Trouble with print resolution

[LeaS]

Hi guys,

I've been having trouble getting my images at a good resolution for printing. At first I thought it was my photo's I was taking but with two different cameras and using a tripod and now two different companies saying that they are blurry, I'm beginning to think it's the affinity app. I'm using a desktop on Mac. This problem has happened possibly after an update because I previously used affinity for editing my photos and I had no issues getting good quality prints. I'm now at a point where I'll just need to start from scratch because I've honestly exhausted all options I know how to do. Thought it was time to go directly to you guys here. I've tried looking at tutorials on youtube and used direction from you guys and others there. My printers still say they are blurry.

I send them to the printers via dropbox because they are such large TIFF files so I'm not sure I'd be able to add them here. The second one I'm having trouble with is a logo for a wax stamp. Same issue. I created it on affinity photo.They say it's blurry too. 

If someone could give me some instruction possiblly and then we could go from there?

Thanks so much.

Lea

Edited March 16, 2021 by LeaS
typos

[Dan C]

Hi @LeaS,

Welcome to the forums and my apologies for the delayed reply here!

It would help to see a copy of your Affinity documents, and of your exported TIFF files - if possible can you please provide a Dropbox link for these files here?

Or alternatively I can provide a Dropbox upload link for you here, so that we have a copy of your documents for testing?

Many thanks in advance

[LeaS]

Hi Dan, so now its my turn to apologise for the delay in reply. I haven't received an email on this so I'm sorry about that. I just came back for a look

Ok, so I have the file in dropbox but how do I provide you a link that only you can use and not everyone that has access to seeing this post please?

Thanks very much.

Lea

 

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by LeaS

[Dan C]

No problem at all @LeaS, if you'd like to be notified of further replies please ensure you are 'following' the thread -

7 hours ago, LeaS said:

Ok, so I have the file in dropbox but how do I provide you a link that only you can use and not everyone that has access to seeing this post please?

Please find a Dropbox upload link below, only the Affinity team will be able to view files that have been provided to this link -

https://www.dropbox.com/request/RTtueCAf14WoZvlMHwev

Once uploaded, please reply here to let me know - many thanks

[LeaS]

Great! Thanks so much Dan. Will do. But before I do, can I ask if "flattening" is bad for printing? I'm not even sure why it asks me to do this.

[LeaS]

Hi again Dan,

I uploaded the file to dropbox for you to look at. Hope we can sort what I'm doing wrong 😬

Thanks heaps.

[Dan C]

On 4/5/2021 at 1:09 AM, LeaS said:

But before I do, can I ask if "flattening" is bad for printing?

'Flattening' is referring to rasterisation of the document, as I understand it, when printing any document from any app it will be rasterised and the rasterised data is then sent to the printer for use - so 'flattening' is not an issue when printing a document.

On 4/5/2021 at 4:45 AM, LeaS said:

I uploaded the file to dropbox for you to look at. Hope we can sort what I'm doing wrong 😬

Thanks for providing this file, the TIFF file uploaded is 600MB in size, which is rather large considering the file is 11,811px x 11,811px physically. Can you please provide a screenshot of the export settings you use in Affinity, including the 'More' dialog?

As I've only got a TIFF file here, I'm not sure what steps you have taken with your file within Affinity - after loading your NEF file, what edits/changes do you tend to apply in the app please?

[LeaS]

On 4/7/2021 at 2:52 AM, Dan C said:

'Flattening' is referring to rasterisation of the document, as I understand it, when printing any document from any app it will be rasterised and the rasterised data is then sent to the printer for use - so 'flattening' is not an issue when printing a document.

Thanks for providing this file, the TIFF file uploaded is 600MB in size, which is rather large considering the file is 11,811px x 11,811px physically. Can you please provide a screenshot of the export settings you use in Affinity, including the 'More' dialog?

As I've only got a TIFF file here, I'm not sure what steps you have taken with your file within Affinity - after loading your NEF file, what edits/changes do you tend to apply in the app please?

