To preserve the appearance of Color Burn in an Affinity PDF export, use Rasterize: Everything to bake the blend into the exported artwork. Affinity documents this as its appearance-preserving option; the resulting effect is rasterized rather than retained as an editable blend. Export Settings

This guide covers the current Affinity desktop app on Mac. The task is to export a PDF that retains the visible Color Burn result, including its interaction with the artwork underneath. Keep your editable Affinity document as the master, then create a separate PDF for viewing or delivery.

What can an Affinity PDF preserve?

Color Burn depends on the layers beneath it. Affinity describes blend modes as calculations between a layer or object’s pixels and the underlying pixels. Its Color Burn description identifies increased contrast, more saturated midtones and reduced highlights. Exporting the upper object alone therefore changes the ingredients used to produce the appearance. Layer blend modes

Preserving that appearance and preserving an editable blend are different requirements. Affinity’s current help documents rasterization controls for PDF export, but it does not provide a Color Burn-specific guarantee that the effect will remain live and editable in the PDF. The documented appearance-preserving route is to rasterize the exported design. Export Settings

The Rasterize setting offers three choices. Their consequences matter more than the preset’s name:

Rasterize option Documented behavior Use for this task
Nothing Does not rasterize elements; unsupported elements are excluded from the exported file. Avoid as a way to repair a missing effect.
Unsupported properties Rasterizes unsupported elements only. Try when retaining other vector content matters, then inspect the PDF.
Everything Rasterizes all design elements to match the original design’s appearance. Use when preserving the visible Color Burn result is the priority.

Source: Affinity Export Settings.

Rasterizing everything also turns exported text and vector artwork into pixels. That is the tradeoff: the PDF preserves the rendered composition at the chosen resolution, while the Affinity master remains the place to edit the original objects and blend. Do not choose this route if the delivered PDF must retain vector text and shapes throughout.

Export the Color Burn appearance on Mac

Before exporting, inspect the composition in Affinity. Make sure the intended background and underlying objects are visible. If the effect already looks wrong in the document, export settings cannot establish the missing layer relationship. You can check the applied mode by selecting the object in the Layers panel and inspecting its blend-mode pop-up menu. Layer blend modes

Follow this sequence using Affinity’s full Export dialog:

  1. Choose File > Export > Export.
  2. Select the PDF (flatten) preset on the left.
  3. Check Area so the output includes the intended page, artboard or complete document.
  4. Confirm Rasterize is set to Everything.
  5. Check the export resolution and color settings before saving.
  6. At the bottom right, choose Ask for Location. Optionally enable Show in Finder.
  7. Click Export, give the PDF a distinct filename, choose its location and click Save.

The menu path and save sequence come from Export dialog. The preset’s rasterization behavior is documented in Compare PDF export presets.

The current preset comparison lists PDF (flatten) with Rasterize set to Everything, resolution taken from the document, no image downsampling, the document’s color space and profile, and JPEG compression enabled. Those defaults deserve inspection: choosing the flatten preset does not independently establish the resolution or compression quality you need. Compare PDF export presets

Include the artwork that Color Burn blends with

For the first export, choose the complete relevant page or artboard. In the Export dialog, Selection Only excludes overlapping layers that are not selected. Selection Area includes other layers within the selection’s area. These options can produce different results when the selected object blends with a background. Export dialog

For an illustrative example, imagine an orange circle set to Color Burn over a blue rectangle. The overlap is the appearance you want to retain. Exporting only the circle excludes the rectangle needed for that composition. Exporting the complete artwork with Rasterize set to Everything includes both ingredients before converting the result to pixels. This example follows from Affinity’s documented blending and export-area behavior; it is not a measured export test. Layer blend modes, Export dialog

Choose enough raster resolution

Affinity documents Raster DPI as the resolution used for effects rasterized during export. Use document resolution takes the project’s DPI setting. Check these controls instead of assuming the document resolution is suitable for the final PDF. Also inspect Downsample images, which can reduce raster-image resolution. Export Settings

For scale, a rasterized illustration measuring 6 × 4 inches at 300 DPI contains 1,800 × 1,200 pixels. At 150 DPI it contains 900 × 600 pixels. These are illustrative calculations: inches multiplied by DPI gives pixels along each dimension. They show why an export can retain the blend’s appearance yet look less crisp when enlarged.

For an initial comparison, disable Allow JPEG compression to remove that compression choice as a variable. Affinity documents this control for rasterized design elements; when it is enabled, Quality controls their output quality. After checking the appearance, you can decide whether a smaller compressed file meets your needs. Export Settings

Can you keep the rest of the PDF as vectors?

If rasterizing the whole design is unsuitable, make a second export with Rasterize: Unsupported properties. Affinity documents this as rasterizing only unsupported elements. Treat it as an alternative to inspect, rather than a promise that Color Burn will remain editable or that every other object will stay vector. Export Settings

A useful comparison is to keep two exports with the same area, resolution, color space, profile and compression choices. Change only Rasterize: one PDF uses Everything, and the other uses Unsupported properties. Compare the Color Burn overlap, nearby object edges and small text in the PDF viewer you intend to use. This is a diagnostic sequence derived from the documented options, not a claim that every document will produce the same result.

If the selectively rasterized PDF looks right and meets your vector-content requirements, use it. If only the fully rasterized version retains the intended appearance, that version is the supported fallback for this task. Keep the source document so future edits do not depend on reconstructing objects from the PDF.

Avoid controls that belong to another format

Affinity’s Preserve accuracy and Preserve editability choices for design attributes are documented as PSD export options. They are not PDF controls for preserving Color Burn. Similarly, Allow advanced features exports features supported by PDF as vectors, but the help does not describe it as a Color Burn repair switch. Affinity also warns that advanced features may be rasterized or rendered incorrectly when the PDF is opened in another app. Export Settings

What if the PDF still looks different?

Start by identifying the kind of difference. A missing overlap, an overall color shift and soft edges suggest different settings to investigate. Change one variable at a time so each export answers a specific question.

What you see What to check next
Color Burn’s overlap is missing Confirm the export area includes the background and underlying artwork.
An effect disappears with Rasterize set to Nothing Use Unsupported properties or Everything; Nothing excludes unsupported elements.
The composition is intact but its colors shift Compare export color space, ICC profile and profile embedding.
The blend looks right but edges are soft Check raster resolution, downsampling and compression.
The PDF looks right when viewed but changes when opened for editing Check the importing app’s handling; Affinity warns about rendering and rasterization of advanced PDF features.

These checks follow the documented Export dialog and Export Settings.

For the initial appearance comparison, retain the document’s color space and profile, and enable Embed ICC profiles. Affinity explains that profiles tell devices how to interpret color values, and that documents without suitable profiles can look different across devices. Profile embedding supports consistent color interpretation, although it does not guarantee identical display on every screen. Color management

Check the actual settings after selecting any different preset. For example, Affinity’s comparison lists the digital presets as RGB, while PDF (press ready) uses CMYK. Switching presets can therefore change more than rasterization, making it harder to identify why the appearance changed. Compare PDF export presets

Open the exported PDF in your intended viewer and inspect both the blended region and the smallest important details. For a PDF whose priority is the visible Color Burn result, use the complete composition with Rasterize: Everything, sufficient resolution and deliberate color settings. Retain the Affinity master for editable layers, and use a selectively rasterized PDF only after checking that it meets your delivery requirements.

Sources