Color of image changes while zooming / exporting the image in Affinity 2.2.0

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

Hi Folks,

I got weird behavior of Affinity 2,2 while exporting / zooming my image. The image changes its color tint. pls find a screenshot attached showing what I want (the right one) and what I got after export (the left with blue tint .tiff)

First I thought that issue happened because of a wrong profile but checking out some different profiles brings no difference.

Versioning: I just changed to 2.2.0 and simultaneously to Mac OS 14 - so I can not try it with an old version.

Your help is highly appreciated  

 

Peter

p.S I also did a screen recording to show the problem live - pls tell me how I can share the video 

[NotMyFault]

Hi Peter,

it seems you are using Windows.

Unfortunately many Windows Apps do not support color profiles, and simply assume sRGB, leading to wrong rendering.

You need to check colors with an capable app like web browser, or Affinity.

 

https://affinityspotlight.com/article/display-colour-management-in-the-affinity-apps/

Edited October 16, 2023 by NotMyFault
Wrong assumption

[Hangman]

Hi @Peter H. Hufnagel and welcome to the forums,

9 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

it seems you are using Windows.

These are Mac Quicklook screenshots aren't rather than Windows...

It's difficult to say why you're seeing this issue while 'zooming' your image but there could well be a profile issue relating to a bug in v2.2.0 which may explain your export issue.

You could try disabling Hardware Acceleration in the Performance Preferences (if enabled) to see whether or not it affects the appearance when zooming.

If you are part of the Beta program you could try downloading the latest beta which is now at 2.2.1.2075 which fixes the profile issues others were experiencing. You can install the Beta alongside the retail version and run the two side by side.

If you're not already a part of the beta program you can join by following the link in this post... Failing that if you're happy to upload your image we can take a look to see if we can determine possible causes.

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

11 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

Hi Peter,

it seems you are using Windows.

Unfortunately many Windows Apps do not support color profiles, and simply assume sRGB, leading to wrong rendering.

You need to check colors with an capable app like web browser, or Affinity.

 

https://affinityspotlight.com/article/display-colour-management-in-the-affinity-apps/

Dear NotMyFault, 

I am sorry but I am using apple since nearly 30 years. so I am working on an M1 MacBook Pro 16" . Till this Image I never had to concern about color profiles - it simply worked - every time. Then I did the SONOMA upgrade and the Upgrade to Affinity 2.2.0 - accidentally I did the Affinity Upgrade bevor I did SONOMA so I have no old version of Affinity to check.

Peter

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

1 hour ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Peter H. Hufnagel and welcome to the forums,

These are Mac Quicklook screenshots aren't rather than Windows...

It's difficult to say why you're seeing this issue while 'zooming' your image but there could well be a profile issue relating to a bug in v2.2.0 which may explain your export issue.

You could try disabling Hardware Acceleration in the Performance Preferences (if enabled) to see whether or not it affects the appearance when zooming.

If you are part of the Beta program you could try downloading the latest beta which is now at 2.2.1.2075 which fixes the profile issues others were experiencing. You can install the Beta alongside the retail version and run the two side by side.

If you're not already a part of the beta program you can join by following the link in this post... Failing that if you're happy to upload your image we can take a look to see if we can determine possible causes.

Dear Hangman,

yes I did the screenshots out of Affinity main Window using the CMD - Shift 4 Screenshot function. 

I would like to join the beta team - I will try out if 2.2.1.20275 will save the issue and come back after the test.

 

Peter

 

[thomaso]

15 hours ago, Peter H. Hufnagel said:

p.S I also did a screen recording to show the problem live - pls tell me how I can share the video 

You can upload a video to your forum's post like images. Unfortunately macOS / Quicktime creates files of type .mov, so other forum users might need to have Quicktime installed to play the video, also the default file size is quite large (and in Retina resolution).

You can workaround the disadvantages by converting + (auto-)recompressing the video before upload to .mp4 or .m4v with the free VLC player app for instance. https://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[NotMyFault]

3 hours ago, Peter H. Hufnagel said:

Dear NotMyFault, 

I am sorry but I am using apple since nearly 30 years. so I am working on an M1 MacBook Pro 16" . Till this Image I never had to concern about color profiles - it simply worked - every time. Then I did the SONOMA upgrade and the Upgrade to Affinity 2.2.0 - accidentally I did the Affinity Upgrade bevor I did SONOMA so I have no old version of Affinity to check.

Peter

Sorry for me misinterpreted the screenshots.

it seems you are using astrophotography and maybe RGB/32 documents and EDR Mode. It would be great to learn more about your specific workflow. So waiting patiently for your screencapture.

[markw]

@Peter H. Hufnagel Another solid free video converter if you need it is HandBrake: https://handbrake.fr/
The other thing I would add, is that for uploading video files to these forums is that if you are converting to .mp4 use the H.264 codex.
Whenever I have uploaded .mp4 H.265 video files here in the past they have refused to play.

[Hangman]

Just to add to @markw's comments above, also avoid encoding any .mp4 files in 4k as they appear to be unsupported on the forum, stick to 1080p.

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

o.k. I tried the beta - without success! 

attached the video. pls tell me if you can open it or if I have to convert it using Apple's Compressor.

 

Peter

P.S. what I noticed when watching the video in Apple preview was that the effect was by far not such strong than during recording. I have no explains whats happening here 🤷‍♂️

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

I think the attached video shows much better the issue. I shot it using my iPhone 14.

 

Peter

[NotMyFault]

Color changes in different zoom levels are the unavoidable consequence of mipmap rendering.