Thanks Dan, Ok so it might be better to work it out the way my brain thinks lol... Firstly then, Maybe this file is far too big for print??? I did it at 300dpi. I thought this was what would be needed for a very clear print but is it too large thus blowing it out too much?

Apologies, this is going to take a bit of back and forth with me to work it out considering I'm not fully up on all things affinity.

Thanks heaps,

Lea

[Old Bruce]

10 hours ago, LeaS said:

Maybe this file is far too big for print??? I did it at 300dpi. I thought this was what would be needed for a very clear print but is it too large thus blowing it out too much?

300 dpi is standard for printing.

[Alfred]

8 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

300 dpi is standard for printing.

300 DPI is standard for high-resolution colour printing of books and periodicals, but since the document in question is 11,811 px square at 300 DPI its printed size is one metre square. At that size the typical viewing distance is going to be relatively large unless it’s a map, so 300 DPI is probably overkill.

[LeaS]

On 4/16/2021 at 12:49 AM, Alfred said:

300 DPI is standard for high-resolution colour printing of books and periodicals, but since the document in question is 11,811 px square at 300 DPI its printed size is one metre square. At that size the typical viewing distance is going to be relatively large unless it’s a map, so 300 DPI is probably overkill.

Thanks Alfred. So if I want a 1 x1m print though wouldn't this be the correct DPI? or no? is this what could be blowing it out? I was wanting large prints.

[LeaS]

On 4/16/2021 at 12:49 AM, Alfred said:

300 DPI is standard for high-resolution colour printing of books and periodicals, but since the document in question is 11,811 px square at 300 DPI its printed size is one metre square. At that size the typical viewing distance is going to be relatively large unless it’s a map, so 300 DPI is probably overkill.

And what DPI would you have it set to for a 1m sq print please?

[R C-R]

18 minutes ago, LeaS said:

So if I want a 1 x1m print...

Is that the print size you are requesting from the print shop that says they are blurry?

[LeaS]

5 hours ago, R C-R said:

Is that the print size you are requesting from the print shop that says they are blurry?

Yes. And the artwork I'm photographing is 1m sq 🙂

[LeaS]

On 4/7/2021 at 2:52 AM, Dan C said:

'Flattening' is referring to rasterisation of the document, as I understand it, when printing any document from any app it will be rasterised and the rasterised data is then sent to the printer for use - so 'flattening' is not an issue when printing a document.

Thanks for providing this file, the TIFF file uploaded is 600MB in size, which is rather large considering the file is 11,811px x 11,811px physically. Can you please provide a screenshot of the export settings you use in Affinity, including the 'More' dialog?

As I've only got a TIFF file here, I'm not sure what steps you have taken with your file within Affinity - after loading your NEF file, what edits/changes do you tend to apply in the app please?

This is a new file with a 90cm sq artwork because it's been so long I'v lost track of which file I'd sent you 😂

Screenshots showing what adjustments I've made and my export settings. Thanks for helping me 🙂

[LeaS]

On 4/16/2021 at 12:36 AM, Old Bruce said:

300 dpi is standard for printing.

Thanks Bruce...love your profile pic ;)...Still trying to get to the bottom of this.

[Alfred]

11 hours ago, LeaS said:

So if I want a 1 x1m print...

 

11 hours ago, R C-R said:

Is that the print size you are requesting from the print shop that says they are blurry?

 

5 hours ago, LeaS said:

Yes. And the artwork I'm photographing is 1m sq 🙂

 

5 hours ago, LeaS said:

This is a new file with a 90cm sq artwork because it's been so long I'v lost track of which file I'd sent you 😂

Screenshots showing what adjustments I've made and my export settings. Thanks for helping me 🙂

The screenshots of your 90 cm square artwork don’t look at all blurry here. The choice of a high DPI/PPI doesn’t make it less blurry, but simply ensures that the viewer can’t distinguish individual pixels when looking at the image from a normal viewing distance. At 3544 pixels square (100 PPI) your 90 cm square becomes ‘retina’ at a viewing distance of 90 cm, and the higher you make the PPI value the smaller the minimum viewing distance becomes.

