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Twice now I've run into an issue where trying to export a png with Affinity Designer results in a posterized reduction of colors, and I cannot find a setting to avoid this. In my current piece, it resulted in obvious banding of the gradients, and the reflected light being lost entirely.

 

However, if I save the file as psd, then open that in Clip Studio Paint and save as png there, I get accurate colors and no banding. The first file is the png as saved from AD, the second is the png from CSP, and the third is the original afd so you can check and see if there's anything weird about it.

 

post-58555-0-08793000-1494103784_thumb.pngpost-58555-0-97110900-1494103785_thumb.pngBrightmoon 8-ball.afdesign

 

Is there something I'm missing on export to prevent this issue, or is it a bug?

 

Also, I've tried copy-pasting layer styles a few times, but it's prone to changing the values on paste--generally about double or half (i.e., 7px gaussian blur becomes 13.8px). Is there a way to prevent that, as well?

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Hi MelAddams,

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

I'm not sure if its my eyesight failing me here but did you accidentally upload the same image twice I can't see any visible difference between them.

 

C

Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP.

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I'm not sure if its my eyesight failing me here but did you accidentally upload the same image twice ...

The two png files are not identical (note the different file sizes) but significantly, the first (8-ball 1) includes an embedded sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color profile & no alpha channel while the second smaller one (8-ball 2) has no embedded color profile & has an alpha channel, at least according to the full-sized files I downloaded from this page.

 

Opening the second png file in Affinity Photo with an assistant-assigned sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color profile, then copying & pasting that into the first one, & finally setting its layer to Difference shows zero difference between the two files.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Thanks very much! :D

 

I did not upload the same image--however, I am now checking the two in multiple different image viewers, and am fascinated by the differences they're giving. Windows Photo Viewer (without using slideshow mode, though it's the same zoomed in or out) gives the greatest difference. The reflected light is gone, and the banding is most noticeable.

 

post-58555-0-75416800-1494419433_thumb.png

 

However, in my original attachments, there are still some differences, albeit more subtle. The reflected light on the bottom-right edge of the ball is larger and not blended as smoothly--indicating that it does have fewer colors than the second one, which has a smaller, subtler reflection.

 

I find this all fairly strange, as I've never had an issue with Windows Photo Viewer giving a different appearance than the original or uploaded versions of an image (barring forced jpg or the like from certain websites).

Photos (the new Windows 10 app) is slightly better, but still has strong banding like WPV.

Photo Gallery (not sure the source of this one) makes the two images almost identical, except for slightly different gradiation in the cast shadow--which is odd, because the uploaded images here have different reflected light, and in Photo Gallery, they are the same.

 

R C-R, is it perhaps to do with the embedded profile, then? I assume the various programs I've viewed the images in have varying ability to read them, thus the differences I'm getting. I don't have much experience dealing with embedded profiles, so I'm not entirely familiar with what all they do, and what the differences between them are.

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I don't see the differences you mentioned in the original attachments but more to the point, the color profiles should be the same if you want to compare them & the app should be able to use them.

 

It may help to review this Color Space Conversion article, particularly the discussion of how rendering intent & gamut mismatch can cause banding.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Thanks again! I went and tested saving the image without embedding a profile, and it resulted in the saved image being visually accurate across all my image viewing programs. So it was my bad, and now I know how to not have it happen in the future. :)

 

I had tried doing some research before regarding RGB->CMYK conversion for print, so I did have some idea regarding color conversion...but I'd had difficulty finding articles where I could understand more than just the basics. (I think most would just say "perceptual and relative are the best, use whichever looks better for your image" without describing why, or they involved technical descriptions that are above my current comprehension.) The one you linked has helped me gain a greater understanding of the differences between different conversion types, so I really appreciate you posting it. Thank you so much!  :D  I'll go ahead and keep reading stuff on that site, to see what else I can learn.

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The Cambridge on Colour site has a lot of great tutorials. The Editing & Post-Processing & Color Management & Printing categories are excellent sources for both practical/usage & theoretical/background information.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Awesome, I'll be sure to check both those sections out, for sure. :) Some of those topics look like things I've researched before (though I'll still read to see if this site has additional info)--but a lot of the others are things I figured out by trial and error, or don't know much about. I'm excited to learn more about the ins and outs of digital art!  :D (I've been doing it for about a decade--I suppose it's about time I finally "get" things like how curves work, instead of only levels. :lol:)

 

Thanks again for all your help and recommendations!

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I have been working with digital art for more decades than I like to think about. But before I bought Affinity Designer around 3 years ago, I had done very little research about how or why things worked as they did. I discovered the Cambridge on Colour site when I was struggling to understand what color management was all about, & the tutorials on that subject really helped me with that.

 

After I mentioned the site to you, I realized there are still a lot of the other tutorials I have not studied, & as a result of that I have begun to go through them all. So thank you for that. thumbup1.gif

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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