Can't export to GIF without unwanted graphic artifacts

[MickM]

I have a calculator skin that needs to be exported to GIF to work with the parent calculator application. It's basically a collection of "Tiles" (each made from a group of objects) that can be rearranged into many different positions to enable experimenting with different button layouts. The tiles are all integer numbers of pixels in width and height and they simply abut each other for the various arrangements being considered. There should be zero gap between these abutments, but when I make the GIF you can see a pixel's worth of daylight between many of them and I can't figure out how to fix that. It may be related to the document size, and I have an issue there. It's a custom size (1072x1776) but I simply cannot put those numbers into the Document Setup dialog box - it takes only one of those two numbers and derives the other based on an aspect ratio I'm unaware of. I just want to make my custom sized document be 1072x1776 and it won't let me. This may end up being two separate issue, but either way I'm in a time crunch to get this graphic out the door. 

I'm on a Mac running Monterey 12.7.1 and using Designer version 2.2.1 and have attached my document in case you want/need to experiment with it. Thanks very much for your consideration in debugging this.

Mueck_1072_D Matrix.afdesign

[loukash]

Rather than placing thin rectangles in the "Perimeter" layer on top, place a single full size rectangle as a background at the bottom of the layer stack. This will fix it:

(I don't have all your fonts activated so the text looks likely differently but that's not the point.)

[loukash]

^ That said, those 1 px transparent gaps shouldn't appear in the first place.
At first glance I don't see the cause: all objects appear to be aligned to the document pixel grid (except "Banner" and "Screen" are like 0.00029 px off the grid but in theory that shouldn't cause this effect).
Sadly, there are quite a few similar known, documented and yet-to-be-fixed-if-at-all bugs in the Affinity apps…  

[MickM]

Thanks for responding! I had already thought of that but it visually gets in the way of moving things around because I wanted to see "holes" for the missing keys. This trick kind of hides why the issue is actually occurring in the first place - I wasn't sure if it was a bug or related to my inability to set the custom document size I wanted. Is not being able to set the "custom" size a bug? I also have a different version of this skin that does NOT have this issue, but in that case I can see the document size as being exactly integer numbers of pixels in each direction. This document ends up being 1235.478x1776 but I want it to be 1072x1776. You can also see that I end up with a wider gif because of that. 

[loukash]

2 minutes ago, MickM said:

to set the custom document size

Well, your document width was not integer pixels. Obviously it makes a difference. This export is now correct:

When resizing, make sure to click the top left-hand anchor in Document setup.
Also, make sure to set your Decimal Units for Pixels to 6 in Preferences so that you never miss any subpixel sizes or positions like the aforementioned Banner and Screen.

[MickM]

Hmm - after reading that Banner and Screen had tiny fractional parts I edited them to be integers and tried again, but still got the same gaps. My Document Setup dialog box has always been setup for a top left anchor, and I have now set my resolution to 6 decimal places (it was 3) - it seems everything is now properly edited to be integer pixels but I'm still getting gif-gaps. I'm wondering if your export to GIF "worked" because you had changed the background color to hide them (which I haven't done). If you believe the problem is fixed at your end with the original background may I please ask for your fixed copy, given that mine is still problematic?

Also, is it or is it not a bug that I can't set a "custom" size in the Document Setup dialog box? Not sure if I'm trying something illegal, or stupid - although I'm certainly trying something intuitive...

[loukash]

3 hours ago, MickM said:

I'm wondering if your export to GIF "worked" because you had changed the background color to hide them

No. Inbetween I have already closed your document unsaved and moved it to Trash. Then I moved it back and opened again as downloaded, only changing values to integer pixels.

3 hours ago, MickM said:

I can't set a "custom" size in the Document Setup dialog box

Works for me in your document.
Now I only fixed this to integer value, nothing else, and I got a clean export without the transparent gaps using the default GIF RGB preset:

[MickM]

Thanks for your assistance - I really appreciate the time you're taking with me :-). I still can't replicate what you're seeing at my end. Perhaps you have a preference setting that I'm not using. Would you mind please attaching your fixed copy so I can see if it works for me.

I'm also a bit confused when you say you were able to fix the document size to fixed integers. I can enter an integer into the 1235.478261 field (it needs to be 1072 because the graphic is 1072x1776) but when I change that field to an integer the other field automatically becomes a crazy number with lots of precision. Even though I have chosen "Custom" for the page preset it insists on enforcing some aspect ratio that I do not want. Can you please send me a screenshot of your Document Setup dialog box showing 1072 AND 1776 in it. Thanks!

[Old Bruce]

45 minutes ago, MickM said:

...I can enter an integer into the 1235.478261 field (it needs to be 1072 because the graphic is 1072x1776) but when I change that field to an integer the other field automatically becomes a crazy number with lots of precision....

There is a lock/link indicator between the two fields, it can be impossible to see. What it does is lock the aspect ratio. You want it unlocked.

 Like this.

[MickM]

I don't have a link showing between the X and Y dimensions. Is there something I need to do to make that appear?

[loukash]

1 hour ago, MickM said:

I don't have a link showing between the X and Y dimensions. Is there something I need to do to make that appear?

Depending on the brightness of the Light UI, the chain may appear invisible. Yet another display bug concerning the Light UI, as it seems. Sigh…  
Perhaps you may want to temporarily switch to the Dark UI.

 

[MickM]

What!! That's just mental! I did as you suggested and my invisible link icon appeared (but it was still very faint). After locking in my exact pixel dimensions all the gaps in the exported GIF file went away. Thanks very much for helping me solve this problem. Does this need to be reported as a bug, or are the developers already aware of it (it sounds like they are)?

I've been living with many documents that have bad WxL all this time for such a daft reason...

[loukash]

8 hours ago, MickM said:

That's just mental!

I hear you loud and clear.  

^ That all being the reason why I've eventually abandoned the Light UI in Affinity even though I dislike the Dark UI in general. Luckily, the lack of contrast in the Dark UI is less of an issue on the new MacBook Air 15" than it was on my pre-retina MacBook Pros, both with matte display.

8 hours ago, MickM said:

Does this need to be reported as a bug, or are the developers already aware of it (it sounds like they are)?

Issues with subpixel rendering on export have been reported a zillion times. Some of these issues can be tagged as "by design", others are clearly bugs, others are caused by intransparent or less-than-intuitive UI design.

This thread is already in the Bug Reporting section, so the Serif moderators will have to decide how to proceed.

[Old Bruce]

11 hours ago, MickM said:

What!! That's just mental!

11 hours ago, MickM said:

Does this need to be reported as a bug, or are the developers already aware of it (it sounds like they are)?

They are aware of this. And I should point out that there are other instances of 'invisible' buttons in the GUI. It makes using the applications much more difficult. I guess that we all need to cultivate the patience of Job.