Printing on colour-separated prostscript

[Fulvio Varone]

Hi everyone.

I'm new to Affinity, I'm a sreen-printer and typography consultant, so I'm testing it for a possible switch from Adobe.

But, I think Designes missed a very important feature of Illustrator, a dead-line to choose the switch.

Illustrator can print on a Postscript file using the color separation feature, if I have a CMYK file, I can save a PS and give it to a RIP software or a "distiller" to crate a multipage PDF (C, M, Y, K in separated pages).

I didn't found that in Designer...

I attach a picture of Illustrator print window...

 

Thanks!

[buschbrand]

I think it's more a matter of your printers driver than of Affinity Designer.

 

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, BofG said:

I don't believe there is any way to directly do what you are asking in Designer. There's no native support to create a PostScript file, and there's no way to manage separations. The best you can do is generate a PDF in CMYK and let the people handling the print create the separations from that.

EDIT - I had a check, and there is maybe a way to do this, however you will need a suitable PostScript printer driver. If you go to the print dialouge, select the PostScript printer and then in the driver settings enable separations output, then back in the print dialouge click "print to file" you will get a .PS file that has the command in it to print as separations.

I believe that Serif staff have confirmed that the Affinity products assume that any printer wants RGB data, so if you have a CMYK file and Print it from Affinity it will be converted to RGB data before sending to the printer driver, and the printer driver will then have to reconvert it to CMYK (or whatever inkset the printer actually uses).

If so, that may affect your suggested workaround.

[buschbrand]

21 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I believe that Serif staff have confirmed that the Affinity products assume that any printer wants RGB data, so if you have a CMYK file and Print it from Affinity it will be converted to RGB data before sending to the printer driver, and the printer driver will then have to reconvert it to CMYK (or whatever inkset the printer actually uses).

If so, that may affect your suggested workaround.

I see Serifs points in that, but:  I'm a graphic designer for about 20 years and until now, none of my printers wanted RGB Data.

[Fulvio Varone]

2 hours ago, BofG said:

EDIT - I had a check, and there is maybe a way to do this, however you will need a suitable PostScript printer driver. If you go to the print dialouge, select the PostScript printer and then in the driver settings enable separations output, then back in the print dialouge click "print to file" you will get a .PS file that has the command in it to print as separations.

By selecting a PS generic printer and using Mac "Print on Postscript" feature, no separations options appears in driver options.

Illustrator has a specific "virtual printer" that allows the color separation in Output tab. Selecting a non-PS printer, the output method remains "composite", while with the printer "File Adobe Postscript" I can choose Composite, Host Separation and in-Rip Separation...

 

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, BofG said:

I think you are out of luck, saving to PDF and letting the printer deal with the separations will likely be the only usable solution if you want to work from Affinity.

Or, could you generate the CMYK PDF, then open it with a PDF viewer, and print from there to a PostScript printer driver than can perform the separatiion for you.

[ZKG]

On 11/13/2020 at 1:20 PM, Fulvio Varone said:

Hi everyone.

I'm new to Affinity, I'm a sreen-printer and typography consultant, so I'm testing it for a possible switch from Adobe.

But, I think Designes missed a very important feature of Illustrator, a dead-line to choose the switch.

Illustrator can print on a Postscript file using the color separation feature, if I have a CMYK file, I can save a PS and give it to a RIP software or a "distiller" to crate a multipage PDF (C, M, Y, K in separated pages).

I didn't found that in Designer...

I attach a picture of Illustrator print window...

 

Thanks!

Hello,

This is exactly my workflow - in a couple of clicks I can save in PS format, then use a distiller to generate a 4-page PDF (C,M,Y,K each separated on these pages). This is the only major reason that's stopping me from making the switch from Adobe.

Also "...Affinity products assume that any printer wants RGB data..." doesn't make sense for printing. This is so sad.

[Fulvio Varone]

2 hours ago, ZKG said:

Hello,

This is exactly my workflow - in a couple of clicks I can save in PS format, then use a distiller to generate a 4-page PDF (C,M,Y,K each separated on these pages). This is the only major reason that's stopping me from making the switch from Adobe.

Also "...Affinity products assume that any printer wants RGB data..." doesn't make sense for printing. This is so sad.

Thanks for the reply.

That's very sad. Illustrator, Xpress, InDesign, the old Freehand (that everyone would have today yet...), Corel too, have all separation controls. Affinity nope...

Maybe Serif had to think al implementation of this feature. After Freehand, Illustrator is used also by print producers, not only by designers.

Bye