The only way to inspect colors is zooming to exactly 100%. All other zoom levels are affected by resampling (bilinear by default). Even nearest neighbor will omit pixels, thus suppressing their color contribution.

[Hangman]

Hi @Peter H. Hufnagel,

Thanks for both videos, they play without any problems so all good there...

Would you be able to upload both the Affinity Photo file and the Source TIFF file so we can take a closer look? There does appear to be a screen redraw issue going on but it would be helpful to make a comparison with how the Tiff file displays in version 1.

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

o-k. but than pls explain me, why that happens not in prior Versions / Setups. This is by far not my first image. other images where exported "what you see is what you get" . not issues

 

Peter

 

[NotMyFault]

When zoomed out, small objects like stars will vanish, but their brightness contribution will increase the dark black background.

In settings/performance you can choose view mode and view quality.

during zoom, Affinity temporary shows low resolution previews to achieve snappy UI reaction. You may need to wait (sometimes several seconds) before mipmap rendering achieves full resolution.

Anything not 100% zoom level gives „imperfect“ previews.

[NotMyFault]

Just now, Peter H. Hufnagel said:

o-k. but than pls explain me, why that happens not in prior Versions / Setups. This is by far not my first image. other images where exported "what you see is what you get" . not issues

 

Peter

 

A multitude of potential causes:

• different settings in App or OS
• OS upgrades may impact GPU driver (new bugs), degrading performance or results
• parallel processes may consume RAM/GPU/CPU

For a valid comparison, test environment must match in all these aspects. 
 

i don’t rule out a bug in newer Affinity releases, but in majority of cases the environment changed (unnoticed).

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

2 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Peter H. Hufnagel,

Thanks for both videos, they play without any problems so all good there...

Would you be able to upload both the Affinity Photo file and the Source TIFF file so we can take a closer look? There does appear to be a screen redraw issue going on but it would be helpful to make a comparison with how the Tiff file displays in version 1.

no problem ...

IC1803_V3.afphoto IC1803_V3.tiff

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

3 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

A multitude of potential causes:

• different settings in App or OS
• OS upgrades may impact GPU driver (new bugs), degrading performance or results
• parallel processes may consume RAM/GPU/CPU

For a valid comparison, test environment must match in all these aspects. 
 

i don’t rule out a bug in newer Affinity releases, but in majority of cases the environment changed (unnoticed).

I told above: I changed MacOS version and also Affinity so - yes - environment changed! I also have a 13" MacBook . I will have a look if there is an old Affinity Version installed...

P.S. is possibility to downgreat Affinity to an earlier Version for testing?

[NotMyFault]

You can download all older versions from serif website, but only one reales (of V2) can be installed at a time.

If you register for the beta Programm, you can install any beta version (of V2) in parallel to the retail versions (again, one beta version at a time). The last betas are often identical to the later retail versions.

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

ahhh - o.k. cool! 

 

Peter

 

[Hangman]

Hi @Peter H. Hufnagel,

I see no difference when viewing the source Tiff file in either V1 or V2 and likewise, I'm not seeing any colour shift when Zooming in and out in Photo and the preview in the export window in V2 looks good as well whether exporting as an 8-bit or 16-bit Tiff file.

One thought, do you have Hardware Acceleration enabled in the V2 performance preferences? If you do it would be worth disabling, rebooting Photo and then seeing if you see the same issue once Hardware Acceleration is disabled...

Could you also confirm the colour profile you have set for your MacBook Pro Monitor in the Display Settings?

Zoom in V2.2.0

 

Export Preview in V2.2.0

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

1 hour ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Peter H. Hufnagel,

I see no difference when viewing the source Tiff file in either V1 or V2 and likewise, I'm not seeing any colour shift when Zooming in and out in Photo and the preview in the export window in V2 looks good as well whether exporting as an 8-bit or 16-bit Tiff file.

One thought, do you have Hardware Acceleration enabled in the V2 performance preferences? If you do it would be worth disabling, rebooting Photo and then seeing if you see the same issue once Hardware Acceleration is disabled...

Could you also confirm the colour profile you have set for your MacBook Pro Monitor in the Display Settings?

Zoom in V2.2.0

 

Export Preview in V2.2.0

sorry - deactivating Hardware Acceleration brings no advantage. do you think e.g  . my GPU is broken?

 

BUT what I noticed is: when I drag the screenshot here to the forum - colors look in my browser quite normal - but viewing the screenshot using Quickview brings that weird behavior 🙈

Peter

 

[thomaso]

5 minutes ago, Peter H. Hufnagel said:

GPU is broken?

FWIW, I see a visible colour shift with your TIF in macOS 10.14 / Affinity V1. – Although it is much less than in your screen recording, it is visible as a change from green to blue. It takes a fraction of a second to occur after zooming.

8 minutes ago, Peter H. Hufnagel said:

when I drag the screenshot

Which one, – any?
And what if you download a screenshot from the forum to your disk + view this with Quicklook?

[Hangman]

45 minutes ago, Peter H. Hufnagel said:

BUT what I noticed is: when I drag the screenshot here to the forum - colors look in my browser quite normal - but viewing the screenshot using Quickview brings that weird behavior 🙈

If you open your Tiff File in Apple Preview rather than just viewing it using Quick Look and then go to Tools > Assign Profile, which ColorSync profile is shown as the default?

[Peter H. Hufnagel]

4 minutes ago, Hangman said:

If you open your Tiff File in Apple Preview rather than just viewing it using Quick Look and then go to Tools > Assign Profile, which ColorSync profile is shown as the default?

ohhh- ACES CG Linear (Academie Color Encoding System AP1) 🙈