I've searched but didn't find a similar topic so I must be doing something wrong and I'd like to ask the group here about an issue I'm having with printing from Affinity Photo (v1.8.6) on macOS Catalina, where images printed from a layer are much lower resolution than when the same image is printed on its own from Affinity Photo.
For years I've been using a template in Affinity Photo to print greeting cards on 7 x 10" stock - I would import images, position them in the template then print, which typically results in a 5 x 7 output that always looked great. Recently I've noticed two unusual quirks:
The first image printed is always misaligned as if I had the wrong paper size selected even though the printer presets are saved. To fix this issue I just go into the printer settings and reselect exactly the same paper size setting that is already showing in the preset and this action resolves this issue for subsequent prints (so I have a workaround for this quirk)
The output which is a 5 x7 card (after I fold it in half from 10 x 7) prints as a lower resolution image vs printing the same image by itself from Affinity Photo under the same printer presets. I've checked all the printer settings and everything seems to be in order - paper size, print media, colour matching, printer resolution. The card template document has a background layer with guide-lines that show on-screen where the borders of the printed output would fit (but those lines don't actually print on the card) and I add a layer with a photograph (using File - Place, select image which is 4606 x 3456 pixels in size) and I will resize the image by grasping the corners so it fits onto the template (because after the Place action, the image comes into the document much larger than the canvas). To recap, the document consists of a background layer that is white + pixel layer with an image. The image looks perfectly crisp and detailed on-screen but after printing, much of the fine detail is lost as though I've printed at a lower resolution version (edges are not sharp, details fuzzy looking)
As a test I've opened the same image (the one I would Place into the 'card' document) in Affinity Photo and simply printed it as a 5 x 7 photo, onto the same card stock media (I just cut the 7 x 10 card in half) and that output looks great (renders in print with the same clarity as it looks onscreen)
I have two versions of this template and both are exhibiting the same behaviour. Both versions of this card printing document have been fine in the past and aside from upgrading Affinity Photo software, I'm using the template in the same way, so I can't figure out why the output is so poor vs opening the same images in Affinity Photo and just printing as 5 x 7. I've attached a photo where I've placed the output side by side (the sharper left side image is printed as a photo and the softer right side image is printed from the card template document where the image sits in a layer).