1.7.0.380 - Huge file size when saving 1.6 image

[hoch]

Hi,

1.6 files opened and saved with 1 .7.0.380, without any modifications, are five to eight times bigger than the original.

Example:

One jpeg image with two adjustment layers has a file size of 5.425k for version 1.6. 

Opened an saved with 1.7.0.380, with no modifications, the file size is 47.299k, almost 9x bigger...!

Here is a screenshot:

Thank you and keep up the good work! :-)

[Aammppaa]

Not disputing your observation but I just loaded a small file from 1.6 and resaved from 1.7 and the filesize went down from 15MB to 5MB!

So whatever the cause it isn't universal.

[hoch]

What kind if file? Can you elaborate?

In my case is consistent. I tried with several jpeg files with adjustment layers and get the same results. 5x to 8x the size of the 1.6 file. 

[Granddaddy]

That afphoto files in AP version 1.7 are 4 to 10 times larger than in version 1.6 has been reported in at least two other threads going back to the day that AP version 1.7 was released on Wednesday, June 5. See the following two threads:

 

@Patrick Connor and  @Chris B  at Serif seemed surprised by the first report and said last Wednesday it needed investigation and they would get back to us. 

My questions are

1.) Is the new version 1.7 file format designed to be 4 to 10 times larger than the version 1.6 format or is this a bug?

2.) If this ballooning of file size is in fact a bug then how was it ever missed during beta testing? It was the first thing I noticed on my first use of AP version 1.7 on the day it was released. 

If this turns out to be a bug and not a design decision by Serif, than like the version 1.7 destruction of user data it would indicate additional problems with Serif's beta testing program management. 

@Mark Ingram indicated the beta testing failure is already under investigation for the customization destruction bug reported on the day version 1.7 was released.

Four days is a long time to wait for a comment on such a fundamental issue, but I recall that Serif has a very small staff when compared to breadth and depth of its development aspirations. 

 

[andersp5]

I have the same problem with version 1.7, if I save a developed RAW image as a JPG before Ver 1.6 the same image was in the order of 5.5m but now its 17m, exactly the same process with the same image does this, so this must be a bug as it looks like ver 1.7 is saving RAW files in JPG format as if they are still the original RAW file size?

[Granddaddy]

2 hours ago, andersp5 said:

 so this must be a bug as it looks like ver 1.7 is saving RAW files in JPG format as if they are still the original RAW file size?

I've never used RAW. All my comments have to do with opening a JPG file and saving it as an afphoto file.

Are you suggesting that AP 1.7 is incorrectly saving its proprietary native format afphoto and/or that it is incorrectly exporting files to JPG and perhaps other image formats.

[Claudio60]

On 6/9/2019 at 12:42 AM, hoch said:

Hi,

1.6 files opened and saved with 1 .7.0.380, without any modifications, are five to eight times bigger than the original.

Example:

One jpeg image with two adjustment layers has a file size of 5.425k for version 1.6. 

Opened an saved with 1.7.0.380, with no modifications, the file size is 47.299k, almost 9x bigger...!

Here is a screenshot:

Thank you and keep up the good work! :-)

I confirm this too. 

[Patrick Connor]

45 minutes ago, Claudio60 said:

I confirm this too. 

Thanks, we are still checking for the causes of this unexpected problem

@Claudio60, @Granddaddy, @andersp5, @hoch 

Sorry for the delay dealing with this thread. Can you PLEASE provide the files to us uploaded to here https://www.dropbox.com/request/x0U9zxniU73mGTCzWD1g  or If you have already shared a file in another post please provide a link to that post . We would prefer the source files or 1.6 version files to see this happening from scratch. Thank you very much

 

[Claudio60]

1 minute ago, Patrick Connor said:

Thanks, we are still checking for the causes of this unexpected problem

@Claudio60, @Granddaddy, @andersp5, @hoch 

Sorry for the delay dealing with this thread. Can you PLEASE provide the files to us uploaded to here https://www.dropbox.com/request/x0U9zxniU73mGTCzWD1g  or If you have already shared a file in another post please provide a link to that post . We would prefer the source files or 1.6 version files to see this happening from scratch. Thank you very much

 

 

Sure, just uploaded. Thank you very much Patrick!

[Patrick Connor]

3 minutes ago, Claudio60 said:

Sure, just uploaded. Thank you very much Patrick!

Perfect thank you

[Claudio60]

23 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Perfect thank you

Sry Patrick, I made a mistake: the picture with the biggest file size was from an aphoto file created with 1.6 and then saved untouched with 1.7  (not from the jpeg image). I re-uploaded the files (4 pictures).

Edited June 11, 2019 by Claudio60
I forgot to attach a file

[hoch]

Hi Patrick,

I uploaded a couple of jpeg images with layers. No modifications were done. Just saved.

Hope you can fix it soon.

