Publisher 2.2.0: strange looking color gradients in exported PDF (since last update)

[HLS]

 

Hello! I think I'm having a problem with Publisher when exporting to PDF. Since the update from 2.1 to 2.2.0, color gradients in the exported PDF file look strange. They are no longer smooth, but rather step-like, as if certain colors are not being displayed. I also opened files created with 2.1 and exported them again, and this effect occurs compared to the previously created PDF. If you export a jpeg, this "bug" does not occur. I have already tested all possible export and "performance" settings, but nothing changes. To demonstrate this, I created a new document (RGB), placed an image, and added a new layer with a color gradient (white to transparent) on top. I have attached the export result. Has anyone else noticed this? Thanks!!!

Test.pdf

[walt.farrell]

Can you share the corresponding .afpub file, too, please?

[HLS]

Sure! And thank you for your reply!

Test.afpub

[NathanC]

Hi @HLS,

To check for this potential regression, I've got both Publisher 2.1.0 and Publisher 2.2.1 installed and I'm not seeing any difference between the PDF exports of the same .afpub file from either app version. It is quite hard to tell since it's a white gradient but the same minor banding is present on the gradient (possibly since it's RGB/8) in both versions of the PDF file from 2.1.0 and 2.2.1. So as far as I can tell nothing has changed between the versions. I've attached the two PDF's and the afpub file prior to export created in 2.1.0 for reference.

However, it's possible you may have been using different export settings between versions as this does appear to produce ever so slightly different results in terms of the banding on the gradient, I'm still just confirming that this is the case but on the sample document if I opt to rasterise the gradient and then export using the (for export) preset, the overall appearance of the gradient overlay does appear to be slightly better and better resemble the Flattened JPEG/PNG equivalent, so perhaps letting the app exporter rasterise the gradient produces slightly worse results, are you also able to confirm this?

 

sRGB 8 PDF (For export preset) from 2.1.0.pdf 2.1.0 test file.afpub Same sRGB 8 PDF (For export preset) from 2.2.1.pdf

[HLS]

Hello NathanC! Thank you so much for looking into this! I have now really tried all possible PDF export settings and the results were consistently bad, no luck. I also rasterized the layers before exporting in Publisher and the result was slightly better, but still poor. But here's the kicker: I started Publisher while holding down the CTRL key and cleared the export settings for the files (I didn't know about this option before, I discovered it last night thanks to this forum) and now the results are suddenly as expected! What's strange is that I had the same problem on my laptop as well as my desktop computer, also after the update. And I didn't change any export settings there either. Really very strange, but resetting the export settings apparently solved the problem, for whatever reason.

[NathanC]

Hi @HLS,

Thanks for sharing and glad to hear it's functioning again as expected on export, for me it hasn't had an impact and overall the export quality is good but I hadn't had any export presets to begin with, so perhaps there was something environmentally different about our initial setups/export menus.

[GaMeOveR]

Hi @NathanC,
Resetting export settings not work for me (hold CTRL and start affinity). Affinity v2.1.1 works fine but new updates not fix export quality issue.

I have found 2 bugs.

1-) Export quality issue (you can see pdfs)

2-) When i set BG layer (lighten), it looks shows image in export screen and affinity screen. But when i export it shows white (export-lighten.pdf)

bugtest.afdesign exportv2.1.1.pdf exportv2.2.1.pdf export-lighten.pdf

[NathanC]

Hi @GaMeOveR,

What PDF reader are you comparing the PDF files in? If you're just comparing them in the browser that might be the issue due to a lack of colour management.

I've opened your attached PDF files in Acrobat, and all the PDF files (including the lighten one) are essentially identical in terms of quality. I've attached a screenshot below comparing the 2.2.1 and 2.1.1 PDF files you've attached. I've not shown the lighten one but it's the same again. This is also the same if the PDF files are imported back into Publisher.

 

 

[GaMeOveR]

@NathanC

In designer i have same result as your's. I was comparing with latest chrome browser (other people will use chrome browser when i show this in my webpage). So it is chrome bug?

[NathanC]

Hi @GaMeOveR,

I believe this is happening because the 2.2.0/1 affinity apps are forcing the exported ICC profile (sRGB 2.1) to use the newer 'sRGB2014' profile over the expected sRGB 2.1 profile selected in the app when exporting to PDF. Evidently Chrome's PDF viewer may have some incompatibilities with this particular profile which causes the colour banding/perceived quality issue, while colour managed apps such as Acrobat reader don't have this problem.

This may be because something changed with regards to our PDFLib version in 2.2.0 but I'm not sure as it stands, if I select 'SRGB IEC61966-2.1' as my intent/output profile for PDF I would expect this profile used on exported PDF file rather than 'sRGB2014', so I'll get this logged with the developers.

As it stands it only appears to affect PDF files using the standard sRGB 2.1 profile, exporting to raster formats such as PNG retain the sRGB 2.1 profile.

[NathanC]

We've now got an FAQ up regarding this issue as well for visibility:

 

[HLS]

Hello! I just wanted to provide some feedback that I apparently still have the problem. I don't know why it worked briefly after deleting the settings (I only tried it once), because when I wanted to export files again, I could observe these unsightly color gradients. I helped myself by first exporting the pages of the document as jpeg, then inserting these images into Publisher 1.10.6, and then exporting them again as PDF. The gradients then appear as expected. Perhaps the problem now identified with the color profiles is the cause of my observations. Thanks anyway for all the effort and hard work!

