Affinity Designer (AD) 2.5.7 RE: Export Windows Media Format (WMF) and Enhanced Windows Media Format (EMF)

[Ronald N. Tan]

Hello everyone and Happy New Year 2025.

I thank you for the privilege of your time. I am new to AD 2.5.X and I am hoping this you could help me remove this puzzling situation.

Please refer to screenshot attached. I've also included the associated AD files. I made sure in the document settings to check on the "Transparency Background" option.

I am trying to make an WMF/EMF to embed into my MS Word 2010 Document files and later output to PDF.

Why is there white BG color in my name logo, when it is a vector file of my name that is placed using linking? Do you see that? Everywhere else, it is transparency.

This happens only when I select WMF export option.

The other vector formats, e.g. SVG, EPS, etc don't look like that.

My Word 2010 doesn't accept SVG and EPS file(s), only WMF/EMF as vector image format.

Best in health and warmest of wishes,

Ronald

RONALDNTAN-Letter-Head-2025.afdesign RONALDNTAN-Logo-2025-LT.afdesign

[GarryP]

Interesting.

Exporting to WMF gives a white background but exporting to EMF doesn’t.

I don’t know why this would be and can’t find any other forum threads about it.

If you can use EMF rather than WMF then I would suggest doing so while you wait for an answer.

[lacerto]

I have here both .wmf and .emf exported from Designer 2.5.7, placed in Word (Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO, Version 2412 Build 16.0.18324.20092), and both retain transparency:

...so it seems to depend on version of Word, whether transparency works or does not work.

[GarryP]

1 hour ago, lacerto said:

both retain transparency

Interesting, again.

That’s not what I got with Designer 2.5.7 on Windows, but I don’t have Word so I just Placed the exported files back into another Designer document.

See attached video showing the difference when changing export type (the exported file looks the same as the preview).

Note: I don’t have the same font installed as is used in the document.

[lacerto]

That is really odd. I have the transparency retained within WMF placed back in Designer no matter if exporting the area or the whole document. 

However if I open a .WMF or an .EMF file with transparency, Affinity Designer does not open the document with transparency turned on, but again, there is no difference between .EMF and .WMF. 

Perhaps this is related to missing font somehow. Designer always converts this font to curves even without checking the export option so I cannot export this text so that the text is retained as a font. This is a font activated from Adobe CC and installed for all applications.

This could also be a Windows version difference. I have Windows Pro 11 2004.H2 installed.

UPDATE: If I change the font to e.g. to Anivers Regular, Affinity Designer converts the text to an image within WMF export, and that export loses the background transparency. Strange.

[Ronald N. Tan]

Hello again. Thank you all for trying to help me with this hair-pulling mystery. I am still not having luck with what I am trying to accomplish.

The oddity I am trying to resolve is when any of the vector files are linked or embedded into the Designer document, which is meant to be exported as WMF/EMF, the transparency of the embedded/linked file no longer look like chessboard and it goes to solid white in my original post.

The filename with "Letterhead" is the one I am trying to export at WMF/EMF, because my Word 2010 does not support SVG. I have now EMBEDDED all the necessary files as layers including an EPS layer of my name logo.

I've tested this on my Windows 11, latest and stable version with AD 2.5.7.

• Any vector image format, e.g. EPS, SVG, etc, either in LINKED or EMBEDDED into the Designer document looks like my original screenshot, when choosing WMF/EMF at export options.

RONALDNTAN-Letter-Head-2025.afdesign

[Ronald N. Tan]

This time, I typed in directly into the Designer file and when choosing to export as WMF/EMF, everything looks normal and work as expected.

Do you see this?

The area I manually typed in is the area where I embedded/linked a vector file.

As soon as I hide this layer and re-activate my name logo either as linked/embedded, the oddity I first reported in my OP persists!

The solution is for me to manually type in my logo name and forego the linked/embed method.

What if someone is trying to embed/link an already designed vector logo or graphics? When they try to export as WMF/EMF, my oddity I reported will be exactly like it for them.

RONALDNTAN-Letter-Head-2025-TYPE-DIRECT.afdesign RONALDNTAN-Letter-Head-2025-TYPE-DIRECT.emf

[Ronald N. Tan]

As soon as I changed the "paper" (background) color to anything other than white (#FFFFFF), the WMF/EMF does not work properly. This is what has been giving me pulling-hair experience frustration.

I am happy with my Word 2010.

I would like to create simple WMF/EMF with full vector transparency for letterhead use like this and later output as PDFs.

[lacerto]

When you have all elements (whether linked or embedded) in an .afdesign file, export it to EPS format, then open it in Designer, set the background transparent and export to WMF. This should have everything in curves and at least in Word 365, the transparent background stays.

RONALDNTAN-Letter-Head-2025-TYPE-DIRECT_from_eps.wmf

[Ronald N. Tan]

8 hours ago, lacerto said:

When you have all elements (whether linked or embedded) in an .afdesign file, export it to EPS format, then open it in Designer, set the background transparent and export to WMF. This should have everything in curves and at least in Word 365, the transparent background stays.

RONALDNTAN-Letter-Head-2025-TYPE-DIRECT_from_eps.wmf 33.54 kB · 0 downloads

YES!

This works.

My follow up questions remains to the staff at Affinity.

Is this by design? Why do I have to complete an additional step of converting into EPS, then reopen in AD and having to make sure "Transparent BG" is set?

[Callum]

Hi All,

There seems to be an issue with exporting WMF files with transparent backgrounds in Affinity at the moment I have logged this with our developers to be fixed in future update.

Thanks
C

[Ronald N. Tan]

3 hours ago, Callum said:

Hi All,

There seems to be an issue with exporting WMF files with transparent backgrounds in Affinity at the moment I have logged this with our developers to be fixed in future update.

Thanks
C

Thank you!

I thought I was doing something wrong. I was correct that this "oddity" was indeed a bug, which needs to be fixed.

In the meantime, the workaround @lacerto provided works—just requires additional steps.

Going forward, please consider this ticket/post solved.

[Ronald N. Tan]

Version 2.6.0 released today the 20th February still persists.