Affinity Designer, how do I get better export quality for poster print?

[andredre]

Hi,

I am struggling with the export quality of a vector graphics to PNG. I have a vector graphic with fine lines (example attached, not the actual file) and I want to print it on a poster (50 cm x 70 cm). I use the recommended settings of the printery (300 dpi). But when I export the file to png, the lines look very rough.

When I go to pixel persona, enable the "pixel view mode" and zoom in to 1000 % I can already see, that the lines are rough. 

I gets a bit better, when I crank up the DPI in document settings to 1000, but the printery won't accept files with 1000 DPI.

How can I export the file to get a razor sharp print?

Tanks

André 

sample file.afdesign

[andredre]

Yes, they ask for png specifically . I also got printed posters already and at 300 dpi the lines look rough. 

[lacerto]

(...)

[Old Bruce]

Don't look at 1000 % look at 100 %. As BofG said You might be over thinking things. Printed on paper is going to look far worse than that.

[andredre]

A Gaussian Blur Effect and a Outline Effect did the trick for me. Thank you for your replies. 

[Fixx]

Why PNG? You are never going to get as good quality as with PDF.

[andredre]

As stated earlier, the printshop is asking for PNG. I don't konw, why they ask for PNG.

[PaulEC]

I'd strongly suggest that you find another "printer"! You're never going to get top quality using a copy shop, rather than a proper printer.

Obviously it depends on what you're doing, the quantities you need, your budget etc. But if you want top quality results you really need to use a professional printer that accepts PDF files, rather than using PNG which rasterises text and vectors.  

(PS -- Don't forget that what you see on a screen will inevitably be different to the results you get when it is printed!)

[PixCarWrap]

Hello at all,

I have the same problem with PDF. I set the settings to 300DPI or higher an after the export are the lines so rough acc. to picture above.

 

My desgin is an vector desgin and I will send is as PDF to the printing studio. But this not good enough for me. What setting did you use for export?

 

Best regards

[rimshotsPL]

Hi! I am struggling with the same thing - and exporting to pdf does not help actually. I've prepared a file in the exact size I wanted it to be printed and once exported the quality of print is useless (it is a small 3cm x 1cm sticker). How I had to override it was to export its magnified form of some absurd size like 60cm x 20cm and later, outside of Affinity Designer, downsize it to 3x1 and only then it looks clean and crisp.

The thing is it is not a way to work... there must be - I suppose - a proper workflow solution in AD, isn't it?

All best,

[rimshotsPL]

Hi BofG, thanks for your reply! I am not questioning AD workflow - I said I am struggling with it.

Pixel size for my 33mm x 11mm artboard is 389,8px x 129,9px.

Once exported the quality of graphic is low and pixelated, unlike what I see in AD in which quality of the object does not change while zooming in for example.

By printing I mean test printing to check if it is even readable on print, which it isn't. This happens with PDF, jpeg or by copy/paste directly from AD to e.g. Word and test printing from there.

31 minutes ago, BofG said:

1 hour ago, rimshotsPL said:

outside of Affinity Designer, downsize it to 3x1 and only then it looks clean and crisp.

"It" being what exactly? PDF, png, TIFF, jpeg?

It is my artboard duplicated and stretched to fit larger size proportionally - in this case 60cm x 20cm. From that I export to either PDF or jpeg and scale down to 33mm x 11mm either with jpeg resizer or by test printing in Adobe with a scale down by certain percentage.

34 minutes ago, BofG said:

1 hour ago, rimshotsPL said:

there must be - I suppose - a proper workflow solution in AD

Of course there is, the software has it's flaws but fundamentally it works when used correctly.

And the question is how to export this in a correct way.

Thanks and best,

 

[Alfred]

9 minutes ago, rimshotsPL said:

Pixel size for my 33mm x 11mm artboard is 389,8px x 129,9px.

You can’t export 8 or 9 tenths of a pixel! Make your artboard 390 px × 130 px, and make sure that the pixel coordinates of the artboard are both integers.

[R C-R]

32 minutes ago, Alfred said:

... make sure that the pixel coordinates of the artboard are both integers.

To make sure of that, I suggest you set Decimal Places for Unit Types: for Pixels: in Preferences > User Interface to at least 2 decimal places.

[rimshotsPL]

Thank you so much guys! Very helpful!