You might try changing the resampling method from ‘Bilinear’ to ‘Bicubic’, but since you’re not upscaling the image I wouldn’t expect the output to be any sharper.

[lepr]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

The screenshots of your 90 cm square artwork don’t look at all blurry here.

The view zoom is only approximately 16% in the two screenshots that have been posted so far. The image could have any degree of blurriness at 100%.

We don't know the process that was used to get from a photograph to an 11,000 pixels square image. For example, there could have been a 400% enlargement. We don't know anything about the history of the image that is now shown at 16% scale in a screenshot.

[Alfred]

1 minute ago, anon2 said:

The view zoom is only approximately 16% in the two screenshots that have been posted so far. The image could have any degree of blurriness at 100%.

Thanks for pointing that out. As you may have guessed, I hadn’t noticed!

[LeaS]

On 5/27/2021 at 8:58 AM, R C-R said:

Is that the print size you are requesting from the print shop that says they are blurry?

This is zoomed at 100%.... Sorry guys I'm trying to get a grasp on what you're saying here. I get lost on the technical stuff. What else do you need? Appreciate the help

[LeaS]

Are you saying that if we see it blurry at 100% then thats how it will look in a print?

[Joachim_L]

1 hour ago, LeaS said:

Are you saying that if we see it blurry at 100% then thats how it will look in a print?

Depends. From a book-reading distance, yes. From 1 m distance or more, no. What printer is used? Offset or Inkjet (to name two). Inkjet forgives more than Offset. When the first LFP Inkjets entered the market, I even had resolutions of 36dpi due to lack of memory and it still looked "acceptable". Additional trick I used in these old days was to use a halftone raster for the printout with the Inkjet.

[LeaS]

On 5/28/2021 at 5:24 PM, BofG said:

Really the source Affinity document or at least the tiff that you sent to the printer.

Have the printer given you specific details as to what they require from you? From your posts you seem to be guessing at the dpi etc, which is never a good way to start.

Thank you. I have already given the tiff file to the first person who was helping me. I might be going in circles if I keep giving out to each person. I appreciate you trying to help though. I really am trying to learn more about the tech stuff as far as what things mean. I asked the printer about the DPI and she said 300 is fine and that she would just adjust it as to how it needs to be but in my mind this sounded like it could be an issue. Is that an issue?

Thank you 🙏🏻

[LeaS]

On 5/28/2021 at 4:26 PM, Joachim_L said:

Depends. From a book-reading distance, yes. From 1 m distance or more, no. What printer is used? Offset or Inkjet (to name two). Inkjet forgives more than Offset. When the first LFP Inkjets entered the market, I even had resolutions of 36dpi due to lack of memory and it still looked "acceptable". Additional trick I used in these old days was to use a halftone raster for the printout with the Inkjet.

Yeah I'm not sure what printers they use but I do know they are fabulous prints. My digital artworks come out gorgeous, highly saturated ink and the colours are spot on... it seems to be the ones I'm photographing. I thought my Nikon Camera would be good. All set up on a tripod, no movement, auto focus. Looked good to me but then I get it into affinity to edit and it all goes to crap so I'm doing something very wrong lol. 

So now with what you've written I have a couple of questions... The more dots per inch the better right? Or can this go horribly wrong somehow?

And How would I use a halftone raster and why? I think I'm going to have to go look at a few tutorials so if there are any you can link me to that would be great! I mean I still don't even know what the rastering does. I just accept that it wants to do it thinking it's gotta be something it needs to do. Yes I'm very naive to the tech. I get a little overwhelmed haha. Thanks Joachim.

[LeaS]

Oh and just so you all know... I have looked at many tutorials to learn how to use affinity. I'm not just winging it for the most part. I thought I'd had enough knowledge to get this sent off to the printers but clearly not. I am now wondering if it's something with the images I'm taking. 

So in saying this, Any tips on photographing artwork? I've tutorialed the heck out of this but I must be doing something wrong. If there are any good ones any of you can point me to I'd so appreciate it.

Thank you 🙂