jubarbie Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Not sur if this is a bug or a normal behavior. Software : Affinity Designer 2 Beta 2.3.0 (2165) My document hasn't the Transparent Background box checked on its settings window (see attached image). But when I export it in .png format using the export persona the background IS transparent. If I export it in .png using the File -> Export menu, the background IS NOT transparent (but white) as I would expect. If I export if in .pdf format using the File -> Export menu, the background IS transparent. So I'm a little confuse about it. This is a behavior I have on every files and for many time. It is anoying because I always have to put a white rectangle on my documents. Maybe I'm just misundertanding something ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Hi @jubarbie, When exporting in the Export Persona, if you set the Matte to white in the PNG Export Options then your exported slice will include the white background... PDF files are transparent by default so you would need to physically add a white background if you want one included in the same way you'd need to add a background of any colour if you wanted it included in the exported file. Quote Affinity Designer 2.4.2 | Affinity Photo 2.4.2 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 Affinity Designer Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Photo Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.5.0 (2415) Affinity Designer 1.7.3 | Affinity Photo 1.7.3 | Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 MacBook Pro 16GB, macOS Monterey 12.7.4, Magic Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jubarbie Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 Oh OK thanks for you help, that will save me some time ! But then what is that checkbox in the document settings stands for ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 11 minutes ago, jubarbie said: But then what is that checkbox in the document settings stands for ? For exporting standalone files with transparent backgrounds from the main File > Export menu... In the Export Persona if you draw a slice manually then everything within the boundary of the slice will be exported including any background you have set but when you create a slice from a layer (or a group) only the contents of the layer (or group) are exported which won't include a background since the background is on a different layer... Quote Affinity Designer 2.4.2 | Affinity Photo 2.4.2 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 Affinity Designer Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Photo Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.5.0 (2415) Affinity Designer 1.7.3 | Affinity Photo 1.7.3 | Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 MacBook Pro 16GB, macOS Monterey 12.7.4, Magic Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jubarbie Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 1 hour ago, Hangman said: For exporting standalone files with transparent backgrounds from the main File > Export menu... This doesn't work for PDF files though, as I said on the first post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 8 minutes ago, jubarbie said: This doesn't work for PDF files though, as I said on the first post. It won't because PDFs inherently have a transparent background and you can't add a Matte when exporting to PDF like you can when exporting to PNG. You will always need to add a physical white background if exporting to PDF whether via the File > Export menu or via the Export Persona... Quote Affinity Designer 2.4.2 | Affinity Photo 2.4.2 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 Affinity Designer Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Photo Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.5.0 (2415) Affinity Designer 1.7.3 | Affinity Photo 1.7.3 | Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 MacBook Pro 16GB, macOS Monterey 12.7.4, Magic Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jubarbie Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 Ok good to know, this is still confusing though. Also .exr exports with transparent background when box in unchecked. Maybe it is not a good idea to have a general document setting if this is format dependant. Another solution would be for the app to add a background layer (invisible for users) when the Transparent background is unchecked. So the option works the same way in all formats and in the Export Persona. Or maybe I just don't really understand the meaning of this checkbox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 31 minutes ago, jubarbie said: This doesn't work for PDF files though, as I said on the first post. As @Hangman said, PDF files are normally transparent. It is the PDF viewer that adds the white paper background, as an option while viewing. Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jubarbie Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 I don't get it. PNG are also transparent. The point of having an option to unset transparent background is obviously for format that support transparency, such as PDF or PNG. So when I unset transparent background, I'm expecting to have a white background on those format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Dan C Posted January 4 Staff Share Posted January 4 Thanks for your report @jubarbie! 22 hours ago, jubarbie said: So when I unset transparent background, I'm expecting to have a white background on those format. I can confirm this is expected behaviour and is a difference caused due to the Export Persona - as this uses a different export workflow than File > Export. If you create a slice from a layer, then the matting colour is taken from the Export Options Studio in the Export Persona, as linked slices only render from that layer downwards, so do not include the spread background. If you manually draw a slice in the Export Persona, then the spread background will be included. You can see if the Slice has a transparent background or not using the thumbnail in the Slices Studio: I hope this clears things up! Quote Please note - I am currently out of the office for a short while whilst recovering from surgery (nothing serious!), therefore will not be available on the Forums during this time. Should you require a response from the team in a thread I have previously replied in - please Create a New Thread and our team will be sure to reply as soon as possible. Many thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jubarbie Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 