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How to colour greyscale/bitmap logos


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InDesign if i imported a bitmap TIFF file I could set its colour quite easily simply by selecting the image and choosing a colour from the palette. This proves very useful when working with simple logos and symbols that require being a specific colour. You could also set the background colour of the box the logo resides in just as easily. So with a few clicks a black and white logo could become green with an orange background for example without having to manipulate the original file.

Ive been looking and still not found a definitive answer for doing this in APUB. How does one work with greyscale/bitmap TIFFs and easily convert their colour within APUB without affecting the linked file?

 

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As far as I am aware none of the Affinity products work well with 1bit bitmap files. For example, 1bit high resolution tiff files @1200ppi do not render properly at their original resolution when output as a PDF. Affinity Photo does not even support 1bit bitmap files.

1bit bitmap support is just not there yet in either Photo or Publisher. We will have to wait and see, but I have an inkling that this situation will not be resolved before version 2.0, or perhaps even later than that.

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Thanks for the informative response.

I guess when you think '1bit bitmaps' it sounds completely outdated and old hat but they are a very good and simple solution to using icons, symbols and logos within artwork. The problem is I have hundreds of these files that we use and I'm at a loss as to how to quickly implement then into a Publisher workflow without essentially having to redraw everything in vector format. I need all these logos to be various spot colours at various points.

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Thanks but that post also doesn't end with a definite answer. Your suggestion you posted but removed also doesnt work which is why im guessing you removed it. I don't mind converting the files to another format but I want to retain the original and be able to quickly colour the linked file with a spot colour within APub. 

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This file isn't the correct format, just using it for illustration (I don't have access to the bitmaps at present so can't experiment) however the look is basically what im talking about. I want to change the black parts to a spot colour and have control over the colour of the bounding box. In Quark (shudder) it was very simple, InDesign a little more involved but simple enough. Import the Bitmap, click on the bounding box, choose a colour and it would fill the box with that colour. Select the bitmap within the box, select a colour and the bitmap would then be that colour. Then when it came to colour separations you knew for certain that the icon was the colour it should be. Using blends, masks and CMYK images does not guarantee correct colour and is also a lot more involved.

ninja-simple-512.png

ninja-simple-512 2.png

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  • 1 year later...

hi @Nazario

just checking in since i couldnt find a solution to what you raised, did you? or how did you solve this?

how would i colour a grey scale image as a pantone colour and import it into publisher?

as much as i love the fight against adobe, its sadly the super simple things that make the workflow simply not flow.

any help much appreciated!

cheers!

 

 

 

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In my opinion, this should work:

  1. Make a simple rectangle that covers the image and set its color to the desired spot color.  In the Layers panel, drag the layer of the 1-bit image onto the thumbnail of the rectangle's layer to make it a mask for the layer.
  2. Create another rectangle for the background color, place it underneath the masked rectangle, and group them.

 

Sadly, it does not.  The background color rectangle remains as a spot color, but the foreground gets converted to process when it is exported with the mask.  I think Serif should seriously consider treating that as a bug and getting it fixed.

 

In the meantime, for shapes that are simple enough, you could try using a 3rd-party utility to trace them into vector images.  For example:

  1. I copied the "ninja" image above and used Super Vectorizer 2 (cheap on the Mac App Store, often does a poor job but handled this one at least ok) to convert it to an SVG.
  2. I was then imported that SVG into a Designer document, double-click on the resulting "embedded document" layer in the Layers panel to open it in a separate tab
  3. I copied the actual curve object from inside it.
  4. I then closed that tab, returning to the original document
  5. I pasted the curves object and deleted the embedded document
  6. The curves object can have a spot color attached to it, and this does export correctly to a PDF.
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  • 2 months later...

Oh no,

 

I just found out today that Publisher does not support bitmap files. Total bummer.

In comics the black ink is often a 1200 dpi Bitmap BW tiff file. This pretty much makes it unuseable for high res prepress. And there is no output for 1200 dpi monochrome images when exporting pdf's.

Can this go on the todo list for a (very) future release?

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Sorry I missed your responses here. I still haven't found a solution as Im still unable to use Publisher as its missing PDF passthrough which is essential for er... publishing. As such I rarely use Publisher and haven't looked further into the bitmap issue. I doubt it will be in a future release as it is a bit old school using bitmaps however with tons of old files still in use the feature would go a long way to helping people transition from InDesign. 🤷‍♂️

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...
5 hours ago, Amelin said:

Hey there, is there a solution for this problem now? I can't seem to be able to make my btm files work properly, sometimes they take the color, sometimes they don't and I have no idea why?

Perhaps this might help:

 

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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  • 8 months later...

Does anybody know if this is a requestfeature that will be supported any time in the near or distant future?

To be clear:

1. Using 1 bit monochromatic images.

2. Coloring/adjusting these images.

3. Having a High Res output (pref 1200 dpi PDF)

People working with professional prepress print environment will be thankfull!

Any news would make my Affinity heart beat a little harder and faster, and my Adobe inDesign - no hate just don't want to have the monthly monopoly fee - a little slower.

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6 minutes ago, Weedze said:

Does anybody know if this is a requestfeature that will be supported any time in the near or distant future?

Serif generally does not comment on their future plans.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
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8 minutes ago, Weedze said:

Is this true? .. 

Yes.

as I have said before

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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On 12/3/2021 at 2:53 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Yes.

as I have said before

Because Serif's response to a feature request is expected very often, this fact could be mentioned in the forum rules, where everyone can read it without having to search old posts.

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
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  • 2 years later...
On 11/23/2018 at 1:14 PM, Nazario said:

This file isn't the correct format, just using it for illustration (I don't have access to the bitmaps at present so can't experiment) however the look is basically what im talking about. I want to change the black parts to a spot colour and have control over the colour of the bounding box. In Quark (shudder) it was very simple, InDesign a little more involved but simple enough. Import the Bitmap, click on the bounding box, choose a colour and it would fill the box with that colour. Select the bitmap within the box, select a colour and the bitmap would then be that colour. Then when it came to colour separations you knew for certain that the icon was the colour it should be. Using blends, masks and CMYK images does not guarantee correct colour and is also a lot more involved.

ninja-simple-512.png

ninja-simple-512 2.png

I have spent a lot of time searching how the Affinity suite can replicate Quark's very simple and effective method of converting a greyscale image to any colour you want, ie place the gs image in a pic box, select the picture and click on the RGB/CMYK colour you want it to be. Job done. Could really do with this in Affinity! Please!

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