Tiff not opening properly... why?

[tjthorne]

I just downloaded the free trial to try this program out and I opened a full resolution flattened .tiff and this is how it opened. Any ideas? I tried other .tiff as well with the same problem.

[Joachim_L]

Perhaps you could post one of these files here?

[stokerg]

Hi tjthorne,

If you could attach a sample TIFF that would be great.

I suspect this is something to do with Metal, if you check the Preferences for Affinity, on the Performance section you have an option for Enable Metal Compute Acceleration, if that's enabled, uncheck it, click Close and you'll be asked to restart Affinity.  Once restarted, open the TIFF file again and i suspect it will open correctly  

[tjthorne]

8 hours ago, stokerg said:

Hi tjthorne,

If you could attach a sample TIFF that would be great.

I suspect this is something to do with Metal, if you check the Preferences for Affinity, on the Performance section you have an option for Enable Metal Compute Acceleration, if that's enabled, uncheck it, click Close and you'll be asked to restart Affinity.  Once restarted, open the TIFF file again and i suspect it will open correctly  

Thank you for the replies. I did this and I am still running into the same issue. Here is a .tiff file.

quietfrost_1800.tif

[walt.farrell]

It opens the same way for me using Affinity Photo on Windows. Two programs supplied by Windows programs say they don't support that file format.

Exiftool indicates that it's a 16-bit RGB TIFF file.

XnViewMP displays it, but warns it will be converted to 8-bit RGB. IrfanView won't display it. Neither will darktable. Nor GIMP (which says the Alpha Channel type is not defined).

Other than those ( ), the most immediately obvious unusual thing I see is that it's saved in Big-Endian (Motorola) format. I don't know if that's an issue for Affinity, or if it's one of the other items the other programs also fail on.

Serif staff will know for sure, when they test with your file.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

It opens the same way for me using Affinity Photo on Windows. Two programs supplied by Windows programs say they don't support that file format.

It opens the same way for me using Affinity Photo for Mac. Apple's Preview app opens it but as an all black image & Quick Look displays it as all black as well. Also, Photo opens it as an 8 bit, not 16 bit, RGB image.

I am not sure why that is but it may have something to do with another oddity: Finder's "Get Info" says the tiff file has no alpha channel:

but it clearly (no pun intended) does. In fact, by filling the alpha channel (in the Channels panel, right click on Background Alpha & select "Fill" from the popup) the result is a normal looking photo.

[Gnobelix]

The Image contains 12 channels for the brightness distribution (luminance masks).

I think that's the problem, Photoshop has saved the TIF file with the channels,

Affinity Photo can not display these channels.

 

Cheers

[R C-R]

17 minutes ago, Gnobelix said:

I think that's the problem, Photoshop has saved the TIF file with the channels ...

Should Photoshop do that if the file is saved as a flattened tiff (like the OP mentioned)?

[thomaso]

13 hours ago, stokerg said:

I suspect this is something to do with Metal,

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Apple's Preview app opens it but as an all black image & Quick Look displays it as all black as well.

I use a macOS before/without 'Metal' and get the same 'embossed' look of that .tif in Affinity.
It looks a little more natural on a mid gray because of its alpha – but that does not explain the strange look as if channels were offset (they aren't in PS).

I don't get R-CR's black issue in Preview.app or Quicklook – Would the black come by 'Metal', R-CR?

 

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, thomaso said:

I don't get R-CR's black issue in Preview.app or Quicklook – Would the black come by 'Metal', R-CR?

Maybe, depending on the 'flavor' of Metal being used by Preview & Quick Look. My 2012 iMac does not support Metal compute acceleration, so perhaps that is why we get different results?

Also, FWIW I get the same preview Inspector data you are showing (16 bit, 240 DPI, etc.) but a completely black screen. The Tiff section says the TIFF is uncompressed, which together with it apparently not really being a flattened TIFF, might explain the relatively large file size vs. its pixel dimensions.

[thomaso]

4 minutes ago, R C-R said:

My 2012 iMac does not support Metal compute acceleration, so perhaps that is why we get different results?

(...) not really being a flattened TIFF, (..)

Yes, probably. That also means your 2012 mac might prefer 10.12.6

This .tif has 1 layer only (=flattened) but it contains 15 additional channels of the image in differing lightness.

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, thomaso said:

That also means your 2012 mac might prefer 10.12.6

Why?

[thomaso]

I just thought the black .tif possibly is not your first/only issue, because:

28 minutes ago, R C-R said:

My 2012 iMac does not support Metal compute acceleration

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

I just thought the black .tif possibly is not your first/only issue, because:

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

My 2012 iMac does not support Metal compute acceleration

Metal compute acceleration is not the same thing as using Metal for display rendering, which my iMac supports. In fact, it seems to be free of some of the glitches a few Affinity Mac users have reported when using Metal rendering.

[tjthorne]

Wow you guys really went at this.

On 9/24/2019 at 3:00 PM, R C-R said:

Should Photoshop do that if the file is saved as a flattened tiff (like the OP mentioned)?

A flattened .tiff only refers to the layers. You have to dump alpha channels separately.

I did go back to the .tiff in Photoshop, delete the alpha channels (aside from RGB obvs) and I was able to open it up without issue.

Really impressed with the Lanczos non-separable upsizing. Despite the initial problems opening the file it looks like I'll be purchasing this program. Thanks for the help!

[firstdefence]

When saving the tif out of PS, check the box to export with transparency, it will warn you not all apps will support this but Affinity opens it correctly.

[walt.farrell]

It's good that we've figured out what's going on. Perhaps @stokerg will be able to find out from the developers whether Photo should have done something differently with the alpha channels your image had.

[stokerg]

@walt.farrell and @tjthorne . This is a bug that we already have logged with the Dev team.

You can force the image to display 'correctly' by viewing the Channels Studio, right click on the Background Alpha Channel and select Fill.  But you will still only see the 4 channels in Affinity