Ok but my slices are created from artboards, is this the same as layer ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Dan C Posted January 4 Staff Share Posted January 4 That's correct, Artboards are just a different type of Layer - any Slice created from the Layers Studio in the Export Persona will have a transparent background by default. You can either manually draw your Slices, or change the Export Matte setting (as highlighted above) to be White, then when creating Slices from the Layers Studio, this White Matte should be used for the background colour Quote Please note - I am currently out of the office for a short while whilst recovering from surgery (nothing serious!), therefore will not be available on the Forums during this time. Should you require a response from the team in a thread I have previously replied in - please Create a New Thread and our team will be sure to reply as soon as possible. Many thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jubarbie Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 Ok understood. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNKLN Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 On 1/3/2024 at 11:34 AM, Hangman said: PDF files are transparent by default Hi, i have quite the opposite situation as the original poster. When I export to a .png the background is transparent, but when i export to .pdf (either file - export or export persona) the pdf-file has a white background (not just when it opens in Preview but also when I look at it via macOS Quicklook). No difference between 'Selection Only' export and 'Whole Document'. The exported layer contains a vector object only. Suggestions are appreciated! I'm on version 2.4 in the meantime, but i've noticed this behaviour before on an older version (wasn't so important at that time). Quote Affinity Photo - Affinity Designer - Affinity Publisher | macOS Sonoma (14.2) on 16GB MBP14 2021 with 2.4 versions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bruce Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 27 minutes ago, RNKLN said: when i export to .pdf (either file - export or export persona) the pdf-file has a white background (not just when it opens in Preview but also when I look at it via macOS Quicklook). Both Preview and the OS Quicklook will give a white background to PDFs. It most likely is a transparent background. Oufti 1 Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 Affinity Designer 2.4.1 | Affinity Photo 2.4.1 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.1 | Beta versions as they appear. I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 28 minutes ago, RNKLN said: when i export to .pdf (either file - export or export persona) the pdf-file has a white background (not just when it opens in Preview but also when I look at it via macOS Quicklook). Hi @RNKLN, Do you have Apple Preview set to display transparent backgrounds, note that Apple Preview’s version of a transparent background is a light grey background rather than a check board pattern… Possibly the easiest way to check is to re-import your exported PDF back into whichever Affinity app you’re using or to post a sample Affinity file so be can take a look… Oufti 1 Quote Affinity Designer 2.4.2 | Affinity Photo 2.4.2 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 Affinity Designer Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Photo Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.5.0 (2415) Affinity Designer 1.7.3 | Affinity Photo 1.7.3 | Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 MacBook Pro 16GB, macOS Monterey 12.7.4, Magic Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oufti Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 33 minutes ago, RNKLN said: the pdf-file has a white background (not just when it opens in Preview but also when I look at it via macOS Quicklook). Have you tried to open the PDF with Adobe Acrobat Reader, with transparency chessboard enabled in its View preferences? Preview is not the most fiable PDF-viewer… Quote Affinity Suite 2.4 – Monterey 12.7.4 – MacBookPro 14" 2021 M1 Pro 16Go/1To I apologise for any approximations in my English. It is not my mother tongue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNKLN Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 23 hours ago, Hangman said: Possibly the easiest way to check is to re-import your exported PDF back into whichever Affinity app Thanks! I had actually done this, but at that moment I didn't realize that the default setting when opening such a document is to not show the transparent background. It was a matter of going to Document Setup… and activating the Transparent Background setting. By the way, Preview and Quicklook show a white background when opening the .pdf, unlike the .png where they indeed show a greyish background. Regardless, my problem is solved (or indeed didn't really exist). Thanks, also for all other suggestions (and no, i'm not using Adobe Acrobat Reader since Preview does everything i need (but displaying the checkered background 😀)! Quote Affinity Photo - Affinity Designer - Affinity Publisher | macOS Sonoma (14.2) on 16GB MBP14 2021 with 2.4 versions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangman Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Hi @RNKLN, 21 minutes ago, RNKLN said: Preview does everything i need (but displaying the checkered background 😀)! Give View > Show Image Background a go in Preview... Star.mp4 Quote Affinity Designer 2.4.2 | Affinity Photo 2.4.2 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.2 Affinity Designer Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Photo Beta 2.5.0 (2415) | Affinity Publisher Beta 2.5.0 (2415) Affinity Designer 1.7.3 | Affinity Photo 1.7.3 | Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 MacBook Pro 16GB, macOS Monterey 12.7.4, Magic Mouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oufti Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 2 hours ago, Hangman said: Give View > Show Image Background a go in Preview.. Actually, on Monterey, this works for PNG but apparently not for PDF. Comparison with the same file open in Preview (Aperçu), on left, or Adobe Reader, on right: Enregistrement de l’écran 2024-03-11 à 21.34.14.m4v Quote Affinity Suite 2.4 – Monterey 12.7.4 – MacBookPro 14" 2021 M1 Pro 16Go/1To I apologise for any approximations in my English. It is not my mother tongue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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