinity and therefore we cannot provide any timeframe or guarantees this will be added, our apologies.