EPS Woes - Please Help!

[Poorukko]

Hi all,

I'm sending a logo to print for a personal project, however I'm having problems with the quality of the export...

When exporting as a PDF, the curved lines used for the mouth result in a flat edge as opposed to the rounded cap set within Affinity Designer. Furthermore, the bridge of the glasses becomes messy. I've tried using different export options (for export / print / digtal etc) with no change. I've also selected all elements and "converted to curves", as suggested by the printer.

When exporting as an EPS, parts of the image are lost (see below).

In the screen shot below, we have the original vector on the left and the EPS on the right. 

Please offer me your wisdom, as I'm at my wits end!

Thank you!

 

[Poorukko]

Tshirt rear PDF also attached, for reference

Edit: so opening the attachment in this browser the end result is actually perfect! However if I open it from my documents it is not... (see attached screenshot).

So I'm wondering how much of this is related to my actual PC. Hopefully the outcome will be better on the printers computer... 

Edit edit: screen shot within body of message and PDF attachment below!

Tshirt Rear export.pdf

[GarryP]

I looked at the PDF in Chrome, Edge and Acrobat Reader and both the mouth and glasses bridge look fine to me.

In the EPS in your first screenshot – on the right – they also look okay to me too, however, the ends of the sleeves look very different/wrong.

It might be better to concentrate on one issue in one file type at a time rather than many issues in EPS and PDF together; trying to fix one thing at a time.

If you can provide the EPS then someone can have a look at it and try to figure out what’s happening.

If you can provide the actual AFDESIGN document also then that would be better.

If you don’t want to share either in public then a member of staff should be able to provide a dropbox link for you to upload them privately to but a reply from them may take more time.

In the meantime, you could try disabling Hardware Acceleration and seeing if that makes a difference.
If it doesn’t, make sure that your graphics drivers are up-to-date and see if anything changes.

[Poorukko]

Hi Garry, many thanks for your response!

I'm pleased that the PDF's look correct at your end.

As suggested I have attached the EPS file.

Edit: I believe I have found the source of the problem... Goodness knows why but there is a mask hiding within the image which as far as I'm concerned shouldn't even exist... You can see it in the layer list in the attached screenshot! 



Rear - Converted to Curves high.eps

[thomaso]

37 minutes ago, Poorukko said:

When exporting as a PDF, the curved lines used for the mouth result in a flat edge as opposed to the rounded cap set within Affinity Designer.

I don't see issues around the mouth, neither in your screenshots nor in the PDF. Also the glasses bridge look smooth without interruption in the PDF to me and the issues at the sleeves in your APhoto screenshot don't occur in the PDF, too.

Although I think it should not matter in this size and rsolution, the tongue appears to be not curves but a raster image. If it got rasterized on export you possibly have an effect (or filter, blend mode, …) applied which will cause rasterization on export. If you can replace the effect with gradients and simple layer opacity you should be able to avoid rasterization.

[Poorukko]

Thanks for looking. The tongue was shaded using transparency tools in the vector environment, so hopefully no rasterisation should have occured...

[thomaso]

7 minutes ago, Poorukko said:

I have attached the EPS file.

Rear - Converted to Curves high.eps

Opened in Acrobat or macOS Preview the EPS looks fine to me (no issue at the sleeves). But note, the EPS file format doesn't support some modern graphic / DTP features, thus Affinity needs to rasterize various parts on export. These areas may cause issues when the exported EPS gets re-opened in Affinity.

https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000246.shtml

Quote

EPS has been part of well established workflows and without additional reasons for change, has continued as a preferred format in those workflows, despite shortcomings. Particular shortcomings in the PostScript image model, on which EPS is built, are the lack of support for layers and for transparency. See, for example, Cannot open EPS files in illustrator, particularly the technical responses by Willi Adelberger. Color maintenance is not supported in PostScript or in a single standard way in EPS.

(…) In a 2011 post in InDesignSecrets (now CreativePro.com), TIFF vs PSD vs EPS vs PDF vs…, David Blatner states, "EPS is a dying format. There is virtually no reason for you to ever save anything yourself as EPS." He provides two "good reasons to use an EPS file": for re-use of an old vector graphic; or when using special-purpose software (e.g., for barcodes) that makes only EPS graphics.

[thomaso]

23 minutes ago, Poorukko said:

shaded using transparency tools in the vector environment, so hopefully no rasterisation should have occured...

It depends on the tools. While the "Transparency Tool" [Y] should not cause rasterization, a transparency gradient created with the "Fill Tool" [G] or a brush may cause rasterization on export. – Nevertheless, in particular for the tongue I don't see a visual issue in any of your files even though it is rasterized.

[Old Bruce]

I encourage people to not use EPS. It is a dying format*.

 

* See thomaso's quote in the above post.

[Poorukko]

I knew nothing about EPS before today, so this is a steep learning curve!

I think the printer wanted EPS as a plan B, as for some reason the PDF files were showing in Corel as "corrupted"...

I've re-sent them, so fingers crossed eh...

[thomaso]

22 hours ago, Poorukko said:

I think the printer wanted EPS as a plan B

For what production process? – For printing the file doesn't have to be vector data but works well with a pixel image file in a sufficient resolution.