Artboard not transparent at export

[abra100pro]

Although I'm not sure whether this is a bug or I am plain stupid – I want to export an artboard with a transparent background and it does not work.

See images: Setting and Export as PNG – no transparent Background.

I am pretty sure this worked in AD before. Is it a bug or do I oversee the obvious?

[Obscured]

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[abra100pro]

2 minutes ago, Return said:

Is the background set to transparent in the menu>document setup>color?

Perfect, that did the trick. However – it is confusing to select the artboard and to be able to make it transparent when in fact I have to do it in the Document Setup, no?

I'd prefer the first – it is more intuitive than the Document Setup.

Thanks, solved, so far.

[Obscured]

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[abra100pro]

Just now, Return said:

You can workaround this by selecting the artboard itself and,
Export>selection only from the dropdown.

Thansk, but that doesn't work – the export needs to have exactly the size of the artboard, not the element. So I need the artboard taken into account at export.

[Obscured]

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[abra100pro]

2 minutes ago, Return said:

Select the artboard in the layerspanel.
 

 

Wow, you're right. Although this makes no sense to me – why does it work? 🙂 

Imagine taking away the Document Setup > Background transparent Thing, but being able to select the artboard and set it to transparent (as any other thing, too) - wouldn't that be much more straight forward?

 

[carl123]

2 minutes ago, abra100pro said:

Imagine taking away the Document Setup > Background transparent Thing, but being able to select the artboard and set it to transparent (as any other thing, too) - wouldn't that be much more straight forward?

 

Not all AD documents have artboards, so it's best to have a consistent setting for those that do and those that don't

Likewise for consistency between all the 3 Affinity apps

[abra100pro]

I just can't catch the logic in this:

@ Document settings: Document is not transparent

@ Artboard in color panel: Artboard has no fill color but is shown white on canvas

@ export: Transparency is shown (me every single time: "ah, yes, let's go back fix this.)

Why? 

Wouldn't it be much easier if either one could see the transparency on the canvas if there is any (just as in Photoshop) AND by default make the artboard white? I know the argument "artboard is an object as well..." but how many use the artboard as object and how many use it as an output format (paper, businesscard, poster, online ad image,...)?

[MEB]

Hi @abra100pro,

There's two "transparencies" to consider here:
1 - the artboard (as an object/its fill colour)
2 - the canvas itself (doc settings > colour > set transparent background)
They are not the same entity.

Looking at your points above, if the document setting is NOT transparent - it has a color (white). If the artboard has no fill color, it means it's transparent, thus leaving the white from the document canvas to show through. If you export the document, it will be white (since it's not set as transparent). If you select the artboard and, on export, you pick 'Selection' from the 'Area' dropdown, you are just exporting the artboard (ignoring the document canvas), thus it exports as transparent since the artboard has no fill colour.
 

3 hours ago, abra100pro said:

Wouldn't it be much easier if either one could see the transparency on the canvas if there is any (just as in Photoshop) AND by default make the artboard white? I know the argument "artboard is an object as well..." but how many use the artboard as object and how many use it as an output format (paper, businesscard, poster, online ad image,...)?

If we make the artboard white, you can't see canvas transparency, since the artboard covers it. Photoshop doesn't separate canvas from artboards (each artboard there represents a single canvas) whereas in Affinity artboards (plural) share the same canvas space.

[abra100pro]

Thank you.

Let me go a step further into this:

Quote

if the document setting is NOT transparent - it has a color (white). If the artboard has no fill color, it means it's transparent, thus leaving the white from the document canvas to show through. If you export the document, it will be white (since it's not set as transparent). If you select the artboard and, on export, you pick 'Selection' from the 'Area' dropdown, you are just exporting the artboard (ignoring the document canvas), thus it exports as transparent since the artboard has no fill colour.

That's what happens here:

• document = transparent and artboard = transparent >> export always transparent (but artboard on canvas display has white background (why?))
• document = transparent and artboard = any colour >> export always has the colour of the artboard (but not its bleed – why?).
• document = NOT transparent and artboard = transparent >> export is always transparent, no matter if whole document or a Selection is chosen (when exporting as PDF, different with PNG: I see the "canvas" with multiple artboards). If there is no artboard ina a document the doc > traspa > settings do not have an impact, as well.

 

This is very confusing and I wonder whether the designers do need artboards as canvases or a (not visible while designing) canvas and artboards as objects (can you give me a case in which this is useful?). And: what sense does it make, that the document contains the bleed seetings and not the artboard if the document is just a canvas?

I suggest that the function of an artboard needs to be rethought: Is it

• the base of an artwork and therefore shows transparency as well as if it has a background-colour that would go over its boundaries into its bleed (and therefore make sense when exporting with bleed and cropmarks?
• or (I don't even know, what benefit it could have being) an object with contradicting attributes.?

Sorry, I edited this post several times because I got some insights in the making.