Swatches vs. Color Panel – different results, 1 is wrong

[thomaso]

1. Double-clicking a color swatch in swatches panel does show different values than the same color shown in the colors panel.
For instance the application default palette "Greys" seems to contain tints of pure Black whereas in colors panel it is a 4-c color.

 

2. In a CMYK .afpub such a swatch showing to be 1-c only gets exported as 4c-color in a PDF with print preset.

How can one make sure that a saved 1-c swatch will result in a print PDF as 1-c only?

[Gabe]

Hi @thomaso,

Sorry for the delayed reply. 

I've logged this with our developers. 

Gabe. 

[k_au]

Just for your informaion,  this is also happening on Win 10

[Gabe]

15 hours ago, k_au said:

Just for your informaion,  this is also happening on Win 10

I cannot replicate this on Windows. Both Colour and Swatches panel show the same values...

[k_au]

Oh, I see now that I misunderstood the issue here, sorry!
Yes, the Colour panel and the double-click Swatches panel do show the same values on my Win 10 installation.

What I was noticing, is that swatches from the pre-installed "Greys" palette are named "Black 50%" but the colour panel shows that it is actually not 50% K. It seems the greys from that palette are RGB colours (50% = #808080 RGB). So that's another issue: You cannot see what values a named swatch has, not even whether it's CMYK or RGB or something else... 

Maybe a solution might be to have the "true" values in parentheses after the name of the swatch? E.g. Black 50% (RGB #808080) or Black 50% (CMYK 0/0/0/50)

[thomaso]

@k_au, the color space view in the Colour Panel depends on your selection in its pull-down menu, unless you have deactivated the lock (then it shows the initial space of the swatch). Means the Colours Panel can show the values of a swatch in every color space.

4 hours ago, k_au said:

Maybe a solution might be to have the "true" values in parentheses after the name of the swatch? E.g. Black 50% (RGB #808080) or Black 50% (CMYK 0/0/0/50)

That would be great indeed, at least as tool-tip (to avoid long names exeeding the panels space). Unfortunately it was discussed during beta but reported by Serif as "By Design". It is confusing that any newly created swatch gets an auto-name showing true values but the name doesn't get auto-updated when the values get altered. Indeed many users would expect the name showing true values – not just any (possibly former) values as swatch name.

It even additionally confuses that the pop-up tool-tip simply repeats the name though one might think at least this additional tool-tip shows true values.

Since you seem to be interested in that subject: Could you please take a look at this related topic which has no response yet:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/91809-colour-panel-add-chords-– cmyk-not-working/

 

[k_au]

2 hours ago, thomaso said:

the color space view in the Colour Panel depends on your selection in its pull-down menu, unless you have deactivated the lock (then it shows the initial space of the swatch). Means the Colours Panel can show the values of a swatch in every color space.

Thanks, did not know that yet. Yeah, if I turn off the lock, then the colour panel switches to RGB values to show the "true" values. The swatches panel colour picker that comes up after a double-click on a swatch stays in whatever colour space the dropdown is set to. If this is CMYK, it will give the CMYK translation of the RGB grey. 

Maybe a "lock" could be useful for the colour picker, too? So that if unlocked, it switches to the colour space that the swatch you want to change is using.

Also interesting: It seems that the pre-installed palettes are write protected. Using the double-click colour picker you can change the colour but the swatch will stay the same. Also pressing the "add new swatch" button does not do anything.

[thomaso]

13 hours ago, k_au said:

It seems that the pre-installed palettes are write protected. Using the double-click colour picker you can change the colour but the swatch will stay the same. Also pressing the "add new swatch" button does not do anything.

Not to me: I am able to alter the values of a predefined swatch but it appears not simultaneously and therefore unexpected and a bit confusing:

1. A color which I change in the Swatches Panel does not simultaneously change neither in the Colours Panel nor in a selected object while dragging the sliders in the Swatches Panel but only after I closed the sliders pop-up window in Swatches Panel.

2. The name of the swatch does not change.