Jump to content

Affinity Photo reads certain PNG files incorrectly, resulting in washed out colors.


Recommended Posts

Posted (edited)

Hello, I am having a problem where certain PNG files look washed out when opening/importing them into the latest verison of Affinity Photo. I have provided a simple example along with relevant files in the attachments.

I often work with video and whenever I need a high quality still from a video I use FFMPEG to extract high quality clean PNG's. (I actually use a GUI for FFMPEG called Shutter Encoder but it's interacting with FFMPEG in the same way as a regular user would. The example in this post is generated purely in FFMPEG.) The format of these PNG's are as follows according to MediaInfo: 8-bit RGB with the BT.709 color gamut in full range. But for some weird reason, when importing them to Affinity (either by drag-n-drop or "open") the program leads me to believe that it reads the PNG's as 32-bit HDR images in BT.709 color gamut., which is incorrect, leading to washed out colors. It's worth noting that the original videos of which the PNG's were extracted were not HDR to begin with, as my setup does not allow for HDR.

How the PNG's are meant to look:

Screenshot2024-05-25020104.jpg.617cbcd2b06cf80fa35fef5fe4f56a28.jpg

How it looks when importing/opening in Affinity Photo:

Screenshot2024-05-25015429.thumb.png.237a5ee3af11b4743c0606a4c6900146.png

When viewing these PNG's in the browser or other apps like Discord, MS Paint and the built-in photos viewer in Windows the PNG's appears correctly, which leads me to believe that the problem is either with Affinity Photo or my in-app settings. I have reset all my user settings to default at one point in Affinity Photo and that did not seem to solve my issue.

If anyone has any solutions to how I can make Affinity read these PNG's correctly, please lend me your help. Right now I'm converting the PNG's to .bmp files as a temporary solution, but this is not ideal as importing the PNG's correctly would be much easier. Perhaps this is a bug/oversight with Affinity Photo itself?

In the attachments I have included an example of these faulty PNG's called "output.png" along with a screenshot and project file of how it appears after importing it into affinity photo.

output.png

 

output.afphoto

example png.zip

Edited by Lalovoe
The example project was made in an older version. I have since updated Affinity Photo and recreated the example, which is still present. I have also added a .zip file containing all files.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Lalovoe said:

In the attachments I have included an example of these faulty PNG's called "output.png"

I think it would help to provide that again, but as a .zip file so the forum software doesn't mess with it.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have added all files to a .zip that has been edited into the main post.

Also, I seem to have made a discovery. Simply by changing the gamma from 1.0 (default) to 2.0 using a "Levels" adjustment layer, it begins to resemble the original image. I am not sure if this gamma value is correct, or even if this IS the original image yet, but I remember seeing a value of 2.2 being labeled as "standard" somewhere when it came to gamma, so I'm not sure if I would need to increase the value further, which isn't possible on a single Levels adjustment. Although I do have to admit that just by eyeballing it next to the windows photo viewer app it looks pretty spot on with the gamma set to 2.0.

Still, it doesn't feel "solved" as ideally I would just need to drag-n-drop to PNG in and have Affinity find out the correct default colors.

Screenshot2024-05-25023336.thumb.png.8076866a1d242d7b04b0314f7d378085.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Out of curiosity, I opened your file in all sorts of professional or random programs. Every other program opens the file correctly, except for Photo. The file is misidentified as a 32-bit file and assigned a linear profile, which makes it look flat.

It doesn't appear that you can change this behavior from the settings, where you can only select 32-bit profiles for 32-bit images, which makes sense.

So, it looks like an obvious bug. Until the bug is fixed - if it is fixed: If you open and save the file in some other program, it might save in a way that Photo identifies the file correctly. Open/paste it into Windows Paint or whatever it is called now and save from there, perhaps?

image.png.8ceb021af263d3cc5b3c37dcb09bf80e.png

Festina lente

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An analysis made by AI tells us:

The IHDR chunk for your PNG file contains the following information:

  • Width: 1920 pixels
  • Height: 1080 pixels
  • Bit depth: 8 bits per channel
  • Color type: 2 (Truecolor RGB)

This shows that the file contains the necessary basic metadata, including the bit depth of 8 bits per channel. Therefore, there should not be any issue with the bit depth information in this file.

Festina lente

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Exiftool also agrees that it's RGB/8, not RGB/32, so I think there must be a bug in the recently (2.4) added RGB/32 support for PNG files.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
23 minutes ago, Unyq said:

Are there any updates on this thread?

 

On 5/29/2024 at 12:41 PM, stokerg said:

This thread will get an update from the Affinity Info Bot when its been resolved

 

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.5.5.2636 (Retail)
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is an image with link .psd on left and .png on right.  I am pretty sure the .png was generated in procreate, but that said it displays as normal in all other programs except designer and publisher... It is the same with all the .png's that came with this delivery.  I have included the "get info" panel on the faded .png

Screenshot 2024-10-31 at 10.04.44 AM.png

Screenshot 2024-10-31 at 10.08.19 AM.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, quad said:

"get info" panel

Couldn't the problem be in the used ICC profile of the Display P3?

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.5.5.2636 (Retail)
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, quad said:

I did change the profile quite a few times to see if I could get one to work

And what ICC profile do you have for the monitor in the OS? Personally, I would start with standard sRGB.

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.5.5.2636 (Retail)
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sure, why not? Fact it has always worked before (right up until last affinity update), and it works on every other app is irrelevant,   the problem is obvioudly my ICC profile on my monitor (which has not changed)... FYI  I am using the standard Apple XDR profile on my M1 max laptop, and it doesn't matter which profile I change it to....png is still faded in the affinity apps...  

sorry for being grumpy... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, quad said:

and it works on every other app is irrelevant

Yes, it may be irrelevant because Affinity, unlike most other applications, consistently uses ICC profiles for rendering to the canvas. Therefore, their damage or incorrect settings can cause unwanted color changes in Affinity, while not in other applications (as can be seen in many threads here on the forum where problems of this type are solved).

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.5.5.2636 (Retail)
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, lepr said:

No, the problem is the Affinity bug (8 bpc PNG being misinterpreted as 32 bpc PNG) discussed in this thread back in May.

This is an issue/bug that pertains to the OP/original post. But this seems to me to be something else - already because the error is said to have appeared only after the last update. Unfortunately, the bit depth is not visible in the mentioned "get info".

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.5.5.2636 (Retail)
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.4317.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, lepr said:

No, the problem is the Affinity bug (8 bpc PNG being misinterpreted as 32 bpc PNG) discussed in this thread back in May.

But (from another topic) the issue is the use of a specific Display P3 profile, I think:

AF-4693:

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, lepr said:

The issues in this thread and the thread to which you link are both Affinity incorrectly interpreting an 8 bpc PNG as a 32 bpc PNG.

Yes, but it's caused by the P3 D65 ICC profile used for the PNG, from what the Serif staff have said.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/1/2024 at 2:12 AM, walt.farrell said:

Yes, but it's caused by the P3 D65 ICC profile used for the PNG, from what the Serif staff have said.

I have the exact same problem

is there a solution for this problem? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/31/2024 at 6:35 AM, MEB said:

Hi @quad,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
In what app are those PNG's generated? Do you mind zipping one and attach it your reply please?
I'm updating the existing report and would like to check and add your sample to our log.
Thank you.

 

my problem is exactly the same

please check this url

I use procreate!!!! 

 

Edited by jiu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.