afpalette Format & various (?) issues

[Phoebus]

This is a two-fold question:

1. Is there a way to get my hands into the afpalette file format specification instead of reverse engineering it? I'm doing graphics for a "new" retro system called ZX Spectrum Next that has 9bit colour capabilities but can only display 256 colours at a time. I have a special program that generates palettes (in 24bit RGB format) for Photoshop, ASE, RIFF and I would like to add the capability to export to Affinity Photo. I've found an intermediate "hack-y" way to include a complete palette into AP as a last ditch effort before reverse engineering an afpalette and that was to make a fake "Pantone" csv color list. That worked as seen in the attached screenshot but the resulting afpalette cannot be saved if I try "export"... which brings me to the second question;

2. Is the afpalette file capable of storing more than 256 colours? The aforementioned hack generated a 512 colour palette (which is what I need obviously) but although AP says it's saving a palette, it won't. However if I add arbitrarily colors to a clean swatch palette (three or four - did not try more) it saves an afpalette without an apparent problem.

Any help to either 1. or 2?

 

[Leigh]

Welcome to the forum Phoebus

We're sorry for the delay in replying to your message. Unfortunately, the .afpalette file format is not publicly available.

[andrew_p]

Affinity photo can also work with .ase files which are quite easy to read/generate.

[Richard S.]

I can’t understand why something as simple as a swatch file would need to be propriety?

Surely it would be better if people could easily find out how to write to a .afpalette format - this would mean that more colour app related developers would be able to inlcude affinity products, as opposed to exclude it?

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, Richard S. said:

I can’t understand why something as simple as a swatch file would need to be propriety?

If you mean *.afpalette files that the Affinity apps can import & export, my guess is the format is proprietary because it is designed specifically to support all the swatch types the Affinity apps can support, including mixes of multiple kinds of gradients (linear, elliptical, radial, conical, & bitmap), some with many different color stops, plus simple uniform colors; & also to make it possible to parse their contents with minimal overhead.

IOW, they are not simple swatch files.

[lacerto]

(...)