Crash on color profile change, plus bad monitor profile

[Tegwyn]

Windows 10, Publisher 1.7.2.471

2-monitor setup, with Publisher maximized on the main monitor.

I had the same issue seen in some other threads, where many of the whites in Affinity Publisher widgets, tables, and images had a strong yellow tint. (I also had the issue on Windows Photo Viewer, the legacy one carried over from older versions of Windows.) After following advice in other threads like the one below, I got it to work. Removing the profile from my monitor fixed it for Photo Viewer, but only setting the monitor's default profile to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 fixed it in Affinity Publisher after restarting Publisher. Meanwhile, the program crashed several times when I tried changing the document's color profile.

1. Problem: Sometimes, if I try to change the color profile from Document Setup, Publisher exists immediately. I think this happens more if I click convert rather than assign, and it did happen at least once when I tried to apply the sRGB profile it already had. The document has several tables (imported from a placed Word file that was created by LibreOffice Writer, if that helps) and a couple images.
2. Problem: I saw in other threads that you might want samples of broken color profiles. I've attached the one for my main monitor that was causing problems. (This is the monitor I switched to sRGB profile to get Publisher to display whites correctly.) I believe other programs (Photoshop?) have warned me before that the profile was invalid. I think it was just assigned by Windows automatically for the monitor.

BenQ GL2450H.ICM

[Jon P]

Hi, thanks for attaching the colour profile.

Regarding Problem 1, does this happen even if you have no document open? Or only with that document open?

[Tegwyn]

I opened up Publisher and tried messing with color profiles just now:

1. In the new document window, switching color modes and profiles around a bunch seems fine.
2. In edit -> preferences -> color, I can switch all the different color profiles around with no document open, and it seems fine. Although now I can't remember what the default for CMYK was! Is there a way to see that?

If I recall correctly, all the crashes yesterday were in the Document Setup window for an open document. (I've only really got the one document I was trying out, so I haven't tried with other documents.)

Edited August 21, 2019 by Tegwyn

[Jon P]

If you can reproduce it with that same document open can you attach it or upload it here and I'll see if I can reproduce it.

Will also be useful to know if it happens when switching between certain profiles

[Tegwyn]

Yes, I'm still able to reproduce it by opening the file, clicking Document Setup, selecting Color, selecting a different color profile, setting it to Convert, then pressing OK. When I do this, Affinity closes pretty consistently. It doesn't seem to matter which profile I select. (Before I try to change it, it's on sRGB.)

I've uploaded the file at the link you provided. (It's just a document I set up to try placing Word docs, linking an image, and try out styling, TOC, and index features, so it may look strange.)

Edited August 21, 2019 by Tegwyn

[Jon P]

Hi @Tegwyn,

I can reproduce it with that file.

The tables are the cause, but I can't see why. I've logged it for the developers to investigate further, as it looks like they could have possibly become "corrupt" (for example, if I copy a table in your file into a new file I also get a crash), but a developer will be able to tell more.

Re-creating the tables is probably the best solution if you need a workaround

[Jon P]

I've PM'd you a fixed version of the file. can you explain anything you think might have happened when creating the tables, or table formats? As these tables had become corrupt and as much as we've fixed the file, finding out how this happened would mean we can fix it happening again.

Thanks

[Tegwyn]

Thanks, Jon. Unfortunately, it is telling me that the fixed version you sent me uses features from a later version of Affinity, so it won't open. (Maybe because I'm on the Win 10 trial version still?) I'm not too worried about it though, as the color profile it's set at now works correctly. (Unless the tables introduce crashes elsewhere, too.) But I can think of a few things that might explain corrupt tables:

1. I'm doing my writing in LibreOffice Writer, then exporting to docx so that I can place the file in Publisher and still retain paragraph and character styles. Something about this process results in all paragraphs with a heading style getting set as bulleted lists when they import into Publisher (in addition to the normal font size, etc. a heading should have). If I remember correctly, I was able to fix it per style by selecting a heading, turning off the bulleted toggle, and clicking the button to update the paragraph style. If going from Writer -> docx -> Publisher messes up paragraph styles, perhaps it also messed up the tables? The tables were all inline with the text in Writer and get set to inline pinning when the docx is placed. They all had a table format from Writer applied that affected row colors, font face/weight, and probably text alignment.
2. I was messing around with one of the tables -- I think the Riding/Driving one on page 25 -- to figure out how pinning worked and whether I could get a table to span two columns while still moving with the text. I turned a lot of pinning stuff on and off and messed with the pin location and the table location. It looks like it's back at inline now, but who knows what might have happened in the meantime?
3. I don't remember if I messed with table styles after placing the file in Publisher.

I appreciate the prompt responses I've gotten when I've reported bugs! I do have some concerns with hyperlinking (my goal is a long PDF with internal/anchor links) -- see https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/96021-automatic-heading-anchors-clickable-hyperlinks/ and https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/87882-pdf-clickable-table-of-contents/ -- but it looks like it handles enough things better than Writer that I'm leaning towards purchasing. I'm still bitter that my CS bundle from before They went subscription-only came with everything but InDesign, so Publisher is pretty exciting for me.

 

[Tegwyn]

@Jon P Actually, I take back the part about it not mattering. I'm getting consistent crashes about 15% into the export when I try to export all pages to PDF. Exporting all spreads works. I'm not sure if this is a different bug, or if it's also due to a bad table. It works if I export pages 1-20, then 21-60 as separate PDFs. Perhaps an issue with the TOC or other hyperlinks? Should I open a new thread about that?

 

EDIT: Just for fun, I found a bonus bug that will probably be impossible to reproduce and not worth trying, but I'll note it anyway: I tried to open a large (80 MB) PDF in Publisher through file -> open to see if it would convert the bookmarks into anything (in hopes of figuring out how to creating them / if it's possible). Publisher's memory consumption shot up by about 8 GB, it started using the SSD heavily (probably because I ran low on RAM), and LibreOffice's CPU usage jumped up and stayed up for no apparent reason, spiking more whenever Publisher's went down. I don't know if it's a fluke or some bizarre interaction between the programs or if LO just freaks out when memory gets low, but thought I'd mention it. Computers are weird.

The very high memory consumption on PDF open might be worth looking at, at any rate.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Tegwyn

[Jon P]

It is likely the corrupt tables, I'm just looking at getting you a fixed version of the file that opens in the release build, and I'll check it exports when I get it.

[Jon P]

I've re-sent the file, should open fine for you now.

The exporting issue is still present, we have a report logged that contains a file with the exact same export issue to All Pages (but fine to All Spreads). I've nudged this report and attached your file, I'll give you an update if I can figure out what might be the cause of it failing to go to All Pages.

 

[DaveZ]

FWIW, I have the same issue on changing the document's color, but I can apparently export to PDF. I had tables imported from Word which caused crashes when I copied and pasted them, so I removed all those tables; one of them I re-created, the others I converted to text. Should I be sending you the file or is there something else that would be more appropriate?

Edited September 26, 2019 by DaveZ

[DaveZ]

Oops, just realized this is Windows. I am going to repost to Mac.

[Patrick Connor]

We believe the issue "Crash changing colour profile/pasting tables (in customers file)" has been fixed in 1.8.0 [Publisher beta is currently available if you care to check].