[NathanC]

Hi @HLS,

I do believe that your problem is the same, I've inspected your original PDF provided and it has the 'sRGB2014' profile assigned in the object/image output rather than the expected sRGB, so when viewed in certain PDF viewers the colour banding/poor quality is evident on the gradient. I'll add your report to the existing issue logged.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Exporting to PDF RGB/8 with placed images always converts them to 'sRGB2014' regardless of export settings" (REF: AF-946) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.3.0.2139".
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.

[Chris F]

I've been using using 2.1.1 because of this issue. I just tried 2.4 and it is still there. I have tried manually setting the color profile and it doesn't make a difference. I'm on Windows 10, AMD 5800H CPU, Nvidia 3070 mobile GPU

[Chris F]

I should add, that I get banding on images in all color exports, not just rgb. It has never been worked correctly for me in any version since 2.1.1, it may be a slightly different issue from the one above. Attached is a sample PDF export and a screen grab from how it is displayed in a browser vs acrobat reader.

BandingSample.pdf

[NathanC]

Hi @Chris F,

Inspecting your PDF in Acrobat shows the image colour space as sRGB 2.1, so this doesn't appear to be the exact same issue as discussed above (sRGB2014 output profile issue)

Have you tried opening your PDF in different browsers for comparison? I can only see the banding issues clearly in Chrome and Edge, Firefox and Safari show the PDF preview in line with Acrobat.

If this doesn't occur in chrome with the same document in v2.1.1 i'd be interested to see the difference between the PDF outputs between versions.

[Chris F]

1 hour ago, NathanC said:

Hi @Chris F,

Inspecting your PDF in Acrobat shows the image colour space as sRGB 2.1, so this doesn't appear to be the exact same issue as discussed above (sRGB2014 output profile issue)

Have you tried opening your PDF in different browsers for comparison? I can only see the banding issues clearly in Chrome and Edge, Firefox and Safari show the PDF preview in line with Acrobat.

If this doesn't occur in chrome with the same document in v2.1.1 i'd be interested to see the difference between the PDF outputs between versions.

I had only tried it in Brave and Edge. I knew Brave was using Chromium, but now see that Edge is also. I assumed Microsoft was doing their own thing.

I opened the previously shared file in 2.1.1 and exported a new pdf from there. See attachment. From my testing, it doesn't seem to display any of the errors that the 2.4 export does. 

BandingSample_211export.pdf

[NathanC]

Hi @Chris F,

Thanks for sending over the Pub 2.1.1 export file, the primary difference I'm seeing between the two PDF's is that in Pub 2.4 uses an updated version of PDFLib, and the sRGB profile version is v4.3.1 as opposed to v2.1.0 in the Pub 2.1.1 file (Sorry too many version numbers going on here!). So perhaps there is an issue with the more updated 4.3.0 sRGB profile version showing correctly in certain browsers such as Chrome however we've not been able to re-create this from scratch yet.

Could you possibly send over the .afpub file used prior to exporting so we can take a look at the source document, as well as the PDF export settings used?

Many thanks

[Chris F]

4 hours ago, NathanC said:

Hi @Chris F,

Thanks for sending over the Pub 2.1.1 export file, the primary difference I'm seeing between the two PDF's is that in Pub 2.4 uses an updated version of PDFLib, and the sRGB profile version is v4.3.1 as opposed to v2.1.0 in the Pub 2.1.1 file (Sorry too many version numbers going on here!). So perhaps there is an issue with the more updated 4.3.0 sRGB profile version showing correctly in certain browsers such as Chrome however we've not been able to re-create this from scratch yet.

Could you possibly send over the .afpub file used prior to exporting so we can take a look at the source document, as well as the PDF export settings used?

Many thanks

Very strange that you can't recreate it. Maybe I need to clarify that this is happening to any raster images that are part of a document. There wasn't anything special about the examples I showed. It was just an image I grabbed from my files to illustrate what the problem is. It happens to all images that are part of any document exported to PDF in RGB. I don't see it with CMYK exports, but I've only tested it a couple times. It doesn't matter what the document is set up as in Affinity and the problem is occurring across all three Affinity applications. I tried exporting from Designer 2.4 on iPad to make sure it wasn't something unique to Windows and it produces the same banding result.

I've attached a designer file saved from both 2.1.1 and 2.4 in case it is of any help.

BandingSample_211.afdesign BandingSample_24.afdesign

[NathanC]

Hi @Chris F,

Many thanks, we can replicate the issue from scratch using your provided files so i'll add your files to an existing bug report we have logged internally regarding this profiling/banding issue.

[GaMeOveR]

@NathanC

Bug still here, i am using latest Affinity Publisher v2.5.2

You can use files: 

You can see how it looks in browsers:

 

[That_computerguy]

Still a problem in v2.5.3

[HLS]

I can confirm that even with version 2.5.3, this error still occurs for me. I am still working around it by exporting to jpeg, then inserting this jpeg into Publisher 1.10.6, and then exporting as a PDF. It's tedious, but at least it’s a workaround that works for me. I would be very happy if it gets fixed someday. Thank you anyway for the great work you do! I am so glad I landed with Affinity and I will continue to support you by purchasing every future paid update.

[-----]

Any news on this issue? The banding is terrible even for Designer PDF exports. The only fix right now is to use other software to re export the file which is cumbersome since a lot of the formatting gets lost in the process.