Keep up the good work, guys! :-)

[Granddaddy]

Patrick:

I just uploaded the following files. The original is a photo of my garden 7 years ago. I did not edit the photo at all, just opened it in the two different versions of AP and saved as afphoto file. You can see how the file size balloons by a factor of ten even when no editing is done at all. I am using AP Ver 1.7.0.367 on my main computer and AP Ver 1.6.5.123 on my other computer.

Here's another batch. The original photo is a scan of a 35mm slide I took in 1976. The afphoto files include some adjustment layers, a pixel layer for inpainting, and a Live Clarity filter. You can see that the Ver 1.7 afphoto file is 1.7 times as large as the Ver 1.6 afphoto file. When the Ver 1.6 afphoto file is opened and simply saved in Ver 1.7 it increases in size by a factor of 4.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Granddaddy
Additional information added

[Chris B]

This has been logged last week. I have now added all the files we've collected to the bug report. Thank you everyone for your help and support so far. 

[Claudio60]

Tks to all the staff!

[Patrick Connor]

Thanks so much for your files, which all show more examples of the issue found and reported internally last week.

So this turns out to be an (unintended) consequence of a (late breaking) change to the code made for Affinity Publisher. It only affects compressed (like JPG) files.  Although Affinity 1.7.0 files are much bigger they will not continue to grow and grow, this should be a one off jump.

We will look at fixing this, but right now we are making Release Candidates of Publisher 1.7 now (with 1.7.1 updates for all other desktop apps due at the same time). So this close to Publisher release the developers do not want to risk putting a quick (untested) fix in. Therefore the 1.7.1 Photo and Designer updates next week are unlikely to be able to address this, sorry, but it will not be forgotten and there should be a beta soon after that addresses this issue.

[Claudio60]

Tks for your job!!

[Claudio60]

I've just installed the 1.7.1.390 beta and I've compared its generated .aphoto files size  with those from 1.7.0.367 stable version; there's no difference in file size when saving a jpg to .aphoto, while when opening a 1.6 .aphoto file and saving it,  with the beta version the file size is significantly reduced (more than a half).

[hoch]

Hi,

Seems that file size of an unmodified jpeg image saved in affinity photo format, has improved in v1.7.1.404 but it's still 3x bigger than the same file saved with v1.6.

v1.6 has nearly the same size as the original jpeg. So it seems that in that version, the jpeg is saved compressed (if the image is not modified, I suppose). Which is really efficient.

The image has two adjustment levels, (levels and b&W). But levels add very little to file size.

Just saving the image, without adjustment levels, in v1.7.1.404 affinity photo format, makes the file almost 3x bigger.

Maybe the issue is that unmodified jpeg layers are saved uncompressed...? ...

Keep up the good work, guys! :-)

[Granddaddy]

Other threads are also covering this topic. See my related post at

 

[Claudio60]

On 6/12/2019 at 12:01 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Thanks so much for your files, which all show more examples of the issue found and reported internally last week.

So this turns out to be an (unintended) consequence of a (late breaking) change to the code made for Affinity Publisher. It only affects compressed (like JPG) files.  Although Affinity 1.7.0 files are much bigger they will not continue to grow and grow, this should be a one off jump.

We will look at fixing this, but right now we are making Release Candidates of Publisher 1.7 now (with 1.7.1 updates for all other desktop apps due at the same time). So this close to Publisher release the developers do not want to risk putting a quick (untested) fix in. Therefore the 1.7.1 Photo and Designer updates next week are unlikely to be able to address this, sorry, but it will not be forgotten and there should be a beta soon after that addresses this issue.

Hi Patrick, any news about the jpeg file size issue?

PS: waiting for a fix, in the meantime I rolled back to 1.6.5.135

[Patrick Connor]

No news past the fixes made in 1.7.1 (where JPG layers that were not edited would now not bloat on save), but we are still seeing file size increases when the layers are edited or affects applied in 1.7.x

[Claudio60]

Tks Patrick, good job

[Claudio60]

On 6/12/2019 at 12:01 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Thanks so much for your files, which all show more examples of the issue found and reported internally last week.

So this turns out to be an (unintended) consequence of a (late breaking) change to the code made for Affinity Publisher. It only affects compressed (like JPG) files.  Although Affinity 1.7.0 files are much bigger they will not continue to grow and grow, this should be a one off jump.

We will look at fixing this, but right now we are making Release Candidates of Publisher 1.7 now (with 1.7.1 updates for all other desktop apps due at the same time). So this close to Publisher release the developers do not want to risk putting a quick (untested) fix in. Therefore the 1.7.1 Photo and Designer updates next week are unlikely to be able to address this, sorry, but it will not be forgotten and there should be a beta soon after that addresses this issue.

Hi Patrick, still no fix for reducing the .aphoto's file size generated from jpg? Will it always  remain  3 times bigger compared to 1.6?

[Claudio60]

Hi, I would like to know when and/or it will be fixed, .aphoto file size from jpg are really too big for backup purpose, Tks for your answer.