AP and Colour Profile for Printing

[CedarHouse]

Want to send some images to be printed by DS Colour Labs near Manchester UK. Request by DS Colour Labs is that images must be in sRGB format and 300ppi (DPI). The images must not be in RGB format.

In Document pull down menu then Colour Format the tick is against RGB/8. The only indication of sRGB format is in the menu bar and shows RGBA/8 - sRGB IEC61966-2.1. This is selected via Preferences and Colour Profiles in the Edit Pull down menu and RGB is set to the colour profile sRGB IEC61966-2.1.

Is it safe to assume that the image is in the correct format based on the information displayed on the menu bar.

In the Document menu there is no confirming dialogue boxes to confirm that the image currently open is the correct colour profile and also is the correct ppi (DPI). Due to an issue with the EXIF/Metadata information and the DPI in the crop tool information and viewing the Resize Document in the Document pull down menu it is difficult to trust that Affinity Photo is displaying the correct information regarding the actual status of the image.

AP defaults to 96ppi (DPI) even if the image is actually supposed to be a 300ppi (DPI) image, confirmed by other photo editing software. Sometimes it displays as 300ppi (DPI) and then at other times it becomes 96ppi (DPI) when re-opening the image at another time and date. Can never really be sure (trust) that AP is actually giving the correct image information and have resorted to using other photo editing software to give the "correct!!" image information.

 

GETTING YOUR FILES READY FOR PRINT.pdf

[toltec]

Your menu bar and Preferences shows it is already set to sRGB so you don't need to change anything. Don't worry about all the IEC61966 numbers bit. That is standard.

 

Most files from cameras and such like are sRGB to start with but if it has the wrong profile. You can convert it in.Document > Convert ICC Profile

 

 

As for DPI go to Document > Resize Document.

 

Enter Inches or millimetres in Units, 300 in DPI: Make sure "Resample" is NOT ticked. Click on Resize. 

 

That will reset Affinity's display to 300dpi. It will NOT change the image resolution! So what it says is what you have.

 

Go to Resize Document again and you will get the correct sizes displayed for 300 dpi.

 

If you click Resample, it would resize the image and change the resolution. So use with care.

 

 

[CedarHouse]

Thanks for the reply. My concern is with the user settings when resizing documents for 72ppi, 96ppi, and 300ppi images. There is a "known" bug that does not allow the user settings to be retained after export of the  processed image. One needs to click on More and then untick Metadata to retain the user defined settings at export of the image. Sometimes I forget to do this.  I have had AP since May and it is now August. I like Affinity Photo, but still need to retain an alternative for additional items that I cannot do in Affinity Photo for now.

In the UK there is an organisation called PAGB (Photographic Alliance of Great Britain). Affiliated to this organisation are regional bodies to which a large number of Photography Societies and Camera Clubs are in turn affiiliated to involve thousands of amateur or semi proffessional photographers. Probably there are similar organisations internationally. September is the start of a season. All across the UK thousands are preparing their images for September and through to April/May next year. Display images at 72ppi with resolution of 1400px by 1050px with maybe a small white border around the inside edge. Print images at 300ppi to any size up to 50cm by 40cm. At colour space sRGB. A few in my small circle are struggling with the current incarnations of PP, better with LR or PE. Some are considering moving over to Affinity Photo. Potentially across the whole of the UK thousands could be in the same situation. But there is no way of opening an image in Affinity Photo and getting the correct image information on an image exported to say a JPEG without losing all the Metadata attached to the image. If it is a known "bug" is there a possibility that it will be fixed and when? (Next update?).

[John Rostron]

If I save with the the metadata erased, is it possible to put it back?

[CedarHouse]

As far as I can determine the Exif and Metadata is lost from an Exported image once the Metadata is clicked off in the More part of the export process. Tried several different methods of exporting a jpg from an Affinity Photo file. In many cases ticking the metadata on or off and comparing with other software and cannot see any way of recovering Exif and MetaData once it has gone. Unless there is some software out in the internet of everything that can solve it. I exported an image fron a .afphoto file to .jpg left the Metadata ticked. Saved jpg as a 96ppi (DPI), 1400px by 876px, size 14.583inches by 9.125 inches. Opened the same image back into Affinity Photo. And in Document Resize the resolution was 1400px by 876px, but the ppi (DPI) was 300 and the image size is now 4.667 inches by 3.92 inches. Which is not what I originally exported. Shows same result in Document Resize and in the Crop Tool Absolute dimensions when selecting either pixels or inches.

Turn of untick the Metadata in Export using More and then when re-importing the file the correct ppi (DPI) is shown as that before Export and the image size is the same as the Export version.

The only way to keep Metadata appears to be to export two files in jpeg into separate folders, one with Metadata and one without Metadata. Just have to have a folder name that reminds one of the differences. File sizes and ppi (DPI) may not matter to many users and most people can get along just fine for publishing images to the web. I need to print images and or use the images in presentation and it gets very confusing when one cannot determine in AP what type of image I have got open in AP. Is it 300ppi, 96ppi, 72ppi? Get the calculator out and start dividing 1400px by 300 or 96 or 72 to determine which or was the correct size when originally Exported. Gets more difficult the longer the period of time since the file was Exported. Have folders titled 300ppi, 96ppi, and 72ppi and save the relevant size exported image file to the relevant folder. So that if I did not untick the Metadata then I know that the file was originally save at 72ppi and then on import into AP I can reapply the Document Resize with Resample ticked to off to bring the image back to the original exported size.

[John Rostron]

Good suggestions @CedarHouse. I have discovered that ACDSee allows you to copy and paste metadata from one file to another. So, I saved two versions (with and without) and copied the metadata across.

[Digbydo]

 Hello ~ CedarHouse… As one of the many, many Club amateur photographers I was very interested to see/read your above problem.  You see, like you, I too use DS Colour Labs.  So, I'm wondering if you ever found a 'Best Way' ~ or a ~ 'Step-by-step Workflow' to your original problem ~ of having an image, working on it in AP, then… when satisfied with how it looks, selecting a finished size and then sending it off to DS Colour Labs?  (using their one of their profiles i.e. DC-Colour-labs-Frontier-Lustre.icc) and getting back an actual real life print that matched up with what you had on screen.  Hopefully you can share as I'm dammed if I can figure it out.