Affinity designer is showing a different colors than actual color

[venu_vt]

Hi, 

I'm using affinity designer (v1.7.1) on MAC OS. When I import some PDFs for slight editing, the colors on the pdf are modified even though the color code I'm using is exactly same.

E.g. These are the colors in actual PDF I have

 

Here is how affinity is changing the colors

This is giving me a lot of headaches. In both cases the color codes I'm using are same. I suspect this might be a bug?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm under time pressure to finish some tasks.

Thank you.

 

[Hangman]

Hi venu_vt,

Are you able to upload the pdf in question so we can take a look?

[venu_vt]

Hi, I attached the one example pdf. It's not only one pdf but is the case with all pdfs in my case. 

I had to make some changes to the pdf as it contains sensitive data.

Here is what you can do to reproduce the problem

- open the pdf with `open` option

- ctrl/cmd + a to select all contents

- open a new A4 page with cmd + n

- paste the contents

There are changes in colors in the new documents compared to original ones.

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

afdesign_sample.pdf

[Hangman]

Hi venu_vt,

It looks to me as though there is possibly a difference between the colour space of your source AD file (i.e. the one created by opening the pdf) and the colour space of the newly created AD file that you are pasting the elements into.

When opening the pdf in AD are you choosing the colour space or getting AD to estimate it? If I open it an ask AD to estimate it the file opens using an sRGB colour space. If I create a new AD file making sure this also has an sRGB colour space and then paste the contents into it the colours are identical, if however I create a new AD file using a CMYK colour space and paste the contents to this file the colours appear different and similar to files you originally posted owing to the difference in colour spaces between the two documents.

Likewise if you select CMYK (from the drop down) as the colour space when opening the source pdf file and then create a new AD file also using a CMYK colour space and copy/paste between the two documents, again the colours match.

[venu_vt]

woaahhh, thanks a lot Hangman. That seems to be the problem. After changing the `color` space in document setup I can match all the colors to original document. 

Thanks a lot for your time and quickly identifying the problem. Awesome and have a nice day!

[Hangman]

No problem, glad it was an easy 'fix'...

[venu_vt]

Hi Hangman,

while we are here, may I ask one more question,

in the original question, the line widths were also changed when I copy the contents from one document to the other. Is there something I'm missing that results in this behaviour? Is there some option to be conscious about while copying?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Hangman]

Hi venu_vt,

I'm not seeing that when checking the line widths between the two documents, for me they are identical.

Are you referring to how the lines look 'visually' different between the two png files you uploaded or are you seeing actual differences in the line weights between the two documents?

[venu_vt]

Hi Hangman,

There is no problem with the sample PDF I uploaded. The png files I attached in the main question are the screenshots of the same figure from 2 documents. Bottom one is copied from the original one (upper one). Yes, I actually see the differences in line weights when I copy contents. Just wondering if I'm missing any details here too.

[Hangman]

Once pasted into your new document, have you applied any scaling to the graphics or are you seeing a difference in line weight simply once pasted.

Regarding the pdf you kindly uploaded the only lines are the graphs' 'x 'and 'y' axis, the tick marks on the 'y' axis and the lines linking the dots/circles in the three coloured bands below the graph which have the following line weights...

1. 'x' and 'y' axis - 1.07pt
2. tick marks on the 'y' axis - 1.75pt
3. lines linking the circles/dots in the coloured bands below the graph - 6.4pt

Copying and pasting to a new document I see the same values for these lines. Are these the lines you are referring to?

The only way I can think that the line weights could change is if you have the Scale with object box ticked and have then physically scaled the pasted elements?

Are you able to upload both documents or a sample exhibiting this behaviour, i.e. the original pdf opened as an AD document and the new document where you have copy/pasted the contents of the original and you are seeing the change in line weight?

 

[venu_vt]

Once pasted into your new document, have you applied any scaling to the graphics or are you seeing a difference in line weight simply once pasted.

I see difference in line weight once I pasted into new document. Line weights are reduced, not sure why.

Here I'm attaching two documents.

`afd_lineweight_sample_01.pdf` is the original document where we see line weight of 1.1pt in within the boxplot.

`afd_lineweight_sample_01.pdf` is the document with contents copy-pasted from above document, where line weights are changed to 0.3pt within the boxplot.

In the screenshot you attached, there is no tick mar for `Scale with object` in my case but still there are changes in line weights.

Thanks a lot for your time. Much appreciated.

 

 

 

afd_lineweight_sample_01.pdf

afd_lineweight_sample_02.pdf

[Hangman]

When you created the second AD document, by any chance was it originally created as a 300dpi file using pixels as its unit of measurement? This is the only way I can replicate the change in line weights. Having said that if I then change the new AD document to points as its unit of measurement and the dpi to 72 (as per your second document) then the line weights now match the original.

If I open both your pdf files in AD and then copy the contents of the first into the second the line weights match exactly for me, though it does look as though there has been a bug reported in respect of a similar issue when copy/pasting between AD and APub, though in your case this doesn't appear to be related to Grouped Objects, it seems to be simply down to the dpi and resolution of the documents as described above.

 

[venu_vt]

Hi Hangman,

aw, this seems to be the problem. The new doc was created with 300dpi. I can see matching line weights when I create new doc with 72 dpi. Is there any default way to open a new doc with matching parameters from already opened document? That way most of these things will be matching between 2 documents such as color schemes, dpi.

Thanks a lot for the quick response. 

[Hangman]

Hi venu_vt,

You can create page presets, so for example if you have a standard document setup that is sRGB at 72dpi and 432pt x 288pt, you can go to the Document Setup menu and click the hamburger dropdown to the right of the Page Preset menu, select Create preset and give it a name. Then when you create a new document, if you want an exact matching setup, select Preset from the Type dropdown menu. If you only have one preset it will default to this one, if you have multiple presets you can select the one you want and your new document will have those presets.